At the end of World War II, northern part of the German province East Prussia became part of the Soviet Union. Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad, the German population was removed from the region, the development and appropriation of cultural space began. The formed politics of memory, the main slogan of which was "the expulsion of the Prussian spirit", created an antagonism between Soviet and German.
The view postcards and albums were designed to convey an attractive image of the city conforming to politics of memory. German buildings that were not suit to restoration were liquidated, but the ones that were preserved and exploited while simplifying the exterior, and in some cases, adding Soviet symbols. Before the start of mass construction, German buildings on postcards were hidden and camouflaged by the camera angle, the abundance of green spaces overshadowing them, and were balanced in the frame with ideological signs and sculptures.
In the 70s the focus shifts to new Soviet buildings, but the German heritage could not be completely abandoned. Convergence in the image of the city was often emphasized in contrast. For example, in one case in the photo there was a German neo-Gothic church and a commemorative sign of Polish-Soviet friendship, and in the other - an ensemble of buildings from the 1920s. and the monument to Lenin with flying red flags.
View postcards and albums, as elements of a propaganda system aimed at creating a Soviet identity, were typified and worked to appropriate the "alien" cultural heritage, to integrate the westernmost Russian region into the common Soviet space. The dominants depicted on the postcards: squares and streets, parks as a symbol of building an advanced society, cultural facilities and sports facilities as a symbol of the state's social priorities, modern modes of transport as a symbol of technological progress.
Photo albums broadened the spectrum of success, literally listing reasons for pride. Everything that did not work to promote the economic, cultural and sporting achievements of socialism, including the eradicated German heritage, was leveled as much as possible. However, it was impossible to ignore it completely. This is confirmed by amateur photos, whose authors, acting in official coordinates, unconsciously expanded the repertoire of depicted objects at the expense of the preserved traces of German culture.
Baranova E.V. View postcards of Kaliningrad as a source for the study of urban improvement // Retrospective. World history through the eyes of young researchers: collection of articles. scientific. Art. / resp. ed. D.V. Mankevich. Kaliningrad: IKBFU Publishing House I. Kant, 2017. Vol. 10. 95-109.
Dementyev I.O. Censorship as an institution of memory politics in the Kaliningrad region of the Soviet period // Kaliningrad archives: materials and research: collection of articles. Art. / resp. ed. V.N. Maslov. Kaliningrad: IKBFU Publishing House I. Kant, 2016. Vol. 13. 98-110.
Kostyashov Yu.V. The secret history of the Kaliningrad region. Essays 1945-1956 Kaliningrad: Terra Baltica, 2009. 351 p.
Rose G. Visual Culture, Photography and the Urban: An Interpretive Framework // Space and Culture, India (2014) Vol. 2. 4-13.
