This article contains the findings of a study of the narrative of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War in Kiev as a form of contemporary realization of a historical policy. In independent Ukraine, the Museum departed from the Soviet heroic-romantic narrative and replaced it with a story of war as a universal human cataclysm. At the same time, there was a clear Ukrainization of the narrative, for the pragmatic purpose of building a nation state. Simultaneously, the Museum is engaged in commemorative and propaganda activities concerning the ongoing war with Russia.
The author decodes the palimpsest of symbols and narratives. He analyzes forms of remembrance, the organization of exhibitions, and ways of managing the Soviet heritage and symbolism. He analyzes the narrative about the war in Donbass in categories of familiarity and otherness.
