Peremoga and Zrada

Peremoga

After the events of “Euromaidan”, the concept of “peremoga” in the Ukrainian media space most often began to denote a victory over the “regime” of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich , overthrown in February 2014 by an armed coup in Kiev . Later, the media of post-Maidan Ukraine “overpowered” began to call the real and imaginary successes of the Ukrainian armed forces in the conflict in the Donbass , in all kinds of political, ideological and “military” confrontations with Russia , and, more generally, all the successes of the new authorities of Ukraine.

According to the well-established opinion of the Ukrainian audience, the authorities of Ukraine during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko often sought to pass off phenomena of a very dubious nature as “overpower”, in the Internet space “peremoga” was often perceived in an ironic manner, and began to be associated with another meme , “zrada” to designate a certain obstacle to achieve "breakthrough" ^[2] .

Zrada

The active use of the concept of zrad (literally “treason, betrayal”) in the Ukrainian political environment also began during the political crisis of 2013-2014 in Ukraine and Euromaidan, and it was originally used to denote attempts by a particular group of opposition forces on the Maidan , conclude an agreement with the "regime" of Viktor Yanukovych. And after the victory of “Euromaidan”, “zrada” among its supporters began to be called very many phenomena, which, according to political activists, are opposed to the changes for which the Maidan stood.

Under the signs of “harassment” were former associates of Yanukovych in the political life of Ukraine, law enforcement officers who escaped lustration and dismissal, the signing of the Minsk Agreements , the Russian language and its widespread use in life and official speeches. The defeats of the Ukrainian army from the rebel forces in the summer of 2014 - in the winter of 2015, the rest of Ukrainian tourists in the Crimea and similar actions and events began to be called “zrady”. As a result, this category has become an Internet meme, the use of which all failures in the life of Ukraine of the post-Majed period were ironically played out ^[2] .

Associate Professor of the Department of History and International Relations of the Moscow State University Branch in Sevastopol , candidate of philosophical sciences Andrei Stavitsky defines the phenomenon of “overhaul” as a kind of news genre that was brought to life as a result of the special color, originality of the Ukrainian political and ideological reality ^[3] . A blogger and journalist Roman Nosikov in October 2013, even before the start of the Euromaidan events, wrote that “the fundamental element of the“ help ”is a specific Ukrainian worldview that is absolutely incompatible with reality.” Proceeding from this, it is obvious to the blogger that the final and inevitable part of any peremoga is “zrada” ... when the vile reality, not wanting to fulfill its roles, betrays Ukraine, independence, square, cherry liqueur, European integration and saddle and takes the side Muscovite . " Moreover, “zrada - the author writes - is absolutely inevitable”, because “it is programmed in the very national idea about the coming peremog” ^[4] .

Iryna Sinitsa, a staff member at the Center for Ukrainian Studies of the Dalian University of Foreign Languages ( PRC ), describes the Zrada - Peremoga discourse as a discourse of detachment, formed by a pair of pragmatic antonyms , the sequential use of which in the media is made to denote the spurious effect of active participation in social processes. Tit writes that in an attempt to give answers to questions posed by the authors of publications about the existence of “harassment / overwhelming”, the reader “involuntarily joins the imaginary process of the struggle for justice: for victory or against betrayal, although the very opposition is not logically justified” ^[1] .

According to Sinitsa, the lexemes of “overpower” and “zrada” lose their positive connotation , updated in the antonymic pair “victory - defeat”, from April to October 2015 ^[5] . When using the zrada lexeme "... the unequivocal negative evaluation of this phenomenon is erased," the author writes. - “The modality of doubt“ is it or is it not? ”Shatters the established notions about these concepts ^[1] . The author notes that, starting in 2015, the separation-adversary union is used more often in headlines, less often in the texts of publications.