Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society – serie

The Russian war in Ukraine has been accompanied, fuelled and legitimized by a Russian information war campaign that is unprecedented in its scope and nature. Increasingly lurid in form, sometimes surreal, the Russian state-media propaganda campaign has been surprisingly successful in disguising and distorting the nature of the war and shaping the way it is perceived and understood, both in Russia and beyond. This special issue sets out to launch an interdisciplinary discussion on the Russian information warfare being waged in parallel with the military war in Ukraine. How is the war being packaged and narrated for domestic and international audiences? How are these narratives being received in Russia and in the West? What new trends can be observed in the identification and construction of ‘enemies’? How do we interpret and explain the imperial hysteria and hatred currently on display on Russian TV? What are the appropriate responses? How can we avoid the trap of allowing Kremlin propagandists to shape the terms and language in which the war is viewed? The JOURNAL OF SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET POLITICS AND SOCIETY is a new bi-annual journal about to be launched as a companion journal to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society book series (founded 2004 and edited by Andreas Umland, Dr. phil., Ph. D.). Like the book series, the journal will provide an interdisciplinary forum for new original research on the Soviet and post-Soviet world. The journal aims to become known for publishing creative, intelligent and lively writing tackling and illuminating significant issues and capable of engaging wider educated audiences beyond the academy.

This double special issue investigates the experiences of Soviet Afghan veterans and the ongoing impact of the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-89); and the new and reconstituted narratives of martyrdom that have been emerging in connection with 20th-century history and memory in the post-socialist world.The JOURNAL OF SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET POLITICS AND SOCIETY (JSPPS) is a new bi-annual companion journal to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) book series (founded 2004 and edited by Andreas Umland, Dr. phil., PhD).Guest editors: Felix Ackermann (European Humanities University); Michael Galbas (Konstanz University); Uilleam Blacker (UCL)

The special issue offers an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the questions of agency of less mainstream groups in protest movements in patriarchal and authoritarian societies. The themes covered include the place of feminist and gender equality movements in democratically restricted environments, intersections between feminism and nationalism and citizenship, possibilities of right-wing feminism and ‘pop-feminism’, the role of gender in high politics and the relationship between nationality and sexuality in the context of protest movements. The journal features contributions by scholars, human rights and gender equality activists, and journalists, and facilitates a constructive and wide-ranging discussion of the recent and ongoing protest movements in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

This special issue deals with the phenomenon of violence in the post-Soviet space. The central preoccupation is to examine both political and legal discourses and practices of internal and external violence, broadly conceived, in this space. Simultaneously the special issue aspires to situate these discourses and practices in the broader literature on political violence and ethnic and separatist conflict, and to examine these from political, legal, and security studies perspectives. The issue approaches the problem of violence in the post-Soviet space from three perspectives: The international-structural, inter-state, and domestic-political. The contributors focus on structural sources of violence: The relevance of the self-determination principle, the role of democratization, and the relationship between violent behavior inside and outside the state. They also analyze the role of the Russian Federation in generating, perpetuating, and mitigating political violence. Finally, they adopt a bottom-up approach, exploring how non-state actors contribute to political violence.

This special issue provides a forum for discussion of what Belarusian Studies are today and which new approaches and questions are needed to revitalize the field in the regional and international academic arena. The major aim of the issue is to go beyond the narratives of dictatorship and authoritarianism as well as that of a never-ending story of failed Belarusian nationalism—interpretive schemes that are frequently used for understanding Belarus in scholarly literature in Western Europe and Northern America. Bringing together ongoing research based on original empirical material from Belarusian history, politics, and society, this issue combines a discussion of the concept of autonomy/agency with its applicability to trace how individual and collective actors who define themselves as Belarusian—or otherwise— have manifested their agendas in various practices in spite of and in reaction to state pressure. This issue offers new approaches for interpreting Belarusian society as a dynamically changing set of agencies. In doing so, it attempts to overcome a tradition of locating present Belarusian political and social dilemmas in its socialist past.

The Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (JSPPS) is a bi-annual companion journal to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) book series (founded 2004 and edited by Andreas Umland, Dr. phil., PhD). Like the book series, the journal provides an interdisciplinary forum for new original research on the Soviet and post-Soviet world. The first five issues to date have explored a diverse range of topics, including: Russian media coverage of the war in Ukraine; the experiences of Soviet Afghan war veterans in transnational perspective; discourses of memory and martyrdom in Eastern Europe; gender and anti-authoritarian protest in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine; violence in post-Soviet space; and agency in Belarusian history, politics, and society.

Featuring a special section on “Identity Clashes: Russian and Ukrainian Debates on Culture, History, and Politics” This issue's special section explores the discursive gaps, tensions, and ruptures between Ukrainian and Russian narratives of national identity. It gives the floor to Russian and Ukrainian authors with a view to enabling analytical comparisons between the dominant narratives in the two countries, including their cultural, historical, and political dimensions. This juxtaposition of Russian and Ukrainian insights is aimed at deepening our understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Featuring a special section on “Russian Foreign Policy Towards the 'Near Abroad'” Issue 4,2 deals with Russia’s post-Maidan foreign policy towards the so-called “near abroad,” or the former Soviet states. This is an important and timely topic, as Russia’s policy perspectives have changed dramatically since 2013/2014, as have those of its neighbors. The Kremlin today is paradoxically following an aggressive “realist” agenda that seeks to clearly delineate its sphere of influence in Europe and Eurasia while simultaneously attempting to promote “soft-power” and a historical-civilizational justification for its recent actions in Ukraine (and elsewhere). The result is an often perplexing amalgam of policy positions that are difficult to disentangle. The contributors to this special issue are all regional specialists based either in Europe or the United States.

Special Section: Russia’s Annexation of Crimea I Guest Editors: Gergana Dimova and Andreas Umland Legal Loopholes and Judicial Debates: Essays on Russia’s 2014 Annexation of Crimea and Its Consequences for International Law Gergana Dimova The Obligation of Non-recognition: The Case of the Annexation of Crimea Agata Kleczkowska Russia’s Legal Position on the Annexation of Crimea Dasha Dubinsky and Peter Rutland Business as Usual: Sanctions Circumvention by Western Firms in Crimea Maria Shagina *** The Return to Patriotic Education in Post-Soviet Russia: How, When, and Why the Russian Military Engaged in Civilian Nation Building Håvard Bækken Political Parties and the Institution of Membership in Ukraine Melanie G. Mierzejewski-Voznyak Reviews Kiril Kolev on: Ognian Shentov, Ruslan Stefanov and Martin Vladimirov, The Russian Economic Grip on Central and Eastern Europe Ana-Maria Anghelescu on: Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw, Dictators without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia Aija Lulle on: Irene Kacandes and Yuliya Komska (eds.), Eastern Europe Unmapped: Beyond Borders and Peripheries Vera Rogova on: Chris Miller, Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia Elliot Dolan-Evans on: Marci Shore, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution Aleksandra Pomiecko on: Lawrence Douglas, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and The Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial

Remembering Diversity in East-Central European CityscapesBased on up-to-date field material, this issue focuses on the palimpsest-like environments of East-Central European borderland cities. The present shapes and contents of these urban environments derive from combinations of cultural continuities and political ruptures, present-day heritage industries and collective memories about the contentious past, expressive material forms and less conspicuous meaning-making activities of human actors; they evolve from perpetual tensions between the choices of the present and the weight of the past. The contributors address a set of key questions: What is specific about the transnationalization of memory in these urban public spaces? What are the political rationales and ramifications of the different approaches taken to the legacies of perished population groups in different cities? How do these approaches relate to European dimensions of memory and the "European vector" of identity-making of the contemporary urban populations?

SPECIAL SECTION: MULTILINGUALISM IN UKRAINEIntroduction: Ukraine’s MultilingualismRORY FINNIN and IVAN KOZACHENKOThe Languages and Tongues of Mykola MarkevychTARAS KOZNARSKYChannel Switching: Language Change and the ConversionTrope in Modern Ukrainian LiteratureMYROSLAV SHKANDRIJLinguistic Conversion in Ukraine: Nation‐Building on the SelfLAADA BILANIUKUkrainian Cinema and the Challenges of Multilingualism:From the 1930s to the PresentVITALY CHERNETSKY“I Will Understand You, Brother, Just Like You Will UnderstandMe”: Multilingualism in the Songs of the War in DonbasIRYNA SHUVALOVAREPORTS:Multilingualism in the Academy: Language Dynamics inUkraine’s Higher Education InstitutionsOLENKA BILASHLanguage Use among Crimean Tatars in Ukraine:Context and PracticeALINA ZUBKOVYCHSPECIAL SECTION: ISSUES IN THE HISTORY AND MEMORYOF THE OUN IIIIntroduction: The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalistsand European Fascism During World War IIANDREAS UMLAND AND YULIYA YURCHUKThe OUN(b), the Germans, and Anti‐Jewish Violence inEastern Galicia during Summer 1941KAI STRUVEThe Biography of the OUN(m) Activist Oleksa Babii in theLight of his “Memoirs on Escaping Execution” (1942)YURI RADCHENKOThe Ustašas and Fascism: “Abolitionism,” Revolution,and Ideology (1929–42)TOMISLAV DULIĆ AND GORAN MILJANREVIEWSKsenia Maksimovtsova, Language Conflicts in ContemporaryEstonia, Latvia, and Ukraine: A Comparative Exploration ofDiscourses in Post‐Soviet Russian‐Language Digital MediaOLGA KHABIBULINAMariёlle Wijermars and Katja Lehtisaari (eds.), Freedom ofExpression in Russia’s New MediasphereOLENA NEDOZHOGINANadja Douglas, Public Control of Armed Forces in the RussianFederationOLEKSII POLTORAKOV ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

Special Sections: Russian Foreign Policy Towards the “Near Abroad” and Russia's Annexiation of Crimea IIThis special section deals with Russia’s post-Maidan foreign policy towards the so-called “near abroad,” or the former Soviet states. This is an important and timely topic, as Russia’s policy perspectives have changed dramatically since 2013/2014, as have those of its neighbors. The Kremlin today is paradoxically following an aggressive “realist” agenda that seeks to clearly delineate its sphere of influence in Europe and Eurasia while simultaneously attempting to promote “soft-power” and a historical-civilizational justification for its recent actions in Ukraine (and elsewhere). The result is an often perplexing amalgam of policy positions that are difficult to disentangle. The contributors to this special issue are all regional specialists based either in Europe or the United States.

Special Section: Issues in the History and Memory of the OUN IV;andSpecial Section: A Debate on “Ustashism,” Generic Fascism, and the OUN IGuest editors: Andreas Umland and Yuliya YurchukThis issue features the fourth installment in a series of special sections on the memory of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the OUN-Bandera-wing’s military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian abbreviation: UPA). Within this series, historians and social scientists detail findings from their research on interwar and war-time Ukrainian nationalism as well as its contemporary public and scholarly interpretations and representations—not least, against the background of the Russian–Ukrainian war (2014–ongoing) and its related propaganda campaigns.In this issue, we also launch a series of special sections in which scholars in the fields of comparative fascism, East European right-wing extremism, and Ukrainian ultra-nationalism debate different approaches to the OUN.

SPECIAL SECTION: ISSUES IN THE HISTORY AND MEMORY OF THE OUN VYULIYA YURCHUK, ANDREAS UMLAND: Introduction: New Studies on the Record and Remembrance of the OUN(b) in World War IIOLEKSANDR MELNYK: Ukrainian Nationalism, Soviet Power, and Legitimacy Contests in the Kyiv Region, 1941–44: Actors, Issues, and InterpretationsPER A. RUDLING:Managing Memory in Post-Soviet Ukraine: From “Scientific Marx-ism-Leninism” to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, 1991–2019A DEBATE ON “USTASHISM,” GENERIC FASCISM, AND THE OUN IIFeaturing contributions by OMER BARTOV, JOHN-PAUL HIMKA, SERHIY KVIT, OLEKSANDR PAHIRIA, ANDREAS UMLAND, YULIYA YURCHUKARTICLESMISCHA GABOWITSCH: What Has Happened to Soviet War Memorials since 1989/91? An OverviewIGOR ILJUSHIN: “A Strong History for a Strong Nation:” A Review Essay on Roman Ponomarenko’s SS Galician Volunteer Regiments (1943–44)REVIEWSTATIANA KLEPIKOVA on Emily Channell-Justice; IVAN KURILLA on Mark Edele; ANASTASIA MITROFANOVA on Fabrizio Fenghi; THIJS KORSTEN on Krista A. Goff; ADRIEN NONJON on Robert Horvath; ROBERT F. BAUMANN on Shoshana Keller; ELISE WESTIN on Oksana Kis; STANISLAV PANIN on Keith A. Livers; MICHEL ANDERLINI on Erica Marat; JUHO KORHONEN on Aliide Naylor; NICK BAIGENT on Maya K. Peterson; AIJAN SHARSHENOVA on Peter Rollberg and Marlene Laruelle; KACPER WAŃCZYK on Adnan Vanatsever; A. K. MAGOMEDOV and A. I. EMELIANOV on Evgenii Vittenberg

CONTENTS:SPECIAL SECTION: TEACHING IR IN WARTIMEGUEST EDITORS: KATERYNA ZAREMBO, MICHÈLE KNODT and MAKSYM YAKOVLYEVTeaching the Russian War against Ukraine: Ukraine as a Microcosm of the Paradigm Shift from International Relations to Planetary PoliticsIAN MANNERSWill the Russian War against Ukraine Bring Changes to the Teaching of International Relations?OLENA KHYLKOTeaching International Political Economy in Times of WarTHOMAS FETZERFrom Shock to Adaptation through National Unity and Action: Third-year Undergraduate Students of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Reflect on the First Eighty Days of Russia’s War against Ukraine GALYNA SOLOVEIARTICLESNarratives about Baikonur: City and CosmodromeKULSHAT MEDEUOVA and ULBOLSYN SANDYBAYEVAFrom Decentralization to Warfare Resistance: Building a Cohesive Ukraine OLEKSANDRA DEINEKO and AADNE AASLANDEpic Indigenization: Literature and Nation on the Soviet-Finnish Borders under StalinismDIEGO BENNING WANG

CONTENTS Special Issue: Symbols and Narratives of Ukrainian Resistance. Part I Guest editor: Yuliya Yurchuk Introduction. Understanding Ukrainian Spirit: Symbols and Narratives of Ukrainian Resistance and Resilience Yuliya Yurchuk Feeding the Feed: How Food Memes Reflect Resilience in Daily Life in a War-torn Ukraine Daria Antsybor and Michel Bouchard Cultural Memory and Decolonization: The Case of the Motherland Monument in Kyiv Yana Prymachenko The Pain of Courage: Re-Imagining Militarization and Masculinity in Ukrainian Digital Illustrations of Soldiers Colby Fleming This special issue proposes to approach Ukrainian resistance from the cultural studies perspective. It brings together scholars from different disciplines who address different aspects of resilience and resistance focusing on gender, humor, literature, visual representations, and memes. The authors approach these widely circulated images and narratives as expressions of deep cultural structures that produce meanings. They are rooted in history, past lived experiences, and societal structures that govern human activities and interactions. These images and narratives signal changes in the self-perception of people and shifts in worldviews shattered by war. Although the material analyzed by the authors is very different, they all come to the main overarching conclusion: Ukrainians at time of war actively renegotiate their identities and recalibrate their understanding of history and the place of Ukraine in the world. Overall, the special issue contributes to the discussions on Ukrainian resistance relying on the evidence found in the grassroots local context. The articles collected here shed light on the deeper structures that enable production of images and narratives that we see on the surface. These structures are rooted in history, cultural memory, gender regimes, and politics. These structures too undergo renegotiations, transformation, and recalibration. To a certain extent, the articles not only analyze but also document and archive the cultural products created by Ukrainian society in the first years of the full-fledged invasion. As such, they will be also valuable as historical sources to be used by researchers in the future.

ContentsSpecial Section: Russia`s Annexation of Crimea III Gergana Dimova and Andreas Umland: Introduction. Perspectives on Russia’s 2014 Annexation of Crimea: Empirical and Theoretical ExplorationsGreta Lynn Uehling: The Personal Stakes of Political Crisis: The 2014 Attempted Annexation of CrimeaKerstin S. Jobst: “Dark” and “Golden” Times: The Crimean Tatar Population under Tsarist and Soviet Rule (1783–1941)Jan Zofka: Agents of Separatism: Social Background to the Pro-Russian Movements in Crimea and the Moldovan Dniester Valley in Comparison (1989–95)A Debate on Prospect Theory and Explaining Russia’s Annexation of CrimeaIon Marandici: Loss Aversion, Neo-Imperial Frames, and Territorial Expansion: Using Prospect Theory to Examine the Annexation of CrimeaDiscussionFeaturing contributions by Peter Rutland, Tor Bukkvoll, Mykola Kapitonenko, Rumena Filipova, Martin Malek, Ion MarandiciArticlesChris Monday: Mikhail Putin (1894–1969) and Socialist Competition: Exploring a Neglected Branch of the Putin Family TreeReviews:Inna Chuvychkina on Elizabeth Buchanan; Brendan M. McElmeel on Juliane Fürst; Olga Khabibulina on Hubertus Jahn; Elise Westin on Natalia Knoblock; Manne Wängborg on Andrei Kozyrev; Giulia Prelz Oltramonti on Anna Matveeva; Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon on David Rainbow; John (Ivan) Jaworsky on Josephine von Zitzewitz; Yana Ostapenko on Jessica Zychowicz; Dima Kortukov on Vladislav M. Zubok

Western academics, experts, and journalists specializing in Eastern Europe and Eurasia have grappled with two fundamental analytical crises in connection with the 1991 disintegration of the USSR and Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Both crises were brought about by similar lack of understanding by scholars, think tank experts, and journalists of Moscow’s relations with its neighbors. Typically, they were characterized by a downplaying of the historic and current role of Russian great power nationalism. The authors of this issue of JSPPS investigate how the Kremlin’s recent turbo-charging of Russia’s information warfare, 24-hour TV, and social media activity has expanded on traditional pro-Russian sentiments among Western academics, experts, and journalists. The contributors analyze the downplaying of Russian nationalism, misinterpretations of the 2014 crisis, sympathetic portrayals of Crimea’s occupation, and the use of the term “civil war” rather than “Russian–Ukrainian war” for the Donbas conflict in academia as well as the think tank world and media in the UK, Germany, Poland, Japan, USA, and Canada. The list of contributors includes: Olga Bertelsen (Tiffin University, Ohio), Paul D’Anieri (University of California at Riverside), Sanshiro Hosaka (University of Tartu), Andrei Znamenski (University of Memphis, Tennessee), and Sergei I. Zhuk (Ball State University, Indiana).

Contents Special Section: A Debate on “Ustashism,” Generic Fascism, and the OUN III Yuliya Yurchuk and Andreas Umland: Introduction. Continuing the Ustashism DebateOleksiy Panych: Fascism as Ideology and Practice and the OUN as a Social MovementYuri Radchenko: Once More on Ustashism: Remarks on the JSPPS DiscussionArticles Felix Riefer: Think Tanks and Foreign Policy Design in the Russian Federation

Contents Yuliya Yurchuk: Introduction. Understanding the Ukrainian Spirit: Symbols and Narratives of Ukrainian Resistance and Resilience II Olha Voznyuk: Symbols of Resistance and Resilience through the Prism of Contemporary Ukrainian Anthologies of War Writing. Svitlana Kot, Alina Mozolevska, Olha Polishchuk and Yuliya Stodolinska: United for Ukraine: Representations of Civilian Resistance in Ukrainian Digital Popular Culture Ada Krasenko, Tamara Martsenyuk, and Kateryna Dysa: "Girls, Let's Close the Sky*: Gendered Images of Witches in Ukrainian Media and Culture during the Russo-Ukrainian War This special issue searches for the deeper roots of Ukrainian resistance as they are expressed in culture and folklore. During the first days of the invasion, one could witness the proliferation of both visual and narrative expressions of people’s emotions and feelings. Images, memes, poetry, songs portraying Ukrainians at war came in their hundreds in the very first days of the invasion. The scale of creativity seemed proportional to the scale of the shock and the horror that the war brought. With three years of atrocities, visuality became more focused on the documentary genre. The articles in this special issue both document and analyze the meanings that stand behind the symbols and narratives of Ukrainian resistance. As products of culture, these symbols and narratives reveal the key traits of the renegotiated identities of the Ukrainian society in the ongoing war.