"GREAT VICTORY" IN THE "GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR" AS A SOVIET-RUSSIAN COLONIAL PROJECT

The goal is to analyze the practices of commemorating the victory over Nazism in World War II as a tool of Russia's colonial policy, which employs historical memory to legitimize its expansionist policies towards post-Soviet states, especially Ukraine. Methodology. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach, combining concepts from historical politics, social psychology, postcolonial studies, and political science. Methods used include critical discourse analysis, comparative analysis of historical narratives, and content analysis of official commemorative practices in Ukraine and Russia. The scientific novelty. For the first time, the cult of the "Great Victory" and the myth of the "Great Patriotic War" are interpreted as components of Russia's colonial project aimed at maintaining control over the post-Soviet space through symbolic dominance and information warfare. The study highlights how the formation of "pobedobesie" (victory frenzy) became a tool for mobilizing Russian society and justifying aggression against Ukraine. The main results. The research establishes that the identity crisis in Russia at the turn of the 20th - 21st centuries led to the construction of a new historical myth, with the "Great Victory" becoming the core of collective memory and political self-affirmation. Under Putin's rule, this myth was elevated to the status of a national ideology, legitimizing both internal repressive policies and external aggression. In Ukraine, commemorative practices shifted towards demythologization of the Soviet narrative, fostering a pluralistic memory space and gradually abandoning May 9 celebrations in favor of European-style commemoration. Thus, Victory Day transformed from a tool of "integration" of the post-Soviet space into the Russian imperial matrix into a symbol of resistance to Russian neo-imperialism.