ARCHIVES Danyliw Seminar 2017
ARCHIVES Danyliw Seminar 2017
Program Committee
Program Committee
ARCHIVES Danyliw Seminar 2017
Anna Kutkina
University of Helsinki, Finland
Anna Kutkina is completing her PhD dissertation in Political Science at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where she also teaches courses on regionalism and cultural identity in Ukraine. She previously worked for the Canadian Urban Institute in Kyïv and obtained an MA at Central European University in Budapest.
PRESENTATION
Abstract
The Fall of the Lenin Statues:
Grassroots Narratives of Post-Maidan Ukraine
This paper is based on one of the core chapters of my PhD dissertation that examines regional context of decommunization process in post-Euromaidan Ukraine. An outcome of three-years long fieldwork in different regions of Ukraine (2014-2017), it addresses massive overthrow of statues of Lenin, Stalin and other communist symbols as part of complex phenomenon of post-Euromaidan decommunization. Grounded on images of the fallen statues, as well as interviews conducted with ordinary citizens, documentalists, government and media officials in different regions of Ukraine, this paper analyzes numerous episodes of both vandalistic and authorized demolition of communist symbols and carries ethnographic objective as to address ‘personal’ experiences of the Leninfall: be it nostalgic, retributive, advocative, or indifferent.