The Fragmented Public Memories of the Great Patriotic War in Ukraine (1991-2022)

Abstract

From the second decade of the 21^st century onwards, debates about the memory of the Second World War in Ukraine and Russia radicalised. However, the underpining tensions dated back to the 1990s. In post-1991 independent Urakine, memory politics oscillated between two poles. On the one hand, the nationalisation of the Soviet myths about the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), and their subsequent adaptation to Ukrainan national narrative. This became evident when russophone and national-communist parties ruled. On the other hand, ethnic views of the Ukrainian past took the lead when nationalist and ukrainophone parties governed. This included the restoration of the memory of Ukrainian “freedom fighters” of the 1940s, who were to a great extent characterised by pro-Fascist and anti-semitic views. An additional emphasis was put on the commemoration of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-3 and its interpretation as a genocide, while Jewish victims of the Holocaust on Ukrainian soil were barely remembered. This article addresses the evolution of the memory battles in Ukraine about the Second World War, and also highlights the emergence of some trends that may reconcile different sensitivities of the fragmented collective memories of the recent past in Ukraine.