Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair

Performing History
Public Commemoration of World War II in the Context of the Russo-Ukrainian War

German; 318 pages; 14.8 × 22.5 cm; 30 black-and-white illustrations.

Original title: Geschichte performen. Öffentliches Gedenken an den Zweiten Weltkrieg im Zeichen des russisch–ukrainischen Krieges.
Bielefeld: transcript, October 2024
https://www.transcript-verlag.de

Ritualized commemorations, spontaneous demonstrations, and political actions. This book examines public assemblies that took place in the urban space of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and that recalled World War II against the backdrop of the Russo-Ukrainian War. As condensed forms of communication, these events reflect how various populations and interest groups negotiate Ukraine’s complex history. By examining specific situations, moods, and representations, it offers insights into contemporary Ukrainian identities rooted in the idea of a shared past. Beyond analyzing the local context, the author identifies two models established during the post-war period by opposing political systems to address the extreme violence of World War II, and explores how these divergent interpretive approaches continue to influence the present.

 During the post-Soviet transition in Ukraine, references to the historical past were essential to shaping both national identity and political discourse. The re-evaluation of World War II has emerged as the most central and challenging topic, not only in academic research but also in public discussions. Events and individuals previously excluded from the Soviet master narrative about the war, especially those associated with Ukrainian national movements such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), have become important subjects in historical politics. For many, the perception of the Soviet period has changed from that of a liberation to an occupation. Yet, there were also those who have resisted accepting this view of the past. The symbolic struggle over historical narratives escalated during the Orange Revolution in 2006, reaching its peak with the beginning of the Russo–Ukrainian War in 2014, and it continues to echo in the present.

This book engages with public assemblies dedicated to remembering the past, which are then considered as a form of social interaction and communication. Analyzing them offers a new perspective on understanding how society deals with its history. These collective practices are both ritualized commemorative events held annually on dates of historical or symbolic significance, as well as spontaneous political actions or demonstrations. The significance of these gatherings is by no means exclusive to their declared goals and cannot be reduced to the function of mourning. On the one hand, they are a medium through which governments convey normative historical views to their citizens. On the other, they enable various population groups to express their political and social demands by appealing to historical justice. Furthermore, these collective practices do not solely refer to a historical event to be remembered but are placed in an ongoing dialogue with the ceremony’s previous iterations. In any case, as these events occur in the present, they also reflect—perhaps even more forcefully—the current situation. In the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War, they reveal how the perception of World War II correlates with contemporary experiences of violence.

This book focuses on Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that has historically been a center of Ukrainian nationalism and maintains a strong national identity. While Ukraine’s regional diversity means that developments in the West cannot be seen as representative of the entire country, the city occupies a unique and significant position in Ukrainian historical myth-making and nation-building. The Lviv’s identity’ cannot, however, be reduced solely to its Ukrainian-national past and present. It is a place where—due to its manifold history—various historical narratives existed and still interact. Historically, the former multicultural metropolis has been part of various state entities, including the Habsburg Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Soviet Union, yet it has consistently occupied a peripheral geographical position. Currently, Lviv lies approximately 60 kilometers from the Polish border, making it the westernmost major city in contemporary Ukraine.

While monuments and museums remain largely static and can therefore be analyzed through their genesis, appearance, and impacts, the study of commemorations demands a special methodology. First, their annual proceedings are by no means fixed and vary from year to year. Despite these collective practices following an established pattern or adhering to a certain (not always written) script, occurring in public spaces, and involving various actors—organizers, participants, but also random passers-by—they are characterized by their open-ended nature. At the same time, simple mechanisms of cause and effect (such as bad weather or overlapping commitments) can influence final outcomes and should not lead to heavy political overinterpretations. Most of the empirical data collected for this book was gathered in situ through participant observation, a method that allowed the distinctive atmosphere and emotional dimensions of these events to be captured. In addition, interviews were conducted with representatives of institutions or associations who were involved with organizing the commemorative events. Furthermore, numerous press articles recounting the events were assessed. Between August 2015 and April 2017, field research was carried out in collaboration with the historian Alexandra Wachter within the framework of the project “Lwiw. Kriegsmuseum.” Analysis focused on both the content of speeches at, and the performative elements within, these ceremonies. The interpretation of the events follows an interdisciplinary approach that is grounded in a pictorial science and media-studies research perspective. The main theoretical framework references Jan Assmann’s concept of communicative and cultural memory, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, Michael Rothberg’s model of multidirectional memory, Georgiy Kasianov’s understanding of Ukrainian historical politics after 1991 as a struggle between Soviet-nostalgic and Ukrainian national/nationalistic narratives, and Tatiana Voronina’s findings on the correlation between Soviet history writing and the literary canon of Socialist Realism. The original text was written as a dissertation at the Academy of Fine Arts between the summer of 2016 and autumn of 2021. During its revision for publication in 2024, incorporating developments from the past two years was neither feasible nor intended. Nevertheless, the text was adapted to reflect the country’s changing realities.

During the field research, more than thirty events organized by various, yet opposing communities, were attended by the author. Some of these public manifestations were conducted by governmental structures at both the state and municipal level. Others were carried out by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other associations. The major tensions were between those communities who represented national/nationalistic views on Ukraine’s history and those who tended toward contemporary Russian historical discourse. Yet other national and religious minorities—Polish and Jewish—also assembled in the city to express their claims on the local past. The analysis of commemorative events dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims, along with an emphasis on whether they were mentioned or omitted during gatherings organized by other groups, enables the placement of a contemporary culture of memory in Ukraine within a broader European context. In this light, the purported division between the (pro-Russian) East and the (pro-Ukrainian) West of the country appears less crucial than the distinction between the Western canon of memory and its post-Soviet counterpart, both of which impact the contemporary understanding of the past in Ukraine. While the Holocaust plays a central role as a negative founding myth in the former, World War II, viewed primarily through a military dimension, remains a major event in the formation of contemporary identities for the latter. Rather than perpetrator–victim constellations—which shape the “Western” discourse on the Holocaust as well as other conflicts and genocides—post-Soviet historiography is based on the antagonism between hero and enemy. Instead of the passive figure of the witness or the opportunistic collaborator, the revered figure of the fighter or martyr emerges. Ukraine’s efforts to integrate itself into the European Union, however, demand the inclusion of the history of the Holocaust in the national history. Yet, one of the main difficulties of this plan lies in reconciling remembering victims of the Holocaust with the positive image of the glorified “liberation struggle” as well as coming to terms with the local population’s involvement in the killing of Jews.

The book consists of six chapters. The opening chapter, along with a clarification of the study’s theoretical framework, emphasizes the ongoing divergences between the “former East” and the “former West,” as well as the significance of the Holocaust in post-Soviet public discourse as mentioned above. In addition, it provides an overview of the dynamics of Ukrainian historical politics after 1991 and places them in an international context. Chapter II introduces the history of Lviv, its urban development, and architecture and contextualizes specific sites of assembly. The city itself is framed as a locus that enables various communities to project their interpretations of the past. Chapter III focuses on two commemorative dates marking the end of World War II in Europe: the “Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation” on May 8 and “Victory Day” on May 9. While “Victory Day” was a major political holiday in the Soviet calendar, May 8 only began to be celebrated in Ukraine in 2014 following the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War with the intention of distancing the county from Russian/Soviet commemorative traditions and instead align itself with the European memory canon. Chapter IV addresses the remembrance of the two main ethnic and religious minorities of Lviv, the Polish and Jewish communities. Through the comparative analysis of specific commemorative practices and the actors responsible for their execution, the book posits a recent rupture in the city’s memory culture. This shift, which has occurred over the past fifteen years, reflects the transition of the commemorated events from communicative to cultural memory. Chapter V examines activities surrounding one of the region’s most prominent war memorials, the “Monument of Glory,” erected in 1970 and dismantled in 2021. The collective actions introduced in this chapter were conducted by two opposing groups—proponents of the Soviet historical narrative and their adversaries—and served stronger political rather than commemorative purposes. The final chapter investigates gatherings that affirmed a national/nationalist historical narrative in the urban space of Lviv, ostensibly promoting unified political demands for national purification. Upon closer examination, however, it is revealed that these groups were heterogeneous and that they pursued different objectives through their commemorative events and actions.

Collectively, these events provide a multifaceted portrait of a pluralistic society in the process of transformation. By immersing readers in specific situations, sentiments, and contexts, the book offers insights into Ukraine’s complex history and demonstrates how it is negotiated by people on the ground. Its innovative approach captures the reality of the Ukrainian situation and provides new, often unexpected, insights.