This study examines the development of Belarusian memory culture surrounding the Second World War, which continues to shape the country's historical self-understanding. Based on a microhistorical analysis of central and local museums, memorials, and monuments, and relying primarily on archival sources, it revises the image of a monolithic memory culture. Instead, Ekaterina Keding demonstrates that war memory, both in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, has always been heterogeneous, context-dependent, and politically instrumentalized. War memory was shaped by a multitude of actors, each pursuing their own interests, thus creating a diverse and dynamic narrative. The polyphony and complexity of this memory, traced over several decades, along with the resulting tensions between a commemoration "from above" and one "from below"between triumph and traumaoffer profound insights into the formation of Belarusian identity and a memory culture characterized by continuous change and abrupt ruptures.
