Major changes during the 1980s in the cultural and political orders in Russianan German societies had a strong impact on the re-evaluation of World War II as one of the most traumatic events in the history of both countries. As a consequence it has become possible to discuss subjects once forbidden and "forgotten". One of the main concerns of this multi- and interdisciplinary volume is to examine the fractures, interactions and intersections of private and collective memories in Germany and Russia in different times and places in different texts, including fiction, autobiography, movies, songs, monuments, oral history and "official" historiography.