Description
Book SynopsisThis account of historical politics in Ukraine, framed in a broader European context, shows how social, political, and cultural groups have used and misused the past from the final years of the Soviet Union to 2020. Georgiy Kasianov details practices relating to history and memory by a variety of actors, including state institutions, non-governmental organizations, political parties, historians, and local governments. He identifies the main political purposes of these practices in the construction of nation and identity, struggles for power, warfare, and international relations.
Kasianov considers the Ukrainian case in the context of a global increase in the politics of history and memory, with particular emphasis on a distinctive East-European variety. He pays special attention to the use and abuse of history in relations between Ukraine, Russia, and Poland.
Trade Review"Mit der vorliegenden Monographie zur ukrainischen Geschichtspolitik ist Kasianov eine Studie gelungen, die noch lange als Standardwerk gelten dürfte und sich hervorragend in den Forschungsstand zu anderen osteuropäischen Staaten einfügt. Vor dem Hintergrund des russischen Krieges gegen die Ukraine ist es eine bittere Ironie, dass dieses Buch sich wie ein Resümee der ukrainischen kollektiven Erinnerung seit dem Ende des Staatssozialismus liest." http://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-117069 -- Ekaterina Makhotina * H-Soz-Kult *
"Kasianov’s nuanced and impartial chronicle of the politics of history in Ukraine considers two competing versions of that country’s national history: a 'Soviet nostalgic' one that stressed continuity with the Soviet period and a nationalist one that emphasized Ukraine’s suffering at the hands of the Soviet government." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2022-04-19/memory-crash-politics-history-and-around-ukraine-1980s-2010s -- Maria Lipman * Foreign Affairs *
"Memory Crash was published in Ukrainian in 2018 and appeared in a well-received Russian edition the following year. The text was updated before its publication in English just weeks before the invasion in February 2022. It offers a snapshot of the scholarly debate taken moments before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Students of historical politics examine ‘the use and abuse of the past for immediate political goals.’ Kasianov has studied this phenomenon over decades and across Europe. The reference to ‘impartiality’ is characteristic. ‘The historian’s business requires time away from the noise’, as he puts it in Memory Crash. That is how any larger perspective is won and his book begins by placing Ukraine’s historical politics in a European context. Read this book as testimony to decades spent working for a tough-minded but sophisticated view of the past, in the interests of a more tolerant and pluralist future." http://review31.co.uk/essay/view/116/forbidden-topics-long-shadows -- Horatio Morpurgo * Review 31 *
"Eine zu starke Fixierung auf die Vergangenheit könne zukünftige Fortschritte in seinem Land behindern, so der ukrainische Historiker Georgiy Kasianov. Mit seinem Buch Memory Crash präsentiert er die erste umfangreiche und empiriegesättigte Studie über ukrainische Erinnerungskultur(en) und ihre Akteure. Kasianovs Expertise und seine umfangreiche kritische Analyse ukrainischer Erinnerungskulturen auf staatlicher und zivilgesellschaftlicher Ebene, wie sie vorher noch nie da war, machen das Buch zu einem Meilenstein im Feld der Memory Studies." https://te.ma/art/8u8vjf/kasianov-ukraine-history-memory-crash/ -- Hera Shokohi * te.ma *
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION
PART I: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS
Chapter 1. Notions and Definitions
Historical memory. Historical politics. History and memory. Basic definitions.
Chapter 2. Contexts
On stereotypes. “Western Europe.” “Eastern Europe.” Post-Soviet space.
PART II: ACTORS
Chapter 3. State Institutions
President. Parliament. Government. National Bank of Ukraine. Ukrposhta. Judicial bodies. Security Service. Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. Local authorities and self-government bodies. Archives and museums.
Chapter 4. Nongovernmental Organizations
Political parties. Civil organizations. Mass media and web-based communities.
Chapter 5. Historians
Communists to nationalists. Roles of historians.
PART III: PRACTICES
Chapter 6. Historical Politics: An Overview
On the nationalization of the past. Sovereignization. Nationalization.
Chapter 7. Spaces of Memory
Lenin, Bandera, and others. “Battle of Kruty”: victims and heroes. The Holodomor Territory. Genocides at the edge. Memorial laws.
Chapter 8. Historical Politics: Beyond Borders
Ukraine–Poland: “thorny issues.” Ukraine–Russia: “fraternal rivalry.”
GENERAL REMARKS
