Stepan Bandera Through the Lens of Quantitative Memory Studies
Scraping the Monumental: Stepan Bandera through the Lens of Quantitative Memory Studies ROLF FREDHEIM, GERNOT HOWANITZ, MYKOLA MAKHORTYKH University of Cambridge, University of Passau, University of Amsterdam Abstract: In this article we use the example of Stepan Bandera to demonstrate the effective- ness of web-scraping methods as a tool to explore how people interact with memory content online. Using data from Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube, we analyse the traces left by users interested in Stepan Bandera and assess how these differ between Ukraine, Russia and Po- land. Applying data mining and content analysis to data traditionally analysed from a purely qualitative perspective, we show how Polish content about Bandera follows completely dif- ferent patterns in comparison to Ukrainian and Russian debates. Our tools, made available online, also include attempts at analysing video content. Keywords: Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, memory studies, data mining, content analysis, dig- ital humanities, Eastern Europe ho is Stepan Bandera? The answer – as often happens with controversial historical W figur es – depends on whom you ask. Bandera, a leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement during the Second World War, was already controversial during his lifetime. In the Soviet Union he was branded as a Nazi collaborator; Ukrainian émigrés praised him as a fearless independence fighter.1 The existing scholarship features a variety of interpretations: from Nazi collaborator, terrorist and instigator of ethnic cleansings to national hero, fearless resistance leader and martyr2. Consequently, it is hard to disagree with David Marples, who argued that the name of ‘Bandera’ provokes an emotional reaction simply by its utterance (Marples 2006: 555).
[Show full text]