Leninfall: The spectacle of forgetting

Abstract

This article explores the phenomenon of Leninfall – destroying, replacing and transferring objects symbolizing the Russian Revolution in the Ukrainian material landscape in the context of the 2014 Revolution of Dignity. The symbolic gesture of physically removing the idols of 1917 from Ukrainian statue-pedestals, and clearing Ukrainian streets and maps of names related to Communism, is triggered by strategic acts to ensure one’s ideological, historical and political frame is victorious. I demonstrate how these framing acts operate through analysis of the visual and verbal representations of Leninfall in nine Ukrainian TV and film documentaries, analysed in terms of perspectives, figure and ground, metaphor and reframing. This intersemiotic approach affords an explanation of how and why groups and individuals hold particular positions about Leninfall that connect to a certain view of history and national identity. I argue first that different groups have rendered Leninfall a spectacle of forgetting; second, that the perspectives identified through the analysis of documentaries help explain why the post-2014 conflicts and transformations in Ukraine have occurred; and, third, that contrary to common assumptions in this conflicted context, political identities are not only represented as irreconcilable binaries, and that more nuanced positions are detected. The research contributes to our understanding of how positions are arrived at and negotiated both around prominent anniversaries and commemorations like 1917 and Lenin, and in conditions of societies in conflict.

When Monument Battles Go Digital: Russian–Ukrainian Conflicts over Material Heritage on Telegram

“…Ukraine was embroiled in disputes between nationalist and pro-European supporters on the one hand and pro-Russian proponents on the other (Portnov, 2013, p. 247). This heterogeneity of views was reflected on digital platforms, which provided a space for varied and nuanced views on controversial historical episodes (Kulyk, 2013; Makhortykh, 2020; Pshenychnykh, 2020; Rutten, 2013).…”

From geopolitical fault-line to frontline city: changing attitudes to memory politics in Kharkiv under the Russo-Ukrainian war

“…Shifting a focus from place names to monuments, we also observe tangible changes in the public attitudes to decommunisation and decolonisation. In 2018, only 8.2 percent of Kharkivites residents supported the removal of Lenin monuments, another 24.2 percent considered it appropriate to move them to another place, and 60.7 percent of respondents -the overwhelming majority -strongly condemned a practice of "Leninfall" (see Pshenychnykh, A. 2019;Gaidai, O.…”

Defending Art. 51 of theCode: Comments on Smith & al. (2022)

“…We can also consider the recent Leninfall phenomenon in Ukraine, when thousands of monuments to the Communist leader Vladimir Lenin (as well as many other idols of the Soviet era, except for war and burial memorials) were destroyed or removed from public space since 2014. That removal started as spontaneous public campaigns but later was legalized in 2015 by the Ukrainian decommunization and de‐Sovietization laws (see Plokhy, 2015; Pshenychnykh, 2019; Melkozerova, 2020; Brock, 2021, etc. ), which resulted in a virtually Lenin‐free Ukraine.…”