Soviet mythmaking in the stalin era: constructing the myth of "the ukrainian people's reunification"

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the process of constructing the myth of the “Ukrainian people’s reunification” during the Stalinist period, its position and role in the Soviet mythology’s system, and its influence on the historical memory of the annexed Ukrainian territories’ community. The Methodology of the Research. In the article there have been used contemporary methodological approaches that consider myth in interconnection with political ideology. They emphasize the role of myths, which are constructed narratives that convey particular meanings, values, and ideals of the community’s consolidation and mobilization and the formation of identity and collective memory. Historical genetic, historical systemic, and historical comparative methods, as well as methods of historiographical analysis and critical discourse analysis, were the methodological basis of the research. The scientific novelty of the article is that the authors, for the first time, consider the idea of the “Ukrainian people’s reunification” as the Soviet myth, which formed a ground for the Soviet version of the annexed Ukrainian territories’ historical past. The Conclusion. The annexation of new Ukrainian territories in 1939 – 1940 required the Soviet regime’s legitimation. The constructed Soviet myth confirmed the historical right to these lands and interpreted the Soviet military campaigns as a mission to liberate oppressed peoples who wanted the reunification with Soviet Ukraine. During the Soviet-German war, the myth was based on the idea of the “Ukrainian people’s reunification”, which the Soviet ideologists considered an alternative to the concept of “a united and independent Ukraine”. The myth was intended to make the Ukrainians believe in the possibility of their being united only within the Soviet Union and under the patronage of the Russian people. Together with the legitimization function, the myth had identification, consolidation, and mobilization functions and was used as a tool of struggle against the Ukrainian liberation movement and the Uniate Church. In 1949 the large-scale myth’s ritualization indicated its final entrenchment in the Soviet mythological system.