#NoKievNazi: Social Media, Historical Memory and Securitization in the Ukraine Crisis

I examine how social media and historical memory were used for the social construction of security issues during the Euromaidan protests in January–February 2014 and the conflict in eastern Ukraine in May–June 2014. Using a large sample of multi-lingual data, I investigate how securitizing speech-acts were produced on Twitter, what their audience was at different stages of the Ukraine crisis, and in which ways historical memories were employed by pro- and anti-Maidan groups for framing the events in Ukraine as a matter of existential threat. My findings suggest that historical memory, in particular of World War II, served as a facilitating condition for the securitization of the Ukraine crisis and contributed to its discursive escalation.