No abstract

The results of included observation of the features of street meetings in Paris to support Ukraine are submitted in the article. The research has lasted about four months (November 2022 – February 2023). Pro-Ukrainian rallies have taken place twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They have the form of a procession: people gather on one of the central squares of Paris and go to another square. On the way they chant anti-war slogans, where they ask to help Ukraine to win victory, and condemn Russian military aggression. Speakers have reports at every rally. The speeches are held in French and Ukrainian. The rallists use posters, banners actively. Short texts are written in French, rarely in English, Ukrainian on them. There are many Ukrainian, as well as French, sometimes Polish, Lithuanian, Georgian and other flags at the rallies. The main purpose of the rallies is to attract attention of Parisians and visitors of the city to the war in Ukraine, to support Ukraine’s struggle for de-occupation, and to make the Ukrainian community in Paris visible. The rally participants use military terminology (front, battalion, counter-propaganda), as well as special chevrons with the inscription Mitynhari (Rallists) for self-presentation of their activity, raising its status. Source material is attached to the study: folklore of the protest (verbal slogans and graphic inscriptions on posters). The deciphered texts of the interviews with the organizers and participants of the rallies are being prepared for publication.

В воспоминаниях о принудительных переселениях типичным мотивом является описание места, которое пришлось покинуть не по своей воле. Это место в рассказах приобретает идеальные черты, образ утраченного рая. Идеализация чаще всего проявляется в описаниях красивых пейзажей, богатых природных ресурсов, успешного хозяйствования, особенно дружной сельской общины, а также в сознательном, а чаще неосознанном умолчании или уменьшении негативных воспоминаний, связанных с потерянным местом. Сегодня широко распространились различные формы социальной активности с целью мемориализации затопленных сел: ежегодные встречи переселенцев, издание книг о переселенных населенных пунктах, открытие памятных знаков вблизи водохранилищ.

The article presents the modern practices of remembering sunken Ukrainian villages at annual or periodic gatherings of migrants from flooded areas in various regions of Ukraine. It describes the subsequent stages of organising such events, from spontaneous visits to the flooded place to a solemn meeting of the villagers on the banks of the reservoir. It also discusses the ritualised mechanisms and means by which an ordinary meeting of group of people is transformed into a festival through the sacralisation of the gathering’s time and place (by building memorials, such as chapels, crosses or monuments, the publication of memoirs, organization of exhibitions, etc.), through the appropriate selection of participants and the use of suitable identifiers of a celebration time (e.g. a shared meal, musical accompaniment, the performance of special songs, the use of national costumes, the taking of memorial photographs).