Memory Crash: Politics of History in and around Ukraine, 1980s–2010s

Georgiy Kasianov

Open Access Published by Central European University Press 2022

Memory Crash

Politics of History in and around Ukraine, 1980s–2010s

Georgiy Kasianov
Funded by: Opening the Future

In the series Historical Studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789633863817

Overview
Contents

About this book

This 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.

Author / Editor information

Kasianov Georgiy :

Georgiy Kasianov is Head of the Laboratory of International Memory Studies, Marie Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland. He is an author, co-author and co-editor of more than twenty books on the history of Ukraine in the 19^th–21^th centuries.

Reviews

Laura Eckl:
"Kasianovs Monografie besticht durch methodische und argumentative klarheit. Der Vf. nimmt große Akteursgruppen in den Blick, um Diskurse als von Interessengruppen gemachte Narrative, die in spezifischen historischen und politischen Kontexten entstehen, zu entschlüsseln. Seine Studie kann auch als Plädoyer gelesen werden, die regionalen Besonderheiten der Ukraine bei der Untersuchung von Erinnerungsdiskursen dezidierter zu untersuchen. Obwohl Geschichte in ganz Europa als politisches Instrument genutzt wird, dient Geschichtspolitik nur der Russländischen Föderation als Basis und Argument für Expansion, Aggression und Krieg." https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https%3A//www.zfo-online.de/portal/zfo/article/download/11496/11377&hl=hu&sa=X&d=8733072796556072501&ei=wxIJZr3VHNio6rQP95mt8Aw&scisig=AFWwaebtpKxjNntDBsLmZh6ql0B6&oi=scholaralrt&html=&pos=1&folt=kw

Hera Shokohi:
"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/

Horatio Morpurgo:
"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

Maria Lipman:
"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

Ekaterina Makhotina:
"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

Vladislav M. Zubok:

“The most comprehensive, critical-minded, and witty analysis of the Ukrainian memory politics today, Kasianov’s new book will surprise everyone who is interested in Eastern Europe’s politics and future."

Stefan Berger:

“This is a fascinating analysis of history politics in the Ukraine over the last forty years written by one of the best experts in the field. Kasianov tells an intriguing story about the way in which both governments and civil society actors have functionalized history in order to promote various versions of Ukrainian national identity. He explores the links of this mnemonic war to the Soviet era and also contextualizes it lucidly within a wider European and Russian history politics. This is a book that will be read with great benefit by anyone interested in the complex interactions between history and politics.”

Alexander Etkind:

“This is an excellent book about the power of discourse, the discourse of power, and the extraordinary complex ways in which they mingle, fight and intertwine. Focusing on Ukraine while maintaining European and comparative perspectives, Georgiy Kasianov has produced an exemplary work in the contested but increasingly central field of East European memory studies.”

Serhii Plokhy:

“What happens when imperial narratives fall, and the new national ones try to take their place? Memory Crush provides answers to this and many related questions in the way that combines analysis of a historian with the sensibilities of one of the key participants in the historical debates. A reflection and a report from the trenches of the historical wars at the same time, it is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand today’s Ukraine and the battles it is involved in.”

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Part I Concepts and Contexts
Chapter 1 Notions and Definitions Open Access Download PDF	1
Chapter 2 Contexts Open Access Download PDF	25
Part II Actors
Chapter 3 State Institutions Open Access Download PDF	85
Chapter 4 Non-governmental Organizations Open Access Download PDF	147
Chapter 5 Historians Open Access Download PDF	177
Part III Practices
Chapter 6 Historical Politics: An Overview Open Access Download PDF	191
Chapter 7 Spaces of Memory Open Access Download PDF	249
Chapter 8 Historical Politics: Beyond Borders Open Access Download PDF	319
Conclusions Open Access Download PDF	387
Selected Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	399
Index Open Access Download PDF	403

Language: English
Publisher: Central European University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 424
Illustrations
- Tables: 4
Keywords: East and West; Identity; International relations; Media; Museums; Nationalism; Postcommunism

eBook

Published: January 9, 2022
ISBN: 9789633863817