Memory Politics in Ukraine

Memories of the past have been central to the process of nation-state building in Ukraine.  Rather than starting anew after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians dusted off a hundred year old ethnic-nationalist history and applied it wholesale to the present.  In Memory Crash: The Politics of History in and around Ukraine 1980s-2010, historian Georgiy Kasianov argues that the consequences of the uses of the past have been disastrous.  Rather than forging strong ties to the nation across a culturally diverse population, minority populations have been ignored and even alienated.  For more on the politics of memory in Ukraine past listen to the October 1st episode of Realms of Memory.