Our relations with history

Last Wednesday the Kiev-Mohyla Academy National University (NaUKMA) hosted a presentation of the book, Ukraine Incognita. The Day’s chief editor Larysa Ivshyna (seated, center in the photo), Ph.D. in history Yury Shapoval, NaUKMA Vice President for Teaching and one of the book’s compilers Volodymyr Panchenko (third left), Dean of the College of Humanities Vitaly Shcherbak (far right), students and professors of the NaUKMA, and students of the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium participated. In fact, the meeting developed from a mere presentation into a lively debate on what our relationship with our own history is and how we should deal with our present and future, armed with our knowledge of history. Since the Mohyla Academy has always been a stronghold of freethinking and patriotism, it is no surprise that its students displayed unusual interest in this book offering many alternative views of our past. However, it was obvious that their interest was caused not by their professional ambitions alone but also their not being indifferent to their own history, culture, and, finally, their native land (Further graphic evidence of this is NaUKMA’s support to the joint action by The Day and television journalist Olha Herasymyuk to restore the library that burned down in Chornukhy: we saw books packed for delivery there in one of the lecture rooms). Perhaps precisely this refusal to be indifferent will make it possible for these students to create a competitive environment, making it possible for Ukraine to become a European state; the environment, to the creation of which our newspaper also makes its daily contribution.

Read further on the NaUKMA gathering in a future issue of The Day.