Memory, democracy, spiritual health and freedom of society are very closely-related categories. For a generation of mindless slaves, sincerely convinced (zombified, to be more exact) that “history began from us only, and there was nothing before us,” a generation totally devoid of historical memory, is unable by definition to develop its intellect and defend the ideals of freedom.
The Day decided to conduct a roundtable debate named “What kind of a policy do you think the state should pursue towards historical memory?” and invited a number of experts to take part in it.
Yurii SHAPOVAL, professor of history:
“I have more than once commented on this in the media, so I will first thank the newspaper Den/The Day for organizing sort of a proxy roundtable on this topic, thus showing understanding of the importance of the problem. I will therefore listen with pleasure to the opinions of all the respondents and will make a brief comment. It is beyond the shadow of a doubt that the policy of memory should promote the cohesion, rather than the split, of society. So the selection of dates, monuments, and memorable characters should be amply-grounded and well-balanced. Luckily, Ukraine does not need to create a pantheon of heroes ‘from scratch:’ it does have ones. The problem is to explain to society in easy-to-grasp terms why we honor these heroes.
“Another axiom for me is what kind of people should be chosen to carry out the policy of memory (or the policy of history). We cannot rely here on political and ideological partisans (although people like this are mostly ‘at the helm’ of the policy of memory now). These people hold several offices and speak like ‘prophets,’ their publications are rife with neophytism, their judgments are categorical and, still worse, they try to ‘show up’ and assert themselves, spying for enemies and stigmatizing those who think otherwise.
“Meanwhile, it is doubtless that polemics and comparison of opinions are unavoidable. This is why experts should draw their conclusions in a public, not backstage, way. Only after this can proposals be submitted to the President of Ukraine as draft decrees, etc. This is why some of the present-day ‘prophets’ should be granted a well-deservedly retirement and some other would do good if they got back to the once-held job of an electric locomotive driver, etc. Instead, one should invite independent and erudite young people capable of having their own opinion.
“A Lain phrase says, Vestigia semper adora (‘Always honor vestiges of the past’). To honor the past does not mean to embellish it. So I wish we were honest, first of all, to ourselves. Only then can historical memory overcome historical amnesia.”
Kyrylo HALUSHKO, director, Lypynsky Center for Socio- Humanitarian Studies:
“The point is that it is totally unclear what kind of historical memory policy the state is pursuing now. Why does the state need this? The reason is that reconstructing historical memory is not just about respecting the past. It is, above all, the road for Ukrainian society’s integration into a single community. In fact, as long as there are different viewpoints on and interpretations of the pivotal stages of Ukrainian history, there will be no end to the current social, cultural, historical, and linguistic conflicts. In other words, the state should regard the support and protection of historical memory as an element of its security. This can hardly be denied.
“What kind of a policy should it be? Speaking of practical steps, we have such an executive government-run office as Institute of National Memory. It is a research institution. It is really an executive power structure. The very idea of this institute is very useful, but, as usual, we have very many useful ideas that cannot be duly implemented. The point is that this institute is so underfunded that, in spite of the noble purpose, its value for the state remains questionable. The state should care about proliferation of the required knowledge via the school curriculum.
There is a very small percentage of our office- holders who studied the true history of Ukraine back in school. It is at best a fourth of the population. All the others, who are now over thirty, studied in the Soviet Union. So their stereotypical ideas of our history radically differ from what is an impartial attitude and even run counter to the very idea of a Ukrainian state.
“Our state ought, first of all, to improve the knowledge of the adults who vote and take an active part in public life. We need easy-to-get and interesting books which will popularize the history of Ukraine.
“I could name a lot of problems that trigger disputes in this country, such as Hetman Ivan Mazepa, Petliura, the UPA. In other words, people would like to have something more, not just at the level of a newspaper article. But the vast majority of them read the ‘gutter press’ today. There are a lot of scholarly books, but they have been written by academics for academics. What we need is good, high-quality and well- illustrated literature.
“Again, the above-mentioned Institute of Memory could be in charge of this, but so far our government and elite is not aware that the state should regard memory as its own security. We should also have a clear-cut set of Ukrainian history’s memorable dates to be observed. I will give an example which is, oddly enough, very suitable in this situation. We know that the Jews are one of the peoples that have been guarding their identity for millenniums on end. But if we look up the list of once popular Judaic holidays, we will see the annual repetition of important events in Jewish history - from the Babylon captivity to the Diaspora. In other words, people constantly go through a complete historical cycle and thus become aware of their collective existence. If Ukraine had the same, things would be going differently.
“We should not only mark the Kruty and Berestechko defeats but also be courageous enough to observe Ukrainian victories as public holidays. We must not make a nation of losers out of our younger generation. We should celebrate victories over the common enemies, for example, the Poles against the Turks or the Poles and the Lithuanians against the Teutonic Order. Ample attention should be paid to Ukraine’s military history.
“We should urge the Ukrainians to lawfully protect the past vestiges that embody this memory for us. If you look at Kyiv, you will see that more harm is being done today than under the Stalinist regime: chaotic construction, demolition, ruination. Very often one would like to create something immensely good, for example, the Art Arsenal, but experts estimated long ago that the project would cost as much as it will take to keep up all the Ukrainian regional museums for 50 years. Is it perhaps worthwhile to abandon two or three megaprojects and, instead, furnish real support to what has been preserved?”
