“Ukraine in the 21st Century: Alternatives and Development Strategies”

Odesa National Mechnykov University’s Institute of Social Sciences, including its Undergraduate and Graduate Student Research Association, and the Ostroh Youth Club of Free Intellectual Communication recently held a high-profile conference, “Ukraine in the 21st Century: Alternatives and Development Strategies.” The organizers decided to divide this broad topic into two parts: first, a discussion of Ukraine’s domestic policies, institutional, and sociocultural principles for developing a high-quality geostrategy and then an analysis of Ukraine’s foreign policy. Conference participants had prepared about 20 reports, which triggered a hot-heated debate.

Moreover, it is Odesa-based young academics who often take an uncompromising stand on the issues of geopolitics and national political development. Ostroh Club members and regular readers of Den/The Day know this from their own experience. About three years ago, Odesa University hosted the first official Ostroh Club session and a promotion soiree of the newspaper Den/The Day. That debate brought the audience to fever pitch, but the sea breeze and the desire of young people to find a common language finally forced avid opponents to set aside their differences of opinion and begin to look for “points of contact,” which in fact predetermined the Ostroh Club’s activities for many years.

In general, Odesa occupies a prominent place in the Ostroh Club’s history. For the question about the national idea, which an Odesa University student (now editor at the newspaper Den’s political section) Ivan Kapsamun put to Den’s editor in chief, Larysa Ivshyna, at a meeting at the Odesa Gorky National Library, may be regarded as the beginning of an almost four-year-long story. Answering the question, Ivshyna invited Odesa University students to visit Ostroh Academy. This is how the Ostroh Club was founded.

This makes it clear why Ostroh Club members were worried before traveling to Odesa. Although the club founders, who came to Odesa, are no longer students, the historical importance of the city’s obliges. See the next issues of The Day for a more detailed account of the Odesa University conference and the Ostroh Club session.