PRESENTATION AT THE GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE

“What’s New in Metternich’s Garden? Central and Eastern Europe and the Russian War in Ukraine” was the title of a public lecture given by Mykola Riabchuk, a leading researcher at the Department of Political Culture and Ideology at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw.

The main question that the lecturer tried to clarify was why post-communist countries with approximately the same historical experience of Russian domination are now taking very different positions vis-a-vis the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine. Economic ties and dependencies, according to the scholar, are not decisive in this case, because even by 2022, Russia accounted for only a few percent of the trade turnover of Central and Eastern European countries. More important is the internal political dynamics in these countries, as well as their experience of relations not only with Russia and the USSR (roughly the same), but also with Ukraine and the West (quite different).

Taking into account cultural and historical factors, the speaker averred, is essential for both governmental and public diplomacy.