The paper is devoted to the problem of improving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. The phenomenological aspect of memory aims to highlight the imperative, semantic level of its constitution. Images of the person, ascending from the suff ering of absolute evil to the spiritual feat of resistance, constitute the philosophical and ideological core of the proposed approach. The distinction between the meanings of suff ering and deed is formed within the context of the principles of intentional phenomenology and is intended to interpret the unity of these meanings in a catastrophic historical event. Th e anthropological turn in the constitution of historical memory is understood within a binary context, presupposing the essential interaction between the image of a person of the past and the person recreating that past. The proposed approach can be used in modern humanities, as well as in the theory and practice of the upbringing and educational process.