On March 22, an international online presentation of the Canadian researcher Alik Gomelsky’s book “Jewish-Ukrainian relations. Twentieth Century”, which was published thanks to the Kyiv publishing house “Ukrainian Priority” took place.

The specialists from Toronto, Jerusalem and Kyiv were among the participants. The meeting was attended by Chief Research Scientist of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Yuriy Shapoval, who also made a report.

The author of the book, the participants of the meeting noted, in his work touches on many issues, seeks to separate the truth from the propaganda stereotypes. In particular, it concerns assessments of Simon Petliura’s activities and shameful attempts to portray him as a Judaophobe, approaches to the activities of the OUN and its leaders, the KGB’s struggle against Jewish and Ukrainian nationalists, and so on. The speeches noted that constant attempts to sow confrontation in Jewish-Ukrainian relations were made by tsarist, communist Russia, and now by the Putin regime.

In his speech, Yu. Shapoval analyzed the content of the book, expressed critical remarks and wishes to the author, as well as he invited him to creative collaboration – participation in a large-scale publishing project – a series of books “Political Portraits”, initiated by the Center for Historical Political Science in Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the Parliamentary Publishing House.

Kuras Institute for Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was recognized as the winner of the tender procedure for the procurement of consulting services in the field of scientific research (Development of a draft program of scientific research important for effective state policy of reintegration of temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions). The tender was ordered by the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. On March 16, 2021, an agreement was signed between the Ministry and the Institute to perform the relevant works.

On March 8, 2021, the Razumkov Center hosted a round table on “Ukraine 2020-2021: unjustified expectations, unexpected challenges.”

During the round table there was a presentation and a discussion of the results of a study on this topic, conducted by the Razumkov Center. The employees of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: Deputy Director for Scientific Work Oleksandr Maiboroda and Head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Problems of Political Science Halyna Zelenko took an active part in the round table.

As a result of the discussion, the participants agreed on a general assessment of the current socio-economic and political situation. In particular, it was noted that despite the negative impact of the coronary crisis, the results of socio-political development of Ukraine in 2020 were less negative than expected. At the same time, the participants noted the lack of progress in resolving the conflict in Donbass, the lack of significant progress in the process of reforming the state, the deepening of socio-economic crisis.

Among the biggest challenges facing Ukraine in 2021, experts identified the fight against the spread of acute respiratory disease COVID-19, the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict in Donbass, deteriorating socio-economic situation, radicalization of the political scene and the problem of de-oligarchizing, which was stressed by the President of Ukraine. V. Zelensky.

Paying attention to the current situation both in Ukraine and about Ukraine, the participants agreed with the predictive conclusions on the escalation of the conflict in Donbass and the further deterioration of the socio-economic situation, and expressed skepticism about the success of the government in the process of de-oligarchizing, as G. Zelenko noted, despite the de jure presence of a one-party majority, it is de facto absent. Therefore, neither the inventory of legislation nor the relevant decisions at the level of changing the rules of the game for big business, which could eliminate the gaps in the legislation that allow the formation of a clan-oligarchic regime in Ukraine, will be adopted extremely difficult or impossible.

March 11, 2021 Chief Research Scientist of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yuriy Shapoval took part in an online meeting of the German-Ukrainian Commission of Historians. It was dedicated to a new joint German-Ukrainian scientific project to study school history textbooks. In addition, they discussed the preparation of a scientific conference on the study of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, which is to take place in September 2021 in Berlin. The issues of co-opting new members of the Commission were also considered. The particular attention was paid to the relations of the Commission, co-chaired by Martin Schulze-Wessel (Germany) and Yaroslav Hrytsak (Ukraine) with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Germany and Ukraine.

German-Ukrainian Commission of Historians (early 2020)

On March 4, 2021, an international research conference “Lviv Cathedral” in 1946: historical circumstances and modern assessments” was organized by the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University to celebrate the sad 75th anniversary of the so-called “Lviv Cathedral” (March 8-10, 1946), where the “reunification” of the Greek Catholic Galician metropolitanate with the Russian Orthodox Church was officially proclaimed

At the plenary sessions of the conference, which were attended by leading scholars from Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the United States, government officials and church structures, the forms and methods of repressive policies of the Soviet government and its intelligence services aimed at “eliminating” Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, stages and content of underground activities of the UGCC, lessons and tasks of modern and future cooperation of the Church, the state and civil society to overcome the traumas of the past and harmonize modern interfaith relations were discussed.

The report of the UGCC as an object of the post-war party-state policy of the USSR was made by Doctor of Political Sciences, Head of the Department of Ethno-Political Studies of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine Victor Voynalovych. The expert discussion was attended by Doctor of Philosophy, Chief Research Scientist of the Department of Ethno-Political Studies of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Victor Yelenskiy.

Victor Yelensky, Chief Research Scientist of the Department of Ethno-Political Science of our Institute, received a 9-month internship grant from the Fulbright Academic Exchange Program in Ukraine for an internship in the United States of America.

Congratulations colleague!

On January 4, 2021, Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine announced a competition for the post of a vacant post:

• Chief Research Scientist (Doctor of Sciences) of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Problems of Political Science
• Junior Research Scientist (Candidate of Sciences) of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Problems of Political Science

The duration of the competition is one month from the date of the announcement.

The Institute does not provide residential space.

The documents are sent to:

01011 Kyiv – 11, 8 General Almazova St.

Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Human Resources Department

Help by phone 285-70-49

On the 5^th of December, a new book on the postcommunist transformations in Eastern Europe since 1989 was launched online during the international conference “90 years of Polish Eastern Studies” at the University of Warsaw. The Senior Research Fellow of the Ethnopolitics department Mykola Riabchuk presented the book “Eastern Europe since 1989” that summarized the cycle of his guest lectures delivered at the UW in the past decade. The book examines political processes in Eastern Europe after the fall of the communist system and collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989-1991. Its primary goal, according to the author, was to explore the structural factors that determined their different development as well as the role of domestic and international actors that influenced the direction and speed and scope of postcommunit transformations. While the author keeps all the East Europe in mind, the main focus is on the post-Soviet part of the Eastern Europe, specifically on Ukraine as the most complicated, ambivalent, and graphical case of both the decommunization and decolonization processes. The process tracing is combined in the study with political analysis of historical developments in the postcommunist Eastern Europe drawn primarily on the theories of hybrid regimes, illiberal democracies, path-dependence and revolutionary breakthroughs. The UW professor Dr. Aleksandra Hnatiuk moderated the Q & A session with the author during the book launch. The video-record of the presentation can be accessed (in Polish, between 1:18 – 1:57) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YThRboAbjZc.

On November 24-25, 2020, the Ukrainian-Polish research conference “Poland-Ukraine, Poles-Ukrainians: Balance of Relations”, organized by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Krakow) and the the Institute of State and Law. V.M. Koretsky National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was held. The conference was attended by the Head of Department of Theoretical and Applied Problems of Political Science of the Institute Halyna Zelenko. In her report, “the Polish-Ukrainian Strategic Partnership VS Polish-Ukrainian Nationalist Ping-Pong: Who’s Who?” the speaker analyzed the state of current Ukrainian-Polish relations against the background of conflicts that arise between Poland and Ukraine over different interpretations of the common history – the glorification of the OUN-UPA, Volyn tragedy, and so on. The author conducted a retrospective analysis of the development of Polish-Ukrainian relations after the collapse of the socialist camp and described the level of institutional support for bilateral cooperation, the basis of Ukrainian and Polish nationalism and the reasons for the radicalization of the political scene in the two countries. G. Zelenko warns against the deepening of the conflict over different interpretations of history, which in political conflictology is interpreted as a conflict of identities and is practically unresolved. According to the researcher, the escalation of these contradictions can have extremely devastating consequences not only for Ukraine and Poland, but also for the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe.

CONFERENCE ON A “TRAUMA NATION” IN PRAGUE

On November 26-27, Dr. Mykola Riabchuk, a Senior Research Fellow at the Ethnopolitics Department, took a part in the international online conference “A Trauma Nation: Ukraine at a Crossroads”, organized by the Institute of East European Studies of the Charles University in Prague. He presented a paper “White Skins, Black Languages. Traumatic Experiences of Colonial Subjugation” that referred provocatively to the title of Franz Fanon’s classic book “Black Skin, White Masks”. He endeavored to check the applicability of some Fanon’s findings to the Ukrainian case and, more generally, to any quasi-colonial situation where no racial issues seem to be involved. The speakers’ main argument was that Ukrainians, indeed, were not discriminated against as individuals either in the Russian or Soviet empires insofar as they were considered the “same people” as Russians. Nonetheless, they were heavily oppressed as a group inasmuch as they rejected the “sameness” and insisted on distinct cultural, let alone political rights. It was Ukrainian language that symbolized Ukrainians’ “black skin” – the sign of backwardness, inferiority or, worse, political disloyalty and subversion. Fanon’s theory elucidates the mechanism of internalization of the dominant “white” ideology by the oppressed “black” community, resulting in the latter’s self-hatred and self-contempt. The inferiority complex induced by the dominant group within the subalterns and the incurred psychological trauma largely explain why even today, according to various sociological surveys, many more respondents speak Ukrainian at home that dare to do it in public. The only way for Ukrainian society to recover from the colonial trauma is to fully recognize its essence and eliminate the discursive and social-economic mechanisms that still reinvigorate it.

The video-record of presentation can be accessed at https://youtu.be/SUFJ7BXwlgw

On November 23, 2020, the National Democratic Institute in Ukraine, the Committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Legal Policy and on Digital Transformation organized an expert discussion of the draft Law “On Political Parties of Ukraine”. Among the experts invited by the organizers, Head of Department of Theoretical and Applied Problems of Political Science Galyna Zelenko took part in the event.

During the discussion, Galyna Zelenko expressed her views on the content of the proposed law, predicted the consequences of the introduction of certain provisions proposed in the law. The expert criticized the, in her opinion, excessive liberality of party legislation in Ukraine, which provokes a set of institutional problems that led to the establishment of multiparty system in Ukraine, discredits the institution of political parties and complicats the political structuring of Ukrainian society. During the discussion, Galyna Zelenko emphasized that the existing problems in party building cannot be solved only by adopting even an effective Law on Political Parties, as this problem requires an inventory of election legislation, institutionalization of power, etc.

The founder of the publication is Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The thematic direction of the journal is presented by the following headings:

• Theory and history of political science. Political philosophy;
• Political institutions and processes. Political sociology;
• Political culture and ideology. Political psychology;
• Political problems of international systems and global development;
• Ethnopolitics and ethnostate studies. Fundamentals of national security.

More details – at the link: Information for authors. Requirements for manuscripts of articles (in Ukrainian)

Manuscripts of articles, which will be published in the first issue of the journal, are accepted until February 1, 2021.

E-mail address of the editorial office: editor_ipiend@ukr.net

The book results from the research on “Ethno-political factors of consolidation of the contemporary Ukrainian society” carried out by the scholars of the ethno-political department of the Ivan F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies in 2017-2019. It presents the detailed analysis of ethno-political factors of consolidation of the contemporary Ukrainian society, outlines the conceptual framework for the analysis, and examines the available relevant studies on the topic. The dynamics of changing ethno-cultural and social identities in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity is scrutinized as the most complex and controversial phenomenon. Substantial attention is paid to the language and ethno-confessional aspects of societal consolidation, politics of memory and actualization of public space. As a corollary, the conceptual vision of evolving Ukrainian society is introduced and discussed.

The study targets the prospective audience of scholars and teachers, students and journalists, civic activists and NGO leaders, as well as policy makers and civic servants who elaborate, legislate, and implement in practice the strategies of national consolidation. (more…)

The proposed collective scientific work considers the issues of social and political activity and historical memory of the Jewish community in the context of Ukraine’s European integration. The paper examines the influences of historical memory on the formation of the political and cultural identity of the Jews of Ukraine, the role and contribution of the Jewish community to the European development of the country.

The collective monograph is intended for political scientists, historians, humanities students, all those who are interested in research in the sphere of Ukrainian Judaism and the modern development of political, social, religious and cultural life of the Jewish community of Ukraine. (more…)

On November 16, 2020, Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine announced a competition for the post of a vacant post:

Chief Research Scientist (Doctor of Sciences) of the Department of National Minorities

The duration of the competition is one month from the date of the announcement.

The Institute does not provide residential space.

The documents are sent to:

01011 Kyiv – 11, 8 General Almazova St.

Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Human Resources Department

Help by phone 285-70-49

The monograph deals with the multinational socio-political, socio-cultural space of Ukraine in 1990’s of 20 century – beginning of 21 century in the scientific discourse of scientists, polylogue of state bodies and public movements. A comprehensive study of national minorities is conducted as a subject of Ukrainian statebuilding, a determining factor of socio-cultural progress, socio-political transformations and, at the same time, political instability in the context of the foreign policy challenges of 1990’s of 20 century  – beginning of 21 century, which brings Ukrainian society closer to the peculiar point of bifurcation – a new state, promising solutions for conflict resolution.

The monograph is the first special study of the history of national minorities of Ukraine in the context of socio-political transformations of 1990’s of 20 century – beginning of 21 century using a large array of historical and political materials and first introduced into scientific circulation archival documents. The book is intended for scholars, teachers, students and everyone interested in history.

(more…)

On October 20, 2020, the XXIII All-Ukrainian Scientific and Practice Conference «Ukrainian Studies in the System of National Education, Science, Humanitarian Policy of the State» took place in the Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies.

The employees of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine took an active part in the work of the scientific event.

The speakers at the plenary session were: Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Chief Research Scientist Tetyana Bevz («Ukrainian Identity and National Security in the Challenges of Modernity») and Doctor of Political Science, Leading Research Scientist Vyacheslav Yaremchuk («To the problem of formation and transformation of identities and values of the regional political elite of Ukraine (on the example of Ivano-Frankivsk region».

Tеtyana Bevz

Vyacheslav Yaremchuk

Under sectional sessions, Mykola Horbatyuk, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Research Scientist made a report «Formation of the regional political elite of the Vinnytsia region (1991-2019) ».

The main features of the speech «Regional political elite of Lvyv region: peculiarities of formation (1990-2019) » during the discussion were presented by Candidate of Political Sciences, Researcher Alina Yasinska.

At the end of the sections work, the participants summed up the results of the conference, drafted and adopted a resolution on the state of Ukrainian studies, humanitarian education and science in Ukraine, with an appeal to public authorities and the scientific community.

From left to right: Vyacheslav Yaremchuk, Tetyana Bevz, Alina Yasinska, Mykola Horbatyuk

October 28, at Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Director of the Institute Oleg Rafalskiy had a meeting with the Director of the Representative office of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kyiv Henryk Sobchuk during which they discussed new challenges and opportunities for cooperation between the Ukrainian and Polish academies after the election of the new leadership of the NAS of Ukraine and in he context of the pandemic; on one hand, it has largely paralyzed the usual forms of scientific communication, and on the other hand, it has given impetus to a more dynamic development of new mechanisms of interaction in the scientific world. During the visit of the Polish colleague, special attention was paid to the discussion of topics related to the problems that are the subject of research of the Institute, in particular the decentralization processes in Ukraine, actualized by local elections, ethnopolitical factors of the consolidation of Ukrainian society and the role of the Polish factor in this process.

Oleg Rafalskiy and Henryk Sobchuk

On October 26, 2020, Oleksandr Maiboroda, Deputy Director of Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, met with Talgat Kaliyev, Director of the Institute of Applied Ethnopolitical Studies of the Republic Kazakhstan. During the meeting the ethno-political situation in both countries was discussed, the prospects of mutual participation in joint research projects were considered.

On the right-to-left of the photo: T. Kaliyev, O. Maiboroda, Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic Kazakhstan in Ukraine, S. Konovalov

On November 1, 2020, Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine announced a competition for the post of a vacant post:

• Chief Research Scientist (Doctor of Sciences) of the Department of Ethno-Political Science

The duration of the competition is one month from the date of the announcement.

The Institute does not provide residential space.

The documents are sent to:

01011 Kyiv – 11, 8 General Almazova St.

Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Human Resources Department

Help by phone 285-70-49