Discussing Wartime Collaboration in a Transnational Digital Space: The Framing of the UPA and the Latvian Legion in Wikipedia

Abstract

Mārtiņš Kaprāns and Mykola Makhortykh examine how memory wars and memory truces occur in a transnational space of digital media. Examining how the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Latvian Legion are represented on Wikipedia, the chapter discusses interactions between digital technology and the contentious memory of collaboration. To this end, it investigates the different framing strategies used to represent wartime memories in Wikipedia, the ways these strategies are developed by local editors’ communities, and the reception of Wikipedia’s representations of the past by national and transnational audiences. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the different forms of consensus used in Wikipedia for dealing with contentious past as well as the promises and dangers of using digital media for transnational history writing.