WBZ

CSNE im. Willy'ego Brandta Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego wraz z Towarzystwem Niemiecko-Polskim w Oldenburgu BKGE (Deutsch-Polnischen Gesellschaft Oldenburg) zapraszają na międzynarodową konferencję pt. „Vergnügungskultur im östlichen Europa (1880-1945)”. Konferencja odbędzie się w dniach 24-25 marca 2025 roku w Oldenburgu.

Poniżej przedstawiamy program konferencji (oraz w wersji .pdf do pobrania TUTAJ)

 Więcej na stronie: www.bkge.de

Report on the public lecture about Ukraine on the topic “Gaining Historical Agency: 

Ukrainian Society from Euromaidan to the Full-scale Russian Invasion”

given by Dr. Natalia Otrishchenko at WBZ

The fifth and final lecture of the series of public lectures within the project “Ukraine Between History and Modernity” (funded by DAAD) took place on December 12, 2024. Unlike the previous speakers, Dr. Nataliia Otrishchenko, a researcher from the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv (Ukraine), delivered her lecture online. However, this did not hinder a lively discussion—many attendees came to WBZ to listen to the lecture and showed active participation. Like the previous lectures, this one was also streamed via Zoom, allowing the online audience to engage in the discussion, which was skillfully moderated by Professor Sören Brinkmann.

During the lecture “Gaining Historical Agency: Ukrainian Society from Euromaidan to the Full-scale Russian Invasion,” Dr. Otrishchenko addressed the topic of involvement in history and how it was reflected during the moments of rupture. She started her talk with an overview of the main protest actions and geopolitical changes that defined Ukraine during the last 30 years. After Ukraine's gaining independence and subsequent experiences of protests in the 2000s, the lecture dwelled in more detail on the experience of the Euromaidan, when, for many people, abstract ideas and values acquired a concrete embodiment. Dr. Natalia Otrishchenko spoke about the sense of urgency, revision of the structures of dependency, ideas of justice, and personal responsibility that motivate people to act during events that have long-lasting effects on society. She highlighted how people perceived time and the role of collective actions related to the past, present, and future. Her talk was based on several research projects, including “Voices of Resistance and Hope” (2013-14), “Historical Cultures in Transition” (2018-19), and “24/02/22, 5 am: Testimonies from the war” (2022) where she was involved either as a co-coordinator of the fieldwork or as principal investigator. Dr. Otrishchenko’s main source base consisted of interviews recorded during the protest events, so she also defined the specifics of designing research projects related to straightforward safety and security challenges.

After the lecture, there were many thought-provoking questions and reflections from the audience – both in the room and from zoom. For instance, Prof. Dr. Tetyana Panchenko asked how many interviews were conducted in 2013-2014 and if there was a plan to continue the research with the same interviewees after the Maidan. Dr. Otrishchenko mentioned that there were two waves of interviewing, in December 2013 and February 2014, and the team collected more than 140 interviews in Lviv, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. However, the participants did not provide their contact details due to the emergency nature of the project and security reasons. This collection is not available like other oral history projects from the Center for Urban History with recordings and transcripts. Still, thematically organized quotes could be accessed after the registration: https://uma.lvivcenter.org/en/collections/146/interviews.

Dr. Julia Kobzar (Coordination Center of the German Studies Center (ZDS) at Peking University, FU Berlin) asked the speaker to share her thoughts on different realities being experienced in Ukraine and abroad after the full-scale Russian invasion: “Given that many people have recently moved abroad or have been living there for a long time, we are all experiencing very different realities and undergoing diverse transformations. In light of this, can we still speak about a monolithic society in Ukraine today? This topic is deeply personal and worrying for me because I often hear the claim that I am ‘not Ukrainian enough’ having moved abroad, as am not directly experiencing the realities of war.” Dr. Otrishchenko answered that Ukraine is a diasporic nation, and there is a need to establish connections between groups with various experiences. This requires a lot of sensitivity and carefulness because of the multiple losses that people experienced as a result of the Russian war against Ukraine. 

Prof. Sören Brinkmann asked if the Euromaidan was also a dividing event. Dr. Otrishchenko replied that the experience of mobilization itself – either supporting or opposing the revolutions (the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan) – was important. Also, she mentioned the diversity of values that motivated people to join the protests and a common denominator that can unite people with different opinions – a desire to live a decent life. 

Prof. Oksana Danylenko inquired about the book, “Conversations with Those Who Ask about the War”, that Dr. Otrishchenko edited in 2024. The speaker outlined the book’s main idea and provided a link to open source publication in Ukrainian:  https://www.lvivcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/War-Conversations.pdf. As a final remark, Dr. Otrishchenko highlighted the need to continue supporting Ukraine with day-to-day actions and developing a vision of the future that respects the Ukrainian agency.

Below are some of the reviews on this lecture and the discussion. 

Prof. Dr. Peter Schiffauer, Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Law at Fernuniversität in Hagen, Deputy Director of the Dimitris Tsatsos Institute for European Constitutional Studies), who took part in almost all the lectures of the series, commented: “Attending the series of public lectures “Ukraine Between History and Modernity: War Challenges, Historical Narratives, and a Conflict of Interpretations was a valuable experience for me. In the light of the accession negotiations between the EU and Ukraine which have been taking place since June 25, 2024, the series of events organised by Prof. Danylenko is particularly meritorious as it helps a broader academic audience to better understand Ukraine and its society. This is in particular true regarding the last lecture by Prof. Otrishchenko. Based on individual statements in the period between 2014 and 2024, the lecture depicts a development of the society in Ukraine, the self-image of which seems to be more European than nationalist”. 

Prof. T. Panchenko shared her thoughts on the event at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies: “Dr. Otrishchenko's lecture ‘Gaining Historical Agency: Ukrainian Society from Euromaidan to the Full-scale Russian Invasion’ was a bright and interesting event for both students and experienced researchers. The 30-year history of Ukrainian statehood was presented through the testimonies of people who were involved in its creation to varying degrees. The three quantitative projects presented by Dr. Otrishchenko, which were triggered by different historical events or research questions, were connected through the perception of collective actions related to the past, present and future. This inspires new research ideas and expands the research possibilities of qualitative sociology.”

During the series of lectures, one of the important project goals was achieved - the creation of a space for open dialogue and discussions on Ukrainian topics with the participation of representatives from different countries. This was fully realized during the last lecture as well.

The Report was prepared by the scientific coordinator of the project Prof. Oksana Danylenko in co-authorship with Dr. Nataliia Otrishchenko

Report on the public lecture about Ukraine on the topic “The well-being of Ukrainian children with the experience of forced displacement in the education systems of EU member states” given by Ivan Posylnyi

We continue publishing reports on the series of public lectures titled "Ukraine Between History and Modernity: War Challenges, Historical Narratives, and a Conflict of Interpretations", the project was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Our partner in the implementation of this project is the German Studies Center (ZDS) at Peking University, FU Berlin.

A series of public lectures at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies (WBZ) was continued on November 28, 2024, with the lecture by the doctoral researcher from the University of Warsaw Ivan Posylnyi. This lecture on the topic “The well-being of Ukrainian children with the experience of forced displacement in the education systems of EU member states” was the fourth one of the series. 

As it was announced during the previous lectures of the series, the idea of this project is to involve Ukrainian experts in interdisciplinary coverage of current issues of history and modernity in Ukraine and to present researches related to the challenges of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began in 2014 and as the full-scale war in February 2022 continues to this day, with a lot of destruction and civilian casualties as a result of Russian shelling of Ukraine. 

In her opening remarks, the project scientific coordinator, Prof. Oksana Danylenko, emphasized:

“Our speaker today, Ivan Posylnyi, is a Luhansk-born Ukrainian sociologist. Russia started war against Ukraine with the annexation of Crimea and the seizure of parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in 2014. The founder of everyday life sociology, the famous Alfred Schutz, wrote that every situation is biographically determined. It seems to me that Ivan's choice of these very topics for his research is also determined in such a way. And today during the lecture you have a unique opportunity to ask questions not only directly on the topic of the lecture, but you also have a chance to ask about other studies and courses that Ivan teaches at the University of Warsaw. One of the courses is about the history of Donbas, where Ivan is from. Present here Erasmus students, who are attending the course "Ukraine between East and West", taught by prof. Sören Brinkmann, have a chance to ask Ivan about various issues of the history of Donbas”.

The lecture by Ivan Posylnyi focused on the well-being of children and adolescents from Ukraine in EU member states' schools. Based on his own research and the studies done by his colleagues around Europe, he discussed how education systems in selected EU member states responded to the influx of Ukrainian children with displacement experiences, and especially how relocation affected their well-being. According to the speaker, a crucial premise of the issue discussed during the lecture, was children's "world left behind" in Ukraine - their friends, relatives (often fathers and older brothers), old habits, private spaces (own rooms where children could find comfort). While the new reality in host countries was hardly ever hostile - institutional solutions provided a good deal of help to refugee children - feeling stressed still was a prevailing experience in the first two years since the Russian full-scale invasion. 

As per Ivan Posylnyi, when it comes to education, around half of Ukrainian children who joined schools in countries of relocation, kept ties with the Ukrainian schools online. During the lecture, this duality of school education for many children from Ukraine was one of the focal points of the audience's interest. “On the one hand, Ukrainian schools online (which became the normalcy for Ukrainian children back in the period of COVID-19 pandemic) played an important role of providing familiar cultural, linguistic, and educational contexts for children around Europe. On the other hand, children I spoke with around Poland, often claimed they don't have enough free time because of responsibilities in both Polish (offline) and Ukrainian (online) schools. This, together with so-called "preparatory classes" for Ukrainian children, deepened the problem of low social cohesion between Ukrainian and Polish children and adolescents. Spending most of their time in isolated preparatory classes or Ukrainian school online, children had neither enough time nor motivation to engage with the local community (e.g. classmates). Stereotypes which both Ukrainian and Polish children had about each other, also came to play quite often, as reported by children”, said Ivan Posylnyi.

The audience showed great interest in the lecture topics, which did not leave anyone indifferent. The quotes from interviews with adolescents attracted particular interest from the audience. In fact, acommontheme of Ivan’s talks with children was the longing for home in Ukraine. Below is an exchange between two teenage girls during one of the focus-group discussions in 2023:

S: “The best thing to do in Poland is to sleep. I always sleep.”

A: “And eat.”

S: “I always think, for the future, [that] I’ll go home, 100%. I’ll be back in the summer, why should I do anything here? Why should I start anything, why do I need this Polish language at all, why learn it? If I come home anyway. But I understand that I may not return. And maybe I’ll stay here. And I will sleep all day”. (You canread the full report via the link: https://www.unicef.org/)

As in the previous lecture of the series, students were very active during the Q&A session. After the lecture, they noted not only how interesting the topic and the research data were but also how the speaker presented the material. Ivan actively engaged the audience in dialogue, fostering space for an open discussion.

The discussion was masterfully moderated by Prof. Sören Brinkmann. The Zoom audience was also highly engaged in their questions and comments, just as at the previous events.

Here are some of Ivan’s impressions of the discussion: “The second part of my lecture was the time of Q&A. Below I would like to recall some key points made by me and the audience in the context of Ukrainian children's well-being:

• projective methods work best when speaking with children about their past experiences. One such effective method is the photovoice methodology, offering children to take photographs as answers to researchers' questions;
• children tend to be the subject of social research less often than adults, mostly due to a more complicated process of designing and executing such a research. However, children's voices are as important, and their experiences need rigorous social research;
• children and adolescents who come from the areas directly affected by the Russian war in Ukraine might be willing to share their difficult, sometimes traumatic experiences. Researchers need to be prepared for this and facilitate a discussion (in a group or individually) with this consideration”.

Here is the link to Ivan Posylnyi's publication to the other topic (about Donbas) that was mentioned during the lecture:

Posylnyi, Ivan (2023). The Soviet Pillar of Belonging: How Donbas Schools Construct the Reality in Occupation, Communist and Post-Communist Studies (2024) 57 (2): 112–134, https://doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2023.2002005

This lecture was very insightful for the audience. Below, for example, are reviews shared by Erasmus students at the Willy Brandt Center from Germany and from Italy: “Overall, I really appreciated the insight into the work of Ukrainian researchers, and I was particularly impressed by the combination of scientific research findings and personal emotional insights. Personally, I enjoyed Ivan Posylnyi’s lecture the most because I found the method he presented very interesting, and I am deeply interested in work and research involving children”. (Antonia Francke, Erasmus student from Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany).

“It was very interesting for me to have the opportunity to meet a researcher that focused his studies on Ukrainian children with experience of forced displacement following the Russian war against Ukraine. …With great sensitivity Ivan Posylnyi delved into the world of children and managed to show us their side of the story, which is very much intertwined with the ordinary reality they breathe in and absorb every day. This last point was even more relevant to me, as I'm a student of Polish language and culture, and I was really curious to know more about the process of integration that Ukrainian refugees are (or aren't) going through right now in Poland. It was very stimulating to see how a proper sociological research can look like and it really inspired me for my future studies.” (Gaia Sinibaldi, Erasmus student from University of Padova, Italy).

Prof. Ekaterina Bataeva (Ukraine, Open International University of Human Development "Ukraine"), who joined the lecture via Zoom, also shared her reflections on the lecture: “It was interesting to get to know the pioneering methods of researching the problems of contemporary sociology of childhood, for example, the method of photovoice, which can be considered as a development of the Polish sociologist P. Sztompka's method of using photographs during interviews. I.Posylnyi's analysis of the differences in the perception of certain phenomena (for example, the issue of refugees) by children and adults, as well as their different behavior during sociological research was also remarkable. I think that I. Posylnyi's research will be of interest to many sociologists working in the field of sociology of education and sociology of childhood”.

Dr. Julia Kobzar (Freie Universität Berlin, ZDS Peking) also noted the importance of the topic raised. After the lecture, we also discussed with Julia Kobzar, the representative of our partner institution, the advisability of jointly organizing a lecture on these important issues in Berlin. This lecture for researchers, doctoral students and students at the ZDS Peking at the Free University of Berlin will contribute to the development of networking between the ZDS Peking and Willy Brand Center as DAAD-Centers for German and European Studies.

The Report was prepared by the scientific coordinator of the project Prof. Oksana Danylenko in coauthorship with doctoral researcher Ivan Posylnyi

Report on the public lecture about Ukraine on the topic “Behavioral Pattern of Ukrainian Refugees in Germany in the Context of their Intentions to stay and return" given by Prof. Dr. Tetyana Panchenko at WBZ

We continue publishing reports on the series of public lectures titled "Ukraine Between History and Modernity: War Challenges, Historical Narratives, and a Conflict of Interpretations". The lecture by Prof. Dr. Tetyana Panchenko “Behavioral Pattern of Ukrainian Refugees in Germany in the Context of their Intentions to stay and return”, which took place on 7th November 2024, was the third one of the series. The project was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Our partner in the implementation of this project is the German Studies Center (ZDS) at Peking University, FU Berlin.

Lecturer Dr. Tetyana Panchenko is a professor of political science at the Karazin Kharkiv National University. In 2022-2024 she was a research specialist of ifo Center for international comparison and migration research, ifo Institute, Munich, where she worked at the research project “Adaptation and Integration Strategies of Refugees from Ukraine in Germany: Between Work and Social Assistance”, the results of which along with her further researches, were presented at Willy Brandt Center. 

Since the lecturer Tetyana Panchenko  is from Kharkiv—a city where civilians’ homes and infrastructure are constantly being shelled by Russia, with yet another brutal attack occurring on the eve of the lecture—the opening remarks were dedicated to Kharkiv. The scientific coordinator of the project, Prof. Oksana Danylenko, not only emphasized the importance of remembering that Russia’s war against Ukraine is ongoing, but also described the recent events of targeting her hometown: 

“Kharkiv has many architectural monuments, that are being destroyed by Russia now. One of them is a constructivist monument called “Derzhprom”. And about two weeks ago, this emblematic building, which is located just 100 meters from Karazin Kharkiv University, was attacked. I would like to see a reaction to this from the media in the EU and other countries. But there was practically no information about this in the European media. As well as there was practically no mention that the next evening a Russian missile hit an ordinary apartment building where people were living. Some of them were injured, and some died. Children are also being killed. And Kharkiv residents, like the residents of other cities who suffer from Russian attacks and missile strikes, just want to live in their Ukrainian city, in their homes. Many of them were refugees and later returned from Germany, Poland and other countries or from other regions of Ukraine and are living there now. The war, unfortunately, continues, it is impossible to forget”.

The photo by Halyna Kuts was taken during an important Ukrainian holiday - the Unity Day of Ukraine on 22 Jan. 2025, which symbolizes the unification of our country. In the background is the Derzhprom, which has already been partially restored after the Russian attacks in autumn 2024.

In her report, Professor Tetyana Panchenko shared the results of her researches on the relevant topic – Ukrainian refugees and their return. Based on the obtained research results (5 waves of online surveys with participation of 1000 to 2000 respondents for each wave were conducted from March 2022 to January 2024), Tetyana Panchenko presented three main categories of the Ukrainian refugees’ intentions: potential returnees, those willing to stay and those undecided. According to the survey results, as of 2023 each of these groups comprised around a third of refugees from Ukraine. However, the group of those who want to stay is growing over time, while those who want to return are becoming less.

The behavioural models of Ukrainian refugees developed on the data of qualitative in-depth interviews, show that the intention to stay in Germany is not always associated with high integration potential, including labour market integration, and that the intention to return to Ukraine does not always indicate a weak motivation to integrate. The greatest potential for social integration and activity in the labour market (including unskilled work) is among those who have not yet decided on their future plans, are “looking for their place in life” and are open to new opportunities. The ones who are “ready to have a new start in Germany” (i.e. to fulfil the objective requirements for a self-determined life in Germany) mainly learn the language, build social networks and improve their qualifications in order to find a decent job in the future. Those who are actively expecting and are motivated to return to Ukraine, show a similar behaviour. They want to invest the knowledge and experience gained in Germany in their own development and the reconstruction of Ukraine.

The proposed typology demonstrates the need to adopt different integration measures in relation to different groups of Ukrainian refugees, as well as targeting at the return policy.

The discussion after presentation was very engaging and was brilliantly moderated by Prof. Sören Brinkmann.

This time there was active participation from the students who asked a wide range of questions, demonstrating the diversity of their interests. Moreover, they didn’t only concern the sociological research data but there were also questions of a socio-political nature, such as:

“Is there a general opinion or fear regarding Donald Trump’s re-election in the USA?” (Elmar Goekel, TU Dresden, Erasmus Student at WBZ)

“What is Ukraine’s policy regarding the possible return of refugees? Are there any plans to provide incentives for their return?” (Focko Krautztkamp, University of Mainz, Erasmus Student at WBZ)

Tetyana Panchenko gave the following answer to the last of the mentioned questions: “Ukraine's policy on the return of refugees is in the process of development. Until the war is over, there is no hope of a significant return of refugees, but nowadays it is certainly worth preparing the ground for this, considering the incentives and maintaining motivation to return. At the current stage, the key direction should be to support ties with Ukraine, preserve the Ukrainian identity, especially among children and young people who have been studying at foreign schools and other educational institutions for the third year”.

The sociologists from the Institute of Sociology of the University of Wrocław Prof. Kamilla Dolińska and Prof. Julita Makaro also participated in the discussion at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies (WBZ). They are engaged in qualitative sociological research on forced migrants from Ukraine, although not in Germany but in Poland. Therefore, their interest in the presentation was also driven by the search for comparative perspectives.

There were also active participants in Zoom. Below you can find some of the questions asked during the discussion, along with Tatiana Panchenko’s responses.

Dr. Julia Kobzar (Freie Universität Berlin, ZDS Peking): “Thank you for your insightful presentation. In the context of your research, have you conducted any surveys or collected data regarding the extent of participation by Ukrainian refugees in Germany at public demonstrations or initiatives supporting Ukraine, the Ukrainian military, and civilians who have remained in Ukraine?”.

Prof. Tetyana Panchenko: “Such data were not collected within the quantitative online surveys, but questions about participation in public demonstrations or initiatives in support of Ukraine were asked in qualitative interviews. The data obtained do not provide an exact answer about the scale of these phenomena, but they do allow us to say that donations are mentioned by almost all the interviewees. They are sometimes perceived as the only possible form of support for Ukraine from abroad. Not all theinterviewees reported participation in public demonstrations”.

Dr. Svitlana Babenko (Malmo University, Sweden): “Thank you for your extensive and thought-provoking research and presentation. How do the skills and careers/professions in Ukraine impact the intention to return or to work remotely for Ukraine? Also, do you have any data on involvement in volunteering for Ukraine, supporting families that stayed and donating to support Ukrainian army, volunteers in Ukraine, etc.? Are the connections strengthening or weakening with time?”

Prof. Tetyana Panchenko “A career in Ukraine influences the intention to return, which is confirmed by both quantitative and qualitative data. Highly qualified Ukrainians, whose language skills do not allow them to work in their specialty in Germany, are often not ready to downgrade their qualifications and return to Ukraine or expect to return in the future. This is confirmed by the fact that the self-selection among Ukrainian refugees by education and social status becomes less pronounced over time. Regarding volunteering, such questions were not asked in the online surveys. Participants in the qualitative study mostly reported on volunteering by relatives and friends in Ukraine. Their own experiences were mostly related to financial support of the army, relatives and friends in Ukraine”.

Dr. Iryna Lapshyna (Osnabruck University/Germany), Ukrainian Catholic University/Ukraine): ”The proposed typology of adaptation models does not say about transnationalism and transnational practices”. 

Prof. Tetyana Panchenko: “Indeed, the proposed typology was developed on the basis of the data collected in the first months of the war, and transnational models of adaptation had not yet manifested themselves then. Willingness to live, work and build and maintain social networks between the host and home country began to develop over time. After processing repeated interviews, transmigration strategies will probably be revealed among those who plan to return to Ukraine or have not decided yet”.

The presentation of Tetyana Panchenko and the subsequent discussion allowed both online and offline attendees—representatives of various countries, including Polish and German students, doctoral candidates, and scholars—not only to familiarise themselves with the Ukrainian experts’ views of the Ukrainian issues along with their specific discourse and research focus; they also had the opportunity to learn aboutthe author’s key research findings on Ukrainian migration. 

Below, we provide the link to one of the lecturer’s latest publications on forced migrants from Ukraine:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13511610.2025.2467220

And, for comparison, here is an earlier publication on the migration of highly qualified Ukrainian professionals to Germany and Poland before the full-scale war:

https://www.kas.de/en/web/ukraine/single-title/-/content/highly-qualified-ukrainian-specialist-in-germany-and-poland

The Report was prepared by the scientific coordinator of the project Prof. Oksana Danylenko in co-authorship with Prof. Tetyana Panchenko

Report on the public lecture about Ukraine on the topic “Re-thinking Polish and Ukrainian Studies in the Context of the Ongoing Russia`s War against Ukraine " given by a Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov at WBZ

A series of public lectures titled "Ukraine Between History and Modernity: War Challenges, Historical Narratives, and a Conflict of Interpretations" was continued in October with a lecture by Prof. Dr.Andrii Portnov at the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies (WBZ), the project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This lecture on the topic “Re-thinking Polish and Ukrainian Studies in the Context of the Ongoing Russia`s War against Ukraine" was the second lecture in the series. Our partner in the implementation of this project is the German Studies Center (ZDS) at Peking University, FU Berlin.

The lecture series has now been successfully concluded, generating significant interest and fostering the development of new ideas. We continue to publish reports on the events to share the key ideas and questions that were raised.

Prof. Dr. Andrii Portnov, Director of the Viadrina Centre of Polish and Ukrainian Studies in Oktober shared his observations about the dynamics of methodological discussions as well as institutional changes in international Academia in the context of Russia`s full-scale invasion in Ukraine.

At first, he focused on the most vivid and broadly discussed theoretical suggestion – an implementation of post-colonial approach to analyzing “the complex Russo-Ukrainian relations”. Prof. Portnov reflected on the historiographical claims on the necessity to “decolonize Russian and Soviet studies”, existing attempts to apply post-colonial optics to Ukraine`s history and the discussions about the essentializing content of some post-colonial reasoning and dangers of reviving of national narratives related to them.

The lecturer also touched upon a disputable notion of applicability of post-colonial approach to Polish-Ukrainian history. In this context he referred to his newly published overview of Polish-Ukrainian relations, available in Polish (https://cbh.pan.pl/sites/default/files/download/A_Portnov_Polska%20i%20Ukraina%20Warszawa_Berlin_2023.pdf) and Ukrainian (http://resource.history.org.ua/item/0017510) languages.

In the second part of his talk Prof. Portnov briefly summarized the institutional changes in German Academia, caused by the Russia`s war against Ukraine. He particularly focused on the activities of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (https://www.vcpu.europa-uni.de/en/index.html), launched in 2023 in Frankfurt/Oder as a research institution integrated into the European University Viadrina. 

The discussion was skillfully moderated by Prof. Dr. hab. Sören Brinkmann (WBZ). Both the in-person and online audiences actively participated, posing numerous insightful questions. While it is impossible to include all the questions, answers, and comments from the audience in this summary, the following highlights offer a glimpse into the core topics and ideas discussed. Among the questions raised by the listeners were the following.

Dr. Lukasz Kaczynski, director of the National Ossolinski Institute (Poland, Wroclaw), asked Professor Andrei Portnov whether the changes caused by the full-scale war which he described in relation to the German environment, were similar to the changes in the scholarly approach of Polish historians to the history of Ukraine.

Professor Dr. Thorsten Bonacker (Director of the Collaborative Research Center “Dynamics of Security” (DFG) and head of the Master’s programs in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Marburg Professor Peace and Conflict Studies at the Philipps University of Marburg) thanked for very inspiring talk and asked the following question: "Could you elaborate a bit more on the potential consequences that a postcolonial understanding of the Russian war of aggression and perhaps the history of Ukraine could have for European-Ukrainian relations?"

Andrii Portnov's lecture and the discussion that followed also served as an impetus for further development of the searches of doctoral and master's students. For example, Antonia Francke, Erasmus Student from Germany, remarked the following: “After the first lecture by Prof. Portnov, I noted that I lacked some prior knowledge for his introduction to the topic and that a presentation with the key information would have helped improve my understanding. I found it very interesting to hear the term "colonialism" and to consider Russia as a colonial power, as this point of view was new to me from my previous school and university studies”.