The Burden of the Past: History, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary Ukraine [Paperback]

In a century marked by totalitarian regimes, genocide, mass migrations, and shifting borders, the concept of memory in Eastern Europe is often synonymous with notions of trauma. In Ukraine, memory mechanisms were disrupted by political systems seeking to repress and control the past in order to form new national identities supportive of their own agendas. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, memory in Ukraine was released, creating alternate visions of the past, new national heroes, and new victims. This release of memories led to new conflicts and memory wars.

How does the past exist in contemporary Ukraine? The works collected inThe Burden of the Pastfocus on commemorative practices, the politics of history, and the way memory influences Ukrainian politics, identity, and culture. The works explore contemporary memory culture in Ukraine and the ways in which it is being researched and understood. Drawing on work from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and political scientists, the collection represents a truly interdisciplinary approach. Taken together, the groundbreaking scholarship collected inThe Burden of the Pastprovides insight into how memories can be warped and abused, and how this abuse can have lasting effects on a country seeking to create a hopeful future.

Anna WylegaBa is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences. She is author of Displacement and Memory: Remembering and Forgetting in Ukrainian Galicia and Polish 'Recovered Lands.' MaBgorzata GBowacka-Grajper is Associate Professor at the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw. She is author ofTransmisja pamici. DziaBacze sfery pamici i przekaz o Kresach Wschodnich we wsp?Bczesnej Polsce(The transmission of memory: memory activists and narratives of former Eastern Borderlands in contemporary Poland).

Introduction / MaBgorzata GBowacka-Grajper and Anna WylegaBa

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