The Date of the Beginning of the Great Patriotic War: Representation in Newspaper Discourse of the 1941–2021

The purpose of the study. The article analyzes the discourse of the newspaper «Izvestia» on the basis of materials published in the June 22–24 issues in the 1941–2021, reveals the content and evolution of the image of the first day of the war as a landmark place in the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. Conclusions. Newspaper periodicals in the Soviet Union during the war years were an important state information and propaganda tool that formed patriotic values and behaviors «hot on the trail» and strengthened faith in the Victory of the Soviet people. In the national historical memory, ideas about the war are primarily related to the events of that day (June 22, 1941), which largely determined the further course of the war. In the newspaper content of the war and post-war period, it is possible to record the evolution of accents in the process of selecting what is to be «remembered» and «forgotten». The ideas that have developed in the newspaper space over eight decades about the tragic date of June 22, 1941 include political propaganda (opportunistic content) and essential (valuable) historical content (timeless).