SOVIET MYTHMAKING IN THE STALIN ERA: CONSTRUCTING THE MYTH OF “THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE’S REUNIFICATION”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058X.28.287542Abstract
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.
Key words: mythmaking, Soviet ideology, Ukraine, Stalinism.
References
Abramov, A., & Venskii, K. (1940). Zapadnaia Ukraina i Zapadnaia Belorussiia: istoricheskii ocherk [Western Ukraine and Western Belarus: a historical essay]. Leningrad: Lenizdat. [in Russian]
Archard, D. (1995). Myths, Lies and Historical Truth: A Defence of Nationalism. Political Studies, 43(3), 472–481. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1995.tb00315.x [in English]
Babaiev, B. (1939). Zakhidna Ukraina yak kolyshnia koloniia panskoi Polshchi [Western Ukraine as a former colony of pan’s Poland]. Visti Akademii nauk URSR [Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR], 6–7, 49–57. [in Ukrainian]
Barner-Barry, C., & Hody, C. (1994). Soviet Marxism-Leninism as Mythology. Political Psychology, 15(4), 609–630. doi: 10.2307/3791623 [in English]
Bazhan, M. (1945, July 1). Nasha spokonvichna zemlia [Our primordial land]. Radianska Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 3. [in Ukrainian]
Bell, D. S. A. (2003). Mythscapes: Memory, mythology, and national identity. British Journal of Sociology, 54(1), 63–81. doi: 10.1080/0007131032000045905 [in English]
Bielousov, S. M. (1940). Rozpad polskoi derzhavy i z’iednannia velykoho ukrainskoho narodu v yedynii ukrainskii derzhavi – URSR [The collapse of the Polish state and the unification of the great Ukrainian people within a single Ukrainian state – the Ukrainian SSR]. In S. M. Bielousov & O. P. Ohloblin (Eds.), Zakhidna Ukraina [Western Ukraine], (pp. 97–111). Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii nauk URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Bielousov, S. M., Huslystyi, K. H., Ohloblin, O. P., Petrovskyi, M. N., Suprunenko, M. I., & Yastrebov, F. O. (Eds.). (1940). Istoriia Ukrainy: korotkyi kurs [History of Ukraine: a short course]. Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii nauk URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Bielousov, S. M. (1951). Vozz’iednannia ukrainskoho narodu v yedynii Ukrainskii Radianskii derzhavi [The Ukrainian people’s reunification within the single Ukrainian Soviet state]. Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii nauk Ukrainskoi RSR. [in Ukrainian]
Bottici, C. (2007). A Philosophy of Political Myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511498626 [in English]
Bouchard, G. (2017). Social Myths and Collective Imaginaries (H. Scott, Trans.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi: 10.3138/9781442625730 [in English]
Brandenberger, D. (2002). National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture and the Formation of Modem Russian National Identity, 1931 – 1956. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press. [in English]
Brunstedt, J. (2021). The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR. Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108595773 [in English]
Cassirer, E. (1946). The Myth of the State. New Haven: Yale University Press. [in English]
Corney, F. C. (2004). Telling October: Memory and the Making of the Bolshevik Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. [in English]
Danyliuk, D. D., & Mishchanyn, V. V. (2013). Vozz’iednannia Zakarpattia z Ukrainskoiu RSR v otsintsi vitchyznianoi istoriohrafii (1945 – 2013) [Reunion of Transcarpathia with Ukrainian SSR in evaluation of the blighty historiography (1945 – 2013)]. Naukovyi visnyk Uzhhorodskoho universytetu: Seriia: Istoriia [Scientific Herald of Uzhhorod University Series History], 2(31), 167–177. [in Ukrainian]
Datskiv, I., & Kapitan, L. (2022). Liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1946: Ideological and Propagandistic Component. Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal [Ukrainian Historical Journal], 2, 119–127. doi: 10.15407/uhj2022.02.119 [in English]
David, K. (2018). Galician Catholics into Soviet Orthodox: religion and postwar Ukraine. Nationalities Papers, 46(2), 290–300. doi: 10.1080/00905992.2017.1295928 [in English]
Flood, C. G. (2002). Political myth: A Theoretical Introduction. London and New York: Routledge. [in English]
Gentile, E. (2006). Politics as Religion (G. Staunton, Trans.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. [in English]
Gildea, R. (2002). Myth, memory and policy in France since 1945. In J. W. Müller (Ed.), Memory and Power in Post-War Europe, (pp. 59–75). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511491580.003 [in English]
Gill, G. (2011). Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511791437 [in English]
Grekov, B. D. (1939). Drevneishye sudby Zapadnoi Ukrainy [Ancient destinies of Western Ukraine]. Novyi mir. Literaturno-khudozhestvennyi i obshchestvenno-politicheskii zhurnal [New world. Literary-artistic and socio-political journal], 10–11, 248–256. [in Russian]
Gross, J. T. (2002). Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland’s Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia (expanded ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. [in English]
Heller, M. (1988). Cogs in the Soviet Wheel: the Formation of Soviet Man (D. Floyd, Trans.). London: Collins Harvill. [in English].
Hensorskyi, A. I., & Tur’ian, V. P. (Comps.) (1940). Do 1-oi richnytsi vyzvolennia Zakhidnoi Ukrainy vid hnitu panskoi Polshchi: bibliohrafichnyi pokazhchyk [To the 1st anniversary of Western Ukraine’s liberation from the oppression of pan’s Poland: bibliographic guide]. Lviv: Drukarnia Akademii nauk URSR. [in Ukrainian].
Hrynevych, V. A., Danylenko, V. M., Kulchytskyi, S. V., & Lysenko, O. Ye. (2004). Ukraina i Rosiia v istorychnii retrospektyvi: Narysy v 3-kh tomakh. Radianskyi proekt dlia Ukrainy [Ukraine and Russia in historical retrospect: Essays in 3 volumes. Soviet project for Ukraine] (V. M. Lytvyn, I. M. Dziuba, Ya. D. Isaievych, O. S. Onyshchenko, V. A. Smolii, S. V. Kulchytskyi (eds.); Vol. 2). Kyiv: Naukova dumka. [in Ukrainian]
Humeniuk, T. I. (2004). Problema “vozz’iednannia” Zakhidnoi Ukrainy z Ukrainskoiu RSR u suchasnii istoriohrafii [The problem of “reunification” of Western Ukraine with the Ukrainian SSR in contemporary historiography]. Istoriia Ukrainy: malovidomi imena, podii, fakty [History of Ukraine: little-known names, events, facts], 26, 41–53. [in Ukrainian]
Khrushchov, M. S. (1944, March 6). Vyzvolennia ukrainskykh zemel vid nimetskykh zaharbnykiv i cherhovi zavdannia vidbudovy narodnoho hospodarstva Radianskoi Ukrainy [The liberation of Ukrainian lands from the German invaders and the next task of rebuilding the Soviet Ukraine’s national economy]. Radianska Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 1–3. [in Ukrainian]
Khrushchov, M. S. (1945, July 1). Pro ukladannia Dohovoru mizh uriadamy Radianskoho Soiuzu i Chekhoslovatskoi Respubliky pro Zakarpatsku Ukrainu [On the conclusion of the Treaty between the governments of the Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Republic on Transcarpathian Ukraine]. Radianska Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 1. [in Ukrainian]
Khrushchov, M. S. (1950). Desiatyrichchia vozz’iednannia ukrainskoho narodu v yedynii Ukrainskii Radianskii derzhavi. Dopovid na shostii yuvileinii sesii Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainskoi RSR 29 zhovtnia 1949 roku [The tenth anniversary of the Ukrainian people’s reunification within the single Ukrainian Soviet state. Report at the sixth anniversary session of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR on October 29, 1949]. In Vsenarodne sviato. Materialy i dokumenty pro sviatkuvannia desiatyrichchia vozz’iednannia ukrainskoho narodu v yedynii Ukrainskii Radianskii derzhavi [All-people holiday. Materials and documents about the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Ukrainian people’s reunification within the single Ukrainian Soviet state], (pp. 51–84). Kyiv: Derzhavne vydavnytstvo politychnoi literatury URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Kulchytskyi, S. V. (2009). Koly i yak vidbulosia vozz’iednannia Zakhidnoi Ukrainy z URSR [When and how was the reunification of Western Ukraine with the Ukrainian SSR]. Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal [Ukrainian Historical Journal], 5, 121–139. [in Ukrainian]
Mandryk-Melnychuk, M., & Kotsur, H. (2020). Propaganda as a Component of the Processes of Sovietization of the Territories of Northern Bukovyna and Bessarabia (1944 – 1947). Skhidnoievropeiskyi Istorychnyi Visnyk [East European Historical Bulletin], 16, 218–228. doi: 10.24919/2519-058x.16.210891 [in English]
Manifest Pershoho z’izdu Narodnykh Komitetiv Zakarpatskoi Ukrainy pro vozz’iednannia Zakarpatskoi Ukrainy z Radianskoiu Ukrainoiu [Manifest of the First Congress of Transcarpathian Ukraine People’s Committees on the Reunification of Transcarpathian Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine] (1944, December 23). Radianska Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 2. [in Ukrainian]
Medvedenko, H., & Starovoitenko, I. (1940). Besarabiia i Pivnichna Bukovyna (Istoryko-heohrafichnyi narys) [Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (The Historical-Geographical Essay)]. Komunistychna osvita [Communist Education], 8, 24–36. [in Ukrainian]
Mishchanyn, V. (2018). Radianizatsiia Zakarpattia 1944 – 1950 rr.: Monohrafiia [Sovietization of Zakarpattia in 1944 – 1950: Monograph]. Uzhhorod: RIK-U. [in Ukrainian]
Molotov, V. M. (1939). Promova po radio Holovy Rady Narodnykh Komisariv SRSR tov. V. M. Molotova 17 veresnia 1939 roku [Radio address by the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR Comrade V. M. Molotov on September 17, 1939]. Visti Akademii nauk URSR [Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR], 6–7, 5–6. [in Ukrainian]
Nemchynov, I. (2017). Radianskyi «mif zasnuvannia»: zmina vikh u 1930-kh rokakh [Soviet Founding Myth: Change of milestones in the 1930’s]. Sententiae, 36(1), 83–92. doi:10.22240/SENT36.01.083 [in Ukrainian]
Ohloblin, O. P. (1940). Zakhidna Ukraina (istorychnyi narys) [Western Ukraine (historical essay)]. In Bielousov, S. M., & Ohloblin, O. P. (Eds.), Zakhidna Ukraina [Western Ukraine], (pp. 9–31). Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii nauk URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Petrovskii, N. N. (1944). Vossoedinenie ukrainskogo naroda v edinom ukrainskom sovetskom gosudarstve [The reunification of the Ukrainian people within a single Ukrainian Soviet state]. Moskva: OGIZ – Gospolitizdat. [in Russian]
Petrovskyi, M. N. (1939). Zakhidna Ukraina u vyzvolnii viini proty shliakhetskoi Polshchi v 1648–1654 rr. [Western Ukraine in the liberation war against szlachta’s Poland in 1648–1654]. Za bilshovytsku propahandu ta ahitatsiiu [For Bolshevik propaganda and agitation], 21, 13–21. [in Ukrainian]
Petrovskyi, M. (1944, December 22). Zakarpatska Ukraina (istorychna dovidka) [Transcarpathian Ukraine (historical reference)]. Radianska Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 3. [in Ukrainian]
Picheta, V. I. (1939). Zapadnaia Ukraina i Zapadnaia Belorussiia [Western Ukraine and Western Belarus]. Sovetskaia nauka [Soviet science], 12, 155–170. [in Russian]
Picheta, V. I. (1940). Osnovnye momenty istoricheskogo razvitiia Zapadnoi Ukrainy i Zapadnoi Belorussii [The main points of the historical development of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus]. Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe sotsialno-ekonomicheskoe izdatelstvo. [in Russian]
Samokhin, A. (1940, September 18). Zakladka pamiatnika V. I. Leninu v g. Lvove. 200-tysiachnyi miting trudiashchikhsia [The laying of the monument to V. I. Lenin in Lvov. 200,000 workers’ rally]. Sovetskaia Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 1. [in Russian]
Schöpflin, G. (1997). The Functions of Myth and a Taxonomy of Myths. In G. Hosking & G. Schöpflin (Eds.), Myths and Nationhood (pp. 19–35). New York: Routledge. [in English]
Semernin, P. (1939). Istoricheskie sudby Zapadnoi Ukrainy i Zapadnoi Belorussii [Historical destinies of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus]. In Zapadnaia Ukraina i Zapadnaia Belorussiia. Sbornik materialov [Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. Collection of materials] (pp. 37–53). Rostov na Donu: Rostizdat. [in Russian]
Shatska, B. (2011). Mynule – pam’iat – mit [Past – memory – myth]: per. z pol. (O. Herasym, Trans., A. Pavlyshyn, Ed.). Chernivtsi: Knyhy–ХХІ. [in Ukrainian].
Smith, A. D. (1999). Myths and Memories of the Nation. New York: Oxford University Press. [in English]
Snyder, T. (2002). Memory of Sovereignty and Sovereignty over Memory: Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine, 1939 – 1999. In J.-W. Müller (Ed.), Memory and Power in Post-War Europe, (pp. 39–58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511491580.002 [in English]
Stråth, B. (2005). Methodological and Substantive Remarks on Myth, Memory and History in the Construction of a European Community. German Law Journal, 6(2), 255–271. doi: 10.1017/S2071832200013626 [in English]
Sukhopalko, O. (Ed.). (1940). Borotba ukrainskoho narodu proty panskoi Polshchi [The struggle of the Ukrainian people against pan’s Poland]. Kyiv: Derzhavne vydavnytstvo politychnoi literatury pry RNK URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Sviličić, N., & Maldini, P. (2014). Political Myths and Totalitarianism: an Anthropological Analysis of Their Causal Interrelationship. Collegium Antropologicum, 38(2), 725–738. [in English]
Teumin, E. (Ed.). (1940). Sovetskaia Bessarabiia i Sovetskaia Bukovina [Soviet Bessarabia and Soviet Bukovina]. Moskva: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politicheskoi literatury. [in Russian]
Tezy. (1954, January 13). Tezy pro 300-richchia vozz’iednannia Ukrainy z Rosiieiu (1654 – 1954 rr.) [Theses on the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia (1654 – 1954)]. (1954, January 13). Prydunaiska Pravda [Danube Truth], 2–3. [in Ukrainian]
Tillett, L. (1969). The Great Friendship: Soviet Historians on the Non-Russian Nationalities. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [in English]
Tymoshenko, S. (1940). Do viisk ukrainskoho frontu [To the troops of the Ukrainian front]. In S. M. Bielousov & O. P. Ohloblin (red.), Zakhidna Ukraina [Western Ukraine], (pp. 114–115). Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii nauk URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Voblyi, K., Huslystyi, K., Diadychenko, V., Los, F., Petrovskyi, M., Slavin, L., Suprunenko, M., & Sherstiuk, F. (1942). Narys istorii Ukrainy [Essay on the history of Ukraine]. Ufa. [in Ukrainian]
Voblyi, K., & Stetsiuk, K. (1944, August 8). Zakarpatska Ukraina [Transcarpathian Ukraine]. Radianska Ukraina [Soviet Ukraine], 2. [in Ukrainian]
Weiner, A. (2001). Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [in English]
Wydra, H. (2008). Introduction: Democracy in Eastern Europe – Myth and Reality. In A. Wöll & H. Wydra (Eds.), Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe, (pp. 1–24). New York: Routledge. [in English]
Yaroslavskii, E. (1939). Komu my idem na pomoshch [Who are we going to help]. In Zapadnaia Ukraina i Zapadnaia Belorussiia. Sbornik materialov [Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. Collection of materials], (pp. 23–31). Rostov na Donu: Rostizdat. [in Russian]
Yekelchyk, S. (2004). Stalin’s Empire of Memory: Russian-Ukrainian Relations in the Soviet Historical Imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi: 10.1086/ahr.110.4.1285 [in English]
Yekelchyk, S. (2014). Stalin’s Citizens: Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War. New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199378449.001.0001 [in English]
Yusova, N. (2004). Vozz’iednannia ukrainskykh zemel i aktualizatsiia problem pokhodzhennia ukrainskoi narodnosti v ukrainskii radianskii istoriohrafii: 1939 – 1947 rr. (V svitli novykh arkhivnykh dzherel) [Reunion of the Ukrainian lands and actualization of problem of origin of Ukrainian people in the Soviet historiography: 1939 – 1947 (In the light of new sources)]. Spetsialni istorychni dystsypliny: pytannia teorii ta metodyky [Special historical disciplines: issues of theory and methodology], 11, 174–208. [in Ukrainian]
Zakon. (1939). Zakon pro pryiniattia Zakhidnoi Ukrainy do skladu Ukrainskoi Radianskoi Sotsialistychnoi Respubliky [The Law on the Admission of Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic] (1939). In S. M. Bielousov & O. P. Ohloblin (Eds.), Zakhidna Ukraina [Western Ukraine], (p. 130). Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Akademii nauk URSR. [in Ukrainian]
Zhurzhenko, T. (2013). From the “Reunification of the Ukrainian Lands” to “Soviet Occupation”: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in the Ukrainian Political Memory. In C. Karner & B. Mertens (Eds.), The Use and Abuse of Memory: Interpreting World War II in Contemporary European Politics, (pp. 229–247). New York: Transaction Publishers. [in English]
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
