BASEES Talk: The Second World War in contemporary Ukrainian discourse
In Autumn/Winter 2023/24 BASEES will organise a series of Talks spotlighting the research of the recipients of Non-Residentials Fellows from Ukraine. In December, Dr Ihor Dvorkin will talk about the memory of the Second World War.
Abstract
The Second World War played and continues to play a major role in Ukrainian political, cultural, public, and scientific discourse. In the conditions of Russia's contemporary war against Ukraine, the memory of the Second World War, the previous destructive war on the territory of Ukraine, becomes even more relevant for the state, scientists, and the public. After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the coexistence of national and post-Soviet historical narratives in the political, scientific, and educational spheres was typical. This also applied to the events of the Second World War. After the events of Euromaidan and the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, especially after the legislative changes of 2015, called "decommunization laws", the situation changed in favour of a national approach. With the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the process of rethinking of historical events, including the Second World War, continues at the state and local levels.
The presentation will discuss the following questions:
Soviet heritage and post-Soviet realities. "Great Patriotic War" vs World War II. What was the politics of memory in Ukraine before 2014?
What was the impact of Euromaidan and Russian aggression (2014) on memory politics and historical politics?
"Places of memory" dedicated to the war in a Ukrainian city: Soviet and post-Soviet. Is a combination possible in the urban space?
The Second World War on the pages of textbooks: before and after 2014/2022. New accents.
Will (how) current Russia's war in Ukraine affect the politics and culture of the Second World War memory in Ukraine?
Bio
Dr. Ihor Dvorkin
Associate Professor, Department of Ukrainian & Cultural studies and History of Science at the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
Ihor Dvorkin graduated from the Department of History at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine, and received his MA diploma in History and Archival Studies (2005). He completed a postgraduate course on the History of Ukraine at the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Department of Political History (2005-2008), and received his PhD (Candidate of Science in History) from Volodymyr Dal East Ukrainian University (Luhansk, Ukraine) in 2009. Since 2018, Ihor Dvorkin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Ukraine Studies, Culture Studies and History of Science, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” (during 2008-2018 he was a senior lecturer at the Department of Political History of the same university).
Ihor Dvorkin was a research fellow and a participant of non-residential programs and emergency scholarships for Ukrainian scientists at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM, Vienna) (2022); The Shevchenko Scientific Society in the U.S. (NTSh-A) (2022); United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (2022). He was also a guest lecturer/speaker at the Science at Risk Lecture Series, Leipzig University, Germany (2022); Ukrainian Hour, Neuengamme Memorial, Hamburg, Germany (2022); Ukrainian Research Series Online, Erfurt University, Germany (2022); Ukrainian Catholic University (School of Journalism and Communications), Lviv, Ukraine (2023).
His research interests include memorialization of the Second World War in Ukraine, History of Ukraine, Museum Studies and contemporary Ukrainian historiography.