From Social Chronotope to Political Myth: Ukrainian Case

Abstract

The author proposes to consider ideas, values, meanings and orientations regarding the identity of Ukraine that gained independence through the concept of a social chronotope. This implies a conceptual and mental space in which temporal and spatial characteristics are combined. The researcher uses a socio-constructivist approach to identity, a discourse analysis of publications by representatives of the political and intellectual elite, and secondary sociological data. The social chronotope was formed by the Ukrainian elite based on historical myths and new geopolitical realities that made Ukraine the largest country in Europe. The most important component of the chronotope was the idea that Ukraine needs an identity that distinguishes it from Russia. If the events of 2004 determined the vector of Ukrainian identity politics as European, the Euromaidan of 2014 drew a demarcation line not only between Ukraine and Russia, but also between Kyiv as a center of political power and a symbol of political community, on the one hand, and the pro-Russian regions of the eastern Ukraine, on the other hand. Their inhabitants were denied Ukrainian citizenship, their views and values were marginalized, which destroyed the social chronotope. It is, thus, replaced with an ideological confrontation in the form of a political myth about the Europeanness of Ukraine, which is hindered by Russia and the “separatists” under its influence.