210199 PS G1, G5: Politics of Memory and National Identity in Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Russia, Poland (2008S)

Since 1989, the debates about "European identity" have been very much centered around the issue of historical memory. Western and Eastern European narratives of the traumatic 20th century (World War II and post-war division of Europe, experiences of communism and fascism, Holocaust, ethnic cleansings and mass deportations) differ in many aspects, raising the issues of "European solidarity" and "equality of memory".
Eastern European nations demonstrate a broad variety of ways of coping with the past, or in terms of Stefan Troebst, "commemorative cultures". This course focuses on the politics of memory in post-Soviet Ukraine in comparison to its historically and geopolitically most important neighbors - Poland and Russia. As everywhere in Eastern Europe, the "recovery of memory" has been an important part of democratic transition in these countries. However, Ukraine, Poland and Russia represent three quite different models of coping with their communist past.
Poland, by establishing the Institute of National Remembrance and adopting a rigid lustration policy seems to be most consequent and successful in this respect. At the same time, the growing tendency to instrumentalize historical memory for political purposes and particular interests can damage democracy.
In Russia, the anticommunism of the 90's was replaced by an affirmative politics of memory, and the Communist past is used as an important resource for the consolidation of Putin's authoritarian regime. The Soviet myth of the "Great Patriotic War" was re-launched by the Russian political elites to integrate and mobilize a demoralized society.
Ukraine's politics of memory reflects its geopolitical borderlands status between Russia and Europe. Ukrainian collective memory is deeply divided, resulting from different historical experiences of the eastern and western regions and manifesting itself in different political cultures. In Kuchma's era, the ruling elites, while borrowing some national symbols, avoided radical changes in the politics of memory on the national level and preferred to stick to the "Soviet Ukrainian" concept of identity. The Orange Revolution has clearly marked a turn towards the nationalization of Ukrainian collective memories (declaring the Famine of 1932-33 a genocide of the Ukrainian people; establishing an institute of national memory inspired by the Polish model, etc.). This new politics of memory, aimed at strengthening national identity, has increased tensions and conflicts, especially between the East and West of the country.