HISTORICAL TRAUMA AND THE PROBLEM OF ITS OBLIVION: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE LUTSK PRISON TRAGEDY IN 1941

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Summary. The purpose of the study is to analyze and reproduce the features of the memory of one of the most tragic events in the Ukrainian history in the twentieth century – the execution of prisoners in the Soviet prisons by NKVD officers in the summer of 1941. The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific and special historical methods. The scientific principle was put at the core of this research and adheres to the principles of historicism, systematization, verification, objectivity and value approach to the studied events. The author uses comprehensive and critical approaches to the use of archeographic and historiographical materials as well as descriptive, chronological, structural-systemic and system-analytical methods. The scientific novelty is in the fact that for the first time the execution of prisoners in the Western Ukraine (particularly in Lutsk) by NKVD officers was interpreted in the direction of a new direction of scientific research – memory and trauma studies. Conclusions. The problem of historical/collective traumas should be considered very relevant for modern Ukrainian society. Memories of the summer 1941 executions in the western Ukrainian prisons live in the individual, family, and collective (national) memory of several generations. For almost half a century, the Soviet government tried to manipulate the historical memory of the Ukrainian people, seeking to silence and hide Stalin՚s communist crimes. Despite all the efforts and resources used, it failed. Publications of eyewitness memoirs, relatives of the victims, declassified archival documents became the basis for the functioning of these events in scientific and social discourses. Currently, a number of commemorative practices are used in the "study" of this trauma: mourning events, memorialization, museum exhibitions, reconstructions, etc. Exhumation works carried out in 2009 and 2017 played an important role in commemorating the tragedy of the Lutsk prison. It should be noted that in modern Ukraine the memory of the events of June 1941 became a component of national/collective memory and a mandatory element of remembering the traumatic past and the guarantee of the nation՚s mental health.