A rhetoric of monuments to soldiers-Afghans in Ukraine: the problem of commemoration.

Abstract

Symbolic politics affects on the form of national memory, through that people, as imaginary to nation, become political sense of the state. But the institutional level of politics of memory in the context of the political mode "over-produces" the idea of people and creates new discourse of memory. What can enter into contradictions and carry a destructive force for nation. The representation of war in Afghanistan through monuments, as monumental text, is the example of such a policy.

Memory places are the markers of social groups. When they becomes too much, they cease to be appreciable. They are overlooked. And together with them as well the appreciableness of social groups gets lost. Because, according to J. Assman, memories are defined by the pronoun "we". When the state monopolizes right by heart, domination of collective memory above individual takes place. The mechanism of identity is formed through compulsion to remember.

Mixing of entirely different events in one monumental text is split by the value of each historical event, and combination of two different symbols gives birth to the third. So character is created without sense. And symbol transforms to denoted without designating for the age which still remembers historical events.

Monument, as the code which bears determined message, forms attitude to the history. As artificial sense that it is created due to society, the monument plays a big role in formation of national memory. But the monuments influence and to formation of party unconscious, as they create determined archetypes in the society. Due to them short-term society memory transforms to long-term.

They influence formation of feeling of national unity, advantage, self-esteem. But, together with that, they can form and national injury, threaten to turn to revolutionary mood. Acting by the marker which influences specifications of “one’s” and “strange”, the monument is capable both to unite, and to separate society.