German Democratic Republic of the 1970s–1980s through the Eyes of Soviet Officers (Oral Stories)
German Democratic Republic of the 1970s–1980s through the Eyes of Soviet Officers (Oral Stories)

Summary/Abstract: This article is based on eight interviews with former officers who served in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (after 1989, the Western Group of Forces) during the 1970s and 1980s. The aim of this research is to analyze the content and speech characteristics of Soviet officers’ oral testimonies about their service in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The main task of this research is to study information about the conditions of service of Soviet officers in the GDR, identifying key images of East Germany in the views of the respondents, and describing individual and general features of the respondents’ discourse. The reminiscences about the GDR presented in the interviews reveal the different attributes of social memory of the former Soviet military personnel, who usually had positive stories to tell about their years spent in the country. The discourse of the respondents who were interviewed had some common features inherent in the identity of a “military man”: efficiency and clarity of speech, emphasizing the positive characteristics of the Soviet Army, and the absence of criticism of the Soviet authorities. At the same time, many memories included negative evaluations of the policies of President Boris Yeltsin and feelings of nostalgia for life in the Soviet Union.

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