Decolonization in Ukraine’s Memory Politics: Anticolonialism Versus Ambivalence in The City of Odesa

Abstract

This article analyzes Ukraine’s state decolonisation policy as a component of contemporary memory politics shaped by the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war. While decolonial discourse extends across culture, museums, public history, and academia, the article focuses on decolonisation as a legally regulated memory policy implemented by state institutions and local authorities. In practice, this policy primarily targets toponymy and the symbolic transformation of public space through the removal of Russian imperial and Soviet heritage. Drawing on postcolonial theory, securitisation theory, and discourse analysis, the study examines how the Ukrainian state and civil society have responded to Russian aggression by making decolonisation part of a broader strategy of mnemonic security. The empirical example of Odesa demonstrates that, inlocal contexts, decolonization occurs within a tense interaction between the central anticolonial, Ukrainian centric discourse and the city’s mnemonic specificities. On one hand, Odesa is actively involved in the decolonization agenda, accompanied by renamings, removals of monuments, and securitized arguments regarding the safety of public space. On the other hand, part of the local community does not equate the imperial past with colonialism and regards it as an integral part of local identity.