The new state broadcaster Pobeda (Victory) is aimed at young Russians and focuses on the Second World War.
The programs are titled “My Front Line”, “Panzer”, “The Battle of Kursk” and “Goodbye, lads!”: In Russia this week a new television station has started its operation, the theme of which is the Second World War. This is also the explanation for the – at least in German – martial sounding name: Pobeda – Sieg.
On Tuesday evening, veterans of the Great Patriotic War (the name of the Second World War in Russia) pressed a red start button for the transmission. The program can be watched via cable and satellite throughout Russia.
The new TV channel is a project of the State First Channel and is founded on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union over the National Socialists. The big anniversary will actually be celebrated next year; it was apparently planned a lead time for the new medium. Above all, it is intended to appeal to a young audience. The war is portrayed above all as a successful national effort. This is confirmed by Director General of the First Channel, Konstantin Ernst: “We want to report on the war so that even the youngest viewers not only know and remember the heroic deeds of the ancestors but are also proud that we are their descendants.”
The War Canal fits in with the state-driven concept of the culture of remembrance in Putin’s era. The heroes myth of World War II acted as a founding narrative for the Soviet Union after 1945. Currently, he again occupies a central place in the narrative of the Kremlin on today’s Russia and its alleged enemies.
History gray tones are rare there. Likewise with Pobeda TV. Except maybe in the black and white pictures.
