On December 12–13, scientific seminar “Cossack Myth in Eastern Europe in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries” was held in Berlin. Dr. Denys Shatalov – head of Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” scientific department, researcher on “Cossack myth” in the public opinion of Ukraine and Eastern Europe as a whole became the main initiator of this scientific conference, held with the assistance of the Transregional Studies Forum and Germany leading Ukrainian Studies Center “Prisma Ukraїna”. In 2017, his monograph “The idea of the Cossacks. The Ukrainian Cossacks in public thought of the second half of the 18th – the first half of the 19th century”, which caused approving reviews of Ukrainian and foreign researchers and became the subject of scientific discussion, was published.

You can read the monograph here.

The following historians of Ukraine, Europe and the world became the participants of the seminar: Prof. Volodymyr Kravchenko (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada), Prof. Oleksandr Osypian (Leipzig Institute for History and Culture of Eastern Europe, Germany), Dr. Artem Papakin (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine), Dr. Ursula Vuli (School of Slavic and Eastern European Studies of University College London, United Kingdom), Dr. Andrii Posunko (Institute of Humanities in Vienna, Austria), Dr. Klymentii Fedevych (Independent researcher on the history of Central and Eastern Europe), Dr. Tomash Gen-Konarskyi (Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr. Elizabeth Olzhatska (Jagiellonian University, Poland), Dr. Yehor Vradii (Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”, Ukraine) etc.

What is the “Cossack Myth” and how we can divide it?

Why is it so popular not only in Ukraine and Russia, but also outside these countries? How the “Cossack Myth” functioned in different periods of Ukrainian history? What role does it play in the current political situation, in what way? This is a rather incomplete list of issues that were discussed during the scientific seminar.

You can read more about the seminar idea and the “Cossack myth” concept in an interview with Dr. Denys Shatalov.

It should be mentioned that videos of all seminar presentations will be available on the official “Prisma Ukraina” channel soon (Entangled History of Ukraine / PRISMA UKRAЇNA).

We would like to note that due to the cooperation between “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, “Prisma Ukraїna” and Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine”, International summer school “After Violence: The (Im -) Possibility of Understanding and Remembering” was held in June this year. Well-known Ukrainian and foreign scientists became its speakers. One of the key events was the lecture “Chornobyl as a Warning: Nuclear Energy and the Arrogance of Man” by Prof. Serhii Plokhii, director of Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, winner of the T. Shevchenko National Prize (2018). Prof. Plokhii lecture you can watch by the link.