Donkult: Lecture and Discussion Program June 16-30 Center for Urban History, Lviv (6, Bohomoltsia St)   All the events within the Program will take place in the conference hall of the Center for Urban History located in Lviv, Bohomoltsia St., except when the venue is specified next to the event title. June 16 at 16:00 Big session hall of the Lviv City Council Hiroaki Kuromiya Keynote lecture The Enigma of the Donbas: How to Make Sense of Its Past and Present?The Donbas as a region in Ukraine has been and remains very difficult to understand. It followed no routine path to modern politics such as liberal democracy, socialism, and nationalism. For reason did Lev Trotsky remark that "one can't go to the Donbas without a [political] gas mask." This talk explores the historical roots of the Donbas enigma and suggests ways to analyze the current situation in eastern Ukraine. Hiroaki Kuromiya is Professor of History at Indiana University, USA, and an expert on Soviet history, in particular under Stalin. He spent nine years working in Ukrainian and Russian archives and examining declassified documents about the history of the Donbas. His monograph Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s-1990s is currently the most frequently June 17 at 17:00 Tatiana Zhurzhenko Ukraine's Eastern Borderlands: The End of Ambivalence? During two decades, Ukraine's eastern borderlands maintained their cultural and political ambivalence, which was facilitated, as is well known, by close economic ties and geographical proximity to Russia, the dominance of the Russian language, and an undefined border. In the east, Ukrainian identity coexisted with local, regional, and transnational identities. This connection was largely supported by Soviet nostalgia and a common living space. Is it true that the "Russian Spring" that turned into a war in the Donbas has put an end to this ambivalence? Can we look at conflict in ethnic terms? How are perceptions of the Ukrainian-Russian border and neighboring Russia changing? What are the consequences of political polarization in eastern Ukraine? Tatiana Zhurzhenko holds a Candidate of Sciences Degree in Social Philosophy. She is a political scientist, research fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna (Austria), and lecturer at the University of Vienna. She is the author of publications on the politics of memory and regional and local identities, and the book Borderlands into Bordered Lands: Geopolitics of Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine, 2010.   June 18 at 17:00 Volodymyr Kulikov "Agents of Capitalism" in the South of the Russian Empire: The Rise of the Professional-Managerial Class The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of corporations as the main form of entrepreneurship in the U.S. and Europe. It was due to the fact that in the industrial epoch they were equipped with organizational capabilities that were beyond the reach of their smaller competitors. The "invisible hand" of the market in the area of the distribution of goods and services was replaced with professional managers of large corporations – the "visible hand" of economic development. Who and how managed the largest industrial corporations in the Russian Empire? What were the risks associated with the transfer of business management into the hands of hired managers? How did foreign managers of multinational corporations get adjusted to the Russian reality? These are the issues that Volodymyr Kulikov will raise in his lecture based on the case of the Donbas industrial enterprises. Volodymyr Kulikov is Associate Professor at Karazin Kharkiv National University. His research focus lies in business history and the history of corporate cities in eastern Ukraine.   June 20 at 13:30 Hiroaki Kuromiya Why the Mass Killings? Stalin and the Donbas in the Great Terror Why did Stalin deliberately kill nearly one million people in the Soviet Union in 1937-1938? In fact Stalin simultaneously exported his Great Terror abroad as well – to Mongolia and Xinjiang or Chinese Turkestan. Ukraine and the Donbas were hit extremely hard. Yet, unlike the Holodomor of 1932-1933, the Great Terror struck hardest national groups other than ethnic Ukrainians or Russians. This talk explores Stalin's crime within the context of the "globalization of Ukrainian history" in the first-half of the twentieth century. Hiroaki Kuromiya is Professor of History at Indiana University (USA) and the author of several works on Ukraine and the Soviet Union, including The Voices of the Dead: Stalin's Great Terror in the 1930s, 2007, and Conscience on Trial: The Fate of Fourteen Pacifists in Stalin's Ukraine, 1952–1953, 2012.   June 21 at 14:00 Olena Stiazhkina The Average Soviet Person: In Search of Words for the Right Biography Autobiography was a characteristic of the "new person" in Soviet society, their document, their "access pass" and voice. Practices of creating the "right biography" meant the person's consent to participation in the "Soviet experiment" and willingness to discard those parts of their lives that could seem wrong or dangerous. Why and under what circumstances did people agree to construct their biographies? What were the desirable autobiographical highlights actualized in different USSR periods? How did this willingness to play in "changing" biographies influence the self-identification of the Donbas residents? Olena Stiazhkina is Professor of History at the Slavic History Department, Donetsk National University (Vinnytsia). She is an expert on Soviet history and gender studies, the author of the book The "Petty-Bourgeois Woman" and the "Soulless Philistine": Gender Aspects of Soviet Everyday Life.   June 22 at 17:00 Serhiy Yekelchyk The Donbas: Between the Great War and the Revolution "What was happening in the Donbas during the national liberation struggle"? This question confronts two historical stereotypes – the stereotype of the non-Ukrainian Donbas and that of the Ukrainian Revolution as the nation's conscious struggle for its state. It is noteworthy that these notions as such were shaped in the aftermath of the 1917-1920 events and thus cannot serve as good analytical tools for gaining an understanding of this epoch. How can we extract people's everyday experience from a big pile of ideological narratives? These people lived in a chaotic revolutionary age and didn't know yet that future history textbooks would label them as fighters for Soviet power or the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic and later as unconscious Ukrainians. Serhiy Yekelchyk is Professor of History and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada. Currently he is working on a new edition of his book on Ukrainian history translated into five languages, as well as writing a book on the history of the 1917-1920 Ukrainian Revolution.   June 23 at 17:00 Stanislav Fedorchuk "Refugees from War": Labor Migrants from Poland in the Donbas in the First Years of the Second World War After the onset of the Second World War and the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, a considerable number of Polish citizens being afraid of persecutions on political, ethnic and other grounds were forced to head eastwards. Some of them really believed that their lives would be out of danger on the territory under Soviet occupation. The USSR party organizations resolved to run an ambitious political and economic campaign aimed at organizing the first labor resettlement of migrants from Poland's eastern territories to the Donbas mines. The campaign was launched a month after the Soviet troops entered Lviv. Who were these displaced people and what did the future have in store for them? We will find out more about that from scarce documents of the Donetsk oblast party archives and lecturer Stanislav Fedorchuk. Stanislav Fedorchuk is a historian, political scientist, and publicist. He is a graduate of the History Department of the Donetsk National University. Stanislav is working on a thesis about labor migration in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944-1951. He is also the author of the book Hypocrisy Dismantling.   June 24 at 17:00 Nani Gogokhia "Young Leninists" in the Soviet Ukraine: Childhood in the Totalitarian Society of the 1930s There are some common questions that everyday life historians keep turning over in their minds: What filled the inner world of men of the past? How was their individuality shaped? While studying everyday life in the Soviet Union, we should not overlook one of the most important life stages, namely childhood. What were the ideal qualities that the Soviet authorities sought to cultivate in children? What were the means and methods applied and what were the consequences? We can find answers to these questions by analyzing Ukrainian Soviet children's books of the 1930s as well as documents of the UkrSSR Komsomol and party organizations. The lecture places special emphasis on the role of international, military, patriotic and political upbringing in the formation of a new generation of Soviet children. Nani Gogokhia is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. Her research focus lies in everyday practices in the Soviet Ukraine of the 1930s.   June 25 at 17:00 Daniel J. Walkowitz Looking for Work: Are there lessons in the American story? Labor History in the United States underwent a profound shift in the 1960s and 70s, changing from the study of trade unions to the study of the working class. Deindustrialization has since eliminated many manufacturing jobs, placing new challenges and opportunities on the labor movement on the one hand, but creating vast new inequalities and dependence on precarious labor on the other hand. Neoliberal state attacks on labor coincide with an ideology that elevates consumption over class identities, asking how do we organize a working class that often identifies as middle class, and in the global economy, what lessons are there in this history for labor in the U.S. and elsewhere? This lecture will engage these issues. Daniel J. Walkowitz is a professor at New York University, labor and urban historian, and expert on public history. He is the author of the book Workers of the Donbass Speak: Survival and Identity in the New Ukraine, 1995, co-written with Lewis H. Siegelbaum.   June 27 at 16:00 Marta Studenna-Skrukwa "Miners Toil for You, Motherland!" – Mining Culture as a Resource for Official Culture The lecture aims to analyze the cultural characteristics of two mining regions – Upper Silesia and the Donbas, as well as explore their adaptation to the official cultures of Poland and Ukraine. To what extent did the distinctive mining character of these regions fit into the context of Polish and Ukrainian cultures? What were the consolidating mechanisms that helped establish ties between the regions and centers in cultural terms? The lecture will also look into the place these regions have in social consciousness, how they fit into the general perception of the Motherland, and what holidays and personalities are widely accepted. Marta Studenna-Skrukwa is Doctor of Humanities, orientalist, junior research assistant at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. She is the author of the book The Ukrainian Donbas. Faces of Regional Identity, 2014.   June 28 at 14.00 Dagmar Kift Shaping the Present by Preserving the Past: Germany's Industrial Heritage Very few regions in Germany have been so shaped by the effects of industrialization as the Ruhrgebiet, an area dominated for years by coal and steel. Since the 1970s it is being re-designed as a center for services, science and tourism and in 2010 was European Capital of Culture. The presentation will outline the development from industrial crisis to cultural revitalization, focusing on heritage and identity, history and tourism, education and entertainment – and the audiences of industrial heritage. Dagmar Kift (PhD) is Head of the Research Department of the LWL-Industriemuseum and its Deputy Director. She was responsible for the concept of the permanent exhibition in the headquarters of the museum. She has curated numerous exhibitions dedicated to industrial issues. Dr. Kift is working and publishing on the social and cultural history of coal-mining.   June 29 at 17:00 Ksenia Pantiuk Life for Mine: Towns of the Donbas in the 1950s-80s Today these are "ghost towns" that are about to become extinct. For comparison, just over half a century ago the east of Ukraine saw the emergence of new settlements around the construction of coal mines almost every year: Dobropillia, Selydove, Hirnyak, Vuhlehirsk, Snizhne, Shakhtarsk, and others. These towns have always had and still preserve their distinguishing features. Their present problems are rooted in their recent past. The lecture focuses on the Soviet history of cities and towns in the Donetsk region, the characteristics of urban life, the creation of the miner's cult, and the "female face" of the coal-mining industry. Ksenia Pantiuk is Associate Professor at the Slavic History Department, Donetsk National University (c. Vinnytsia). She specializes in urban history and is the author of the monograph Social and Economic Processes in Single-Industry Mining Towns of the Donbas, 1950s-1980s (co-authored with Zoya Lykholobova).   DISCUSSIONS   June 20 at 16:00 First Ukrainian Academic Theater for Children and Youth (11 Hnatiuka St.) The Grain Store (play) at 18:30 Discussion upon viewing the play The Past on Stage: On the Reflection of Complicated History in the Theater Participants: Natalia Vorozhbyt (playwright, the author of the The Grain Store, Kyiv), Andriy Prykhodko (director and producer of the play, Kyiv), Oleksandr Zaytsev (historian, Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv), Joanna Wichowska (theater critic and curator, Warsaw). Moderator: Zoriana Rybchynska (Cultural Studies scholar, Associate Professor at the Department of Culture and Arts, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv).   June 21 at 16:00 The Past within Unstable Borders: How to Write History after Conflict? Participants: Serhiy Yekelchyk (University of Victoria, Canada), Hiroaki Kuromiya (Indiana University, USA), Olena Stiazhkina (Donetsk National University, Vinnytsia). Moderator – Sofia Dyak (Center for Urban History). June 28 at 16:00 Rethinking the Industrial as Heritage: The Potential of Former Industrial Regions Participants: Sofia Dyak (Center for Urban History, Lviv), Dagmar Kift (LWL-Industriemuseum in Dortmund), Anna Medvedeva (International Charity Foundation "IZOLYATSIA", Donetsk-Kyiv), Pawel Jaglo (director of The History of Nowa Huta Quarter branch at the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow). Moderator – Iryna Sklokina (Center for Urban History). June 30 at 16:00 In Search of Commonalities/ Differences. Regional Identities in Modern Ukraine Participants: Ilya Kononov (Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, c. Starobilsk), Victoria Sereda (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv), Natalia Chernysh (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv). Moderator – Natalia Otrishchenko (Center for Urban History).   CONVERSATIONS: June 19 at 17:00 "The Long Shadows of the Past: Ukraine and Russia in Light of the Totalitarian Soviet Experience". A talk with the U.S. historian Hiroaki Kuromiya about terror as a mechanism for the functioning of a totalitarian state, the life of ordinary people in the USSR under Stalin (how they survived and what they thought), as well as about the different influence that the experience of Soviet totalitarianism has on the evolution of modern Ukraine and Russia. June 26 at 17:00 "The Donbas Miners Voice Labor History". Viewing of the movie Perestroika from Below (1989) and a talk with Daniel J. Walkowitz about workers' mobilization and strikes in the late 1980s, the role of the miners' movement in the contemporary history of Ukraine, as well as about the Donbas miners' hopes and disappointments. Coordinator of the Program: Iryna Matsevko (Center for Urban History)   Organizers: Center for Urban History (Lviv)Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (Edmonton)Charity Foundation "The Depths of Art" (Kyiv)   Supported by:   Heinrich Böll Foundation's Office in Ukraine Polish Institute in Kyiv Association for Cultural InitiativesSpecial thanks for their help in preparing the program:Anatoliy Amelin, Sofia Dyak, Oleksandr Dmitriev, Bozena Zakaliuzhna, Ihor Liski, Volodymyr Kulikov, Yevheniy Monastyrskyi, Natalia Otrischenko, Iryna Sklokina, Volodymyr Sklokin, Oleksiy Chebotarev.