The article deals with the All-Russian scientific conference "The Great Patriotic War in the History and Memory of the Peoples of the South of Russia: Events, Participants, Symbols". The conference was held on September 1Q-11, 2020 in Rostov-on-Don, at the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The conference was co-organized by the Institute of History and International Relations of the Southern Federal University, the Caucasus - New Horizons Humanitarian Foundation and the "Strana" Foundation for Regional Studies. 134 specialists from various countries and regions took part in the conference in various forms. The main directions of the conference were: new approaches and sources in the study of the history of the Great Patriotic War; the specifics of hostilities on the southern flank of the Soviet-German confrontation in 1941-1943; the contribution of regions and residents of the south of the country to the Victory; problems of interaction between state power and society during the war; the military economy and everyday life of Soviet society; Nazi occupation and civilian casualties; reflection of the events of the war in various forms of memory of Soviet and post-Soviet societies.