The Ukrainian Government's Memory Institute Against the West

Abstract

Historical remembrance and national reconciliation are touchy issues - especially when they concern large wars, mass murder, and suffering of millions in the recent rather than far-away past. Ukraine’s memory of the nation's Soviet history is primarily concerned with the enormous number of victims of Bolshevik and Nazi rule over, and wars in, Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians - along with millions of other victims - living in the "bloodlines" (Timothy Snyder) were killed and terrorized by Europe's two most murderous totalitarian regimes. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians collaborated to one degree or another with both of the killing machines - a considerable challenge for Ukrainian memory policies.