Interviews with veterans of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the memory war in Ukraine
Keywords:
Ukraina, sota, menneisyydenhallintaAbstract
The concept of nationalism is often mentioned in the context of the present war in Ukraine, but less attention has been devoted to how the notion helps to understand the conflict itself. Closely tied to the concept of nationalism is that of identity, which in its turn is intrinsically connected to the experience of a common history and its shared interpretation. In the case of Ukraine, we can talk about a memory war, because on the rhetorical level, the conflict is partly about whose interpretation of history is correct. An understanding of the different interpretations of the past helps us to understand the conflict itself. The interdisciplinary field of Cultural Memory Studies offers us a perspective on the topic, as it views history as a social construct. In previous studies on cultural memory in Ukraine, special attention has been devoted to the re-evaluation of the Second World War in post-Soviet memory politics. The topic has been approached by analysing, for example, the media, public speeches, national symbols and monuments. This article deals with the issue of cultural memory with interviews with Ukrainian veterans of the current war as its material. Academic research has also dealt with how the Ukrainian national identity has been constructed by distancing it from the historical legacy of the Soviet Union. Together with the Second World War, the USSR was the historical theme most often referred to by the veterans. The memory of the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989) came up in some of the interviews, as its veterans were mentioned. These veterans have played an important role in both the Euro-Maidan demonstrations as well as the war in Eastern Ukraine. Alongside these themes, some references were made to the pre-Soviet era, and some interviewees mentioned history as an abstract concept. In this article, I examine the meanings of the history preceding the fall of the Soviet Union gathered from the speech of the interviewees. I aim to place to place my findings in the context of academic discussion on how the past and its various interpretations affect present-day Ukraine.
