Selective Amnesia And Symbolic Violence: The Second World War As Represented In Eastern And Western Ukrainian Historical Museums

In this paper we compare historical museums dedicated to the representation of the Second World War (WW2) in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Lviv. These two cities have been chosen because they are very different in their histories and, in consequence, have developed differing political ideologies. Thus, Lviv, the western city located in the Galicia region near Poland, is seen as the city which has roots in the so-called “European cultural tradition’ while the eastern city Kharkiv, on the border with Russia, is associated often with Russian tradition. But whereas the Ukrainians – as an ethnic group - living in Kharkiv also adopted the Russian and then Soviet cultures, the Ukrainians living in Lviv felt themselves dominated by Europeans, be they the politically dominant Austrians (before World War 1) or Poles (thereafter) and had a history of anti-Semitism1 and the concomitant hatred for Jews. For Kharkiv, WW2 provided no change in government until Hitler broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941. And when the city was invaded, its natural course of action was to fight the invaders and thus side unambiguously with the Allies in the war. Accordingly, it is no surprise to find local museums reflecting a more or less Soviet line in presentation of WW2 until Ukrainian independence in August 1991, followed thereafter by shifts in emphasis as more pro-Russian or pro-European governments come to power in the Ukraine.