ABSTRACT
Memoryscapes and traumascapes have emerged in recent years as important issues of debate and research. The political and social dynamics of memoryscapes have also been the subject of considerable research. Indeed the ‘politics of place’ and ‘contested sites of meaning’ are dominant themes in research on memoryscapes, public memory, and commemoration. From a spatial point of view, many issues of memory stretch across borders and barriers, resulting in complex negotiations over the creation and symbolism of memoryscapes. For Hungarians, the largest military cemeteries are in Russia, since Hungary supported the Nazi invasion of the USSR and suffered as the invasion was crushed. In 1943, the Hungarian Second Army ‘disappeared’ in the retreat from Stalingrad along what is sometimes called the ‘Don-Bend.’ Memoryscapes may be anchored in assemblages of stone, bronze, and concrete, but even the durable forms change through time as do their meanings and symbolic connotations.
