Witnessing war, globalizing victory Representations of the Second World War on the website "Russia Today" (Memory, Conflict and New Media Web wars in post-socialist states Edited by Julie Fedor, Ellen Rutten and Vera Zvereva, Routledge 2013)

The public memory of the Soviet Union’s victory in the ‘Great Patriotic War’ in 1945 lies at the heart of history debates between Russia and countries of the former Soviet bloc, notably the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine. A special media project entitled War Witness – WWII Victory Tribute, launched by the Russian state driven global television news network Russia Today in 2010, provides an illuminating perspective on one aspect of these debates: the political use of memory and identity in transnational digital media. In this chapter I examine the symbolic practices of War Witness in order to figure out how the project and its forum, Russia Today, aim to translate the national importance of the ‘Great Patriotic War’ for an international audience.