Selling the Skin of a Bear That Hasn’t Been Caught
Maps of Russia’s Collapse
Mykola Homanyuk, Oleksij Hnatyuk, Valentyn Žaronkin
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Maps create mental images of spaces and their organisation. They can be wielded as instruments of power. But where there’s no power, the performative act becomes magical thinking. This is the case with the maps showing Russia’s collapse that have been circulating in Ukraine. They are created mechanistically, with existing administrative borders usually being upgraded so that republics or other administrative units become states. This also merely transfers the Soviet Union’s pattern of collapse onto Russia. Another method is to transfer historical borders onto a desirable future. This has little to do with the real political and social conditions. What is ignored is that this copies Putin’s methods and, in addition, provides Moscow material for propaganda.
(Osteuropa 6-7/2024, pp. 25–34)