“It’s time to Ukranize!”: uses of the past and nationalism in the public manifestations in defense of Jair Bolsonaro

Abstract

This article aims to reflect about the uses of the post-soviet Ukraine past in benefit of the sanitary, economic, political, and social crises of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first section presents a discussion about the public memory of the left-wing in Ukraine, and defends that its contemporary politics is based on an idea of “reconquering” the past “stolen” by the Soviet Union (USSR), responsible for, above all, the rise of right-wing politicians and movements. The second session analyzes a confluence of public discursive manifestations in Brazil that draw on the experiences of the last decade in Ukraine to legitimize the need for a history to be “(re)built”. We argue that this call to action by the Brazilian extreme right is based on a dialog between national memories and seeks a return to a national colonization guided by Christianity, whiteness, cis-heteronormativity, masculinity, capacitism, and cultural homogeneity. These factors, supposedly, had been “stolen” by the progressive social policies of the last decades.