“Capital of Despair”

Abstract

The Great Famine of 1932—33, known in Ukraine as the Holodomor and silenced for decades by the Soviet regime, holds a special place in national memory. It was after the Orange Revolution that the Holodomor became the core of a new identity politics, which conceptualized the Ukrainian nation as a “postgenocide” community, a collective victim of the Communist regime. But the official interpretation of the Famine as a genocide met ambivalent responses in the regions. While formally complying with the official political line, the regional political elites in Eastern and Southern Ukraine often refused to accept the official interpretation of history and sabotaged orders coming from Kyiv. The present article focuses on the official commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Holodomor in Kharkiv, the former capital of Soviet Ukraine and epicenter of the famine. The “memory wars” in Kharkiv during 2006 to 2009 have revealed more than just tensions between the center promoting a new national identity and a reluctant “Sovietized” region adhering to its political mentality and commemorative culture. In fact, the official narrative of the Holodomor as a genocide and the corresponding memory regime have been contested, renegotiated, and modified on the regional level, through the conflicts and the bargaining of the local political actors. The borderland identity of Kharkiv, its geographic proximity to Russia, added an international dimension to the local memory wars as the Holodomor issue became a stumbling block in Ukrainian-Russian relations.

Politics of the Russian Language Beyond Russia

“…Yushchenko's presidency and the political struggles after the Orange Revolution shaped the context in which language and identity politics were fought out. Ukraine's president attempted to conceive of a more specific and coordinated policy of historical memory, and the commemoration of the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian nation quickly moved to centre stage (Zhurzhenko 2011). In 2006, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance was created, following the Polish model.…”

A Struggle for Genocide Recognition: How the Aramean, Assyrian, and Chaldean Diasporas Link Past and Present

“…The official Ukrainian narrative of the Holodomor as a genocide and the corresponding memory regime in Ukraine have been contested, renegotiated, and modified at the regional level, reflecting impulses from Russian majorities in some parts of the country. Geographic proximity added an international dimension, as the Holodomor issue became a stumbling block in Ukrainian-Russian relations (Zhurzhenko 2011). Russian scholars deny the famine was limited to Ukraine, and Ukrainian scholars claim the opposite.…”

Identity and Geopolitics: Ukraine's Grappling With Imperial Legacies

“…153 The perception of the Great Famine is influenced by regional differences; 154 areas worst hit by the famine appear least inclined to see criminal intent behind it. 155 After all, the famine was a highly effective Sovietization method.…”