ABSTRACT
The Ukrainian crisis has caused an ongoing political confrontation between Russia and Ukraine since 2013. It has been marked by a rhetoric drawing on differently interpreted memories of World War II, the Holodomor and the Holocaust. The rhetoric of “genocide” has become a common denominator in the confrontation over the Ukrainian East and the Crimea. Following Russia’s aggression vis-à-vis Ukraine since 2014, Russian and pro-Russian Ukranian voices from politics and the media have accused Ukraine of genocide, which aimed to demonize the perceived enemy, mobilize internal support and gain interpretative authority over events. Ukraine has responded by intensifying its historical discourse of genocide, framing Putin’s policies as a direct successor to Stalin’s policies of destroying Ukraine. The present article analyses the nature of the rhetoric of the Holodomor, the Holocaust, and of genocide more generally, in the present Ukrainian conflict. It also examines the relationship of this rhetoric with the respective discourses of memory in Ukraine and to lesser extent in Russia. The discussion demonstrates how emphatically the traumas of the past reverberate in this post-Soviet conflict, and suggests that such historical resonance may have to do with the proclivity of both Russia and Ukraine to avoid their historical responsibilities.
