Authors

Discussion

For this panel, I'd like to discuss the role that social media plays in the drastically changing linguistic and cultural landscape of Odesa following the full-scale invasion, specifically in the city's relationship to its own past and to the Russian language.. Because the war has forced Ukrainians to various cities and countries, much of the discussions happening on Odesa rely on social media, and they point to a pivotal (occasionally even tumultuous) moment of Odesa finding its own place within a broader Ukrainian national identity. Often, this leads to conflicts between the local Odesan urban culture and a broader Ukrainian culture, as in the case of the city’s unofficial and much beloved Soviet-era anthem, “У черного моря” (U chernogo morya, “On the Black Sea,” in Russian) by Odesan artist Leonid Utyosov. Long played at the Odesa Train Station upon train arrivals, recently Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) made the controversial decision to replace Utyosov’s song with “А Що?”(an idiom; literally “and what?), a Ukrainian-language song by Kyiv-based Ukrainian artist MONATIK, for trains arriving to Odesa from Kyiv. This decision provoked strongly negative and positive responses, triggering conversations amongst Odesans about the place of Soviet-era local Odesan culture in the city today, with some dismissing the song as a symbol of communist oppression, and others arguing that non-local Ukrainians forcing Odesans to erase its own unique culture and history. I hope to look at this specific example to observe how social media exemplifies conflicts of “us versus them,” local and national, interregional and even international conflicts (those who remained in Odesa versus those who left) within contemporary Odesa.