A dialogue of historiographies takes place at conference in Chernihiv (11/24/02)

A dialogue of historiographies takes place at conference in Chernihiv

by Vladyslav Verstiuk

CHERNIHIV - The international conference, "Ukraine-Russia: A Dialogue of Historiographies" was held on August 23-25 in Chernihiv, a city whose monuments and history are reminiscent of the 1,000-year history of Ukraine-Rus'.

The conference was initiated and co-sponsored by the Kowalsky Program for the Study of Eastern Ukraine at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (Edmonton) and the Institute of European Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv). Others involved in sponsoring or organizing the conference include the Viacheslav Lypynsky East European Research Institute (Philadelphia), the Taras Shevchenko State Pedagogical University (Chernihiv) and the Siverian Institute of Regional Studies (Chernihiv). About 30 historians from Ukraine, Russia, the United States and Canada participated in the conference.

Conference organizers attempted to achieve a proportional representation of Russian historians, as one of the aims of the conference was to understand recent developments in both Ukrainian and Russian historiographies, which 10 years ago had embarked on the path of post-Soviet transformation. Organizers did not seek to reconcile prevailing views of their respective historiographies, nor agree on any joint methodological approaches or conclusions. Rather, the aims were to discuss achievements in the historical scholarship of the respective countries and to understand diverging views in assessing the same historical events.

Zenon Kohut, Igor Danilevskii, Volodymyr Rychka and Oleksii Tolochko examined problems in the historiography of Kyivan Rus' while Natalia Iakovenko, Tetiana Iakovleva and Serhii Plokhy discussed Ukrainian-Russian relations in the 17th-18th centuries. Roman Senkus, Oleksander Kukharuk and Aleksei Miller gave papers on Ukraine in the Russian Empire.

The complex topic of the 1917 revolutionary period was examined by Jaroslaw Pelenski, Lev Protasov and Vladyslav Verstiuk. Papers on the Stalinist repressive-penal system of the 1920s and 1930s, delivered by Oleksandr Lysenko and Vladimir Nevezhin, stimulated great interest and led to a lively discussion. Georgii Kasianov, Nikita Petrov and Yurii Shapoval discussed topics related to the second world war. Among others who participated in discussions were the Chernihiv scholars Volodymyr Boiko, Dmytro Hryn, Tetiana Demchenko and Volodymyr Kovalenko.

At the plenary session, chaired by Frank Sysyn, it became clear that Ukrainian and Russian historians were faced over the last years with a number of difficult tasks, such as breaking the stereotypes of Soviet historiography, overcoming class-based approaches to history writing, de-linking historical writing and Communist ideology, and accepting national paradigms in writing history.

During conference sessions, it became evident that much had been accomplished in working on these tasks over the past decade. Importantly, the development of national Ukrainian and Russian historiographies was begun, the existence of which is a precondition for creating the possibility of comprehensive and equal dialogue between Ukrainian and Russian scholars, including constructive discussions and the exchange of information and production.

The presentation of Volume 8 of the English edition of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus'," prepared by the CIUS's Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research, and the seventh issue of Ukrainskyi Humanitarnyi Ohliad, a leading journal of historians in Ukraine, was held toward the end of the conference.

The conference was a noted event in the scholarly and cultural life of Chernihiv. Oleksandr Kovalenko, deputy head of the Chernihiv Oblast Administration, conveyed greetings to conference participants at the conference opening. The conference proceedings were covered by the city's radio, television and press, while the sessions were well-attended by lecturers and students of Chernihiv's institutions of higher learning.

Vladyslav Verstiuk is deputy head of the Institute of European Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

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