Erasing. The influence of the politics of memory on the Ukrainian cultural space after 2014

Abstract

This paper examines the works of Ukrainian artists who comment on the current politics of memory in Ukraine, with the main focus on the artistic work of Nikita Kadan and David Chichkan, and the phenomenon of „Leninopad” - the demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine. Since the Maidan uprising in 2013/2014 and the subsequent attacks on the sovereignty and territory of Ukraine by Russia and the so called “pro-Russian separatists”, there has been intense debate on how to interpret not only Ukraine’s dramatic present, but also its complex and difficult past. The mechanism of forgetting about the Soviet past turned out to be particularly strong in Ukraine - forgetting by destroying, erasing, removing all physical remnants of the former system. The war for memory is taking place today with the destruction of Soviet monuments and other remnants of the soviet history. The practice of ideological correctness is continued through the amputation of „unwanted” elements. It is not possible to have a private memory of the history of the nation, it is always a memory imposed and constructed by people who have power. In Ukraine the future is to be built on the certain image of the past.