Historical Memory and National Identity as Tools of Modern War: A Case Study of Mariupol

Introduction

Taking into account the significant role of informational and propaganda tools in modern wars, the important research question is to identify all the methods used by all parties of the conflict, not only military ones. The special role in modern wars is performed by the phenomenon of “national identity” or “identity” as a whole.

The phenomenon of national identity itself can act both as a tool and as an object of propaganda. The instrumental function of national identity in modern war is that the propaganda which actualizes language, culture, history, values, and other issues, contributes to the degree of conflict within the communities that have a number of differences in these markers of identity. On the other hand, in the course of the unfolding of the conflict through the propaganda, the opposing parties form new socio-cultural values and priorities, and that leads to the perception and accentuation of a new identity (the formation of the civil “Ukrainianization” and national civic patriotism among representatives of different ethnic groups in Ukraine and as controversy - the denial of Ukrainian identity held by separatist-minded residents of Donbass).

Historical memory and national identity can be used as effective tools of modern asymmetric warfare. Historical memory is considered to be a part of a complex system of collective consciousness and cultural and historical traditions of the group. The main function of historical memory is the transfer of experience and knowledge about the past to establish the basis of group self-identification, namely, national identity. National identity is based on a number of narratives that exist in a person's and group's consciousness. While investigating tools and mechanisms of informational warfare which can be effectively used in modern wars, it would be rather illustrative to see the massive use of propaganda weapons against Ukraine before and during the Russian-Ukrainian war (RUW). Historical memory and various narratives - which are a complex set of collective ideas that form national identity - can be used as highly effective weapons in modern society. As a tool of propaganda and at the same time as an object of propaganda historical memory is highly mediatized which reflects the trend of the current state of the information society.

The destructive effects of the historical memory and national identity usage in RUW are superior to the past conflicts in Europe of the second half of the twentieth century, including the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia (Tsybulenko & Pakhomenko, 2016). The peculiarity of the aggression which started in 2014 and lasts up to date is the large-scale use of various information and propaganda tools to construct a “pseudo-identity” or “hybrid identity” under the narrative changes.

The “post-truth” era which contains many “pseudo-identities” is characterized by the fact that misinformation, manipulation, and fakes are the most effective factors which influence the political and social processes, the political behavior of citizens, and even more - configuration of the world order in general. In this context, historical memory and narratives which identify the individual in particular and a group of people, in general, contain a big field for manipulations to create new perceptions and understanding of the known historical facts which can be easily used as a reason for future military invasions. The phenomenon “pseudo-identity” or “hybrid identity” means the conscious or unconscious correlation of the individual with the groups based on the current conditions, conscious or unconscious refusal of “a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language” (Pakhomenko, Tryma & Francis, 2018). This phenomenon has become possible under conditions of modern information society and was clearly visually demonstrated in the specific of the Russian Federation’s historical policy copied by separatist organizations like “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) and “Luhansk People’s Republic” (LPR), later – for the whole territory of Ukraine.

To provide a full illustration of how historical memory and national identity can be used as effective tools of modern asymmetric warfare, we examine the case of Mariupol which was captured by the Russian troops in May 2022. Examining the case of Mariupol, this research paper aims to show how historical memory and national identity can be very effective tools for the party to a conflict which use them to under the information and communication cut (ICC).