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Nebesna Sotnia Formation of a New Narrative from Protest Lore to Institutionalized Commemorative Practice Nataliya Bezborodova

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Nebesna Sotnia Formation of a New Narrative from Protest Lore to Institutionalized Commemorative Practice Nataliya Bezborodova Document generated on 10/01/2021 1:36 p.m. Ethnologies Nebesna Sotnia Formation of a New Narrative from Protest Lore to Institutionalized Commemorative Practice Nataliya Bezborodova Volume 40, Number 1, 2018 Article abstract The one hundred people shot dead on the Maidan were given the collective URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1054314ar name Heavenly Hundred (Nebesna Sotnia). It became the central memory of DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1054314ar the uprising; a hymn, a new state award, a national memorial day, poetry, monuments, memorial plaques and books were produced. Dozens of streets See table of contents and squares were renamed in different regions. The paper focuses on the interpretations of large-scale historical events (the Cossack, the Ukrainian National Republic and World War II), and their Publisher(s) incorporation into a new institutionalized narrative after drastic societal events on the example of the protests in Ukraine known as the Maidan in the Association Canadienne d’Ethnologie et de Folklore winter of 2014. The research is based on original protest lore, 8905 Facebook posts from 1647 individuals, collected by the author on the day they were ISSN published on Facebook between January 19 – February 28, 2014. This timeframe includes both peaceful days and the most dramatic confrontation of 1481-5974 (print) the protests. The data originally was organized in 5 categories and 16 topics. 1708-0401 (digital) The paper provides evidence of how personal stories function and validate the Explore this journal participants’ experiences and the significance of the events from the protestors’ perspectives; and protest lore impact on institutional changes of commemorative practices in the field of collective memory. Cite this article Bezborodova, N. (2018). Nebesna Sotnia: Formation of a New Narrative from Protest Lore to Institutionalized Commemorative Practice. Ethnologies, 40(1), 101–138. https://doi.org/10.7202/1054314ar Tous droits réservés © Ethnologies, Université Laval, 2018 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ NEBESNA SOTNIA1 Formation of a New Narrative from Protest Lore to Institutionalized Commemorative Practice2 Nataliya Bezborodova University of Alberta What is the Maidan The protests in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the winter of 2014 took place on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti ‘Independence Square’ (simply called “Maidan” or “EuroMaidan” or in Ukrainian: Майдан / Євромайдан [The Square] or [The Euro[pean] Square]).3 Celebrations and protests located on Independence Square have usually focused on national issues, rather than municipal affairs. During the protests the word “Maidan” gained additional meanings, including the act of public politics itself. Based on my research, Western media and researchers outside of Ukraine used the name “Euromaidan” more often than did Ukrainian citizens and participants in the protests; the latter preferred to use the name “Maidan.” This difference reveals the varied perceptions of the cause of the protests and makes clear whether a 1. The Heavenly Hundred (or Nebesna Sotnia in Ukrainian) is a collective name given to all people who died on the Maidan, as an historical event, forms of its memorialization, and re-assessment of particular historical periods that contributed to the new narrative. 2. I am deeply grateful to my MA supervisor, Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky, for his engaged and supportive role in my thesis; he is an outstanding and motivating example of how to balance high academic standards with devotion to work. I am very thankful to Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky, the founder of the Folklore program at the University of Alberta who supported me and gave an opportunity to study and to grow professionally in the last several years. The scholarship of the program, the staff members of the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives, and the Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore, faculty and students of MLCS and Anthropology departments have provided me with great support. maydān] meaning] ناديم The Ukrainian word maidan is derived from the Arabic .3 “square” or “field.” 102 NATALIYA BEZBORODOVA particular author refers to the events as focused on international relations or having an internal locus. I will use “Maidan” in this paper, since the focus is on Ukrainian attitudes toward the events. The protests started as a rally on the night of November 21, 2013 on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Protesters objected to the government’s decision to forego signing an Association Agreement that had been in preparation for a year and would have paved the way for the possible integration of the country into the European Union (EU). Instead of signing it, Yanukovych arranged for a loan from Russia. This drew Ukraine closer to the Russian sphere of influence. The rally was patterned on the Orange Revolution of 2004, a protest against electoral fraud during presidential elections. Just as protesters then had succeeded in overturning the results of the 2004 election, so too protesters in 2013-14 sought to oust the government. The scope of the protests later expanded, with many calling for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. Ultimately, after the escalation and more than one hundred protestors losing their lives, Yanukovych fled to Russia, although he did not resign the presidency. Great upheaval followed his departure, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Donbass. Many additional protestors joined the rally after the violent dispersal of the crowds on the night of November 30, 2013. At this point, the term “Maidan” began to refer to a political movement, not only to a location in the capital city. Protesters used the term accordingly.4 A number of posts in my collection discuss the perception of Maidan, a term whose original meaning was simply a location, but grew to convey political attitudes even after people had dispersed from the square. My methodology The topic of this research came to me on its own. In the beginning of my Masters Program, in the fall of 2013, I had an idea to do a project about personal narratives that reflect life-changing circumstances and experiences tracing different generations of the same extended family or different representatives of the same group, preferably Ukrainian Canadians in Western Canada. I had no intention of dealing with social media or social networking at all. My first draft proposal of the potential project was almost done by the end of the 2013 fall term when the events unfolding in 4. Timothy Snyder suggests that the word “Maidan” has now gained the meaning of the Greek word agora in English, it is not just a physical place, but also a meeting with a purpose “to deliberate, to speak, and to create a political society.” (Snyder 2014) NEBESNA SOTNIA 103 Ukraine riveted my attention. Initially, I was emotionally engrossed, and later I noticed a pattern between the frequency of Facebook post types and the character of the events on each particular day. Facebook texts served me for several purposes: on the one hand, they provided a variety of narratives, so that I could analyze the correlation of their types, forms, genres and functions; on the other hand, they served as a source of timely information about a particular event. Jennifer Dickinson considers social media and livestreamed video from the Maidan as a “tactical tool for mobilization and formation of interpretive frames” (Dickinson 2014). Due to the time difference, the most drastic events at night in Ukraine took place during the evening in Edmonton, Canada. Following live broadcasts, personal posts, and blogs, I got the information virtually at the moment it occurred and before it was released by professional media. I restrained myself from deleting any individuals from the time I began systematically gathering data. I included publications of some individuals whom I would not normally have chosen if it had been for my own pleasure, but they were few. I controlled my Facebook settings in a way which allowed me to follow several individuals specifically because they updated their accounts many times per day and thus served as informative and interpretative sources. My collection represents the division into two opposing sides that occurred in real life, as Facebook participants worked through textual representations including their confrontations, interactions and efforts to have a dialogue. In general, my Facebook collection is very pro-Maidan. A significant part of my connections are bilingual or Russian speakers, but there are many Ukrainian and English speakers as well. Many of them are also parishioners of various Christian denominations in Ukraine; they have various ethnic origins. My list of authors resembles the variety of protestors that can be compared to other studies (Etling 2014). In order to give more background related to my Facebook connections, I should add that I created my account at the time I worked in the academic humanities book publishing field, in Kyiv 2009-2013. Initially I used my account mostly for professional purposes and my connections were built around the field; there was more variety later. Until late November 2013, most of what I got from Facebook were new book releases, authors’ public lectures, seminars, conferences, and a bit of private life. When the majority of those connections started to narrate, reflect, and exclaim mostly, and sometimes exclusively, about the political protests, it was a strong signal of a matter significant to me. 104 NATALIYA BEZBORODOVA Exploring the types of narratives and their contribution to identify the opposing sides, I focus on elements in the digital stories that illuminate elements not exposed by the professional media coverage and official reports.
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