The Crimes of the Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine: Scholarly and Educational Perspectives. Materials of the International Scholarly Conference held in Vinnytsia on November 21-22, 2009
In Ukraine the totalitarian regimes led by Hitler and Stalin committed huge crimes - the Holodomor (Great Famine), the Great Terror, and the Holocaust. How could all that happen? What do we need to know about these events? How does one teach about these subjects? These issues were the focus of the conference "The Crimes of the Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine: Scholarly and Educational Perspectives". Although recently scholarly debates have been taking place on the comparison between those two totalitarian systems in Ukrainian history, the conclusions of those scholarly disputes have hardly entered into the educational literature, nor have they been published as separate volumes. However, there is an understanding in Ukrainian society today of the need for a narrative of the history of twentieth-century Ukraine which is truthful, integrates it into the wider European context, and provides an historical assessment of the era's horrific genocides. It is hoped that this collection will find its readers - scholars, educators, and all who are interested in the totalitarian past of Ukraine and Europe - and thus will foster more substantive discussion in Ukrainian society about the concept of its historical memory.
The volume was published by the NIOD. Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies (Kyiv, Ukraine) with support from the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Content
Title page (In Ukrainian)
FROM THE EDITOR. The return of the past. Instead of an introduction. (In Ukrainian)
CHAPTER I. THE CRIMES OF THE TOTALITARIAN REGIMES IN UKRAINE: EVENTS.
Tatiana Boryak. The Kremlin's food aid as an instrument of the Holodomor in Ukraine.(In Ukrainian)
Ivan Dereyko. Local units of the German army and police as an instrument of occupation policy: an anthropological dimension.(In Ukrainian)
Roman Podkur. ""The Great Terror" in Vinnytsia (1937-1938): activities of the territorial apparatus of state security bodies, stereotypes of Chekists’ worldview.(In Ukrainian)
Dmytro Tytarenko. In the conditions of a change of goverment: the urban population of Eastern Ukraine on the eve and in the first months of the Nazi occupation.(In Ukrainian)
CHAPTER II. THE CRIMES OF THE TOTALITARIAN REGIMES IN UKRAINE: OVERVIEW.
Anna Abakunova. The extermination of Jews in the Soviet territories occupied by the Nazis in the historiography of Soviet Ukraine in the 1940s.(In Ukrainian)
Karel Berkhoff. Babyn Yar in Western cinematography.(In Ukrainian)
Victoria Sukovataya. "Philosophy after Auschwitz" and "Ethics after the Holocaust": reflections of the Nazi genocide in Western and post-Soviet consciousness.(In Ukrainian)
Inna Shugalyova. The National Book of Memory of the Holodomor Victims of 1932-1933: Status and Research Prospects.(In Ukrainian)
About the authors
Announcements
MoreLatest News
-
Seminar “How to Talk About the Holocaust with Schoolchildren” (March 27–29, 2026, Kyiv)
On March 27–29, 2026, Kyiv hosted a methodological seminar How to Talk About the Holocaust with Schoolchildren for graduates of the online course of the same name.
[More] -
Filling the Silence: Stories of Survivors of the Babyn Yar shootings
The media outlet Local History has published an essay by one of our researchers, Tetiana Shyshkina, historian and PhD candidate at the University of Hesse. For the Stolpersteine project, she and her sister researched and prepared the biography of Rakhil Kozyra - a deeply personal story.
[More] -
Call for Applications: International Seminar ‘The Holocaust as a Starting Point’
The Holocaust as a Starting Point (HSP) program, launched by the Mémorial de la Shoah and partners, supports Holocaust education through international teacher training. Within the “Polish-Ukrainian Dialogue,” the Polish Centre for Education Development (ORE), the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, and the Mémorial de la Shoah will host two seminars for 45 teachers from Ukraine and Poland.
[More] -
Challenges of Today” on the UCHS YouTube Channel
Recordings of the presentations from the XIX Annual Roundtable “Holocaust Commemoration and the Ukrainian Society: Heritage and the Challenges of Today” are now available on the official YouTube channel of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies.
[More] -
Annual Report of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies for 2025: Events, Media, Publications
We are pleased to share with you the annual report of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies. It includes a list of events held during the year, links to programs, video and audio materials, photo galleries, and publications - everything we managed to accomplish in 2025.
[More]




