On the Issue of Commemorative Practices and The Emergence of New Public Traditions in the Ukrainian Community of Crimea After the Beginning of Aggression of Russia in 2014-2020

Abstract

Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, seized by Russia in 2014, have become, according to human rights activists, a "territory of fear", where human and civil rights are massively and systematically violated, and the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and ethnic Ukrainians are discriminated. The policy of the occupying power threatened the preservation of the Ukrainian identity in Crimea and creates the preconditions for the assimilation of Crimean Ukrainians in general. Among other negative practices for the Ukrainian community, the occupying state has made it impossible or drastically narrowed the possibility of publicly celebrating Ukrainian national sociopolitical holidays and anniversaries in Crimea, including Independence Day of Ukraine, Unity Day of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko's Birthday, Remembrance Day of the Holodomor victims. Russia achieves this by illegally applying in the temporarily occupied territories restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of speech; legislative, administrative, criminal and extrajudicial prosecution of organizers and participants of such events; destruction or persecution of civil society structures that are independent and able to support Ukrainian commemorative practices; liquidation of memory locations related to the history and culture of Ukraine. The response to the assimilation threat, to the restriction, distortion or destruction of commemorative practices of the Ukrainian community in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea was, in particular, to establish its activists' traditions of celebrating new anniversaries and filling some traditional ones with new content. Thus, Taras Shevchenko's birthday is now celebrated by Crimean IDPs, including ethnic Ukrainians, in the free territory of the country as well as the Day of Solidarity with the Ukrainian Crimea. In 2020, the Day of Crimean Resistance to Russian Occupation of Crimea, which Crimean Ukrainians together with other concerned citizens have been celebrating for several years, gained official status in Ukraine. Of particular importance for preserving the identity of Crimean Ukrainians, fighting for their rights and freedoms, informing the Ukrainian and world community about their violations is the celebration in 2017–2021 with the initiative and efforts of the Crimean community, which was forced to leave after 2014 to the mainland part of the state, on August 28, the Day of Protection of the Rights of the Ukrainian Community of Crimea. In 2021, representatives of civil society proposed that the state officially recognize it.