THE MEMORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR THROUGH THE PRISM OF HEROISM AND TRAGEDY OF THE ENCIRCLEMENT OF THE 6TH AND 12TH ARMIES OF THE SOUTH-WESTERN FRONT IN CENTRAL UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the little-explored topic of heroism and sacrifice of the soldiers of the 6th and 12th Soviet Armies, who in August 1941 found themselves surrounded by Wehrmacht troops in the area of the Zelena Brama natural tract and, with heroic efforts and great losses, delayed the enemy's advance to the industrial regions of Prydniprovia and Donbas, as a theoretical basis for the formation of a modern state policy of historical memory of the population of several communities in the Central Ukrainian region in the 1990s–2000s. The theoretical and practical transformations of the national policy of memory at the legislative, theoretical methodological, and research (local history) levels are identified and considered in the context of Russia's hybrid aggression and open war against the independent Ukrainian state in 2022. Mainly, the author's attention was paid to the in-depth coverage of the activities of local authorities and selfgovernment, participation of civil society structures, active population of the communities of Kirovohrad and Cherkasy regions, individual military units that played a key role in organizing and supporting state-patriotic events dedicated to commemorating the fallen soldiers, relocation and arrangement of «places of memory» of military and historical events, organization of search and patriotic work and support for the activities of local history researchers. Based on the research materials, the author substantiates the conclusions about the importance of coordinating the efforts of all components of interaction between the state and civil society in forming a national memory policy in the current difficult conditions of Ukraine's struggle for statehood.