The Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History conducted a summer school at Ukrainian Catholic University, “Soviet and Nazi rule on Ukrainian territories – Intersections and comparisons.” Participating were 15 researchers, 13 in person and two online, from Ukraine, Germany, and Austria. From 29 June to 5 July, they presented their historical projects involving the interwar period in Ukraine and also had the opportunity to attend lectures and participate in excursions in Lviv.
The location of the summer school was not chosen accidentally, for throughout the Second World War Lviv was under both Soviet and Nazi rule. Each regime imposed its own order here, and the local population suffered.
“In my opinion, in Lviv it’s clearly possible to research the problems of the experience of Soviet and German rule, and also the violence and massive crimes of both regimes. They are more tightly connected here than in other cities of Europe,” emphasized Kai Struve, Professor of Eastern European History at the Institute of History of Martin Luther University, who was a mentor at the summer school. “This connection has now gained new relevance and meaning. Today’s war in Ukraine is deeply connected with the 20th century, and it also poses new questions about our understanding of the last century. For this new large war in Europe arose not because of the absence of a critical approach to mass Nazi crimes or memory of the Holocaust but because the very same ideological and political foundation now exists in Russia.”
Taking part in the school were both young researchers who are only beginning to write their master’s works and young doctoral candidates and also scholars who have experience writing dissertations and have already earned their PhDs. They presented their projects, the themes of which involved Soviet and Nazi rule in Ukraine, historical memory of the Holocaust, and the crimes of totalitarian regimes, including the Soviet one. The participants received expert opinion of their works from mentors and colleagues.
Participants of the Haievoi Center summer school present their projects
We note that the mentors were: Dr. Kai Struve, Professor of Eastern European History at the Institute of History of Martin Luther University; UCU Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak; Professor Oksana Kis; and Candidate of Historical Studies Petro Dolhanov. Kai Struve and Oksana Kis also delivered lectures for the participants. Other invited lecturers were Professor of History, Doctor of Historical Studies, and writer Olena Styazhkina and Professor of History Christoph Mick, who specializes in the history of Eastern Europe.
The school’s participants also went on excursions to sites connected with the Second World War.
The first location was Lviv’s Citadel. The excursion was conducted by a young researcher of the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History, Andriy Usach. The participants were greatly surprised that it has almost no signs of a concentration camp for prisoners of war. It now has an active hotel and restaurant.
Excursion of Lviv for participants of the Haievoi summer school
The Museum-Memorial to Victims of Occupying Regimes, “Prison on Lontskoho Street,” also made impressions: Prison cells have been preserved in the state of the period of the Second World War. The Territory of Terror Museum, located on the site of a former ghetto, was also visited, as was the After Silence space, which works with the traumatic legacy of Ukraine from the times of Soviet and Nazi mass violence.
“It was important for us that the school was maximally active and useful for our guests. We saw that the participants were very motivated. Their presentations were on a high level. Really, at every conference you don’t see such a high level of research presentations. Interest in the theme came out in the discussions, which were active even outside the classrooms.” Marianna Pyrih, Administrative Director of the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History, summarized the event.
The participants also shared their impressions of the summer school.
German student Ben Robinson Reis: Throughout the last semester, he learned much information about Ukraine, so he was glad to take part in the summer school. He admitted that to travel to Ukraine, where a war is going on, did not frighten him, because Lviv is far from the frontlines, and so here it is relatively safe. However, his friends and family were worried about him.
“I liked that the school’s focus was on transformations of Lviv in the 20th century. The city was very multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. This all quickly changed through wars, genocides, invasions, and occupations,” stated Ben Robinson Reis.
Mariya Prokopenko, a scholarly researcher of the treasures of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, traveled from Kyiv. She noted: “It was a wonderful program, very well balanced: Discussions alternated with hands-on history during the excursion, conversations in the city space. In sum, a great atmosphere, interesting lectures, and presentations by participants. Olena Styazhkina’s lecture about the occupation of Donetsk struck me personally. I myself come from this city. I was 20 when Russia started its aggression. I saw all the events with my own eyes. It’s very difficult to remember and talk about this, but very necessary.”
Addendum
The Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History was established in 2024 by Ukrainian Catholic University in cooperation with Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich as part of a large-scale research project “Ukraine and Europe in the 20th century.” The center was named in honor of a young historian and graduate of the Humanities Faculty of Ukrainian Catholic University who perished in fighting near Kursk on 27 August 2024. The hero was 28 years old.
This project is based on many years of research cooperation with German colleagues. UCU and LMU received a research grant from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The first preparatory meeting regarding the potential grant award for the project was on 23 February 2022, some 12 hours before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The center works on three main themes. The first is research on Stalin’s regime in the Soviet Union and also Nazi Germany, a comparison of these two totalitarian governments. The second thematic area involves German-Ukrainian relations during the Second World War. This question is closely connected with the third area of research: “Propaganda and knowledge: The image of Ukrainian nationalism and memory of Soviet and German mass crimes in the period of the Cold War and later.” At the center, researchers study the history of memory, in particular the history of propaganda discussion about “Ukrainian nationalism” and its connection with knowledge and memory of Soviet and German mass crimes.
Another goal of the center’s activities is to develop international scholarly cooperation, which allows research into new questions regarding the violent history of Europe in the first half of the 20th century and the long-term influence of this history on East and West.
The center organizes international scholarly events, in particular annual conferences concentrating on the themes of the Second World War, the Eastern European diaspora, and the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union and the Cold War. A separate aspect of the center’s public activities is a series of lectures dedicated to historical questions and themes connected with Russia’s war against Ukraine.
