After the EuroMaidan Revolution and Russia’s annexation of Crimea and covert war in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine launched a rapid de-Sovietization course, aiming to do away with historical myths tying it to the aggressor country and construct a new historical narrative. Six years later, Soviet stereotypes are much less influential, but some are still widespread, a poll conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation reveals. Conducted on the anniversary of Victory Day, the poll looks into Ukrainians’ perceptions of the cornerstone myth of modern Russia, the “Great Patriotic War,” which is how the USSR called the period of WWII after the German attack in 1941 despite the Molotov-Ribbentrop Peace Pact. The poll found that most Ukrainians believe the USSR shared responsibility for starting WWII with Nazi Germany, but at the same time viewed Victory Day as a victory of the Soviet people in the “Great Patriotic War.”
EuroMaidan Press: Ukrainians gradually move away from Soviet stereotypes
A woman prepares to lay flowers at the victory monument at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II in Kyiv on May 9, 2020.
