Transformations of the cultural landscape of Donbas during the armed conflict 2015–2017

Abstract

The main objective of the article – to show the different trajectories of the cultural landscape in controlled and uncontrolled parts of the war-torn Donbas. The cultural landscape of Ukraine significantly changed during the twentieth century. The main factors of these transformations were ideological, military and geopolitical. The sub-ordinate position of Ukraine within the USSR allowed communist leaders to enforce sovietisation of the cultural landscape. This policy was especially noticeable in the great industrial region of Donbas. Achievements of independence by Ukraine and democratization of country' public life have led to transformation/conservation of the cultural landscape, which corresponded with political culture of individual regions. The war in the Donbas has become a catalyst for the processes of creating different types of cultural landscape on the different sides of the contact line. The policy of creating a cultural landscape has become an instrument of political socialization and mobilization of the population. This process is not complete, and can contribute to the crystallization of new subregional identities on different parts of contemporary Donbas.

Keywords

• donbas
• cultural landscape
• post-soviet city
• military conflict
• decomunisation
• renaming
• monument
• policy of memory