PHANTOM IDENTITY”: IMAGES OF UKRAINIAN-RUSSIAN “FRIENDSHIP” AND “BROTHERHOOD” IN THE CRUCIBLE OF THE SOVIET COMMUNITY
PHANTOM IDENTITY”: IMAGES OF UKRAINIAN-RUSSIAN “FRIENDSHIP” AND “BROTHERHOOD” IN THE CRUCIBLE OF THE SOVIET COMMUNITY

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the role of the images of Ukrainian-Russian "friendship" and "brotherhood" in the single Soviet identity symbol creation in the memory politics of the Ukrainian SSR in 1954-1991. Firstly, the difference between the “friendship” and “brotherhood” definitions is articulated. The Soviet politics regarding the Pereyaslav Agreement tercentenary in 1954 is explained, the parallel to the memory boom within the Russo-Ukrainian relations images reflection is led. Secondly, it is highlighted that the visual culture played one of the most important roles in the memory politics of the USSR, which is proved by the establishment of the huge number of monuments, posters, photos, marks, etc. The biggest number of visual sources was presented during the “thaw” period, which corresponded to the global Soviet initiative to celebrate the Pereyaslav Agreement 300-th anniversary. A popular depiction to show the UkrainianRussian “brotherhood” and “friendship” was the figure of the hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, which was constantly used in the historical politics going forward and became the lieu de mémoire of the Soviet narrative about Ukraine. It is suggested that during the 1960-s – 1980-s the speed of the “friendship” and “brotherhood” images implementation lowered, concentrating on quality instead of quantity of the sources. The idea about monumentalization, acquisition of allegoricality, poly-subjectivity and ambivalence of images in the visual culture of “stagnation” is proposed together with the focus of Ukrainian-Russian relations as part of the united brotherly Soviet people concept. The unconscious forgetting of the Soviet nation building policy of Soviet people during “perestroika” was noticed.

• Details
• Contents