Alexander Pushkin as Foreign Heritage: Transformation and Cultural Disintegration in Post-Soviet Societies

This paper discusses how post-communist transformation impacted public discourse and action on cultural heritage related to a specific ethnic group in three formerly multicultural cities in the newly independent East European states: Chişinău in Moldova, Odessa in Ukraine, and Vilnius in Lithuania. By looking at post-1989/91 uses of monuments, memorial sites and museums dedicated to the Russian national poet Alexander Pushkin in these cities, the paper examines multilevel social functions of cultural heritage. It covers a period of three decades from 1989/91 to 2019. Each decade signaled a specific shift in treating the poet and the sites related to him as overlooked, contested, or foreign heritage. The paper traces diverse strategies that various cultural and social actors and groups used throughout these decades to either overcome or adjust to this shift under the rapidly changing political, social, and demographic conditions.