The ideologeme "Hero of the Great Patriotic War" in contemporary Anglo-American encyclopedias

This article analyzes the biographies of heroes of the Great Patriotic War and understanding of the nature of heroism in the Western encyclopedias and dictionaries of the past three decades. It reflects the following subjects: the motives of choice of personalities, the reasons of interest in the heroes of our country and understanding of their heroism and how Western authors explain the reasons for turning them into part of the collective memory of Russians and citizens of other countries. The interpretation of the concept "hero" given in the dictionaries is studied. This concept was only associated with men until the mid-twentieth century. Soviet experience allowed to expand the scope of the term. Heroes of the Great Patriotic War in Western encyclopedias are represented primarily by state and military leaders and combatants. The pantheon of generals in most encyclopedias includes G.K. Zhukov and I.S. Konev. Attention is paid to war heroes, who became the spiritual symbols of the country, and, in the postwar years, Soviet sources of the "heroic mythology of war". The "female face" of the war was studied. Information about the glorification of the image of Z.A. Kos-modemyanskaya is given. The Soviet propaganda used the death of the girl to awaken soldiers' feeling of revenge as her image was extremely conformable to the idea of the "sacred war" against fascism. The mythological component of the character was identified. The Soviet narrative of the hero in many respects conformed to the model biography of a canonized saint. For example, the story focused on a single act, there was a conscious death for an idea, biographical facts mixed with typical elements of the era. The fate of the paradoxes of war heroes was investigated; the heroes were symbols of the Soviet military glory, on the one hand, and the victims of the regime, on the other. Undoubtedly, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a sniper who destroyed 309 fascists including 36 fascist snipers, became one of the heroines of war most known in the West. In August, 1942, by Eleanor Roosevelt's invitation, she visited North America. L. Pavlichenko became part of the cultural memory of Americans. Historians of the USA created an image of a female hero, who became a perfect symbol to mobilize public opinion on the idea of opening a second front in Europe. These information units of collective historical memory can be assessed as a manifestation of direct relationship of the "official" memory of the country with the assessment of the political elite.

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