On the basis of residents’ survey results in the Urals region the author shows that the main sources of information transfer about the Second World War are still family and high school. However, importance of these social institutions in maintaining and updating historical memory is decreasing because of several reasons. Results of the survey among urban residents in the Middle Urals show that from the point of view of preserving the memory of the war 15–17 year olds were more vulnerable than is those born in late 1990th. This suggests that decay of traditional mechanisms to preserve memory of the Great Patriotic War took place gradually, paralleling transformations of mass and interpersonal communication mechanisms. Increasing negative effect emerged only in our days, and only partially, for greatness and significance of these events are imperishable.