Foreign experience of historical policy conduction: prospects of implementation in Ukraine in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war and post-war reconstruction

Abstract

The article examines the issue of adapting the foreign experience of historical policy implementation in the post-war period by countries that were in a state of armed conflict or war for planning directions and forms of Ukraine’s historical policy in the Russian-Ukrainian war conditions and after its end. The paper highlights three forms of historical policy, such as the coverage of an armed conflict or war in a school textbook on national history (using the example of Algeria after the Algerian War of 1954-1962), the renaming of cities and streets (using the example of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Bosnian War 1992-1995) and the creation of bilateral intergovernmental commissions of experts in the field of history (on the example of Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and France after the Second World War). The author analyzes which elements of the historical policy of these countries can potentially be applied in the Ukrainian context with certain caveats already now, taking into account the nature and character of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and which of them – in the future in case of internal political transformations in the Russian Federation. Particular attention is drawn to the European integration of Ukraine and the need to establish further a dialogue with Poland and Hungary on the issues of the Volyn tragedy and the Hungarian national minority in Zakarpattia oblast respectively. The investigation’s results provide a basis for recommendations regarding improving Ukraine’s historical policy during the Russian-Ukrainian war and after its end. The emphasis in the specified recommendations is on the comprehensive nature of the historical policy implementation, which should cover the three proposed forms, as well as the disclosure of the historical and cultural relationships of Ukraine with the European states to deepen the ideological foundations of Ukraine’s integration into the European Union.