The UPA against the AK in Monuments, Memorial Complexes, Burial Places (2005-2014)
Abstract
The paper analyzes the state policy in the sphere of historical narration formation in Ukrainian society through the creation of new memorial places, in particular, the peculiarities of the actions of the Presidential Administrations of the presidents of Ukraine V. Yushchenko and V. Yanukovych are mentioned. The local regional and national peculiarities of memorial places creation, which were expressed in the construction of monuments, memorial complexes and memorial symbols, are characterized. The genre features of the monuments, which served as the means of psychological influence on common people of the state, and were pointed out as the part of certain historical events perception and ideology formation. The main idea of the paper is the substantiation of the manipulative actions of the Presidential Administrations of the presidents of Ukraine, regional authorities and individual politicians in the creation of new memorial places related to the history of the OUN, the UPA and the AK in order to raise their own electoral rating by political and ideological orientation.
The paper also states that the monumental-memorial space, dedicated to the Ukrainian liberation movement, became meaningful at Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency. The initiator, as well as the leader in the establishment of the chronicles of the OUN and the UPA, became the western regions of Ukraine, in which the largest number of such monuments and memorials was built. The motive for the construction of memorable signs of Ukrainian-Polish military confrontation during World War II was Ukrainian-Polish reconciliation started by V. Yushchenko and initiated the creation of new memorials commemorating the victims on both sides. The analysis of the monuments dedicated to Ukrainian-Polish communication/confrontation/cooperation reflects the exceptionally tragic nature of relations between Ukrainians and Poles before and during World War II.
The findings and argument of the paper have expanded the conceptual and methodological principles of analysis of Ukrainian liberation movement image/conception theory formation in the middle of the 20th century as an integral part of national/historical memory.
