POSTCOLONIALISM AND IDENTITY: THE IMPACT OF SOVIET PAST TO THE FORMATION OF CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN NATION
Abstract
The article deals with the term «postcolonialism» and its Ukrainian dimension. Definition «postcolonialism» is wide spread in western scientific terminology. But in Ukrainian research sphere it is used seldom. The author explains the meaning of phenomenon colonialism and postcolonialism and defines the borders of soviet colonial policy in Ukraine. The impact of soviet past to the national identity is reviewed in the article. The author highlights the public spheres in Ukraine, where the colonial factor had the greatest influence. The collapse of old regime and the emergence of new state were perceived ambiguously by Ukrainian society. As a result, there was a phenomenon of identity’s crisis. It was inherent for Ukrainian society during first postcolonial decade, the period of public transformation. The identity crisis also had an impact to contemporary nation building. The author determines the area of historical policy that are problematic in Ukrainian society. The specialty of pursuing policy by Ukrainian presidents is analyzed it’s strategy of representation of soviet past is described. The author compares rhetoric of presidents L .Kuchma, V. Yushchenko and V. Yanukovych. They represented different variants of Ukrainian soviet past: both inclusive and exclusive. The problems of historical policy today are characterized, especially the meaning of de-communization laws. The process of Lenin falling is mentioned. Also the author defines the spheres of language and culture as they represent the specialty of soviet colonial impact to Ukrainian consciousness. The colonial soviet politics in culture sphere created the phenomenon of unnecessary of Ukrainian language, the culture developed by Russian influence. The author shows data of poll, hold in 2016. The results of polls demonstrate that young generation do not fill strong connection with soviet past. Most of them do not want to live in a state like USSR. As conclusion the author argues, our society needs to create its own mechanism of adequate perception of soviet past, but also use a positive experience of Baltic region or central European countries.
Keywords: postcolonialism, identity, Ukrainian nation, Ukraine, USSR.
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References
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