One of the great flaws of the modern Ukrainian state is, according to Judah, that “it has never been able to create an all-encompassing post-Soviet narrative.” It has no “common soundtrack of history, which for Britain for example includes Churchill telling Britons they would fight on the beaches and in the hills, or de Gaulle telling the French they had lost a battle but not the war,” he writes. Instead, the conflict in Ukraine has brought two sinister figures to the fore, Bandera and Stalin.
For an outsider, it may be hard to understand how Stalin, who was responsible for the death of millions, has become the object of quasi-mystical admiration. But, as Judah explains, it is important to understand that “if people think that Stalin made the world tremble and that everything has gone to hell in a handcart since the end of the Soviet Union, then, with such a black and white view of history, for them restoring him to greatness makes sense.”
Only this January, a new cultural centre dedicated to Stalin has been opened in Russia and Soviet-style realist art is gaining popularity.
In eastern Ukraine, Judah speaks with a man who campaigns against corruption and illegal mining, which began to grow in the 1990s. In southern Ukraine, he travels to Bessarabia, the “appendix” that curls out of Odessa beneath Moldova. There he untangles the various ethnic affiliations of its inhabitants. He jots down the succession of those who have ruled this land over the past two decades, and observes, how “along some of the canals people teeter on narrow boardwalks and tiny rickety wooden bridges as they go about their business”.
Not only do both sides try to control traditional media; social media is a battlefield too. There, “Russian authorities contract firms to employ people to ‘comment’ and spread, among other things, the central line of Russian propaganda, which is that the Ukrainian government, after the Maidan revolution, is nothing but Nazism reincarnated.” Media scholars call this development the mediatisation of war. Some have argued that this has accelerated over the past 50 years and has established the media as the fourth branch of military operations, just as essential as the army, navy, and air force. Stig Hjarvard described mediatisation as “the process whereby society to an increasing degree is submitted to, or becomes dependent on, the media and their logic”.
Lies and conspiracies thrive in digital spaces as well as national news channels. Judah’s book provides a vital antidote in a house of distorting mirrors.
For an outsider, it may be hard to understand how Stalin, who was responsible for the death of millions, has become the object of quasi-mystical admiration. But, as Judah explains, it is important to understand that “if people think that Stalin made the world tremble and that everything has gone to hell in a handcart since the end of the Soviet Union, then, with such a black and white view of history, for them restoring him to greatness makes sense.”
Only this January, a new cultural centre dedicated to Stalin has been opened in Russia and Soviet-style realist art is gaining popularity.
In eastern Ukraine, Judah speaks with a man who campaigns against corruption and illegal mining, which began to grow in the 1990s. In southern Ukraine, he travels to Bessarabia, the “appendix” that curls out of Odessa beneath Moldova. There he untangles the various ethnic affiliations of its inhabitants. He jots down the succession of those who have ruled this land over the past two decades, and observes, how “along some of the canals people teeter on narrow boardwalks and tiny rickety wooden bridges as they go about their business”.
Not only do both sides try to control traditional media; social media is a battlefield too. There, “Russian authorities contract firms to employ people to ‘comment’ and spread, among other things, the central line of Russian propaganda, which is that the Ukrainian government, after the Maidan revolution, is nothing but Nazism reincarnated.” Media scholars call this development the mediatisation of war. Some have argued that this has accelerated over the past 50 years and has established the media as the fourth branch of military operations, just as essential as the army, navy, and air force. Stig Hjarvard described mediatisation as “the process whereby society to an increasing degree is submitted to, or becomes dependent on, the media and their logic”.
Lies and conspiracies thrive in digital spaces as well as national news channels. Judah’s book provides a vital antidote in a house of distorting mirrors.
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