Shifting Ukraine to the center of history: Snyder headed the international Pinchuk initiative, Ukrainians discuss

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“Ukrainian history: a global initiative“ – this is the name of the international research project, the presentation of which took place on November 27 at the British Museum in London. Historians Timothy Snyder, Serhiy Plokhiy and Yaroslav Hrytsak, as well as Viktor Pinchuk, who initiated the project and supports it financially, spoke at the presentation.

In his opening remarks, the professor of history at Yale University Timothy Snyder emphasized the main goal of the research initiative – to bring the history of Ukraine out of the periphery of Russian history and return it to the center of the world.

“A lot of interesting things can be said about the origin of our language, about the Bronze Age, about the Middle Ages, about modernity from the Amazons to the Vikings. Ukraine is a territory where our standard idea of ​​history can be revised and enriched“, said Timothy Snyder.

In turn Sergey Plokhiy also noted that modern historical research should be interdisciplinary and high-tech in order to involve colleagues from related fields – climate change researchers, for example.

Timothy Snyder at a public discussion after the presentation of the project. Photo: screenshot from the video

More than 90 researchers joined this initiative. The focus of the program is conducting independent research, which will cover the times from the prehistory of Ukrainian lands to the present. Scholars will explore such topics as the beginning of human settlements, the spread of Indo-European languages, the establishment of historical international relations, as well as contemporary issues of nation-building and empire.

Photo: screenshot from the video

“Ukrainian history: a global initiative” positions itself as a charitable organization. Its activities will be regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The project will be managed by an independent Board of Directors, which includes: a politician and a diplomat Carl Bildthistorian, laureate of the Pulitzer Prize Anne Applebaum, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia Boris Gudziak, poet Serhiy Zhadanbusinessman and founder of the project Victor Pinchuk.

How Ukrainians reacted to the project

The network reacted noticeably both to the project and to the person of the founder of the initiative, Viktor Pinchuk. A member of Eurosolidarity added skepticism to the usually supportive posts of historians Volodymyr Vyatrovych:

“Many respected historians are involved in the project “Ukrainian history: a global initiative”. But the eye caught the name of a person who did not describe our ancient past, but co-created something very close to us. Yes, Pinchuk has already created the history of Ukraine – through the media and politicians controlled by him. And because of this, for a quarter of a century, it became not global at all, but Little Russian. Therefore, there are reasons to doubt that something else will come out of his initiative to write Ukrainian history“.

The founder of Historical Truth also spoke negatively about the project Vakhtang Kipianijournalist Myroslava Gongadze and other.

Yaroslav Hrytsak took part in the discussion. Photo: screenshot from the video

In turn, he is a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology of the Kharkiv National University Ihor Solomadin expressed a different position: “Instead of discussing which directions should be meaningfully developed, how to make historical content interesting and exciting, without losing scientific knowledge, how to most effectively teach the history of Ukraine at different levels, to develop historical thinking, the presence of the personality of Viktor Pinchuk among the organizers of the project is being discussed. Allegedly , he made it precisely in order to “enter history” or to rewrite the history of Ukraine “for himself”. Although, it is not only Pinchuk who gets it, but “in the course of the play” and some others. Maybe it is not otherwise in our country , so that any new initiative can do without hate?“.

Doctor of Philosophical Sciences Oleksiy Panych summarized the conclusions of the public discussion, dividing them into deontological and consequential. However, he did not express a personal position:

“From the point of view of deontology, motives matter, not consequences. Therefore, if among the participants of the project there is one with dubious motives, then the whole project is bullshit. From the point of view of consequentialism, consequences matter, not motives. Did prominent people gather at a prominent venue to promote interest in the history of Ukraine? – it’s already good. And if thanks to this project something new will be written about Ukraine, and many, and not only Ukrainian authors, it will be even better. Let everyone get used to the fact that Ukraine’s place is in Europe and the world, and not in Moscow serfdom“.

Photo: screenshot from the video

According to Viktor Pinchuk, he has been working on the creation of the “Ukrainian History: Global Initiative” project since 2019. Multidisciplinary research will allow scientists to “to write national history in a new way” to the highest standards.

“Because of the war, this project gained new relevance. I do not know what its results will be, but I am sure that they will provide many refutations of Russian distortions of history. This work will be especially powerful because it will be created in an atmosphere of freedom, exchange of ideas, and critical discussions“, the founder of the project concluded.

Read also: “Ukrainian culture has nothing to defend”: in Lithuania, funds are collected for Ukrainian museums

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