The Image of the Other as a Structural Characteristic of the Cultural Border on the Example of Ukraine and Donbass

Abstract

The article is devoted to the specifics of the cultural frontier of Russian culture. The relevance of the article is due to the strengthening in the post-Soviet period of cultural conflicts on the border of Russian civilization. These conflicts on cultural grounds even lead to military action against the bearers of Russian culture, as has been the case in the Ukrainian war against Donbass since 2014. The article examines the borderland as a zone of intercultural interaction, carries out a cultural analysis of the border between cultures and identities, highlights the structural characteristic of the cultural border ‒ the image of the Other. Based on the conducted cultural analysis, the structure of the cultural space of Ukraine and the Donbass, including the wartime situation since 2014 is investigated. The study of the media content of Ukrainian information projects and similar projects in the LPR is carried out on the basis of an information-analytical methodology. Two permanent Ukrainian media projects of the Internews-Ukraine: Revision of History and Propagandarium, which work intensively in the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine creating and broadcasting the image of the Russian as the Other by methods of aggressive anti-Russian propaganda are considered. We also analyze the activity of the Lugansk cultural site “Dandelion”, which has been operating in Lugansk since 2015 and reflects the cultural life of the city and the republic during this period. An analysis of the site’s materials shows that in the republic in wartime conditions, Russian and world culture is preserved and mastered, intensive work is underway to integrate the republics of Donbass into the cultural space of modern Russia, relying on the historical memory of these territories. The article substantiates that Ukrainian culture is currently a borderland culture, since the image of the Other as the Russian dominates its structure and is imposed on the Russians of Ukraine by propaganda methods. At the same time, the culture of modern Donbass is developing as Russian culture in which the image of the Other as a modern Ukrainian, a carrier of anti-Russian identity is formed. Keywords: Russia, Ukraine, Donbass, borderland culture, the image of the Other, anti-Russian propaganda