In part this vision of wartime unity stems from Soviet-era narratives about the war. To understand them better, I turned to King Library\u2019s digital database of The Moscow News<\/em>, the English-language paper founded in Moscow in 1932. Iread articles associated with Victory Day across a four-year window (1984-1988). These publications all share content and messaging concerning warfare, national unity, and a shared Soviet identity. As Gorbachev’s Perestroika<\/em> and Glasnost<\/em> initiatives grew in scale during this window, Ukraine itself begins to appear in articles alongside Ukrainian voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1984 publication, Moscow News<\/em> gives little to no recognition of Ukraine\u2019s connection to Soviet identity. Interestingly, Ukrainian city names (primarily Kyiv) were often prioritized over naming the region as a whole (5). This is not overly surprising, except that many other Soviet republics (Lithuania and Azerbaijan) were directly addressed in the same pieces. Additionally, in 1985, in an article discussing the role of national republics in the aftermath of the Second World War, Ukraine (unlike many Soviet republics) was only mentioned once, yet solely as a supplier of natural resources (11). The Soviet state controlled the publication at this time and interestingly used these highly detailed pieces to minimize Ukraine\u2019s place in the Soviet experience. Soviet journalists chose to voice the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as an implicit extension of Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By contrast, the 1986 edition contains a slightly different tone. In the article \u201cNew Books by Novosti Press Agency Publishing House,\u201d the paper discusses steps being taken to mark the 45th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War. Moscow News <\/em>notes how the community is engaging with historical texts, and the article articulates the exact aggressions of the fascist regime. Critically, in the very first point, the paper directly addresses Ukraine\u2019s destruction after the catastrophic invasion (4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1987 paper had a completely altered message. In it, there was little to no mention of the nation\u2019s victory in the Second World War. Instead, the paper primarily focuses on the Party and the continued aftermath of the terrible Chernobyl disaster. Nevertheless, it is important to note that Ukraine was noted on the second page. In this section, a foreigner discusses her perception of the nation but chooses to ground her depiction from Ukraine. Both of these examples are interesting in that they provide significant independence to the previously unrecognized region and view it as somewhat independent from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n
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