Анотація:
The article is focused on the process of construction of an official model of historical past
on the base of analysis of speeches of two Presidents of Ukraine (L.Kuchma and
V.Yushchenko) and President of Russia (V.Putin) for the last decade (1994–2006). The
researcher examines what kind of historical schemes (including historical commemorations, events, and heroes) was employed by each president in order to form a collective historical identity, as well as compares them. One of the key issues is to what
extent Ukrainian and Russian ruling elites tried to create a historical rupture with cultural
and political heritage of the Soviet past and encouraged the “revival” of some elements of
pre-Soviet historical and other national traditions as well as formation of new ones.