Monuments and factories: Rethinking the Soviet past in wartime East Ukraine

纪念碑和工厂：重新思考战时东乌克兰的苏联过去

• 批准号: ES/X006182/1
• 负责人: Anna Balazs
• 金额: $ 12万
• 依托单位: University of St Andrews
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX006182%2F1
• 关键词: Monuments; factories; Rethinking; Soviet; past

Ukraine has been at the centre of geopolitical conflict since 2014. The emergence of the 'Euromaidan' social movement and the military conflict in the Eastern regions reiterated some of the key questions that surrounded the creation of independent Ukraine in 1991: How to address the symbolic, infrastructural and economic legacies of the Soviet past in Ukraine when Russia is implementing a military offensive in the Eastern part of the country? How do regional differences within Ukraine factor in the evolution of local political attitudes and forms of social mobilization? And finally, what are the potential directions of future development for Ukraine and how do citizens navigate these complicated political landscapes? These questions gained more pressing importance with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in early 2022. Using the ethnographic data collected for my PhD between 2015 and 2018, the aim of my work during the Fellowship is to show how lived experiences of geopolitical conflict shaped a sense of belonging and anticipations of the future in East Ukraine in the interim period between the start of the Donbas war in 2014 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Through a case study of urban transformation in Mariupol, a former centre of the Soviet steel industry that was temporarily occupied by Russian-backed separatists in the spring of 2014, my PhD explored how different categories of residents re-evaluate their relationship to a shared Soviet past and its spatial and environmental legacies as a result of geopolitical conflict and immediate experiences of military violence. In the thesis I argued that despite the significant cultural, linguistic and kinship ties with Russia, the first-hand experience of military aggression prompted my interlocutors to gradually distance themselves from the 'Russian Other' and articulate their belonging to a Ukrainian political nation associated with ideas of freedom and open-ended visions of the future. My findings also demonstrated that the changing economic significance of local steel industry was just as defining for the way people related to Soviet urban legacies in Mariupol as the military conflict. With the start of full-scale war in 2022, the gradual shifts taking place in Ukrainian society since 2014 have experienced rapid and radical crystallization in many cases. My research on Soviet urban legacies means that I am well-placed to develop vital longue durée perspectives on the current crisis, examining how binaries between 'Russia' and 'Europe' over-simplify complex Ukrainian histories, as well as how the longer evolution of urban practices and materialities inflect social allegiances and ideas about the future.To disseminate my findings within and beyond the academic community, I will produce a monograph to be submitted to the Berghahn Books series 'Dislocations'. Titled In-Between Futures: Urban transformation and life projects in Mariupol before the Russian war, the book will contribute to academic discussions on postsocialist transformation, environmentalism, memory studies and urban planning, and will be written in a style accessible not only for academics but also the wider general public. Besides the monograph and media appearances, the Fellowship will allow me to extend the impact of my research among Ukrainian and UK-based cultural professionals and civil society members through a joint workshop where professionals from the two countries can develop new ideas and collaborations on the subject of memory, heritage and rebuilding. Finally, throughout the duration of the Fellowship, I will apply for new funding to conduct new research on the reconstruction of Ukraine after the Russian war. My expertise on Mariupol and its contested urban legacies makes me ideally positioned to follow this process from its starting point and contribute to the understanding of conceptual and practical ways in which the future of Ukraine is at stake.

自 2014 年以来，乌克兰一直处于地缘政治冲突的中心。“亲欧盟”社会运动的出现和东部地区的军事冲突重复了 1991 年乌克兰独立时的一些关键问题：如何解决象征性的问题当俄罗斯在该国东部实施军事进攻时，乌克兰的基础设施和经济遗产如何影响当地政治态度和社会动员形式的演变？最后，随着 2022 年初俄罗斯对乌克兰的全面入侵，乌克兰未来的潜在发展方向是什么？公民如何应对这些复杂的政治格局？这些问题变得更加紧迫。使用我为博士学位收集的民族志数据2015 年至 2018 年间，我在奖学金期间的工作目的是展示地缘政治冲突的生活经历如何在顿巴斯战争爆发之间的过渡时期塑造东乌克兰的归属感和对未来的预期。 2014 年和俄罗斯 2022 年入侵乌克兰。通过马里乌波尔（前苏联钢铁工业中心，2014 年春天被俄罗斯支持的分裂分子暂时占领）的城市转型案例研究，我的博士学位探讨了不同类别的由于地缘政治冲突和军事暴力的直接经历，居民们重新评估了他们与共同的苏联过去及其空间和环境遗产的关系，我在论文中认为，尽管存在重大的文化、语言和影响。由于与俄罗斯的密切关系，军事侵略的第一手经验促使我的对话者逐渐远离“俄罗斯他者”，并明确表示他们属于一个与自由理念和开放式未来愿景相关的乌克兰政治国家。调查结果还表明，随着 2022 年全面战争的爆发，乌克兰人对马里乌波尔苏联城市遗产的看法也随之发生变化。社会以来2014 年在许多情况下都经历了快速而彻底的结晶，这意味着我有能力对当前危机形成重要的长期观点，研究“俄罗斯”和“欧洲”之间的二元关系如何过度简化复杂性。乌克兰的历史，以及城市实践和物质的长期演变如何影响社会忠诚和对未来的想法。为了在学术界内外传播我的发现，我将编写一本专着该书将提交给 Berghahn 图书系列“错位”，题为“未来之间：俄罗斯战争前马里乌波尔的城市转型和生活项目”，这本书将为后社会主义转型、环保主义、记忆研究和城市规划的学术讨论做出贡献。除了专着和媒体报道之外，该奖学金还将使我能够通过一种方式在乌克兰和英国的文化专业人士和民间社会成员中扩大我的研究影响。联合研讨会两国的专业人士可以就记忆、遗产和重建问题提出新的想法和合作。最后，在奖学金期间，我将申请新的资金，对俄罗斯战争后乌克兰的重建进行新的研究。我对马里乌波尔及其有争议的城市遗产的专业知识使我处于理想的位置，可以从头开始跟踪这一过程，并为理解乌克兰的未来受到威胁的概念和实践方式做出贡献。