Double Persecution and Erased Memory: The Microhistorical Case of Lavrentiy Kalichava in the Stalinist USSR

Abstract

This article examines the life of Buchenwald survivor and Georgian Soviet soldier Lavrentiy Kalichava to study "double persecution" in the USSR following World War II.  The study uses Kalichava's case to show how Soviet filtration camps criminalized surviving, labeling returning POWs as traitors instead than heroes.  The article claims that Soviet authority institutionalized suspicion and repression of alternative war narratives using Halbwachs, Caruth, and Foucault theories of collective memory, trauma, and disciplinary power.  Although filtering was debated as selective or blanket repression, Kalichava's experience shows postwar punishment and memory regulation's systematic character.  The paper emphasizes how personal narratives, particularly those influenced by Nazi and Soviet violence, help explain repression, erasure, and the lasting effects of authoritarian governance, improving Soviet military justice and trauma studies historiography.