I dream all the time that I'm there : Oral histories of Ukrainian flooded villages

Abstract

How can the ancient history of a small homeland be transferred to a new, uninhabited location? What did it mean, for instance, for Ukrainian peasants from the 1960s to the 1980s to relocate an entire village to a designated plot of land—be it a field or steppe? I analyze autobiographical narratives, particularly interviews about forced resettlement from villages flooded during the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Dnipro and Dniester rivers in Soviet Ukraine in the 1960s and 1980s. To do this, I use folkloristic methods to focus on the story itself, the context of its telling, and the narrator's stance. Together, these interviews and memorial activities create what I call a resettlement narrative—a shared collection of memories through which former villagers interpret their displacement. I explore common themes such as the reasons for resettlement, notable actors and locations, experiences of relocation, and the cultural forms in which memory is preserved, including annual reunions, travels to the flooded villages, books, memorial signs, and photo exhibitions.