The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

The “Bandera Debate” : The Contentious Legacy of World War II and Liberalization of Collective Memory in Western Ukraine

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

This article explores the core propositions articulated by several public actors in the so-called Bandera debate, i.e., discussions about the usable past and legacy of the wartime Ukrainian nationalist insurgency and its central symbolic figure, Stepan Bandera. In Western Ukraine, popular historical imagery as well as intellectual polemics about “Ukrainization” of World War II challenged both the Soviet myth of the Great Patriotic War and the European model of politics of regret. Correspondingly, one of the main ideas conveyed during the Bandera debate in Western Ukraine was the necessity of liberalization of the national politics of memory, i.e., the process of opening the political discourses and public debate to a circulation of diverse voices and narratives concerning the national past, a circulation unrestrained by political pressure. Generally, however, wartime events and figures continue to be presented in line with dichotomous national discourses. As the example of a chain of restaurants exploiting the theme of World War II demonstrates, one-dimensional interpretations of the contentious past suggested to the public by the actors involved in the commercialization of historical knowledge may have far-reaching, unpredictable implications. This is especially true in the post-Orange Western Ukraine where politics—including politics of memory—is increasingly determined by ultra-right forces such as VO Svoboda.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

61-83

Publication/Series

Canadian Slavonic Papers

Volume

54

Issue

3-4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Topic

  • History and Archaeology

Keywords

  • memory studies
  • Stepan Bandera
  • Western Ukraine
  • WWII
  • politics of memory

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0008-5006