A year ago The School of History held an event discussing and introducing some issues of Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine \u2013 we talked about Ukraine\u2019s pre-modern history that is erroneously presented by Putin, international diplomacy and the tactics of war.<\/p>\n
Over the last year, the University of Kent has been partnered with Kherson State University, and we have developed a special relationship with our colleagues there in the History department. We took this opportunity \u2013 one year on \u2013 to speak with our colleagues at Kherson State University and hear from them about the place of history in a time of war, thinking about how history has been employed as a weapon of war in this conflict and how war teaches us the importance of history.<\/p>\n
We heard presentations from Dr <\/strong>Natalia Kuzovova<\/strong> on \u2018The Holodomor of 1932-1932, the Holocaust and other genocides on the territory of Ukraine and their coverage in the educational process<\/em>\u2019 and the problem of being objective in her research while similar atrocities are happening in Ukraine today; \u00a0Dr Oleg Boykov <\/strong>on \u2018The role of Ukrainian historians in shaping the image of Ukraine in the West\u2019<\/em> and the important role of emigrants in establishing Ukrainian history as a global subject of importance (especially Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine <\/em>(2015)); Mykhailo Domaskin<\/strong> on \u2018Stepan Sosnovy, demographer of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine\u2019<\/em> and the research work into Soviet archives; and Professor Oleksandr Cheremisin <\/strong>on \u2018Southern Ukraine at the end of the 18th century\u2019<\/em> and the need to take care in rewriting Ukrainian histories across all periods.<\/p>\n In our discussion, we asked how war changes historians\u2019 personal understanding of history. Colleagues replied that history used just to be in books as numbers and figures, but the war demonstrates centuries of history in Ukraine folding out in front of you every day. We asked how does being a historian help you cope with everyday life during the war. Responses ranged from it doesn\u2019t help at all \u2013 war is so cruel, and there is no perspective that helps you to deal with it \u2013 to how everyone in the world should feel guilty that we haven\u2019t learnt lessons from the Second World War and that we weren\u2019t prepared for this war.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most poignant contribution for our understanding of the importance of history in war was from Oleg Boykov. He recounted being told by a professor of Russian history that he had chosen the wrong subject, because \u2018Historians are the first who are shot [during war] because of their knowledge\u2019. During the occupation of Kherson he came to realize the reality of this danger of being a historian dealing with truth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n