ИСТИНА

The border between Russia and Ukraine is a convenient testing ground for monitoring state border functions in action. Foremost the research interest to the Russian-Ukrainian border (first appeared on the fragments of the Russian Empire after the WWI, but has continued its existence as subnational) is dictated by the rapid changes that began after the collapse of the USSR and divided the territories which for centuries developed in a single cultural and information space, had close economic, domestic and cultural interrelations. The paper will concern the policy of memory in Russia and Ukraine after 1991, gradually dividing the their common symbolic space. It will discuss the strategies of monumental propaganda that led to radical transformations of the symbolic landscape along the Russian-Ukrainian border. The author will highlight the key periods of changes, and will discuss of their specifics in the context of nation-state building in Russia and Ukraine, of the historical memory and ethno-cultural identity in different parts of the Russian-Ukrainian borderlands. The research was supported by Russian Science Foundation, grant No14-18-03621 "Russian Borderland: Challenges of Neighbourhood".