The ‘imagined community’

someone who is trying to spot micro processes. The barricades, fallen communist statues, a baseball hat, green and brown tents on Maidan, tents at the borderline war zone, elegant young couples, soldiers, the internally displaced professors and university students from Donetsk, Kryvyi Rih and Crimea, exhausted men drawing casually on a pipe next to the Lenin pedestal, Cossacks with their long moustaches, parents mourning “The Heavenly Hundred,4” ‘nationalists’ marching with photos of Bandera5, grandparents mourning “notorious Soviet past,” volunteers of the ATO6 bringing victory home, smiling, artists, journalists, more soldiers— this time in the wheelchairs, though, cursing both war and the state...And graffiti, and posters, and slogans and songs…“Ne Tvoja

4 The name “Heavenly Hundred” refers to deceased activists whose deaths are connected to the protests on Maidan in Kyiv, from 21 January to 22 February 2014. Volodymyr Kadygrob, #Euromaidan: History in the Making (Osnovy Publishing, 2014), 170-171. 5 Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (1 January 1909- 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian politician, revolutionary and the head of a militant wing of Ukrainian independence movement. He was a leader of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization (OUN) during and after the Second World War. Within the national context of Ukraine, he is one of the most controversial figures of the country’s history.

Remembered as a hero primarily in western regions for an attempt to proclaim an independent Ukrainian state, Bandera is seen as a war criminal in central and eastern oblasts. There, he is condemned for collaboration with Nazi Germany and for killing Jews, Russians and other ethnic minorities living on the territory of Ukraine. The ‘Banderite’ is a term (primarily of negative connotation) used to address the proponents of his figure. Accessed June 2, 2018.

Source: /https://www.britannica.com/biography/ Stepan-Bandera. 6 ATO (or Anti-Terrorist Operation) is a term that was introduced by the government of Ukraine to identify Ukrainian military operations on the territory of

Donetsk and Luhansk that fell under the control of Russian military forces and pro-Russian separatists. Since 2014, the term ‘ATO’ has been used by media, publicity and government of Ukraine as well OSCE and other foreign institutions to refer to the military activities in eastern Ukraine. Accessed September 14, 2015. Source: http://uacrisis.org/66558- joint-forces-operation.

Vijna7” and “Nas Kynuly8”....all in the same space. Eventually, inevitably...at some point one cannot but wonder ‘how to make sense of it all?’

Curious about statistics or chronological reports can always find data on the number of communist statues being demolished, streets renamed, marches and protests in favor or against ‘Europe’ or ‘Russia’, or rather rarely, both. They can also find criticism of the lack of swift democratic transitioning, or on the contrary, speedy controversial de-Sovietization reforms. What I intend to do with this book is to take a step further by filling in the missing pieces on the nature, content and modes of articulation of the grassroots narratives on decommunization. Specifically, it will be shown how the process of regional and national de-Sovietization has taken multiple forms of political expression and can be examined as an integral part of hegemonic meaning-making. To unravel the hegemonic process, I address the regional evolution and articulation of meanings in different areas of Ukraine and reveal the complexity of the meaning-making. The book looks at public events such as posters and photo exhibitions or demolition of communist statues as effective mechanisms for exposing the multivocality of a state which, as the government of Ukraine claims, is being ‘unified’ in its fight for decommunization.

The theory of hegemony by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (1985), as well as broader intellectual framework of the international relations and historical materialist traditions (Cox 2019; Modelski and Wilkinson 1999; Thompson 2015) addresses hegemony as being “more than dominance” (Cox 2019: 366), and “being

7 The song “Ne Tvoya Viyna” (“Not Your War”) was released by the Ukrainian rock band, “Okean Elzy,” in April 2015. The song is an open statement of condemnation of Russian aggression and war in Donbas. Okean Elzy. “Not Your

War.” Believe Music. May 2, 2015. Music video, 4:28. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=xwQpCA3NWyk. 8 “Nas Kynuly” (“We were dumped”) is the song of Ukrainian singer, leader of the rock band “Skryabin,” Andriy Kuzmenko. The song is a provocative statement toward the government of Ukraine which, as being implied, has

“dumped” its people and failed to deliver its promises. Skryabin. “Nas

Kynuly.” #Скрябін #KuzmaForever #Кузьма. July 20, 2020. Music video, 3:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5NH2yKh11M.

born out of conflicts and contradictions in the process of socio-political decay” (Cox 2019: 377). The ground idea of discourse theory—that of the social phenomena being mediated through discourse, with meanings being never permanently fixed, is applied further in this work to examine decommunization as a broad array of narratives.

Such theoretical ‘reading’ of de-Sovietization is particularly relevant if we are to try making sense of diversity. Its purpose is to identify different ways discourses, such as ‘Europeanization,’ ‘deSovietization,’ or ‘Russification,’ are part of the meaning-making process that is “never complete” (Cox 2019; Laclau 1985; Thompson 2015). At the same time, if we are to comprehend “heteroglossia” (Bakhtin 1981) or acknowledge the existence of different voices, it is important to examine how the discursive or physical opposition to such discourses—be it oppositional political poster exhibitions or demolition (or preservation) of the Soviet monuments—is counter-hegemonic: how it establishes particular relations and orders of meaning that are of a contesting nature. The hegemonic approach, therefore, would permit us to detect decommunization as a political and cultural struggle over the ‘Soviet’ past and, potentially, ‘European’ present and future. This ‘struggle,’ however, does not imply socio-political or cultural division of the country’s population. As will be shown further, it involves articulation of both contentious and similar stands, where multiplicity of the socio-political positions is core to the meaning-making. As that of discourse analysis theory, the aim of this book is “not to discover which groups exist within the society” (Rear and Jones 2013), or to unravel particular political formations that object or support decommunization. My primary objective is to examine how the political and cultural diversity of the country’s citizens is being articulated and becomes visible within the process of the discursive struggle—within the scope of this work, that of post-Euromaidan decommunization. This ‘struggle’ or ‘contestation,’ as we are to see shortly, is a continuous process of meaning-making that is being articulated both during and after the revolutionary transformation of a state. Finally, and most importantly, irrespective of the arguments presented, theories applied or data discussed, the objective is to ‘study’ and understand people—the Ukrainians, as they are.

.SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Edited by Dr. Andreas Umland |ISSN 1614-3515

1 Андреас Умланд (ред.) | Воплощение Европейской конвенции по правам человека в

России. Философские, юридические и эмпирические исследования | ISBN 3-89821-387-0 2 Christian Wipperfürth | Russland – ein vertrauenswürdiger Partner? Grundlagen, Hintergründe und

Praxis gegenwärtiger russischer Außenpolitik | Mit einem Vorwort von Heinz Timmermann | ISBN 3-89821-401-X 3 Manja Hussner | Die Übernahme internationalen Rechts in die russische und deutsche Rechts-

ordnung. Eine vergleichende Analyse zur Völkerrechtsfreundlichkeit der Verfassungen der Russländischen Föderation und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland | Mit einem Vorwort von Rainer Arnold | ISBN 3-89821-438-9 4 Matthew Tejada | Bulgaria's Democratic Consolidation and the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant

(KNPP). The Unattainability of Closure | With a foreword by Richard J. Crampton | ISBN 3-89821-439-7 5 Марк Григорьевич Меерович | Квадратные метры, определяющие сознание. Государственная

жилищная политика в СССР. 1921 – 1941 гг | ISBN 3-89821-474-5 6 Andrei P. Tsygankov, Pavel A.Tsygankov (Eds.) | New Directions in Russian International Stud-

ies | ISBN 3-89821-422-2 7 Марк Григорьевич Меерович | Как власть народ к труду приучала. Жилище в СССР – средство

управления людьми. 1917 – 1941 гг. | С предисловием Елены Осокиной | ISBN 3-89821-495-8 8 David J. Galbreath | Nation-Building and Minority Politics in Post-Socialist States. Interests, Influ-

ence and Identities in Estonia and Latvia | With a foreword by David J. Smith | ISBN 3-89821-467-2 9 Алексей Юрьевич Безугольный | Народы Кавказа в Вооруженных силах СССР в годы Ве-

ликой Отечественной войны 1941-1945 гг. | С предисловием Николая Бугая | ISBN 3-89821-475-3 10 Вячеслав Лихачев и Владимир Прибыловский (ред.) | Русское Национальное Единство,

1990-2000. В 2-х томах | ISBN 3-89821-523-7 11 Николай Бугай (ред.) | Народы стран Балтии в условиях сталинизма (1940-е – 1950-e

годы). Документированная история | ISBN 3-89821-525-3 12 Ingmar Bredies (Hrsg.) | Zur Anatomie der Orange Revolution in der Ukraine. Wechsel des Eliten-

regimes oder Triumph des Parlamentarismus? | ISBN 3-89821-524-5 13 Anastasia V. Mitrofanova | The Politicization of Russian Orthodoxy. Actors and Ideas | With a fore-

word by William C. Gay | ISBN 3-89821-481-8 14 Nathan D. Larson | Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the Russo-Jewish Question | ISBN 3-89821-483-4

15 Guido Houben | Kulturpolitik und Ethnizität. Staatliche Kunstförderung im Russland der neunziger Jahre | Mit einem Vorwort von Gert Weisskirchen | ISBN 3-89821-542-3 16 Leonid Luks | Der russische „Sonderweg“? Aufsätze zur neuesten Geschichte Russlands im europäischen Kontext | ISBN 3-89821-496-6 17 Евгений Мороз | История «Мёртвой воды» – от страшной сказки к большой политике.

Политическое неоязычество в постсоветской России | ISBN 3-89821-551-2 18 Александр Верховский и Галина Кожевникова (peд.) | Этническая и религиозная интоле-

рантность в российских СМИ. Результаты мониторинга 2001-2004 гг. | ISBN 3-89821-569-5 19 Christian Ganzer | Sowjetisches Erbe und ukrainische Nation. Das Museum der Geschichte des

Zaporoger Kosakentums auf der Insel Chortycja | Mit einem Vorwort von Frank Golczewski | ISBN 3-89821-504-0 20 Эльза-Баир Гучинова | Помнить нельзя забыть. Антропология депортационной травмы калмыков | С предисловием Кэролайн Хамфри | ISBN 3-89821-506-7 21 Юлия Лидерман | Мотивы «проверки» и «испытания» в постсоветской культуре. Советское

прошлое в российском кинематографе 1990-х годов | С предисловием Евгения Марголита | ISBN 3-89821-511-3 22 Tanya Lokshina, Ray Thomas, Mary Mayer (Eds.) | The Imposition of a Fake Political Settle-

ment in the Northern Caucasus. The 2003 Chechen Presidential Election | ISBN 3-89821-436-2 23 Timothy McCajor Hall, Rosie Read (Eds.) | Changes in the Heart of Europe. Recent Ethnographies

of Czechs, Slovaks, Roma, and Sorbs | With an afterword by Zdeněk Salzmann | ISBN 3-89821-606-3