Journal ToC: Вісник ХНУ імені В.Н.Каразіна. Серія "Історія" / The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: History (no. 62, 2022)

Iryna Skubii Discussion

Foreword

Since 2014, the Russian military aggression against Ukraine has been responsible for extensive destruction of cultural heritage. According to experts, Ukraine’s losses in this sphere are the most severe since the Second World War. At the same time, the Russian-Ukrainian War has triggered a rethinking of the cultural heritage of Ukrainian cities. In particular, there is a notable change in the views of urban residents regarding what deserves preservation and reconstruction and what should be disposed of, removed from the physical space of cities and the collective memory of urban communities. In addition, as the war continues, new strategies for the protection of cultural heritage are emerging. Various public initiatives, the volunteer movement, and assistance from international organizations all play important roles. 

This issue of The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: History deals with problems relating to the destruction and damage to cultural heritage objects and cultural infrastructure of Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion, as well as strategies for preserving and rethinking the cultural heritage of Ukrainian cities in wartime. The studies collected here have been done under the umbrella of the academic project “CITY AND WAR: Destruction, Preservation and Rethinking of the Cultural Heritage of Large Cities in Eastern and Southern Ukraine During the Russo-Ukrainian War.” This is an interdisciplinary endeavor concerned with various aspects of the cultural heritage of Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Odesa, and Kharkiv and focusing specifically on the period since the start of the war in Donbas in 2014 and the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. The intention of the project is to record and put into dialogue the views of experts (first and foremost academics and museum, library, and archival workers, as well as journalists, writers, artists, photographers, etc.) on the processes of destruction, preservation, and rethinking of urban cultural heritage in Ukraine provoked and driven by the Russian military aggression. The project is an open network involving mainly faculty and students of Ukrainian universities, who work in close cooperation to develop new approaches to Ukraine’s cultural heritage (for more information, visit https://cityface.org.ua/projectheritage.html).

 The articles and notices in this issue present the preliminary results of research undertaken as part of the project “CITY AND WAR,” mostly by professional historians, particularly university researchers and archival and museum workers. The materials are arranged thematically. The issue includes studies on the destruction and preservation of various types of urban cultural heritage during the Russian-Ukrainian War, contemporary media representation of Ukrainian cities and their cultural heritage, the specifics of the work of museums, archives, and libraries in wartime, and challenges facing the education industry and cultural and artistic life of Ukrainian cities during the war. 

Publication of this special issue of The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: History was made possible by the support of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta and with the assistance of the administration of the Faculty of History of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. We would like to thank our peer reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments, and our literary editors for correcting the texts. We hope that this collection will be of interest to the readers and stimulate further research into cultural heritage in Ukraine.

Sergiy Posokhov, Yevhen Rachkov

 

Full Issue

Foreword

Articles

Reviews and Information

 

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