UA Historical Encounters Series Special Event
Assessing Ukraine’s Post Totalitarian Experience
April 15, 2013
Washington, DC
Sponsors:
- CUSUR
- American Foreign Policy Council
Venue: 509 C. Street NE Washington, DC 20002
Time: 12:00 PM
Assessing Ukraine’s Post Totalitarian Experience
Featured Speaker:
- Dr. Volodymyr Viatrovych
Event Information
For the Soviet empire, Ukraine was a proving ground where the mechanisms of occupation and the construction of a totalitarian system were tested and refined. Later, this system was “successfully” implemented by communists in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as around the world.
By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukrainians had already experienced more than seventy years of the disastrous consequences of life under totalitarianism: massive loss of life, the destruction of the national culture and the nation’s memory, and the deformation of society. For a considerable period of time after gaining independence, Ukraine did not devote much effort to overcome its tragic past. The Orange Revolution of 2004 promised to change that pattern; it provided the impetus for the formation of a democratic polity as well as a new policy on national memory. Yet eight years later, the country is once again beset by problems. Why and how did this happen? What are the ramifications for scholarly historical research and for
society today? These questions and others will be addressed in the lecture by Dr. Volodymyr Viatrovych.
Dr. Volodymyr Viatrovych is a historian, researcher, author, and leader in Ukraine’s developing civil society. He is Director of the recently established Center on the History of Ukraine’s Nation-building Movements in the XX Century at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA). He is founder and currently is Chairman of the Academic Council of the Center for Research on the Liberation Movement (CDVR), a member of The Platform of European Memory and Conscience [1]. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the “Lonsky Prison” Museum and Memorial to Victims of Occupation Regimes of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. [2] He is past Director of the Branch-Wise State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine. He also is past Director of the Archives Department at the Ukrainian National Memory Institute. [3]
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Notes:
[1] The Platform of European Memory and Conscience brings together institutions and organizations from the V4 and other EU countries active in research, documentation, and education about the totalitarian regimes which befell the Visegrad region in the 20th century.
[2] In 2009 the CDVR, in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine, co-founded the “Lonsky Prison” Museum and Memorial
[3] The Ukrainian National Memory Institute was effectively dismantled by Presidential Decree No1085/2010