Interviews with senior scholars Interview with Assoc Prof Dr Alina Mozolevska
Dr Alina Mozolevska is an associate professor at the Institute of Philology at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. She has a PhD in Linguistics from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, Ukraine with a major in Romance languages. Since then, she has had several research fellowships at different universities, such as the UniGR-Center for Border Studies at Saarland University (Germany, 2022), the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France, 2017) and the University of Cadiz (Spain, 2017).
Since 2024, Dr Mozolevska has also been an associate with "The Aggressor” project at the Heidelberg University and the University of Bochum.
Daniel Weinmann: Dr Mozolevska, could you please tell us more about your research interests in general and how they relate to “The Aggressor” project?
Dr Alina Mozolevska: Maybe I can start from my earlier research interests because my University in Mykolaiv has a long-term collaboration with the Center for Border Studies (UniGR-CBS) at University of Saarland. My colleagues and I have been working for quite a long time in the field of border studies with a special interest on what has been happening in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014 which has resulted into the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Donbass.
Besides this, I'm also interested in the political discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis and since 2022, since the beginning of the full-fledged invasion, also in the topic of visualization of war and the construction of visual discourse of war, with a focus on popular culture. In my current project I try to bring my research interests together to explore how the discourse of war is being created and propagated in different media. In more simple words, I am analyzing how images shape the reality of war and how they construct perception of the self and the other, the images of the hero or the images of the enemy. And I think it's one of the important elements of the conflict that extends far beyond the physical battleground and impacts our understanding of the Russo-Ukrainian war in Ukraine and abroad.
A lot of people see and experience the war through images or through different messages that are spread by social media or official outlets. I think it's one of the aspects that should be studied more in detail, specifically the framing of the aggressor in different cultural and historical perspectives.
Amr Elashmawy: Could you briefly summarize your research project and how it fits within “The Aggressor” project?
I'm really interested in how history has been instrumentalized during the Russo-Ukrainian war, not only in official or academic discourses but also within popular culture, for example how references to different historical figures or events trigger different understandings of the war and how they frame the war. As an example, how the history or even the myth of the Great Patriotic War is being instrumentalized in visual popular culture in Russia to justify the invasion and how the narrative of the Second World War is being used in visual Ukrainian culture to make the war experience more understandable for broader audiences and to highlight the country’s struggle for freedom. I'm also interested how this creates different divisions of understanding who the enemy and aggressor is. If we talk about a light content like memes or cartoons, we see that they really can contain a lot of layers of information. They can be funny but at the same time activate or trigger a deeper understanding of what is happening; for example, the use of such aggressors as Hitler is very present in both visual discourses in Ukraine and Russia, it immediately creates a powerful image of ultimate evil and historical villainy.
D. W.: Russian military aggression started already in 2014 as you have also clarified in your recent publications. Could you please provide a brief summary of the political landscapes of Ukraine and Russia leading up to this point?
We have an expression (in Ukraine): We are living now in the two-year old war that was initiated 10 years ago but has been lasting for more than 300 years. I think we don't have enough time to talk about 300 years of Ukrainian fight for independence and freedom but if we take a look exactly at this period and the beginning of the aggression, I think all readers should know that the initial point is, indeed, the annexation of Crimea but it was preceded by very important events in Ukrainian history.
It's the Revolution of Dignity.1 At that time, Viktor Yanukovych was the president of the Ukrainian State, obviously pro-Russian corrupt politician. In November 2013 he refused to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union, something that would have allowed Ukraine to get more integrated into the European community and this is what resulted into the beginning of the peaceful manifestation in Kyiv's Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti).
There were maybe several hundreds of students and young people who were manifesting there at the end of 2013. People were gathering in the Maidan to protest the government's decision and express pro-European aspirations of Ukrainians. But this demonstration was aggressively neutralized by the Yanukovych regime. People in the square were beaten and injured, and this was the beginning of big protests in Kyiv and all over Ukraine, the Revolution of Dignity, which lasted for several months and led to the change of regime and the course of Ukraine towards Europe. I think this was seen by Putin's regime as something unacceptable: a Ukraine that decides on its own future, a Ukraine that wants to integrate into Europe, not into Russia. Soon afterwards, the Russian regime initiated the annexation of Crimea and the intervention in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. But this is only a very short and simplified story. Since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, Russia has always considered Ukraine as its zone of influence and employed varied political and cultural strategies to keep its domination in the region and silence Ukraine’s voice in the international political arena. The 2014 Kremlin military aggression against Ukraine was one of the brutal means to reaffirm its domination and not let Ukraine decide its own future.
There has always been a confrontation between the Ukrainian idea of nationhood and the Russian imperial vision of Ukraine as an artificial state and nation. This occupation project could be traced back a long time before 2014. Some researchers claim that Maidan was only a pretext and that Russia had been preparing for invasion since 2008, with the change of Putin's rhetoric regarding Ukraine.2
A. E.: Let’s talk more about the 2014 Euromaidan protests, the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and the start of the war in eastern Ukraine. What kind of aggressor images were most present then and how were they constructed and perceived?
To give a little bit more context, the Revolution of Dignity was a very important cultural booster for the Ukrainian society. This is the time when the civil society was at work and there was a huge mobilization of pro-European cultural elites during this time. Maidan was also the center of many cultural projects and initiatives, including visual arts. There were a lot of installations, graffiti artistic projects, and movements to create provocative posters. There was a project called ‘I am a drop in the ocean.'3 They were posting different posters on social media that anybody could print out and go to manifest in the Maidan.4 This was the time when a lot of grassroots creativity was born and when the art presented a very deep reflection of transformations within the society.
One of my aims is to analyze what were the key circulating images of Maidan, what were the key images at the beginning of the war, but I'm still working on this topic. It’s not that easy to collect them now with the perspective of time, but I'm trying to find as much information as I can. Generally, there was an anti-government discourse, anti-pro-Russian-government, anti-Yanukovych.
There are a lot of images where the representatives of power are portrayed as the main aggressor enemies. But Maidan also marked a significant moment when decolonial thinking gained momentum. Activists and cultural elites united in their efforts to challenge and dismantle the remnants of imperial influence, advocating for the reassertion of the Ukrainian cultural identity and sovereignty. There were instances when Lenin monuments were ruined during this time in Kyiv and this subsequently led to the demolition of many Lenins throughout the country. I think the state authorities at that time were perceived as the main enemies, but this period also sparked attempts to rethink Ukraine's historical past, leading to a critical reassessment of figures like Lenin and Stalin who symbolized the Soviet regime. In addition, the history of the Second World War is very important for Ukrainian society. When the aggression started in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, visual discourse was also very much influenced or inspired by historical associations with the Second World War. During that time, the image of Hitler was used frequently, and sometimes the collective image of a Nazi soldier as an aggressor.
Something also worth analyzing is the focus on trauma, especially the trauma of amputation, which was very present in 2014, because the aggression and the annexation of Crimea were a shock to deal with, in terms of changing borders, annexation of the territories, the change of the geo-body of the state. All this was processed through visual culture. There was a strong focus on this traumatic experience.
I think if we talk about the full-scale period (from February 2022), it is possible to trace a more positive focus on heroic actions and civil resistance. There is also a focus on victimization but it's less present. I think the main idea of visual culture now is to give hope, to raise awareness about what is happening, to consolidate civil society and also to inspire the army to protect Ukrainian land.
D. W.: Coming to February 2022, the full-scale invasion brought international attention to the Russian aggression against Ukraine. What changed?
I forgot to mention another very present figure of the aggressor frequently used in Ukrainian visual art during and after the Maidan Revolution: Vladimir Putin. Visual artists have consistently portrayed Putin as a central symbol of tyranny and imperialism, often drawing parallels between him and Adolf Hitler. This comparison has become a potent visual motif, which emphasized the similarities in their authoritarianism and militaristic ambitions. This visual depiction became even more prevalent with the outbreak of the full-scale invasion. For example, one of the first images shared by the official X account of Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion was a cartoon showing Hitler cheering on a young Putin. This representation underscores the enduring association between Putin’s actions and most cruel historical figures, symbolizing violence and oppression.5
I think this was also present since 2014 but it’s more visible now. There is an attempt to create some kind of historical continuity of Russian aggressions in other states, such as in Georgia or the intervention in Syria. There are also images that do not only focus on the personalities but also on the acts of aggressors. These images try to connect what is happening in Ukraine to other instances of aggressions of the Russian Federation in other countries. There is still a very present visualization of Stalin, a villain and aggressor. There are many visualizations that combine Soviet emblems or the image of Stalin with Putin, attempting to create this practice of decolonization, showing that the story of the Soviet Union was one of the systematic policies of discrimination of Ukrainian identity as well as systematic attempts to destroy Ukrainian identity and nation. This connects to what is happening now because Putin says that Ukraine is an artificial state and that the Ukrainian nation doesn't exist.
There are also religious images, not very deeply connected to history, where the images of Devil and of Satan are associated with the personality of Putin or with Russian soldiers. Some other images that I analyzed referred to different aggressors from pop culture, so it's not only history that inspires the visual imagery of Ukrainians. Ukrainian visual culture really relies a lot on Western pop culture symbols and codes. I think it's often an attempt to make the Russo-Ukrainian war more comprehensible to those who are far away from the events and to show, in simpler and more recognizable images, who is the bad guy and who’s the good guy.
D. W.: Your answer reminded me of the geographical dimension of visual arts. I'm talking about maps that highlight, for example, the size of Ukraine which is in fact the largest country in Europe, but then again, Russia is so much bigger even than Europe. I'm remembering all those maps saying, “Imagine Ukrainian bravery”, comparing the size of Ukraine to this huge size of Russia and thereby contrasting the deeds of Ukrainian heroism, and also depicting Ukraine as a shield for European peace and security, whereas Russia is shooting rockets, basically, at Europe.
It's a simple way of depicting who the aggressor is and who the victim is, and also who is fighting for good and who is fighting for evil. How this is used or how broad is its circulation?
Extensive use of maps is a way of fighting epistemic injustice. Everybody knows where Russia is, but who knew where Ukraine was or how Ukraine looked like before 2022? Even when the war was already here in Ukrainian territory in 2014, you could hear people asking, “Isn't Ukraine Russian?”, or “Where exactly is Ukraine?” Is it not somewhere in Russia? The influence of Russian soft power was so enormous that Ukraine wasn't visible for the majority of the European population, possibly even the global population.
Ukraine didn't have its voice in the international political arena. Russia inherited the status of great power after the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as the status of victorious country in the Second World War and was considered an important political and economic partner for many European countries. In contrast, Ukraine was often treated as a blind spot on the map, overlooked and underrepresented. I think today for Ukrainians, for the government, cultural elites, academia, it is very important to make Ukraine visible and recognizable. To create a unique national brand and visual identity. Visualizations of geographical contours of Ukraine as a sovereign state within its recognized borders are a part of this effort to create and support the national narrative. For Ukrainians it's very important to see and visualize Ukraine as a whole, as the territory that is recognized by international law, together with Crimea and Donbas. That is why the geographic imagery became an integral part of the Ukrainian state communication campaigns and visual popular art.6
The use of cartographic imagery also helps to convey important messages for the Western population, all these images illustrating the disproportion of powers in the Russo-Ukrainian war as you said, Daniel, but also to remind the audience that Ukraine is not Russia; it’s a sovereign and independent state with its own distinct identity. It’s the second biggest in Europe in terms of size. I think it's an important strategy to make Ukraine visible, to show that it’s an integral part of European community. The Ukrainian state communication campaigns and official platforms also make efforts to reinforce Ukraine’s visibility. For example, one of the images that you mentioned, with a caption saying: “realize the scale of heroism,” was also used by the official platform war.ukraine.ua.7 This is a state platform that was created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform foreign populations about the Russo-Ukrainian war. There are a lot of different rubrics, and it's accessible in eight to nine languages. This webpage was already visited, I think, by 700 million visitors.8 The front page contains the world’s map where you see Ukraine marked in yellow and the aggressor, the Russian Federation, depicted in red, color of violence and blood. This visualization uses the Mercator map projection that massively enlarges Russia and exaggerates the difference in size between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. From a cartographic perspective this represents an inaccurate map, but used in the artistic work it strikingly visualizes the disproportion in territorial dimensions, population and military potential between the victim and the aggressor. Such imagery is not just informative; it is a way to tell the story of Ukraine’s fight for freedom against a powerful enemy, to garner international support, and counter Russian narratives that seek to erase Ukraine from the map.
A. E.: In your project you are examining memes in Russian and Ukrainian social media. Ukrainians are sometimes called a “meme nation.” Why did you choose this type of source material?
There are several data sets that have been collected by myself and together with my colleagues. For example, I’ve been collecting memes from Russian and Ukrainian communities and groups on Facebook, Vkontakte and Telegram. It is both fascinating and challenging work. Memes are created and shared daily with hundreds or even thousands posted online, making it impossible to archive and analyze them all. To manage this, it’s important to establish specific time frames, criteria, or topics to better organize the material. At the same time, analyzing memes is particularly interesting because they react swiftly to current events, to changes in the society, political situation within the country or in the global arena. They serve as immediate reflections of societal attitudes, mocking, criticizing or supporting representatives of power or their opponents, challenging or/and embodying ideologies, cementing or countering collective identities in real-time. As a result, memes offer a unique and valuable source of analysis, providing insights into how online communities perceive and respond to the ongoing war and geopolitical changes in the world around them.9
Another project is on the Instagram art. Together with my colleagues we've been following and collecting illustrations from about 50 active Instagram accounts of Ukrainian digital artists and cartoonists. These artists use their work not only to inform audiences about the ongoing events in Ukraine but also to share the collective trauma of war, express the sense of belonging, and mobilize Ukrainian society in its fight against aggression. In addition to simply posting their artwork, many of these artists utilize hashtags to draw more attention to the war in Ukraine. This practice allows us to analyze not just the images themselves but also the broader context in which they exist — comments, reactions, hashtagging and shares. The analysis of this interaction can provide a better understanding of how art can be used as a tool for activism, expressing solidarity and resistance in times of conflict.10
D. W.: Coming to a conclusion, we wanted to ask you about the main challenges to your research.
I think my main challenge is that I'm not a historian. I'm a linguist. I need to learn and read a lot not only to understand how popular culture functions in contemporary context, but also how it's deeply connected to different historical narratives. But I think it's very important to understand the background of what triggers different visual images. And it is not always about history. For example, there is one Ukrainian artist who relies a lot on Greek mythology. To interpret these images accurately, I need to familiarize myself with those mythological references.11 I need to identify these references, then read about them and identify the connections. Other artists rely on religious imagery, so I need to have a background in this area as well.12 Additionally, there are other more practical challenges, such as obtaining permission to publish artworks. However, the core difficulty lies in acquiring enough background knowledge to accurately analyze the intentions behind the visual productions, decode the historical and cultural references, and fully understand the meaning that the image conveys to the audiences.
Interviewers: Amr Elashmawy and Daniel Weinmann
June 2024
Blog post design: Vilma Vaskelaitė
