Faculty of Social Sciences University of Helsinki Between Lenin and Bandera: Decommunization and Multivocality in (post)Euromaidan Ukraine Anna Kutkina ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki, in Porthania Suomen Laki-sale (Yliopistonkatu 3), on April 4, 2020, at 12 pm. Helsinki 2020 Publications of the Faculty of Social Sciences 141 (2020) Political Science Between Lenin and Bandera: Decommunization and Multivocality in (post)Euromaidan Ukraine © Anna Kutkina Cover illustration: Aleksei Kislov and Julien Milan. “The Revival.” The image is public in the form of graffiti, Kyiv, Ukraine. Distribution and Sales: Unigrafia Bookstore http://kirjakauppa.unigrafia.fi/ [email protected] PO Box 4 (Vuorikatu 3 A) 00014 University of Helsinki Finland ISBN 978-951-51-3436-3 (pdf) ISBN 978-951-51-3435-6 (nid) ISSN 2343-2748 (pdf) ISSN 2343-273X (hard copy) The Faculty of Social Sciences uses the Urkund system (plagiarism recognition) to examine all doctoral dissertations. Unigrafia Helsinki 2020 ii Abstract This dissertation is a study of (post)Euromaidan Ukraine as a socio-political and cultural space which undergoes a multilayered process of struggle over meanings. As a physical and political domain that emerged in a see-saw between Europe and Russia, the Euromaidan revolution was a unified protest that exposed multiple, at times contradictory beliefs: dreams of a just Europe, ultra-nationalist, Far-Right values, demands for prompt democratic transformation, hatred of authoritarian, corrupt government and naming of the ‘enemies’ or the ‘other.’ This research is a critical analysis of the articulation of such socio-political multivocality of the Ukrainian population, which found its physical and discursive expression within the process of post-2013 decommunization. This dissertation examines the evolution of post-Euromaidan de-Sovietization beyond the framework of passing and implementation of the 2015 decommunization laws. I address the process of decommunization as a political and cultural phenomenon at both the regional and national level, where the ordinary citizens and the government are involved in diverse forms of the meaning-making (e.g. political poster exhibitions, preservation or demolition of communist symbols, or renaming of the streets). I examine the process of de-Sovietization of (post)Euromaidan Ukraine as both fragmented and unified in its multivocality, where old symbols and/or judicial structures such as the statues, posters or laws are being replaced by new physical (e.g. architectural) and narrative formations. This dissertation consists of nine chapters, and is an outcome of 4.5 years of fieldwork conducted in western, central, southern, northern and eastern regions of Ukraine. It is an ethnographic study of data that includes 64 interviews, images and videos with the protestors, civic activists, members of non-governmental organizations, politicians, soldiers, artists, and ordinary citizens. To provide comprehensive understanding of different types of material, the method of ‘layered textual analysis’ (Covert 2014) is used. It involves structural analysis of the narratives present in the interview text, visual analysis of the photos, and guiding questions related to the content and relationship of the photos, objects and narratives. In this work, I use the concept of narrative to create a broader framework for categorization of the collected data- - to analyze, for instance, interviews, images, or videos of the protest or toppling of the communist statues as means of construction of the discursive narratives at both the grassroots and state level. As means of examining the empirical data, this work draws theoretical parallels between theory of hegemony (Laclau and Mouffe 1985; Cox 2019; Modelski 1991; Thompson 2015), Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1981) theory of heteroglossia and monologism, and Benedict Anderson’s (1983) idea of the imagined communities. The primary objective of bridging these theories is to examine multivocality in decommunization as both the process and outcome of articulation of iii polyglossic or multi-voiced practices of civic dialogical interaction. A broader purpose of ‘hegemonic’ reading of the collected data is to explore (post)Euromaidan decommunization as a social phenomenon which is mediated through discourse, where political meanings are articulated, contested, and, as a whole, never permanently fixed. As that of discourse analysis theory, the aim of this work is not to discover which groups exist within the society, or to unravel particular formations that object or support the process of decommunization. The primary objective of this research is to examine multiple mechanisms of selection of the discursive and physical elements that were included (or erased) from the physical space of (post)Euromaidan Ukraine (2013-2018), as well as to identify political and cultural means of the citizens’ and ruling elites’ consolidation of a politically and culturally diverse state. iv Acknowledgements This research is a journey that started with a dream—a dream of becoming a ‘Doctor.’ As simple as that. It grew in the head of an immigrant girl who moved to Canada from Ukraine at the age of 16 and who felt blessed. Grateful to experience both ‘worlds’—that of the Gymnasium 191 in Kyiv where a uniform was an absolute must, and that of New Westminster Secondary School, BC—the space of jeans, skateboards, and mohawks. And yes, it was both a revelation and a revolution—to realize that knowledge can be ‘dressed’ in a uniform and diversity, and remain equally powerful. This dissertation is an outcome of years of my personal quest for the possibility of mingling the two—as deep in my heart I still carry a print of wearing green school uniform while striving to get my head shaved or dyed blue, purple, yellow, or all colors at once. This research has given me an opportunity to live my dream of getting to know people better, and eventually, to know and understand myself. At least to try to. As any PhD, this one is both unique and cliché, and came with the following: enormous joy, moments of deadlock and despair, tears, laughter, tears and laughter combined, sleepless nights and late mornings, ecstasy of breaking through and finally getting that chapter done, loving your research, hating your research, walking home feeling as if ‘this is it’ and willing to quit it all once and for good, and then, a second, or day later, pulling yourself together and moving forward. All this is both very personal and PhD-mundane. What was distinct about this research is the process of data collection. It involved hearing gunshots of the revolution, conducting interviews in the tents, walking in the fields of the borderline-war zone and taking a cab where a rifle was somehow just hanging right next to your head. In the midst of it all--in Ukraine, Canada, Finland, and many other places of the world there were people who were with me day and night, in their thoughts, their warm wishes, their prayers. It is with deepest, sincerest gratitude that I would like to thank you all. It is difficult for me to proceed from this point onwards with any kind of ‘chronological order.’ I feel tremendous value and contribution of every single person who was walking this path of my PhD journey in her or his own way. I would like to start with thanking Finland for becoming the academic home of my PhD research, for giving international students like myself a rare opportunity of obtaining top quality education and being so welcomed, so supported in countless ways. I would like to thank the CIMO Foundation, the University of Helsinki Research Foundation and the KONE v Foundation for funding this research. The generous support of these foundations made both my studies in Finland and fieldwork in Ukraine possible. I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Juri Mykkänen, Professor Markku Kangaspuro, Professor Pertti Ahonen and Dr Emilia Palonen for their guidance and support throughout different stages of this research. I am thankful to Emilia for involvement into the very first correspondence on my acceptance to the University of Helsinki, and for expressing care during first, particularly challenging months of my stay in Finland. I am also grateful to her family for offering help during times when it was truly needed, and for all the scientific advice she provided on this work. I am sincerely grateful to Pertti for being a supervisor of exceptionally efficient work-ethics, for his assistance with all official university matters, for his feedback on my dissertation and for being Custos for my PhD defence. I would like to express all my gratitude to Markku for being a supervisor of both academic advice and care for a student as a human being. I am endlessly grateful for the time that he found to discuss my work, and provide feedback and support that, at times, was larger than life—to share a joke and laughter during most happiest and darkest moments. I am so thankful for his geniality, for all of his kindness and talent of being a supervisor a student can always rely on and call a friend. Finally, I would like to render sincerest gratitude to my first supervisor Juri whose genuine care, professionalism, patience, understanding and ongoing willingness to help made successful completion of this PhD project possible. There are truly not enough words to express all the gratitude for the time he took to provide most thorough feedback, to guide this dissertation during both his work and official vacation time, and to lend a hand of support that encouraged to keep on going no matter what, and till the very end. I bow to the grace of his personality and will remain forever thankful for everything he has done. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart to Professor Elena Trubina and Professor Don Kalb for finding time to be the pre-examiners of this dissertation and providing in-depth feedback and positive evaluation of this work.