Fighting Fences vs Fighting Monuments: Politics of Memory and Protest Mobilization in Ukraine

摘要

This article explores anti-Communist politics of memory “from below” during the last years of Viktor Yushchenko's presidency in Ukraine. Using original protest events data I compare dynamics, repertoire, political actors, and targets of politics of memory protests with protests against illegal constructions privatizing urban public space, as one of the most frequent social-economic protest issues, in the context of the split between institutionalized and non-institutionalized “civil society.” Focusing analysis on attacks against Soviet monuments, I show how state anti-Communist politics of memory provided legitimacy for the far right mobilization. The dynamics of the most successful grassroots anti-construction initiatives, “Save Old Kyiv,” shows how tightly social-economic protests might be interwoven with the politics of memory, although with destructive consequences for the success of the former.View full textDownload full textKeywordspolitics of memory, far right, protest events, anti-construction movement, Yushchenko, UkraineRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965156X.2011.611680