“A Matter of Honor for Every Citizen of Sevastopol”: The Sevastopol City Organization UOOPIiK and the Memory of the Great Patriotic War in the 1960s–1980s

Abstract. The article examines the activities of the Sevastopol branch of the Ukrainian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments in Sevastopol in
the 1960–80s. The historiography mostly presents the analysis of the VOOPIiK, which carried out its activities in the RSFSR. At the same time, the work of the UOOPIiK and the Sevastopol city organization remains insufficiently researched. The role of the Society in the process of forming the memory of the Great Patriotic War is also not fully explored. For Sevastopol, this organization became an important institution that contributed to the formation of the local infrastructure of memory. The article used sources from the archives of Sevastopol. Sevastopol, related to the work of the Society, many of which are introduced into the scientific turnover for the first time. The most important task of the organization was to try to develop a new attitude to monuments and to involve citizens in the protection and care of the memory infrastructure, which was overloaded with a large number of monuments. Nevertheless, various local actors sought to use the organization for their own purposes, promoting their own vision of war memory. The society became a platform for ordinary Sevastopol residents to have their say. In addition, the organization became a source of money that had previously been difficult to find for the construction of monuments.

Keywords: Sevastopol, war memory, commemoration, hero-city, memory infrastructure, monuments, UOOPIiK, Society for the Preservation of Monuments.