Ukrainian Society in 2014–2020: Problems of Decommunization Politics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2020.04.110Keywords:
decommunization, memory politics, civil society, post-colonial syndrome, horizontal mobility, political nationAbstract
The purpose of the article is to analyze the key areas, public reception and consequences of decommunization politics, which has gained new impetus after Euromaidan.
The methodological basis is an interdisciplinary approach. It includes a political component, as well as taking into account the fact that decommunization implies a worldview and cultural transformation of Ukrainian society. The principle of historicism, multifactoriality and comprehensive approach is used.
The scientific novelty lies in the attempt to conceptualize the events of 2014–2020 related to the implementation of decommunization politics.
Conclusion. The impetus for the politics of decommunization was the lack of a fully formed national historical narrative and the desire to form such a narrative. Cognitively, the object of decommunization is the history of Ukraine in the twentieth century, with special emphasis on the Soviet period and the national liberation struggle. Spatially, such an object is the public / symbolic space of cities and villages of Ukraine and its information and cultural space, where communication on the themes of the historical past takes place. A fundamental element of the politics of memory in Ukraine in 2014–2020 is the condemnation of the crimes of the communist regime, which in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war is gradually becoming conventional. The most powerful instrument of decommunization was the legislative one – the adoption and implementation of four laws of April 9, 2015. The adoption of laws on decommunization, together with the use of an institutional tool – the activities of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, stimulated the process of separation from the communist / totalitarian past, from its symbolism and toponymy. Condemnation of the crimes of the communist government and the (completely unrealized) lustration procedure are the basic foundations of postcolonial discourse and elements of the roadmap for the formation of the Ukrainian political nation. Contrary to the claims of some critics of the politics of decommunization, the recognition of the ruling regime as criminal does not mean that there was nothing positive in the country subordinate to it, or that the "independence fighter" cannot a priori commit a crime. Sociological survey data show that the attitude of Ukrainian society to decommunization and its practical implementation is ambiguous and has a clear regional specificity.
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