VICTIM NARRATIVE AS A TOOL OF COGNITIVE INFLUENCE

Abstract

The article, using the narrative of the Ukrainian language as a victim of prohibitions, seeks to demonstrate how this narrative is employed for the purpose of cognitive influence and what consequences such use may entail. The analysis is inspired by a post published by the Ukrainian Institute on its Facebook page on International Mother Language Day, 21 February 2024, which provoked an emotionally charged public discussion about what, how, and in what manner it is considered appropriate to speak about the Ukrainian language. A critical examination of the post, the accompanying datorium (a list of intentionally selected dates accompanied by descriptions of events, unified by a single theme), and especially the comments beneath it suggest that the discussion functioned not merely as a spontaneous exchange of views but as an instance of cognitive influence. It is also crucial to recognize that both the author of the analysed post and the contributors to the comments, as well as other actors who commemorate the Ukrainian language primarily through the prism of its defeats, often function merely as instruments of a long-designed, enduring cognitive operation, the semantic core of which is structured around a victimhood narrative. A detailed analysis of the victimhood narrative, reinforced by motifs of folkloric beauty and rustic imagery, reveals that, rather than strengthening the Ukrainian language, such representations render it a sentimental object of a doomed past. This framing leaves the speaker with a false dichotomy: either to abandon the language or to fight for it. Both options are counterproductive, as a living and resilient language is oriented toward the future rather than toward overcoming the legacy of a hostile past. The victimhood narrative, employed as a tool of cognitive influence, achieves its purpose, as evidenced by the re-russification observed in 2025, particularly in Kyiv.