Ukraine

LarysaZariczniak

Kyiv, Ukraine

What is the difference between how Moscow celebrates Victory in Europe Day and how Kyiv celebrates? If this were a few years ago, there wouldn’t have been much of a difference. Post-Euromaidan however, that has changed. Kyiv now commemorates in a less militaristic style - there isn’t any grand military parade down the main streets of Kyiv and the glorifying of the Red Army. No, here the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory began a project in 2015 to commemorate all Ukrainians who fell during the Second World War: civilians, Red Army veterans, veterans of the Ukrainian liberation movement (OUN and UPA) and also Ukrainians who fought in foreign armies on all fronts.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, under the directorship of VolodymyrViatrovych, has regained its initial mission: to examine the history of Ukraine - especially the Second World War - outside of the old Soviet stereotypical theme. Last year it did this with the creation and distribution of the “Remembrance Poppy” (similar to Canada’s poppy but with a modern twist). It also organized a huge commemoration concert called “The First Wave of Peace” which was broadcast throughout Ukraine to mark the end of the Second World War in Europe of May 8, 1945 around 11pm Kyiv time (May 9 Moscow time). Furthermore, a pamphlet was written (and translated into English) and included information on figures, general Ukrainian historical facts and individual stories of heroism, loss and sacrifice.

This year, this tradition of commemoration continues and includes free, public information displays: one in the departures terminal of Boryspil International Airport and one on Maidan Square. This display has been turned into an online website where anyone can gain information about Ukraine’s Second World War. Another display featuringthe role of Ukrainian women in the Second World War was also opened to public display at the Ukrinform building near central Kyiv. This year’s commemorations were again more about remembering rather than celebrating.

One of the key features of this remembrance and commemoration has been the role of diaspora Ukrainians in their respective country’s war efforts. This was included last year with information about the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen’s Association (UCSA) and a separate panel on Ukrainians in the Allied armies (Canada, USA, France and Great Britain) in the public displays. In the display about Ukrainian women there is even a panel dedicated to Ann Crapleve (Ann Smith) who was one of the initiators of the UCSA, one of the first Canadian women to join the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and an instrumental force in aiding thousands of Ukrainian displaced persons in moving to Canada.

So why all the attention on the Ukrainian diaspora’s role in the Second World War? MaksymMaiorov, one of the historians working at the Institute of National Memory and the one responsible for the information about diaspora Ukrainians in the Institute’s work answered some of these questions. He states that the “Soviet, and now Russian approach to interpreting the history of the war tries to glorify the Soviet Union as the ideal model of political organization…In the Russian representation of the world, Ukrainians’ only duty was to defend the motherland - the USSR. The defeat of the Nazis, which is believed to be the most significant milestone in the twentieth century, was only made possible by the unity of all peoples around Moscow…In this pattern there is no place for the Ukrainian national liberation movement or the victims of Stalinism.” Because of this, the memory of the war is one of the key elements of Ukrainian identity - a source of their political beliefs and motivations. It is Maiorov and the Institute’s mission to implement “Ukraine’s own version of the history of the war as it is important in the area of humanitarian policy and even a national security issue.”

Furthermore, the Ukrainian diaspora’s role in the war is important as Maiorov insists that it is “vivid evidence that the history of Ukraine in the Second World War cannot be narrowed to the Soviet discourse.” In the ranks of the American, Canadian, British and other Allied armiesdiaspora Ukrainians not only fought and contributed to the victory over the Nazis, but many “of them (albeit without the enthusiasm of their governments) used the same symbols as the Ukrainian liberation movement - the trident and blue-yellow flag. This was absolutely unthinkable in the Red Army.”

Maiorov also insists that the history of the UCSA is one of the most fascinating of the diaspora’s role in the Second World War as it showed that these Ukrainians were not passive activists but rather had an organized and passionate emphasis on their ethnicity. Maiorov believes one of the most interesting events in the Second World War by the diaspora Canadians was what Stanley Frolick (SviatoslavFrolack) noted in January 1943: that the Ukrainian Canadian command wanted to establish their own Ukrainian regiment like that of the Scottish or Irish national ones. Even though this did not happen, it does demonstrate the ethnic awareness of those Canadian servicemen and women.

One of the other key elements ofremembering the diaspora’s role in the Second World War is an archival and document display entitled “In a United Fight” at the Teacher’s Building in Kyiv (former Central Rada building). This display is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the SBU archives, the Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II, andthe Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica. The exhibit features various documents and newspaper clippings from Ukrainian diaspora publications along with information about some of the more prominent diaspora Ukrainians. The exhibit is tucked away in a back room of the building and the opening was attended by students of the TarasShevchenko National University.It was opened with a speech by Dr. Ivan Patryliak, the Dean of the Faculty of History at Shevchenko University. He said that this exhibit was important because 71 years after “Europe fell silent and began thinking if it was worth destroying the world and killing generations of people for an ideal of a handful of people…a country on the other side of the continent is once again beginning to be engulfed in war.” This exhibit “destroys the old myth that Ukrainians gave their lives against the Nazis only in service of the Red Army and that Ukrainians were the greatest Nazi collaborators.” Patryliak emphasized that “the lives of all Ukrainians should be remembered, especially those who later helped build democracy throughout the world.”

All of these commemorative and remembrance ceremonies can finally help Ukraine heal from the wounds inflicted during the Second World War. It may be able to bring two conflicting narratives of the Second World War into one united national narrative. This will bring about some real change by educating future generations of Ukrainians on what happened to all Ukrainians throughout the world during the Second World War.