Museum scholars participated in an international conference on oral history

On February 21-22, 2025, the International Conference “War, Science and Emotions: From Interviews to Memory-Making” was held in Chernihiv. The event was initiated by the Chernihiv Research Center for the Anthropology of War.

The conference was organised into 12 sections. Researchers from Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, and 15 cities of Ukraine. Three employees of the Holodomor Museum shared their experiences with the conference participants:

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the Holodomor Oral History Department Yuliia Kotsur (topic of the report “From Interviewing to Archiving: Experience in Collecting, Preserving, and Interpreting Testimonies of Holodomor Eyewitnesses Based on Materials from the Holodomor Museum”);

Doctor of Philosophy in History, Head of the Research Department of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Mykhailo Kostiv (the topic of the report “Munich Hearings of the Kersten Committee (1954): Contribution to Documenting the History of the Holodomor”);

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher at the Holodomor Oral History Department Roman Moldavsky (topic of the report “Nationwide Survey of Witnesses of the Holodomor-Genocide in 2007–2008: Features of Conduct, Results and Consequences”).

At the current stage of documenting the Russian-Ukrainian war, such an exchange of experience is crucial and necessary. After all, propaganda is a significant tool in this war, like it was the committing Holodomor. Documenting facts, eyewitness accounts, and war crimes is a means of countering propaganda and a tool for creating national memory. It is an important aspect of our modern struggle for independence.

As a reminder, our museum staff has considerable experience recording oral history interviews. You can find them on our resource “Testimonies”, including materials collected during the large-scale expeditions of 2020-2021 “Holodomor: Mosaics of History.”

Video of the conference: