SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR: CULTURAL MEMORY, NATIONAL RESENTMENT, AND CYCLIC VIOLENCE

The article is devoted to the analysis of cultural-historical and socio-psychological factors that led to the Russian-Ukrainian war. On the basis of the concept of cyclical violence, the role of cultural memory in substantiating “national resentment” is revealed. The dynamics of ideas about the essence of cultural memory and the content of memory wars in modern Russian-Ukrainian relations is traced. The Ukrainian studies approach to the problem of the extreme aggravation of Russian-Ukrainian relations involves considering the events after February 24, 2022, only as another episode of a longer historical confrontation of Ukraine with the expansionist desire of the Russians to assimilate Ukrainians as a nation, deprive them of their statehood and dissolve them in the imperial space. Other episodes of this everlasting struggle are the OUN-UPA raids, the liberation struggles of the Ukrainian people in 1917–1921, in particular, the proclamation of the Ukrainian National Republic, Kruty, the Ukrainian State of Skoropadskyi, the Directory, and even earlier – the Ems Ukaz (decree), the Valuev Circular, the destruction of Sich, Baturyn and Chyhyryn, Ruin, when the Russian tsar violated the terms of the Pereiaslav agreement and began the assimilation of Ukrainians. Every time the confrontation reaches a "hot phase", Ukrainians' cultural memory revives the images of the national heroes of the past. The content of cultural memory, mental traumas of previous wars, in particular World War II, and the national ressentiment of Russians fuel relapses of violence subject to cyclical patterns. The irrational combination of pictures from different historical periods, aimed at demonising Ukrainian soldiers, masks the true motives of the Russians. The pseudo-image of Ukraine, which seems to have betrayed the memory of grandfathers who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of the Soviet Motherland, is largely constructed by Putin's propaganda and does not actually reflect the vital and urgent needs of citizens of the 21st century. However, it performs an important mobilisation function and is capable of quickly turning on holy anger in a “heated” society.