War and ‘museum front’ in a digital era: The Ukrainian War Museum during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

Based on the extensive literature on the digital transformation of museums, this article explores how war museums can effectively use online media to fulfil their functions related to remembering, interpreting and debating war. The author focuses primarily on the context of ongoing armed conflict as war museums engage in a struggle, shaping, mobilizing and unifying narrative to support the war effort. The main part of the article is an analysis of the online activities of the Kyiv Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War during the first months of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The author analyses the online exhibitions, online projects and content of the official Museum’s Facebook profile in order to explain how the War Museum uses its digital online resources to inform the local population and the international communities about the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and mobilize them to support the war effort.