CULTURAL APPROPRIATION OF UKRAINIAN HERITAGE AS A TOOL OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY EXTINCTION


DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2520-2626/2026.38.23

Mariam-Sofiia SHAMSUTDYNOVA, Tetiana SHAMSUTDYNOVA-LEBEDIUK

Abstract


Abstract. The article examines the phenomenon of cultural appropriation of Ukrainian cultural heritage as a complex historical and cultural process that combines linguistic, educational, political and informational mechanisms of influence. The historical prerequisites for the suppression of the Ukrainian language and culture are analyzed, in particular through the regulatory acts of the 19th century, which limited the functioning of the Ukrainian language in education, printing and public life. It is shown that the above-mentioned processes formed a stable basis for the further incorporation of Ukrainian cultural elements into imperial and Soviet narratives with partial or complete loss of their authentic identification.
Special attention is paid to modern forms of cultural appropriation in the digital environment. It is established that its key mechanisms are algorithmic reinforcement of content, editing of its origin, memetization of cultural elements and their integration into the mass e-space. In this context, information platforms act not only as sources of dissemination, but also as active factors in the transformation of cultural narratives.
The impact of these processes on the formation of Ukrainian national identity is analyzed. It is shown that prolonged linguistic and cultural displacement has caused the fragmentation of cultural memory and the hybridization of identification models, but at the same time stimulated the development of compensatory mechanisms of cultural restoration and the strengthening of the symbolic meaning of language as a marker of identity.
The conclusion is made that cultural appropriation in modern conditions is not only a historical legacy of imperial policy, but also an element of information confrontation that affects the formation of collective memory and national self-consciousness. Ukrainian identity is considered as a dynamic system that is simultaneously subject to external pressure and internal reconsolidation.


Keywords


Ukraine, cultural appropriation, tradition, national identity, Russification, historical memory, hybrid war, cultural expansion

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