Narrating the Imperial Past: Public Space and the Politics of Memory in Post - Soviet Ukraine

The collapse of the USSR and democratization processes in the former
republics triggered the rewriting of master narratives and the shaping of a specific
national identity
for an independent Ukrainian state. This involved the reassessment of the relations between Ukraine
and Russia as an imperial center, as well as reevaluations of Ukrainian history under Soviet rule and
the development of new national memo
ry politics.
The Orange Revolution of 2004 and memory initiatives under President Yushchenko
clearly
articulated refuted the myth of 'eternal friendship' between the 'brotherly' Ukrainian and Russian
peoples and condemned the crimes of the Communist regime against Ukrainians. The revolution put
new aspects, such as tension between pro
-
European an
d pro
-
Russian vectors of Ukraine's
development, on the agenda. This was mirrored in the activities of diverse memory agents. While the
President concentrated on the experiences of Ukraine during Soviet rule, local elites turned to a
distant past, when vari
ous Ukrainian territories belonged to the Austro
-
Hungarian and Russian
empires (monuments to Catherine II in Odesa and to Franz Joseph in Chernivtsi).
Discrepancies between pro
-
European and pro
-
Russian orientations became clear during the
Euro
-
Maidan
protests in 2013
-
2014 and conflict with Russian
-
backed separatists. State memory
actors began to question to what extent Russian imperial figures have a place in Ukrainian history and
cultural memory. Particular attention has been paid to the highly disputed monument to Catherine II
in Odesa. In agreement with Ukrainian nationalists, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory
(UINM) called for the statue's removal, provoking debate about the fate of Russian monumental
legacy, involving a wide range of loca
l and state actors.