Russia's aggression against Ukraine also weaponized national heroes and symbols. Russia allegedly targets at the "Kiev Government's denazification". However, the Nazi stamp, alluding to "Banderites" as Ukrainian heroes of national freedom is a real dividing factor in Ukrainian collective memory, writes Elina Kahla.
The Moscow Patriarch's fervent blessing of violence targeted at Russia's neighbors cum coreligionists and calling them as forces of Satan has repulsed audiences. Weaponizing religion in Europe was found shocking both at home and worldwide. Over the last ten years, religion as part of the national idea has crept into (geo)politics there, where the wounds of the past have not been healed. Perhaps the memory work that in post-WWII Germany was called management of the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) and lasted for decades, has not even started yet in Ukraine or in some other post-communist countries.
The key issue is that Russia's aggression against Ukraine takes place in that territory which bears the infamous name of bloodlands. The term refers to border territories once terrorized by Hitler and Stalin. The complex legacy of terror of bloodlands involves contrasting views on history. One party's unquestioned hero is an unquestioned devil for the other.
My claim is that especially Western criticism on the Patriarch's warmongering has understandably been harsh, and Russia's lawless aggression has likewise been condemned. However, this criticism has mostly lacked horizontal view, lack of knowledge of history of that area or recognition of its contentiousness. Despite existing historiographical research little attention has been so far paid on Ukraine's difficult fragmented past and its muted cultural memory, especially the legacy of atrocities against the Jewish population. The atrocities refer to the factor of bloodlands legacy that only seldom is addressed in Ukraine.
Between 1918 and 1921 over 100,000 Jews were murdered by their neighbors, dwellers of cities, peasants as well as soldiers, who blamed the Jews for the turmoil of the Russian revolution. The path from pogroms to the holocaust was short. This memory requires recognition.
In addition, lack of memory work also leaves room for ongoing antisemitism including contemporary blood libel accusations and conspiracy theories.
My argument here is that persistent antisemitism as a factor of muted (or warped) memory should be acknowledged and worked on. As one most famous example of diversion, leader of the radical militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B Stepan Bandera divides opinions. He represents a national hero for some Ukrainian patriots, whereas some others associate him with siding with the Nazi ideology, and with mass atrocities against the Jews. In this setting, Kremlin's demonizing propaganda has a significant foothold.
The international community and civil society actors, secular as well as religious organizations and NGOs, should address the memory work. It should compose an integral part of the emancipation and reconciliatory path towards a multivocal Ukrainian national historiography. It should be seen as a component in the civil society development, as well as Ukraine's path toward European integration at large. The memory work should not be postponed.
