Deportation actions of the 1940s in the national memory of Ukrainians: status and prospects of research
According to the materials of report at the meeting of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine, December 28, 2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/visn2023.02.091Keywords:
Polish-Ukrainian conflict, deportation of Ukrainians, historical memory, collective memoryAbstract
The process of creation of memories about inter-ethnic Polish-Ukrainian conflict as well as about deportation and further adaptation is observed at three levels (personal and family level; level of deportees’ communities; level of regions where displaced persons live). Collective image of deportations from the Ukrainian-Polish borderland in 1944—1951 as well as of traumatic events, that preceded this process, in the views of displaced persons and their descendants is recreated, and the inclusion of their experience in the historical memory of Ukraine is studied.
The oral and written memories of the deportees are analyzed in this work. It is established that in their collective memory, the war, as a rule, began with the aggravation of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict in the Kholmshchyna and Nadsyannia and with position changes at the front and redeployment of troops in the Lemkivshchyna. All these events took place in 1943—1944. Only deportees, who were displaced in 1951, are an exception, for them, in contrast to other resettled persons, the central story in the narratives is the deportation action.
Two ways of representing the experience of inter-ethnic conflict are singled out. The first is almost non-emotional list of the injustices and misfortunes that the community has experienced. To another belong narratives, which are in many cases fragmentary and full of dramatic emotions. These two ways may be indicative of psychological trauma and reluctance to remember it, or of the post-memory. It is emphasized that many memories are the post-memory of persons, who were deported in childhood, or were born in the families of displaced persons after deportation.
The representation of the deportations of 1944—1951 in the media space of Ukraine and Poland in 1990—2017 is investigated. Resettlement actions are mainly the part of the regional historical memory. The memory of them is especially strong in places of compact settlement, or in family environments of resettled persons. Increased media interest in deportations appears on the eve of the anniversaries and is especially intense before round number dates, as, for example, in the case of the 70th anniversary of Operation “Vistula”.
The relationship between different levels of identity, in particular regional (local) and national, is investigated. The concept of small homeland is considered through the prism of collective memory. Certain universality of the process of sacralization and idealization of the small homeland is confirmed. It is noted that similar processes occurred with the memory in Polish society about the so-called “Kresy” (eastern borderlands, eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period) or about the areas, which were lost by Germany after the war. The memory of the place of birth, of childhood, of youth became the space wherein the home was introduced, after what it became the sacrum that was the basis for constructing identity. It is established that the descendants of the deportees, as the materials of the conducted surveys have shown, heard the stories of their relatives about the territory of Zakerzon and deportation. However, the origin of the parents or family experience did not affect most of the children and grandchildren of the deportees. Only for a part of the descendants, who grew up with traumatic stories, these lands became the so-called post-memory, built on the emotional experience of someone else's experience. This memory has become important not because of the feeling of belonging to these territories, but because of the connection with relatives who came from Zakerzon.
Cite this article:
Artymyshyn Yu.Z. Deportation actions of the 1940s in the national memory of Ukrainians: status and prospects of research. Visn. Nac. Akad. Nauk Ukr. 2023. (2): 91—99. https://doi.org/10.15407/visn2023.02.091
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