Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-shngb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-10T09:56:14.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Managing the difficult past: Ukrainian collective memory and public debates on history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Anna Wylegała
Anna Wylegała*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
*
* Email: annawylegala@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyzes the status of difficult historic events in Ukrainian collective memory. Difficult elements of collective memory are defined as those which divide society on basic matters, such as identity and national cohesion, and events which are being actively forgotten because of the role of Ukrainians as perpetrators. Three such issues were analyzed: World War II and the role of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the Holocaust, and the ethnic purge of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–1945. Utilizing data from quantitative and qualitative studies, the author showcases the significance of these issues for contemporary Ukrainian identity and Ukraine's relations with its neighbors. In particular, the evaluation of World War II and the role of the UPA in Ukrainian history polarizes Ukrainian society to a great degree. At the same time, this element of national history is used to construct a common, anti-Russian identity. The difficulty of relating to the memory of the Holocaust and the ethnic purge in Volhynia is of a different character. These events are problematic for Ukrainian collective memory because they demand a painful settling of accounts with the past. At present, only Ukrainian elites are willing to work on these subjects, and only to a limited degree, while the common consciousness either denies or ignores them altogether.

Keywords

collective memorynational identityUkraineHolocaustOUN-UPA

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 780 - 797
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised and extended ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Assmann, Aleida. 2009. “Pięć strategii wypierania ze świadomości,” Translated by A. Pełka. In Pamięć zbiorowa i kulturowa. Współczesna perspektywa niemiecka, edited by Saryusz-Wolska, Małgorzata, 333–350. Warszawa: Universitas.Google Scholar
Bartov, Omer. 2007. Erased. Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Berdychowska, Bogumiła. 2003. “Ukraińcy wobec Wołynia.” Zeszyty Historyczne 146: 65–104.Google Scholar
Blacker, Uilleam, and Etkind, Alexander. 2013. “Introduction.” In Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe. Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History, edited by Uilleam Blacker, Alexander Etkind, and Fedor, Julie, 1–24. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bogumił, Zuzanna. 2012. Pamięć Gułagu. Kraków: Universitas.Google Scholar
Desbois, Patrick. 2008. The Holocaust by Bullets. A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.Google Scholar
Erll, Astrid. 2008. “Cultural Memory Studies: An Introduction.” In Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, edited by Erll, Astrid and Niinning, Ansgar, 1–18. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Figes, Orlando. 2007. The Whisperers. Private Life in Stalin's Russia. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Finder, Gabriel N., and Prusin, Alexander V. 2004. “Collaboration in Eastern Galicia: The Ukrainian Police and the Holocaust.” East European Jewish Affairs 34 (2): 95–118.Google Scholar
Grinchenko, Gelinada, and Olynyk, Marta. 2012. “The Ostarbeiter of Nazi Germany in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukrainian Historical Memory.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 54 (4): 401–426.Google Scholar
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1992. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Himka, John-Paul. 2011. “The Lviv Pogrom of 1941: The Germans, Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Carnival Crowd.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 53 (2–4): 209–243.Google Scholar
Himka, John-Paul. 2013. “The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Ukraine.” In Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe, edited by Michlic, Joanna and Himka, John-Paul, 627–661. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Himka, John-Paul. 2015a. “The History behind the Regional Conflict in Ukraine.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 16 (1): 129–136.Google Scholar
Himka, John-Paul. 2015b. Legislating Historical Truth: Ukraine's Laws of 9 April 2015. Accessed 15 December 2015. http://net.abimperio.net/node/3442.Google Scholar
Hrynevych, Vladyslav. 2005. “Gespaltene Erinnerung. Der Zweite Weltkrieg im ukrainischen Gedenken.” Osteuropa 4–5: 88–102.Google Scholar
Hrytsak, Yaroslav. 2011a. “Istoriia i pam'iat': Amneziia, Ambiwalentsia, Aktyvizatsia.” In Ukraina. Protsesy natsiotvorennia, edited by Kappeler, Andreas, 365–380. Kyiv: K.I.S.Google Scholar
Hrytsak, Yaroslav. 2011b. “Holokost i Holodomor: vyklyky kolektyvnoii pam'iati.” Krytyka 1–2: 14–16.Google Scholar
Iliushyn, Oleh. 2009. UPA i AK: protystoiannia v zakhidnii Ukraiini 1939-1945. Kyiv: Vydavnychyi Dim “Kyievo-Mohylians'ka Akademia”.Google Scholar
Ivanova, Yelena. 2008. “Regionalnyie osobiennosti kolektivnoi pamiati studentov o holokoste w sovremennoi Ukrainie.” Holokost i suchasnist'. Studii v Ukraini i sviti 2: 9–28.Google Scholar
Jilge, Wilfried. 2007. “Competing Victimhoods – Ukrainian Narratives on World War II.” In Shared History, Divided Memory: Jews and Others in Soviet-occupied Poland, 1939-1941, edited by Elazar Barkan, Elizabeth A. Cole, and Struve, Kai, 103–131. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar
Kasianov, Georgii. 2006. “The Burden of the Past. The Ukrainian-Polish Conflict of 1943-44 in Contemporary Public, Academic and Political Debates in Ukraine and Poland.” Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 19: 247–259.Google Scholar
Krzemiński, Ireneusz, ed. 2004. Antysemityzm w Polsce i na Ukrainie. Raport z badań. Warszawa: Scholar.Google Scholar
Kubik, Jan, and Bernhard, Michael, eds. 2015. Twenty Years after Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. 2001. Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kysla, Yuliia. 2009. “Konstruiuvannia ukrains'koii pam'iati v URSR vprodovzh stalins'koho periodu (1930-ti-1950-ti rr.).” In Mizhkul'turnyi dialoh, vol. 1: Identychnist', 221–244. Kyiv: Dukh i litera.Google Scholar
Marples, David. 2008. Heroes and Villains. Creating National History in Contemporary Ukraine. Budapest: Central European University Press.Google Scholar
Motyka, Grzegorz. 2011. Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji “Wisla. “ Konflikt polsko-ukraiński 1943-1947. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.Google Scholar
Narvselius, Eleonora. 2015. “Tragic Past, Agreeable Heritage: Post-Soviet Intellectual Discussions on the Polish Legacy in Western Ukraine.” The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Papers, no. 2401. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Narvselius, Eleonora, and Bernsand, Niklas. 2014. “L'viv and Chernivtsi: Two Memory Cultures at the Western Ukrainian Borderland.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 1 (1): 59–83.Google Scholar
Noor, Masi, Shnabel, Nurit, and Halabi, Samer. 2012. “When Suffering Begets Suffering: The Psychology of Competitive Victimhood Between Adversarial Groups in Violent Conflicts.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 4 (16): 352–374.Google Scholar
Nowak, Jacek. 2011. Społeczne reguły pamiętania. Antropologla pamięci zbiorowej. Kraków: Nomos.Google Scholar
Olick, Jeffrey K. 2007. The Politics of Regret. On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pakier, Małgorzata, and Wawrzyniak, Joanna. 2015. Memory and Change in Europe. Eastern Perspectives. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Pastushenko, Tetiana. 2015. “Der 9. Mai in Kiew: Krieg der Erinnerung in ‘Friedenszeiten'.” Erinnerungskulturen Erinnerung und Geschichtspolitik im östlichen und südöstlichen Europa. Accessed April 6, 2016. http://erinnerung.hypotheses.org/297.Google Scholar
Podols'kyi, Anatolii. 2009. “Ukrains'ke suspil'stvo i pam'iat’ pro holokost: sproba analizu deiakykh aspektiv.” Holokost i suchasnist”. Studii v Ukraini i sviti 1: 47–59.Google Scholar
Popson, Nancy. 2001. “The Ukrainian History Textbook: Introducing Children to the ‘Ukrainian Nation'.” Nationalities Papers 29 (2): 325–350.Google Scholar
Portnov, Andriy. 2013. Istorii dla domashnioho vzhytku. Esei pro pol'sko-rosiis'ko-ukrains'kyi trykutnyk pamiati. Kyiv: Krytyka.Google Scholar
Portnov, Andriy. 2015. Ukraińska (nie)pamięć o Wołyniu 1943. Accessed 15 December 2015. http://www.pk.org.pl/publikacje/pojednanie_przez_trudna_pamiec_wolyn1943.pdf.Google Scholar
Rasevych, Vasyl. 2009. “Polityka pam'iati i podolannia mizhnatsionalnykh stereotypiv v suchasnii Ukraini.” In Istorychni mify i stereotypy ta mizhnatsional'ni vidnosyny v suchasnii Ukraiini, edited by Zashkilniak, Leonid, 53–71. Lviv: Instytut Ukrainoznavstva im. I. Kryp'iakevycha NAN Ukrainy.Google Scholar
Richardson, Tanya. 2004. “Disciplining the Past in Post-Soviet Ukraine: Memory and History in Schools and Families.” In Politics, Religion and Memory: The Past Meets the Present in Contemporary Europe, edited by Frances Pine, Deema Kaneff, and Haukanes, Haldis, 109–135. Munster: Lit.Google Scholar
Rodgers, Peter. 2006. “Regionalism and the Politics of Identity: A View from Ukraine's Eastern Borderlands.” In Borderland Identities: Territory and Belonging in North, Central and East Europe, edited by Hurd, Madeleine, 163–194. Eslöv: Forlags ab Gondolin.Google Scholar
Rohdewald, Stefan. 2008. “Post-Soviet Remembrance of the Holocaust and National Memories of the Second World War in Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 44 (2): 173–184.Google Scholar
Rossoliński-Liebe, Grzegorz. 2012. “Debating, Obfuscating and Disciplining the Holocaust: Post-Soviet Historical Discourses on the OUN–UPA and Other Nationalist Movements.” East European Jewish Affairs 42 (3): 199–241.Google Scholar
Ruda, Oksana. 2009. “Do dzherel mifolohizatsii ukrains'ko-pols'kykh vidnosyn.” In Istorychni mify i stereotypy ta mizhnatsionalni vidnosyny v suchasnii Ukraiini, edited by Zashkilniak, Leonid, 289–333. Lviv: Instytut Ukrainoznavstva im. I. Kryp'iakevycha NAN Ukrainy.Google Scholar
Rudling, Per A. 2011. The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths. The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, no. 2107. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Welzer, Harald. 2002. Das kommunikative Gedächtnis. Eine Theorie der Errinerung. München: CH Beck.Google Scholar
Welzer, Harald. 2008. “Communicative Memory.” In Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, edited by Erll, Astrid, and Niinning, Ansgar, 285–300. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew. 1998. “Redefining Ethnic and Linguistic Boundaries in Ukraine: Indigenes, Settlers and Russophone Ukrainians.” In Nation-building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands, edited by Smith, Graham, Vivien, Law, Wilson, Andrew, Bohr, Annette and Allworth, Edward, 119–138. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yekelchyk, Serhy. 2004. Stalin's Empire of Memory. Russian-Ukrainian Relations in the Soviet Historical Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Yurchuk, Yuliya. 2014. Reordering of Meaningful Worlds: Memory of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Post-Soviet Ukraine. Stockholm: Acta.Google Scholar
Zashkilniak, Leonid. 2009. “Istoriia svoia i istoriia chuzha.” Krytyka 9–10: 24–26.Google Scholar
Zhurzhenko, Tatiana. 2013. “Memory Wars and Reconciliation in the Ukrainian-Polish Borderlands: Geopolitics of Memory from a Local Perspective.” In Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: Memory Games, edited by Mink, Georges, and Neumayer, Laure, 173–192. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ziółkowski, Marek. 2001. “Pamięć i zapominanie: trupy w szafie polskiej zbiorowej pamięci.” Kultura i Społeczeństwo 3–4: 3–22.Google Scholar