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Maryna Starodubska
March 10 ·

A longread on defense communications & group memory

formation. Since today's battle is happening not only at the forefront
of the war, but also in the public domain, below I'm describing the
mechanism of group memory formation, which explains why the
Russians will neither protest in large numbers, nor understand 'why
we have to suffer'. My conclusions below and on the screenshots
are based, aside from 15+ years of experience, on Neville Bolt's
(Kings College) flagship book "The Violent Image: Insurgent
Propaganda and The New Revolutionaries", published in 2012, but
as relevant today as never.
The screenshots show, based on Neville Bolt's workings from the
above-mentioned book why the Russians 'stay out of politics' and
don't have a clue 'what we have done'. Below is a bit simpler and
shorter explanation. Source reference: (с) Neville Bolt, 2012.
Our mentality is formed during ~100 years under the influence of
numerous factors, one of which is the group memory. The way large
groups of people (countries, regions, cities, communities)
remember certain events influences how those events are
remembered by separate persons. In the group memory of most
Russians', their country is not captured as aggressor, therefore, they
have no 'collective guilt' for what's happening.
Forming a group memory about an event or a chain of events is
the only way to permanently unite large numbers of people. This is
why Ukrainians, despite the constant internal bickering, have risen
on February 24rd, 2022 as one. Right now our group memory is
being 'chrystallized' and 'purified' as to Russia's role in Ukraine's
history, which is - aggressor.
Overall, memory does not work as an 'hard drive' from which we
'retreive files' of memories. Rather, it's a 'supercomputer',
reconstructing memories through the lens of current values and
experience one possesses at the moment of recall. Remember your
dreadful Prom photos - you did think you looked nice at the time,
though, right? Hense, through global memory formation today we
can influence the perception of decades and centuries of the past
history.
"Archipelago of memory" is a repository of events, the
perception of which upholds our mentality as basis for the group
memory. Changing the perception of those events can
fundamentally change the perception of one's life, country, and
oneself in the world. What 30's, 90's, 2004, Maidan, and this unjust
and unprovoked war by Russia (among other events) mean for
Ukrainians - serves as basis for our archipelago of memory.
 Russians perceive these very events entirely differently.
POTD (propaganda of the deed) is an act of violence, whose
signals or extreme nature create ideological impact that’s
disproportionately larger than the event itself. To prevent the world's
potential all-engulfing 'Ukraine fatigue' and to avoid Ukraine
becoming 'another unsafe travel destination', we should not push for
pity. Pity is draining and tiring, it's not an engaging discussion topic,
no one wants to be associated with it. Ukraine must remain the
'underdog' beating the 'overdog', the proverbial David standing up
to seemingly impossible Goliath. Photos, videos, and graphic
images have exponentially stronger impact than words. And though
POTD initially has been used by terrorists (e.g. acts of self-burning,
etc.), military analysts believe it can be used for productive
purposes.
The information war is ongoing, and it's crucially important to
support and amplify what's happening at the real war forefront.
Please, feel free to use and repost.

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Наталія Буреніна, Петр Стародубсĸий and 26
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Maryna Starodubska
Oksana Semenyuk ти ціĸавилася англ матеріалами -
ось перший
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