As above, so below: communicating foundational myths through monuments. A comparative study of Piłsudski Square (Warsaw) and Independence Square (Kyiv)

Abstract

Between 2014 and 2015, Ukraine and Poland experienced drastic political reconfigurations, when the former saw the Revolution of Dignity conducted by grassroots groups, and the latter saw the electoral triumph of the conservative party Law and Justice. The two new powers, contrasting in their nature and goals, almost immediately began to perpetuate political myths that legitimised their rule through various tools of politics of memory, which was etched into the urban cultural landscape of Kyiv and Warsaw, not exclusively, by means of the erection of new monuments. This study explores the discourses communicated by monuments originating on the opposing sides of power relations in order to disclose to what extent the messages that the monuments convey are similar. To do so, the research applies the Social Semiotics approach from Critical Discourse Analysis to the analysis of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes commemoration site located in Independence Square in Kyiv, and the monuments dedicated to Lech Kaczyński and the victims of the Smolensk Air Crash of 10 April 2010 located in Piłsudski Square in Warsaw. The results have shown a high degree of resemblance in the discourses communicated by monuments through various semiotic modes, the main one being the sacredness of what constitutes the power holders’ foundational myth. Other discourses, including grievance and martyrdom, despite the fact that they both belong to the religious domain, demonstrate diverging traits. However, put together these discourses perfectly blend into the common canvas of new post-Communist mythologies regardless of the status of the political agents who are in charge of the creation of those foundational myths.