The Soviet Union, Ukrainian Nationalism and the Western Public during the Cold War - Propaganda, Politics, and the Memory of World War II

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The project examines Soviet depictions of Ukrainian nationalism and Soviet attempts to influence the image of Ukrainian nationalists in Western countries. The main focus is on the Cold War period. In that period Soviet accounts centred on the cooperation of Ukrainian nationalists with Nazi Germany during World War II. Overall, Soviet accounts did not contribute to historical enlightenment, but propagated an enemy image that is effective in Russia until today. In 2014, its instrumentalisation in Russian media helped to instigate a war in eastern Ukraine. In 2022, the accusation that Ukraine was ruled by "Nazis" and the demand for a "denazification" of Ukraine served Russia to justify the all-out attack on Ukraine that led to the largest war in Europe since World War II. On the examples of West Germany, the US, and Canada, the project also analyses the discourse on Ukrainian nationalists in the public sphere of Western countries in order to determine whether and how Soviet accounts influenced perceptions here. In 2014, the Russian accusation that the Euromaidan was a "fascist coup" still had also a positive resonance in the international public. Also for this, there was a basis in ideas that had developed in the 20th century among the public in Western countries about Ukrainian nationalism. Therefore, the project also asks what influence Soviet activities had in relation to other factors in spreading ideas about Ukrainian nationalism among the Western public where central motifs often appeared to have been very similar to Soviet accounts. The first phase of the project focused on examining Soviet publications about Ukrainian nationalism, on the contexts and aims of their production, and on Soviet sources on attempts to influence the image of Ukrainian nationalists in the Western public sphere. In the second phase of the project, the investigation of Western discourses and the impact of Soviet attempts to influence them will be continued for the centres of the Ukrainian diaspora in the US and Canada. However, the results of the first project phase also clearly revealed that, especially in North America, central motifs of the later perception of Ukrainian nationalism already appeared in the 1930s. Therefore, this period will also be included in the second phase of the project.