Presentation of an International Research Project

On September 19, 2025, the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv) hosted a scholarly seminar titled “I Survived the Nazis, I Will Survive the Rashists: World War II and the Holocaust in Contemporary Ukrainian Discourse on the Russian Invasion.” The event brought together researchers from Ukraine, Poland, Austria, Germany, Portugal, and other countries to discuss the role of historical analogies in today’s public discourse.

The Department of Ukrainian History co-organized the event. Acting Head of the Department Roman Liubavskyi and Associate Professor Yevhen Zakharchenko participated in the seminar.

Within the first panel, Associate Professor Yevhen Zakharchenko presented a research project carried out in collaboration with Dr. Paweł Dobrosielski (Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw). The project focuses on the analysis and interpretation of historical analogies in contemporary Ukrainian public space.

A distinctive feature of the project is its large-scale database — more than 65,000 entries (texts, visual materials) collected during the first year of the full-scale invasion. The research is supported by the Foundation for Polish Science within the framework of the program “For Ukraine!”

The seminar was held under the organizational patronage of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe and with the participation of international commentators, including representatives of the University of Bern and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

As part of the seminar, an evening public lecture dedicated to the project’s topic was held, moderated by Taras Nazaruk (Center for Urban History).

More details about the seminar can be found on the website of the Center for Urban History: Between Fascism and “Rascism.”