World War II as an Identity Project: Historicism, Legitimacy Contests, and the (Re-)Construction of Political Communities in Ukraine, 1939–1946

by Oleksandr Melnyk, David R. Marples (Foreword)

This book explores the relationship between history, legitimacy, and violence in the building and breaking of nations and states on the territory of contemporary Ukraine during the Second World War and in its aftermath. At its center are various institutions of the Soviet state. Other states and rival political movements also enter the picture insofar as their acitivities influenced Soviet policies. Methodologically, the study shifts attention from a limited body of normative texts and their creators within the Soviet political and cultural elite to a wider array of practices, organizations, and players engaged in power struggles and production of knowledge about the past in different social domains. Specifically, it brings into focus groups not normally thought of as participants in the production of Soviet memory discourse, notably NKVD officers, Soviet archivists, Ukrainian nationalists, Nazi collaborators, and former partisans in the German-occupied territories.

The book not only demonstrates the complexity of nation-shaping processes, but also restores agency to some seemingly powerless actors.

440 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

Oleksandr Melnyk received his master's degree in renewable energy systems engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien. In his thesis, he investigated the energy flexibility potentials based on building information modelling. For this work, he received “Energietechnik-Preis 2020” award from the Austrian Association of Electrical Engineers - OVE. In 2017, at China Three Gorges University (Department of Architecture and Urban Planning) Oleksandr worked on the development of energy-efficient construction concepts in a subtropical Asian climate with a specific focus on improved quality control of innovative building renovation projects. Apart from renewable energy systems and engineering, his interests include methodology of science, social sciences, history of art and philosophy.