Workshop Examines Ukrainians’ Memories of the Second World War

By Bohdan Klid

More than 60 years after the end of the Second World War, historical memories of that war often elicit emotional and highly-politicized disputes in Ukraine. Disagreements and divisions over its nature and the roles of its combatants are reflected to some degree in the current geopolitical and ideological orientations of Ukraine’s political parties and geographical regions.

The idea of organizing a workshop, called “World War II in Ukraine: Collective Memory in the Light of History,” arose when the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) invited Vladyslav Hrynevych, a senior research associate at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, to Edmonton. His publications on the Second World War, especially his article “Mit viiny i viina mitiv” (The Myth of the War and the War of Myths”), which appeared in the May 2005 issue of the periodical Krytyka, attracted the attention of scholars in the West to this topic. In the article, Vladyslav Hrynevych outlined the construction of the Soviet myth of the war and, following Ukraine’s independence, its partial deconstruction and the creation of a competing national myth. The deep divisions in the collective memory of the war among Ukrainians today reflect a situation in which neither competing myth—the Soviet or the national—holds sway throughout the country.

The workshop, which took place on November 29, was sponsored by CIUS and co-sponsored by the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. It consisted of four panels (during which presentations were made) and a final roundtable session. Opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Leslie Cormack, chair of the Department of History and Classics, and Dr. Zenon Kohut, director of CIUS.

The first session featured papers by Drs. Serhii Plokhii and Serhy Yekelchyk. Dr. Plokhii, of CIUS and the Department of History and Classics, spoke on recent attempts to commemorate the 1945 Yalta Conference, focusing on the proposal to erect a monument in the Crimea featuring Stalin. The other panellist, Dr.Yekelchyk, from the Departments of History and Germanic and Russian, University of Victoria, spoke on the initiation of Soviet mass political rituals in Kyiv in 1943–1945 and the formation of a collective memory of the war.

In the second panel the first paper was given by Dr. Bohdan Harasymiw, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Calgary. He spoke on how views on the Second World War were used by political forces in the recent Ukrainian electoral campaigns of 2002–2006. Vladyslav Hrynevych, the second panellist, spoke on the historiography of the war as a factor in contemporary Ukrainian politics, focusing on the literature produced since independence. Per Anders Rudling, a graduate student in the Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta, then presented a paper on “The Great Patriotic War” and the making of modern Belarus, in which he showed how the Soviet myth of the war has remained virtually unchallenged in today’s Belarus.

The third session featured Dr. David Marples, Department of History and Classics and CIUS, who gave a paper reviewing recent literature in Ukraine on the SS Division ‘Halychyna.’ Dr. Peter Potichnyj, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, McMaster University, spoke on the Litopys UPA as a source for the study of the national liberation struggle in Ukraine. To date, about 60 volumes have been published in three series. A detailed description of the Litopys UPA can be found on the internet at www.litopysupa.com.

The fourth panel was opened by Jars Balan, of CIUS, who spoke on working on his father’s memoir on the Second World War. Dr. John-Paul Himka, of the Department of History and Classics, shared his thoughts on Daniel Mendelsohn’s book Lost, which describes the author’s attempt to understand the killing of six of his relatives in Ukraine in the context of the Holocaust. Dr. Bohdan Klid, of CIUS, gave the last presentation. In it he analyzed texts of songs on the war in Ukrainian rock music.

During the final session, Vladyslav Hrynevych, spoke on recent historical writings in Ukraine, identifying areas where additional research is needed.

The workshop was attended by academics and the community at large. The sessions were chaired by Drs. Natalia Kononenko, Serge Cipko, Natalia Pylypiuk and Oleh Ilnytskyj.

Several days before the workshop, on November 24, CIUS sponsored the screening of a three-part series on the Second World War, Zvorotnii bik viiny (The Other Side of the War), which had been shown on Ukrainian television. Vladyslav Hrynevych, who was the historical consultant for the much-discussed series, introduced the film and then answered questions from the audience following its showing.

The two events sponsored by CIUS showed that there was much interest in the academic as well as general community on how Ukraine in the Second World War was being portrayed and remembered in Ukraine today.

Bohdan Klid is Research Scholar and Assistant Director, CIUS.