Educational Workshops of the "Understanding Modernity" Series

Since the beginning of 2026, the first two workshops have taken place as part of the long-term series "Understanding Modernity", which is dedicated to methodological challenges in teaching the modern period of European history through the lens of the experiences of Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

This year's six meetings will focus on various "socialist" experiences, including their "Soviet" variants, and as a result of the discussions, participants will develop a syllabus for a course on teaching Soviet history, drawing on an established body of literature, sources, and methodological frameworks.

The topic of the first meeting on February 28 was "War and Revolution in the Context of Soviet History", during which Viktor Drozdov (Izmail State University of Humanities) presented sources and literature on the October Revolution, while Albert Venger (Oles Honchar Dnipro National University) spoke about the war. Events of the Civil War are often interpreted differently within academic circles, and this extends to seemingly simple matters such as terminology or chronological boundaries. Accordingly, participants discussed possible perspectives and approaches that should be considered when teaching this period. Another central theme of the discussion was the multi-layered nature of the revolution as an event where the center and the periphery, leaders and the perspective "from below", intersect, and where various social, national, religious, and ethnic communities act as key players.

The theme of the meeting on March 28 was "Faith in Science and Progress and Systemic Violence as the 'Basis' of Regimes". Oleh Razygrayev (Volyn National University) presented monographs centered on violence generated by the political system, as well as sources and resources that help locate and restore the memory of the repressed. Gennadiy Kazakevych (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) spoke about another "pillar" of the Soviet system—the pervasive faith in science and progress— addressing the notion of technology as a neutral tool for modernizing the Soviet project, as well as how the principles of "the unity of theory and practice" and "practice as the criterion of truth," combined with political control, led to "practice" itself becoming ideologically defined.

Participants:

• Viktor Drozdov (Izmail State University of Humanities)
• Albert Venger (Oles Honchar Dnipro National University)
• Oleh Razygrayev (Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University)
• Gennadiy Kazakevych (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv)
• Pavlo Leno (Uzhhorod National University)
• Yevhen Zakharchenko (V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University)
• Viktoria Vengerska (Ivan Franko State University of Zhytomyr)
• Roman Lyubavsky (V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University)
• Olga Kolyastruk (Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University)
• Yulia Kravchenko (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy)
• Bogdan Shumylovych (Ukrainian Catholic University)
• Inna Chernikova (H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University)
• Oleksandr Bezarov (Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University)

We thank the participants for their interesting presentations, research questions, and selection of thematic literature and sources. We look forward to future meetings, which will focus on the following thematic areas:

• The Soviet Individual and the Administrative Nomenklatura
• The Non-Market Economy and the Concept of Labor in Socialism
• Imagination and the Imaginary: Soviet Culture and Propaganda
• The National Question and the Soviet Project

The series ”Understanding Modernity” focuses on the question of how to teach and explain the complex, contradictory, and multidimensional processes of historical transformation over the past two centuries: the rise and fall of empires, the formation of nation-states, the causes and logic of large-scale wars, the differences between modernization projects, the specifics of socialist experiments, and the enduring nature of their legacies. The goal of the workshops is to create a space for critical discussion and rethinking of the challenges currently faced by teachers of history, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and other related disciplines.

The series of workshops is organized by the Center for Urban History in partnership with V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Uzhhorod National University, O. Honchar Dnipro National University, Ukrainian Catholic University, Izmail State Humanitarian University, Y. Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Credits

Cover Image and gallery: Presentation by Gennadiy Kazakevych and Albert Venger / Center for Urban History