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

自2014年以来，乌克兰一直处于地缘政治冲突的中心。欧洲独立运动的出现和东部地区的军事冲突重申了围绕1991年乌克兰独立的一些关键问题：当俄罗斯在乌克兰东部发动军事攻势时，如何解决过去苏联在乌克兰留下的象征性、基础设施和经济遗产？乌克兰境内的区域差异如何影响当地政治态度和社会动员形式的演变？最后，乌克兰未来的潜在发展方向是什么，公民如何驾驭这些复杂的政治格局？随着俄罗斯在2022年初全面入侵乌克兰，这些问题变得更加紧迫。使用2015年至2018年我在博士期间收集的民族志数据，我在奖学金期间的工作目的是展示在2014年顿巴斯战争开始到2022年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之间的过渡时期，地缘政治冲突的亲身经历如何塑造了乌克兰东部的归属感和对未来的预期。通过对马里乌波尔城市转型的案例研究，马里乌波尔曾是苏联钢铁工业中心，2014年春天被俄罗斯支持的分裂分子暂时占领。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苏联共同过去的关系，以及由于地缘政治冲突和直接的军事暴力经历而留下的空间和环境遗产。在这篇论文中，我认为，尽管与俄罗斯有着重要的文化、语言和血缘关系，但军事侵略的第一手经历促使我的对话者逐渐与俄罗斯人保持距离，并阐明他们属于一个乌克兰政治国家，这个国家与自由的理念和对未来的开放愿景联系在一起。我的发现还表明，当地钢铁行业不断变化的经济意义，就像军事冲突一样，定义了人们与马里乌波尔苏维埃城市遗产的联系方式。随着2022年全面战争的开始，乌克兰社会自2014年以来发生的逐步转变在许多情况下经历了快速和激进的结晶。我对苏联城市遗产的研究意味着，我处于有利地位，能够对当前的危机发展出至关重要的长远观点，研究“俄罗斯”和“欧洲”之间的二元组如何过度简化复杂的乌克兰历史，以及城市实践和物质层面的更长时间的演变如何反映社会忠诚和对未来的看法。为了在学术界内外传播我的发现，我将撰写一本专著，提交给伯格哈恩的丛书《错位》。这本名为《中间的未来：俄罗斯战争前马里乌波尔的城市转型和生活项目》的书将有助于关于后社会主义转型、环保主义、记忆研究和城市规划的学术讨论，并将以一种不仅适用于学者，也适用于更广泛的公众的风格写作。除了专著和媒体露面外，该奖学金还将使我能够通过一个联合研讨会，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，两国专业人士可以在记忆、遗产和重建主题上发展新的想法和合作。最后，在整个奖学金期间，我将申请新的资金，对俄罗斯战争后乌克兰的重建进行新的研究。我在马里乌波尔及其有争议的城市遗产方面的专业知识使我处于理想的地位，能够从这一进程的起点开始跟踪这一进程，并有助于理解关系到乌克兰未来的概念和实际方式。

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.