Memory narratives commonly include characters such as heroes (triumphant or fallen), martyrs, perpetrators, and victims. In recent years, the victim has become the central character in the dominant, western-centric, and globalized memory culture. A victim’s definition is problematic: few existing memory narratives include “ideal,” or innocent victims who suffered meaninglessly. The lines between victims and other characters in memory narratives are blurry in many cases, for instance, between a victim and a perpetrator. Using the case of Russian museums dedicated to the Soviet repressions, I study the problematic relation between victims and heroes, adding to the discussion of the victim character’s complexity. Often, victims of Soviet repressions are presented as both victims of political persecution and heroes who did not just suffer through their imprisonment but continued to live productive and creative lives. The resulting victim-hero character indicates that the category of a victim is too limiting and adds to calls for the theorization of victim taxonomy.

记忆叙事通常包括英雄（胜利或堕落），烈士，犯罪者和受害者等角色。近年来，受害者已成为占主导地位，以西方为中心和全球化的记忆文化的中心人物。受害人的定义是有问题的：现有的记忆叙述很少包括“理想”或无辜受害的受害人。在许多情况下，例如在受害者与犯罪者之间，受害者与记忆叙事中其他角色之间的界线是模糊的。我以致力于苏维埃镇压的俄罗斯博物馆为例，研究了受害者与英雄之间的问题关系，并增加了关于受害者性格复杂性的讨论。经常，苏联镇压的受害者既是政治迫害的受害者，又是不仅遭受监禁之苦而且继续过着富有创造力的生活的英雄人物。产生的受害人-英雄特征表明受害人的类别过于局限，增加了对受害人分类法进行理论化的要求。