Agrarian and Peasant Images of the History of Ukraine in the Conditions of Informational Confrontation

Abstract

Abstract. The aim of the study is to highlight the place of “peasant” and “agrarian” images and senses in the scope of information warfare surrounding the history and modernity of Ukraine, identifying the main types and variants of the use of senses, the means and goals of informational influences related to them.

The scientific novelty of the research results is based on the use of the latest sources on the Internet, attention to microhistory – the features of the emergence of new meanings and “memes” related to agrarian images/senses in Ukraine, and the synergy of historical research with linguistic and cultural research.

Research methodology includes content analysis of sources found on the Internet with the help of specific search operators in the Google search system and in-built systems of Twitter and Facebook social networks.

Conclusions: The use of “agrarian” images in the information confrontation surrounding Ukraine and its history is a long-term historical phenomenon, internalized in the consciousness of a part of Ukrainian society. These images are used both in anti-Ukrainian and pro-Ukrainian propaganda, and at the modern stage they are becoming more “aggressive”, rather than simply being used for ridicule, as was the case in previous historical periods. The goals of Moscow-aligned forces are to mock the Ukrainians and intimidate the cityfolk with the “peasamtry invasion” into cities; their means of propaganda include: news releases, Internet blogs, comments on social networks, cinema; they are most interested in the following periods of history: the era of the Romanov empire, the Ukrainian revolution (1917–1921), World War II, the current Moscow-Ukrainian war. The goals of the Ukrainian forces are to expose enemy propaganda, criticize their ideological opponents, entertain themselves with irony, and rally the powerbase; their means are mostly identical, except for classic TV and cinema-oriented filmmaking being secondary to newer forms of video content widespread over the Internet; their narratives touch upon the Medieval period, the period of collectivization in the USSR and the Holodomor, and, lastly, the current Muscovite-Ukrainian war.