Material-cultural aspects of commemorating the memory of the Ukrainian defenders during the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–2024)

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose is to analyze the material cultural aspects of the memory policy in modern Ukraine regarding the Ukrainian defenders, who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the Russian aggression. The methodology of the research is based on  the principles of historicism, scientificity, authorial objectivity, as well as general scientific (analysis, synthesis, typology) and special historical (historical genetic, historian systemic, historical typological) methods. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the material and cultural aspects of the memory policy in modern Ukraine regarding the Ukrainian defenders, who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the Russian aggression (2014–2024) have been studied for the first time.

Conclusions. Hence, the material and cultural component of the commemoration of the participants, the victims and the events of the Russo-Ukrainian War includes the development of projects and the installation of monuments, memorials, commemorative signs and plaques, registration, recording and arrangement of cemeteries of the fallen defenders of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance launched and maintained a database of the Ukrainian defenders, who died during the ATO. There were registered 4,496 dead and deceased Ukrainian servicemen; 523 sectors were registered, where 1,694 dead and deceased persons by the end of 2021, who took part in the defense of Ukraine during the ATO/JFO were buried. Guided by the law on decommunization, the UINP made offers regarding renaming settlements. Part of the renamings, starting in 2016, was associated with the heroes of the Russo-Ukrainian War. It was noted that since 2014, the local communities and the state authorities in Ukraine have sought to honor the fallen soldiers by installing the memorial plaques. As of January 1, 2020, there were installers 3,287 memorial plaques to the Ukrainian defenders in cities and villages of Ukraine. In order to unify the memorial signs, the UINP developed a draft of a typical memorial plaque to the defenders of Ukraine. On the initiative of the Ministry for Veterans, in 2020, the “Procedure for Installing Memorial Plaques to the Fallen Defenders of Ukraine” was approved and distributed among the local and the state authorities and public organizations. The projects of a nationwide scale matured gradually. Hence, there was launched the memorial complex “The Wall of Memory of Those Who Fell for Ukraine” in Kyiv on the wall of the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, on which 4,500 photos of the Ukrainian heroes, who died in battles with the Russian aggressor, were installed by August 2020. In 2022–2023, the establishment of the National Military Memorial Cemetery, located in the village of Gatne, Fastiv district, Kyiv region, was legally formalized and initiated, and two forms of gravestone monuments were approved. A significant achievement was the development of “The Recommendations for the Local Executive Bodies, Local Governments and Public Organizations on the Measures Related to the Preservation and Commemoration of the Memory of Participants, Victims and Events of the Russo-Ukrainian War” (2023–2024), which are aimed at determining the common principles of the commemorative practices for commemorating the memory of the participants and the victims of the modern Russo-Ukrainian War.