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再次重申了1991年乌克兰独立时的一些关键问题：当俄罗斯在乌克兰东部实施军事进攻时，如何解决乌克兰过去的象征性、基础设施和经济遗产？乌克兰境内的地区差异如何影响当地政治态度和社会动员形式的演变？最后，乌克兰未来发展的潜在方向是什么？公民如何应对这些复杂的政治格局？随着俄罗斯于 2022 年初全面入侵乌克兰，这些问题变得更加紧迫。利用 2015 年至 2018 年为我的博士学位收集的民族志数据，我在奖学金期间的工作目的是展示在 2014 年顿巴斯战争爆发和俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之间的过渡时期，地缘政治冲突的生活经历如何塑造东乌克兰的归属感和对未来的预期。 2022 年的乌克兰。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居民如何重新评估他们与共同的苏联过去及其空间和环境遗产的关系，这些遗产是由于地缘政治冲突和军事暴力的直接经历而造成的。在论文中，我认为，尽管与俄罗斯有着重要的文化、语言和亲属关系，但军事侵略的亲身经历促使我的对话者逐渐与“俄罗斯他者”保持距离，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。我的研究结果还表明，当地钢铁工业不断变化的经济意义与军事冲突一样，决定了人们对马里乌波尔苏联城市遗产的看法。随着2022年全面战争的开始，乌克兰社会自2014年以来逐渐发生的转变在许多情况下经历了快速而彻底的结晶。我对苏联城市遗产的研究意味着我有能力对当前的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的乌克兰历史，以及城市实践和物质的长期演变如何影响社会忠诚度和对未来的想法。为了在学术界内外传播我的发现，我将编写一本要提交的专着 伯格汉图书系列“错位”。这本书的标题是《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》，它将促进有关后社会主义转型、环保主义、记忆研究和城市规划的学术讨论，其写作风格不仅适合学术界，也适合广大公众。除了专着和媒体亮相之外，该奖学金还将使我能够通过联合研讨会扩大我的研究对乌克兰和英国文化专业人士和民间社会成员的影响，两国专业人士可以在研讨会上就记忆、遗产和重建主题提出新的想法和合作。最后，在整个奖学金期间，我将申请新的资金，以对俄罗斯战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。