Politics of Memory in Post-Soviet-Borderlands

The research project addresses cultures and politics of memory in the Ukrainians-Russian and Ukrainians-Polish borderlands as an integral part of post-Soviet nation-building and transition to democracy. By focusing on borderland territories it transcends the national cultures of remembrance and places the research problem in the context of the ongoing debate on memory and European identity after the end of the Cold War. The project explores the territorial aspect of collective memory and national identity, and it looks at how national myths and narratives "make sense" of territories and places. Combining two innovative approaches in social sciences - memory studies and border studies - the project conceives borderlands not as marginal places but as central sites of power where the meanings of national narratives and identities are often created, contested and transformed. Borderlands are zones where neighbouring national cultures of remembrance come into intensive contact and often into conflict, where they negotiate and borrow from each other. Research is focused on three border sites, which represent different historical and geo-political contexts: Kharkiv (Ukraine) / Belgorod (Russia), Lviv (Ukraine) / Przemysl (Poland) and Sevastopol (Ukraine). Based on a typology of borderland territories (integrated, interdependent, contested, alienated) the project tries to show how the borderlands and their commemorative landscapes are (re-)narrated and how the new national identities are (re)territorialized. The project will be based on qualitative research methods: a) on textual and visual analysis of archival materials, official documents and political speeches, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, TV programs, and internet sites, tourist brochures, etc.; b) on observation of cultural and commemorative events, c) on an analysis of representations created by museums and memorial sites, and d) on in-depth and semi-structured interviews with politicians and officials as well as with representatives of the local political elites, religious denominations, cultural associations and civil society initiatives.