Authors

Discussion

The study of memory politics is increasingly given weight in debates in politics and international relations, and nowhere in our region provides a better vantage point on memory politics than Ukraine, where because of Russia’s  approach to the revanchist exercise of regional power and international influence it is of existential importance. After international criticism of the 2015 Decommunisation legislation in Ukraine and a widening awareness of the ripple effects of Russian state-backed propaganda, our understanding of Ukraine’s official approach to memory politics remains limited. 

My paper looks at the recent public outputs of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, focusing on its public exhibition materials, in the context of recent national memory legislation and the approaches taken by the current and previous director.  It uses public policy analysis, historical discourse analysis and political analysis to discern the current official approach in Ukraine, fighting off an invasion which was prepared for and defended with history-themed communications from Moscow.  

I argue that in Ukraine, civic nation-building through history now takes precedence over the propaganda-busting of earlier years, even as Russian propaganda continues to exert significant influence internationally on the foreign policy of other countries. 

There is no better way to decentre and decolonise the study of our region than to understand, multidisciplinarily and from a place-led, area-led perspective, the politics of memory and history in Ukraine and its cross-border, international consequences.