The Burden of the Past: History, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary Ukraine

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Essays on how chaos, totalitarianism, and trauma have shaped Ukraine's culture: "A milestone of the scholarship about Eastern European politics of memory." --Wulf Kansteiner, Aarhus University In a century marked by totalitarian regimes, genocide, mass migrations, and shifting borders, the concept of memory in Eastern Europe is often synonymous with notions of trauma. In Ukraine, memory mechanisms were disrupted by political systems seeking to repress and control the past in order to form new national identities supportive of their own agendas. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, memory in Ukraine was released, creating alternate visions of the past, new national heroes, and new victims. This release of memories led to new conflicts and "memory wars." How does the past exist in contemporary Ukraine? The works collected in The Burden of the Past focus on commemorative practices, the politics of history, and the way memory influences Ukrainian politics, identity, and culture. The works explore contemporary memory culture in Ukraine and the ways in which it is being researched and understood. Drawing on work from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and political scientists, the collection represents a truly interdisciplinary approach. Taken together, the groundbreaking scholarship collected in The Burden of the Past provides insight into how memories can be warped and abused, and how this abuse can have lasting effects on a country seeking to create a hopeful future. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Note on Transliteration List of Abbreviations Introduction / Anna Wylegała and Małgorzata Głowacka-Grajper Part I. The Memory of Holodomor 1. Idle, Drunk, and Good for Nothing: Cultural Memory of the Rank-and-File Perpetrators of the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine / Daria Mattingly 2. The Lieux de Mémoire of the Holodomor in the Cultural Landscape of Modern Ukraine / Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek Part II. World War II in the Ukrainian Memory 3. The War of Memory in Times of War: May 9 Celebrations in Kyiv in 2014–15 / Tetiana Pastushenko 4. (In)different Memory: World War II in the Memory of the Last War’s Generation in Ukraine / Mykola Borovyk Part III. Heroes or Traitors: Creating a Heroic Canon 5. Symon Petliura, the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and National Commemoration in Contemporary Ukraine / Matthew D. Pauly 6. Glory to the Heroes? Gender, Nationalism, and Memory /Olesya Khromeychuk Part IV. Traces of the Lost Multiethnicity and Memory of the Ethnic Cleansing 7. Memory, Monuments, and the Project of Nationalization in Ukraine: The Case of Chernivtsi / Karolina Koziura 8. Collective Memory of the Holocaust in Post-Soviet Ukraine / Anna Chebotarova 9. Extermination of the Roma in Transnistria during World War II: Construction of the Roma Collective Memory / Anna Abakunova 10. Poland and Poles in the Collective Memory of Galician Ukrainians /Anna Wylegała Part V. History and Politics in a Post-Soviet State: Ukraine, Russia, and Independence 11. Ukraine between the European Union and Russia since 1991: Does It Have to Be a Battlefield of Memories? / Tomasz Stryjek 12. A Desired but Unexpected State: The 1990s in the Memory and Perception of Ukrainians in the 21st Century / Joanna Konieczna-Sałamatin Index