Jews in Ukrainian historical memory discourse after 1991
This project examines how historical narratives about Jews and Jewish memory have developed in independent Ukraine since 1991, with particular attention to the evolving Babyn Yar memorial complex in Kyiv. The “memory wars” surrounding competing projects for this site illuminate key tensions and conflicts over Holocaust memorialization and, more broadly, the construction of a national historical narrative in Ukraine.
The project argues that Jewish themes function as a kind of litmus test, revealing the actors and agendas that have shaped Ukraine’s evolving discourse of historical memory in the post-Soviet period. It focuses on the period before 2022, tracing how debates over Babyn Yar and related initiatives reflected changing understandings of the Holocaust, Soviet legacies, and Ukrainian statehood, culminating in the full-scale Russian invasion of 2022.
Dr. Semion Goldin is chair of the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During his stay at the ZZF Potsdam he is Visiting Fellow in the project The Memory of “the Jews” in Late and Post Communist Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine, funded by The German Israeli Foundation (GIF). At the ZZF, the GIF project is based in Department I: Communism and Society.