[fse-esf] Kiev. 24 March. Conference.

[Oleh Vernyk]

Conference
   
  «Ukrainian Labour History: From Everyday Life to Social Struggle» 
   
  The conference will cover the study of history and contemporary state of working-class communities, culture, nationality, family life, gender, sexuality, migration, theory, politics and organization - that is labour history of Ukraine.
   
  For six decades two historical orthodoxies have dominated the history of Ukraine: the official Soviet history which crystallized in the late 1920’s, on the one hand; and Diaspora’s orthodoxy which made a significant impact on the orientation of contemporary Ukrainian history. 
   
  Both orthodoxies have their advantages as well as they share many commonalities which create obstacles for the development of Ukrainian history. Leading figures and movements in Ukrainian past were adopted by the Soviet orthodoxy and misrepresented to the meet the interests of the regime, which was afraid of any independent grassroots protest; whilst the National orthodoxy would adopted the same figures and movements diminishing their socialist ideas and emphasising only their advocacy of national ones.
   
  These problems cannot be seen separately from the context of the historical climate in which they existed. Symmetrical ideological systems existed in the East and West, mutually antagonistic, elitist and conservative in their attitude towards grassroots movements for social transformation. Both ruled out the possibility of an alternative to the established facts of “actually existing socialism” or western capitalism, their assumptions were pervasive in intellectual life including history and social science. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union many historians in Ukraine freely rejected the straightjacket of the old regime only to adopt orthodoxy of the neo-conservative historians in the West.
   
  The conference «Ukrainian Labour History: From Everyday Life to Social Struggle» aims to attract attention and to give an impetus to deeper studies of issues that have been given no place of importance on the historical agenda of Ukraine. This debate is not simply of academic importance, it is also related to the current malaise in which Ukraine finds itself. To rediscover the past of Ukrainian labour is also to make use of that understanding to shape their future.
   
  The conference includes but is not restricted to the following issues: 
   
  ·        The everyday life and culture of peasant and working-class communities in Ukraine;
  ·        Working conditions and struggle for labour rights. Ukrainian trade-union and cooperatives movements;
  ·        Peasant movements and rebellions: from Koliivshchyna to Makhnovshchyna; 
  ·        Transformation of social and class structure of Ukrainian society, from the end of the XIX to the beginning of the XX century; 
  ·        Radical intelligentsia and labour. Ukrainian contribution to revolutionary theories; 
  ·        History and activity of Ukrainian socialist movements and parties as well as of the branches of Russian and international socialist organisations in Ukraine; 
  ·        Waves of labour migration from Ukraine. Social struggle of Ukrainians in Diaspora. 
   
  The conference will be held in Kyiv on March 24, 2007. Please, send your proposals till March 20 to labhist.conference at gmail.com or on fax: +38 (044) 234-89-21.
   
  Organizing committee phone number: +38 (097) 396-44-99.

 
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