Battles for Bandera: Dissonant Historical Narratives of Ukrainians in Poland and Problems of Integration

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.139

Abstract

The increasing flux of Ukrainian migrants into Poland increases the urgency of correlating Polish and Ukrainian historical narratives. Here, a key problem concerns the new pantheon of Ukrainian national heroes, some of whom are viewed quite negatively by many Poles. In this article, problems of competing historical narratives, as well as correlations between historical conceptions and models of migrant integration, are examined with the reference to field research carried out with Ukrainian migrants living in Poland. Here, the main sources comprised interviews with migrants, monitoring of formal and informal cultural activities organized for migrants, as well as data obtained via social networks, thematic forums and the expatriate press. It was found that the main factors determining strategies for facilitating interaction between historical narratives comprise the degree of inclusion of migrants living in different communities of the host country, as well as the level of cohesion among the migrant communities themselves.

Author Biography

Oksana V. Golovashina, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia; Derzhavin Tambov State University, Russia

Oksana V. Golovashina is Doctor of Philosophy, Leading Research Fellow, Ural Institute of Humanities, Ural Federal University. Her main research interests are social theory, social epistemology, cultural memory.

She is the author of the following books and articles: Korotkaia pamiat':  predstavleniia o proshlom v usloviiakh sovremennoi temporal'noi transformatsii [Short Memory: Representations of the Past in the Context of Modern Temporal Transformation] (2017); Ot intersub″ektivnosti k interob″ektivnosti: sotsial'naia ontologiia vremeni [From Intersubjectivity to Interobjectivity: a Social Ontology of Time] (2019); “V bor'be obretesh' ty pamiat' svoiu”: Antonovshchina v predstavleniiakh sovremennyh tambovchan [“In the Battle you will Attain your Memory”: Peasant  Uprising 1910–1921 in the Views of Modern Residents of Tambov  Region] (2020); Sobytie kak ob″ekt: k ploskoi teorii sobytiia [Event as Object: Towards a Flat-Event Theory] (2021).

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Published
2021-10-11
How to Cite
Golovashina, O. (2021). Battles for Bandera: Dissonant Historical Narratives of Ukrainians in Poland and Problems of Integration. Changing Societies & Personalities, 5(3), 355–371. doi:10.15826/csp.2021.5.3.139
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 5, No. 3 (2021)
Section
Articles