“Great Victory” in the “Great Patriotic War” As a Soviet-Russian Colonial Project
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2025.02.60Keywords:
“Great Victory”, “Great Patriotic War”, World War II, commemorative policy, “pobedobesie”, colonial discourse, Russo-Ukrainian warAbstract
The goal is to analyze the practices of commemorating the victory over Nazism in World War II as a tool of Russia’s colonial policy, which employs historical memory to legitimize its expansionist policies towards post-Soviet states, especially Ukraine.
Methodology. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach, combining concepts from historical politics, social psychology, postcolonial studies, and political science. Methods used include critical discourse analysis, comparative analysis of historical narratives, and content analysis of official commemorative practices in Ukraine and Russia.
The scientific novelty. For the first time, the cult of the “Great Victory” and the myth of the “Great Patriotic War” are interpreted as components of Russia’s colonial project aimed at maintaining control over the post-Soviet space through symbolic dominance and information warfare. The study highlights how the formation of “pobedobesie” (victory frenzy) became a tool for mobilizing Russian society and justifying aggression against Ukraine.
The main results. The research establishes that the identity crisis in Russia at the turn of the 20th — 21st centuries led to the construction of a new historical myth, with the “Great Victory” becoming the core of collective memory and political self-affirmation. Under Putin’s rule, this myth was elevated to the status of a national ideology, legitimizing both internal repressive policies and external aggression. In Ukraine, commemorative practices shifted towards demythologization of the Soviet narrative, fostering a pluralistic memory space and gradually abandoning May 9 celebrations in favor of European-style commemoration. Thus, Victory Day transformed from a tool of “integration” of the post-Soviet space into the Russian imperial matrix into a symbol of resistance to Russian neo-imperialism.
References
Fanon, F. (1961). The Wretched of the Earth. Paris: Éditions Maspero.
Said, E. (1993). Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
Chakrabarty, D. (2000). Provincializing Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bassin, M. (1999). Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840-1865. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511493638
Lieven, D. (2000). Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hosking, G. (2001). Russia and the Russians: A History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sunderland, W. (2004). Taming the Wild Field: Colonization and Empire on the Russian Steppe. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Etkind, A. (2011). Internal Colonization: Russia’s Imperial Experience. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Martin, T. (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hirsch, F. (2005). Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2005.0129
"Kassymbekova, B., Chokobaeva, A. (2023). Expropriation, assimilation, elimination: Understanding Soviet settler colonialism. South/South Dialogues. 05.07.2023.
Motyl, O. (2009). Pidsumky imperii: zanepad, rozpad i vidrodzhennia. Kyiv: Krytyka. [in Ukrainian].
Grigas, A. (2016). Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300214505.001.0001
Plokhy, S. (2017). Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation. New York: Basic Books.
Plokhy, S. (2023). The Russo-Ukrainian war. [London]: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books. XXII.
Snyder, T. (2018). The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America. New York: Tim Duggan Books.
Sharafutdinova, G. (2020). The Red Mirror: Putin’s Leadership and Russia’s Insecure Identity. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197502938.001.0001
"Hrynevych, V. Podolannia totalitarnoho mynuloho. Chastyna 3: Chy buv SSSR imperiieiu, a Ukraina — koloniieiu? Ukraina moderna. [in Ukrainian].
"Kassymbekova, B., Marat, E. (April 2022). Time to question Russia’s imperial innocence. PONARS Eurasia. Policy Memo N 771.
Connerton, P. (2004). Yak suspilstva pamiataiut. Kyiv: Nika-Centr. [in Ukrainian].
"Paniotto, V. Stavlennia ukraintsiv do sviat 1 travnia (Den pratsi) i 9 travnia (Den peremohy) z 2010 do 2024 r. [in Ukrainian].
Blacker, U., Etkind, A., Fedor, J. (eds.). (2013). Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322067
Fedor, J., Kangaspuro, M., Lassila, J., Zhurzhenko, T. (eds.). (2017). War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66523-8
Gabowitsch, M., Gdaniec, C., Makhotina, E. (Hg.). (2017). Kriegsgedenken als Event: der 9. Mai 2015 im postsozialistischen Europa. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. doi: https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657784349
Pastushenko, T. V., Tytarenko, D. M., Cheban, O. I. (2016). 9 travnia 2014-2015 rr. v Ukraini: stari tradytsii — novi tseremonii vidznachennia. Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal. 3: 106-124. [in Ukrainian].
Schulze Wessel, M. (2023). Der Fluch des Imperiums: die Ukraine, Polen und der Irrweg in der russischen Geschichte. München: C.H. Beck. doi: https://doi.org/10.17104/9783406800511
Pastushenko, T. (2022). Yakym ye dyskurs “Velykoi Vitchyznianoi viiny” u suchasnii viini Rosii proty Ukrainy? Perelom: Viina Rosii proty Ukrainy u chasovykh plastakh i prostorakh mynuvshyny: Dialohy z istorykamy. Kyiv. 2: 1111-1116. [in Ukrainian].
Losiev, I. V. (2002). Yavyshche “banderofobii” v rosiiskii svidomosti. Universum: Zhurnal politolohii, futurolohii, ekonomiky, nauky ta kultury. 3/6: 61-64. [in Ukrainian].
Prymachenko, Ya. (2014). Antykolonialnyi dyskurs OUN / UPA v suchasnomu ukrainskomu konteksti borotby za yevropeisku identychnist. Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zbirnyk. 17: 328-338. [in Ukrainian].
Masenko, L. (2017). Mova radianskoho totalitaryzmu. Kyiv: Klio. [in Ukrainian].
Hinda, V. (2022). Khto taki “banderivtsi” i yak yikh obraz vykorystovuietsia v suchasnomu rashystskomu kontenti? Perelom: Viina Rosii proty Ukrainy u chasovykh plastakh i prostorakh mynuvshyny: Dialohy z istorykamy. Kyiv. 2: 976-980. [in Ukrainian].
Stiazhkina, O. (2022). Rokada: chotyry narysy z istorii Druhoi svitovoi. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Kappeler, A. (2018). Nerivni braty: Ukraintsi ta rosiiany vid serednovichchia do suchasnosti. Per. z nim. V. Kamianets. Chernivtsi. [in Ukrainian].
Edele, M. (2022). Fighting Russia’s History Wars: Vladimir Putin and the Codification of World War II Memory. History and Memory. 34 (1): 90-124.
Rolf, M. (2006). Das sowjetische Massenfest. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition.
Gabowitsch, M. (2016). Victory Day in Russia, the USSR, and Post-Soviet Countries. Russian Politics and Law. 54 (5-6): 1-13.
Lastouski, A., Khandozhko, R., Sklokina, I. (2013). Rethinking the Soviet Memory of the “Great Patriotic War” from the Local Perspective: Stalinism and the Thaw, 1943-1965. Kharkiv.
Pastushenko, T. V. (2019). Viina pamiati v chasy viiny: vidznachennia peremohy nad natsyzmom pislia Revoliutsii hidnosti. Suspilno-politychna aktyvnist ta istorychna pamiat yevreiskoi spilnoty v konteksti yevrointehratsii Ukrainy. Kyiv. 233-259. [in Ukrainian].
Pastushenko, T. (2020). The war of memory in times of war: May 9 Celebrations in Kyiv in 2014-2015. Wylegala, A., Glowacka-Grajper, M. (eds.) The Burden of the Past: History, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary Ukraine. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 77-90. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvx8b7rg.8
Fedor, J. (2015). Memory, Kinship, and the Mobilization of the Dead: The Russian State and the “Immortal Regiment” Movement. The Journal of Post-Soviet Politics and Society. 1 (1): 53-82.
Haidai, O, et al. (2018). Polityka i pamiat: Dnipro — Zaporizhzhia — Odesa — Kharkiv vid 1990-kh do sohodni. Kasianov H. (ed.). Lviv. [in Ukrainian].
Zhurzhenko, T. (2011). “Chuzha viina” chy “spilna Peremoha”? Natsionalizatsiia pamiati pro Druhu svitovu viinu na ukrainsko-rosiiskomu prykordonni. Ukraina moderna. 8: 100-126. [in Ukrainian].
Sklokina, I. Ye. (2014). Ofitsiina radianska polityka pamiati pro natsystsku okupatsiiu Ukrainy (za materialamy Kharkivskoi oblasti 1943-1989 rr.) (Ph. D. dissertation). Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
"Tytarenko, D. M. (2018). “Vrag vnov vstupil na nashu zemliu…”: Velyka Vitchyzniana / II svitova viina v politytsi pamiati na terytorii samoproholoshenoi DNR. Historians.in.ua. 22.02.2018. [in Ukrainian].
Tytarenko, D. M. (2020). Sviato v tini novoi viiny: 9 travnia na terytorii “Donetskoi narodnoi respubliky”. Ukrainske suspilstvo v umovakh viiny: vyklyky sohodennia ta perspektyvy myrotvorennia: Mat. III Vseukr. nauk.-prakt. internet-konferentsii, Mariupol, 22 chervnia 2020 r. Mariupol. 72-77. [in Ukrainian].
Yekelchyk, S. (2006). The Leader, the Victory, and the Nation: Public Celebrations in Soviet Ukraine under Stalin (Kiev, 1943-1953). Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. Neue Folge. 54 (1): 3-19.
Gudkov, L. (2005). Pamiat pro viinu ta masova identychnist rosiian. Krytyka. 5: 11-15. [in Ukrainian].
"Nakhmanovych, V. (2022). Na ruinakh Khramu Peremohy. Istorychna pravda. 11.10.2022. [in Ukrainian].
Polegkyi, O. (Jul 2016). Soviet Mythology and Memory of World War II as Instruments of Russian Propaganda. Warsaw East European Review. VI: 77-93.
"Snyder, T. (2022). 9 Theses on Putin’s Fascism for 9 May. How Putin’s myth of 2022 differs from the history of 1945. 09.05.2022.
Portnov, A. (2013). Memory Wars in Post-Soviet Ukraine (1991-2010). U. Blacker, A. Etkind and J. Fedor (eds.) Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 233-254. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137322067_12
Yurchuk, Yu. (2017). Reclaiming the Past, Confronting the Past: OUN-UPA Memory Politics and Nation-Building in Ukraine (1991-2016). J. Fedor, M. Kangaspuro, J. Lassila, T. Zhurzhenko (eds.) War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 107-140. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66523-8_4
Podolskyi, A. (2020). Istorychna pamiat pro doliu ukrainskykh yevreiv u dobu Druhoi svitovoi viiny: suchasni suspilno-politychni ta istoriohrafichni tendentsii i perspektyvy. Suspilno-politychna aktyvnist ta istorychna pamiat yevreiskoi spilnoty v konteksti yevrointehratsii Ukrainy. Kyiv. 84-101. [in Ukrainian].
"Zhurzhenko, T. (2015). Russia’s never-ending war against “fascism”. Memory politics in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. 08.05.2015.
