Early Career Workshop of the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission in Kyiv (2019)

From 7 to 10 September 2019, the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission organised an international early career workshop in Kyiv in cooperation with the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. The workshop focused on “The History of Ukraine between 1939 and 1950 in Autobiographical Documents.” 

The central aim of the workshop was to explore how autobiographical sources - such as diaries, letters, memoirs, and oral testimonies - can be used to reconstruct individual experiences during periods of extreme violence and political repression. The biographical approach provided new insights into complex and often controversial topics, including collaboration, resistance, persecution, and survival under both Nazi and Stalinist regimes.

Participants presented their research projects and engaged in in-depth discussions on methodological approaches to analysing ego-documents. It became evident that such sources do not merely reflect historical realities but rather reveal processes of individual and collective meaning-making. At the same time, they give access to voices and perspectives that have long remained marginalised.

A key focus of the workshop was to move beyond traditional chronological boundaries and to examine the entangled histories of Nazi occupation and Stalinist rule in Ukraine. This approach allowed for a more nuanced understanding of the complex biographies shaped by overlapping regimes of violence.

The programme also included visits to major sites of memory in Kyiv, such as Babyn Yar and Bykivnia, which are associated with mass atrocities committed by both regimes. These excursions provided participants with a deeper understanding of the historical events and their contemporary remembrance. The workshop demonstrated the significant potential of autobiographical sources for historical research and contributed to strengthening academic exchange and cooperation between early career scholars from Ukraine and Germany.