“Indulgence in colonialism”. The Ukrainian Institute protests against the Franco-Russian conference

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The Ukrainian Institute opposed the holding of the conference in France “France-Russia: 1000 years of history and culture”whose measures are based on the narratives of Russian propaganda.

This is stated in the official letter of the representative office of the Ukrainian Institute in France.

“The Ukrainian Institute was surprised to learn about the holding of the conference “France-Russia: 1000 years of history and culture” under the name of Anna of Kyiv, Queen of France. We are appalled that another attempt by Russia to carry out its propaganda activities could take place in your solid educational institution in the Vendée department, which distinguished itself in the fight against the Nazi occupiers during the Second World War“, the letter says.

The UI calls the decision “to hold an event dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of the “common history and culture” of France and Russia” extremely strange. “Anna of Kyiv is Queen of France and daughter of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who ruled Kyivan Rus, a state with its capital in Kyiv, not Moscow. The city of Moscow was founded in 1147, more than a hundred years after the birth of Anna of Kyiv. The French queen has never visited Moscow and has never been a carrier of Russian culture“, they emphasized there.

“An attempt to name an event dedicated to the so-called common history and culture of France and Russia and generally holding such an event by her name is an indulgence in the Russian colonial view of history and the desire to expropriate the history, culture and outstanding personalities of oppressed peoples“, added the French representative office of UI.

About the “France-Russia” conference and not only

In the French Catholic University ICES, in the city of La Roche-sur-Yon, in the midst of a full-scale war in Ukraine, they planned to hold a conference called “France-Russia: 1000 years of history and culture”.

“A thousand years ago, Anna, Princess of Kyiv, crossed Europe to marry one of the first Capetian kings. She established the first historical connection between France and the world of Eastern Slavs“, says the description of the event scheduled for the evening of January 30.

Lectures are planned in the program “Panorama of Russian history” from ICES teacher Eric Picard, “Russian folk music” from the reader of the Cathedral of St. Alexander-Nevsky in Paris, Arno Albert-Mozalevsky, “Literary Ballad” with the reading of texts by Pushkin, Chekhov, Bunin, Pasternak, as well as a lecture entitled “Anna from Russia” about the daughter of Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv.

Conference poster

However, this is not the only event of ICES University related to Russia. For example, at the beginning of January of this year, on your Facebook page, you shared the news about the reprint of the book by your teacher, David Tertree, entitled “Russia: the return of power”.

“David Turtry offers a deep an analysis of Russia’s economic sovereignty strategy that explains the partial failure of sanctions. More broadly, it is a panorama of the advantages and limitations of the Russian government in the context of the restructuring of international relations“, says the description of the book provided by the university.

Screenshot of the post

Last December, this French university announced an exhibition dedicated to the Russian writer Oleksandr Solzhenitsynknown for his Ukrainophobic views, denial of the Holodomor in Ukraine as genocide by the Soviet authorities and the right of Ukrainians to create their own independent state.

Exhibition poster

Protests

In addition to the official protest of the Ukrainian Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Diocese of St. Volodymyr the Great in Paris sent its appeal to ISEC Catholic University. In it, you were called to take a conscious position – however, the event was not cancelled.

A few days before the scheduled conference, representatives of the Diocese of St. Volodymyr sent a letter to the university expressing their disagreement with holding such events while Russia does not stop its full-scale attack on Ukraine and its occupation of its territories.

“We will not touch on the sensitive topic of Franco-Russian cultural cooperation at a time when Russia is waging a war of aggression, condemned by the European Union, condemned by France… However, we would like to draw your attention to the manipulation of history that is taking place through this conference.

Princess Anna of Kyiv is represented as Anna from Russia, and Russia did not exist then! Russia appropriates the Queen of France to begin its “thousand-year history” of cultural cooperation with France!” the letter says.

The Eparchy of St. Volodymyr the Great emphasized that such a position is based on theses of Russian propaganda that allegedly “Ukraine never existed, it has no history“.

There they noted the shame of the fact that a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate can participate in this conference: “It is not only the patriarchy that developed the ideology of “Russian world”, the “spiritual” ideology of Russian aggression against Ukraine, which causes so many victims among the civilian population, but also the patriarchy that qualifies the civilized Western world as decadent and depraved“.

“Russia ignores all international sanctions and continues its aggression. It is sad to see that serious institutions are tricked into supporting this attitude and these gross propaganda actions“, the diocese concluded.

Read also: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reacted to the participation of a Serbian-Russian actor in the HBO series

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