Memory Institutes and Diaspora: Policing Memory Regimes across Borders

• In Event: Memory Regimes: Unpacking Contemporary Nationalist Memory Politics in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe

Abstract

The passing of law projects 2538-1 and 2558-1 in 2015 criminalized “disrespect” for “fighters for Ukrainian statehood in the 20th century and propagation of communist ideology”. To a large extent, the function of these laws was prescriptive; establishing what sort of history writing is socially permitted - and what is not. To the frustration of managers of National Memory Institutes notwithstanding, memory does not neatly correlate to national borders. Research into the difficult episodes of ethnonationalist violence in the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands during World War II is making headways, increasingly by scholars beyond Poland and Ukraine. This paper examines one recent attempt to discipline the field beyond the borders of Ukraine. Specifically, it is looking at a recent campaign, by Ukrainian NGOs, GONGOs, memory, intelligence, and security agencies to shape and police the memory of the commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Roman Shukhevych beyond the borders of Ukraine.

Author

• Per Anders Rudling, Lund U (Sweden)