“Hromadskyi Prostir”, 27.09.2023
A roundtable discussion was held in Bohuslav city, Kyivshchyna, to discuss the coexistence of different ethnic groups within the same community. The event was called “Dialogue of Cultures: Multicultural Bohuslav” and aimed to introduce the history and culture of Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians living in the city, as well as to promote mutual respect and tolerance.
The event’s sessions, moderated by historian Andriy Humeniuk, featured presentations by professional researchers and public figures. The first part of the reports focused on the history of interaction between different ethnic groups in Bohuslavshchyna. Local historian Oksana Palchyk from Bohuslav spoke about how Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles coexisted in Bohuslav in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Andriy Rukkas, a historian and associate professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, presented his own research into the events of the Ukrainian Revolution in Bohuslav, in particular the 1919 anti-Bolshevik uprising led by Otaman Hryhoriy Pyrkhavka, and the fates of local Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles. Ruslana Martseniuk, a historian and chief researcher at the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, used the materials of investigative cases to tell about the fates of repressed priests of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church from Bohuslavshchyna – Mykola Doroshenko-Vershuta, Ihor Durdukivskyi, Yosyp Netudykhata, and Dmytro Holstein. In particular, she shared the following interesting facts:
“All of these clergymen were accused of participating in the 1941 memorial service in Medvyn for those locals who were executed by the budionnovets rebels during the anti-bolshevik uprising on 13 October 1920. Those religious leaders were linked to the Holy Trinity Church in Bohuslav and defended the right of Ukrainians to worship in the Ukrainian language.”
Then the participants and listeners of the roundtable discussion were invited to the opening of a special exhibition “Religious Communities of Old-World Bohuslav”, which consisted of three parts: “Orthodox Churches of Bohuslavshchyna” (on the territory of the St Nicholas Monastery of the OCU), “Engravings by Napoleon Orda: Roman Catholic Churches”, located in the Roman Catholic Church of St Wladyslaw, and “Synagogues of Bohuslav. Forgotten History” – in the oldest building in Bohuslav, a 1726 stone house, which is now one of the premises of the Museum of the History of the Bohuslav Region.
After visiting the exhibition and touring the historical sites of Bohuslav, the roundtable discussion’s participants continued to deliver presentations on the contemporary interaction of different national groups within one small space. Krzysztof Czyżewski, a lecturer from the Republic of Poland, philosopher, public figure, poet, and head of the “Borderland: Arts, Cultures, People” Centre and the International Centre for Dialogue, spoke on the topic of “Memory and Culture of Solidarity.” He spoke about the experience of intercultural interaction in the Polish city of Sejny and the cultivation of an atmosphere of respect and tolerance through the newest Bridge Festival: “We have recently introduced this holiday, although it took two decades to get it accepted and to prepare the audience. Its goal is to restore the culture of the borderland, which is inherent in the space inhabited by different national groups and lost after the Second World War. The programme, involving local participants, includes a theatrical part, the Bridge Mystery, in which we have combined dramas about broken ties, ideas, sounds and words, images and gestures of solidarity, everything unspoken, hidden between words and overshadowed by emotions.”
Oleksandr Butsenko, Director of the Democracy through Culture Development Centre, Advisor to the Directorate of the Institute of Cultural Studies of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Consultant to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, member of the UNESCO International Network of Facilitators, spoke on Intercultural Dialogue as a Basis for Local Development. Valentyna Demian, Head of the Expert Council on Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, a researcher on cultural heritage, dedicated her report to the process and components of identity creation. Historian, co-founder of the “Around Us. UA” NGO, a public figure, Andriy Humeniuk spoke about the local initiatives of the NGO and the methods used to restore cultural memory and traditions.
The event was held as part of the project “Ukrainian Life. Folk Calendar of Bohuslavshchyna” and was organised by the “Around Us. UA” NGO, “Development Centre “Democracy through Culture” NGO with the support of the “Partnership for a Strong Ukraine” Foundation.
