Bombed-out museums are our most potent narrative weapon

I've repeated this countless times, but I'll say it again: the Western world is more moved by bombed-out museums and destroyed monuments than by wounded victims and weeping children. This isn't because the West is inherently cynical, but because it shatters a stereotype. The image of a powerful white man harming a small, crying Vietnamese boy has been seared into the consciousness of Westerners since the Vietnam War, with Russia now automatically cast in the role of the United States, and Ukraine as another wronged "third world" country, like Chechnya and Syria before it.

The revelation that the Russians have come to Ukraine with the intention of destroying local museums, theaters, and libraries is a game-changer. It completely overturns the balance of power – Russia is stripped of its claim to greatness by a shock wave, replaced instead by the image of a barbarian horde intent on burning Rome or Constantinople!

As a result, Westerners are ‘deeply concerned’, but such images do not undermine the myth of Russian greatness and culture, ‘which has nothing to do with it’ – that’s why Russian propagandists are not afraid of them.

The revelation that the Russians have come to Ukraine with the intention of destroying local museums, theaters, and libraries is a game-changer. It completely overturns the balance of power – Russia is stripped of its claim to greatness by a shock wave, replaced instead by the image of a barbarian horde intent on burning Rome or Constantinople!

For this reason, the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage must become an essential topic for us in the coming years. It is our most potent narrative weapon, and we must keep it in mind, always.

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About the author. Oksana Zabuzhko, writer

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