The project to publish the collected volume “Central and East European Women and the Second World War: Gendered Experiences in a Time of Extreme Violence” became the first publication in independent Ukraine devoted entirely to this subject. Below is a description of the project from conception to public presentations.
Concept and Preparation
Origins of the idea: the idea for the book emerged in the course of organizing and hosting the international conference held in Kyiv on November 28–29, 2013). Already at that time, researchers acutely recognized the enormous public and scholarly demand for high-quality studies on women’s wartime experience against the backdrop of a critical shortage of such research in Ukrainian historiography.
Partnership: the publication was prepared in partnership between UARWH and the Ukrainian Oral History Association. Financial support was provided by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Ukraine. Academic oversight of the project (scholarly review and recommendation for publication) was provided by the Institute of Ethnology, NAS of Ukraine.
Editorial work: the academic editors were Helinada Hrinchenko, Kateryna Kobchenko, and Oksana Kis. The preparation process lasted over a year. In addition to scholarly editing of the texts, after the loss of funding from one of the project partners, the editors personally translated, on a pro bono basis, 10 important studies from German and English.
Content: the book includes some twenty articles by established scholars and emerging researchers from Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian translations of ten foreign-language studies.
Publication and Distribution
The collected volume was published in mid-April 2015 by Art-Knyha Publishing. The uniqueness of the project lay in the way it was distributed: the book was distributed free of charge during presentations and through the office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and was also donated to the major scholarly libraries. After the print run was exhausted, with the consent of all parties involved, the electronic version of the publication was made available on the Heinrich Böll Foundation website.
Public Resonance
Throughout April–May 2015, a series of presentations of the volume took place in the form of panel discussions in various cities across Ukraine:
1. Kyiv (April 25, 2015)
- Venue: the Book Arsenal.
- Participants: co-editors Kateryna Kobchenko and Oksana Kis; authors Olena Stiazhkina, Tetiana Pastushenko, and Anatolii Podolskyi.
2. Lviv (April 30, 2015)
- Venue: Institute of Ethnology, NAS of Ukraine.
- Participants: Oksana Kis, Kateryna Kobchenko, Marta Havryshko.
3. Chernivtsi (May 7, 2015)
- Venue: Fedkovych National University of Chernivtsi.
- Participants: Oksana Kis, Olena Stiazhkina, Marta Havryshko. Organized by the NGO “Quadrivium.”
4. Vinnytsia (May 16, 2015)
- Venue: K. A. Timiriazev Regional Universal Scientific Library.
- Participants: Oksana Kis, Tetiana Pastushenko, Olena Petrenko (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany). Moderator: Olha Koliastruk.
5. Dnipro (May 21, 2015)
- Venue: Central City Library.
- Participants: Oksana Kis, Kateryna Kobchenko, Anatolii Podolskyi. Organizer: Viktoriia Narizhna.
In March 2016, the series of presentations and public discussions continued in the eastern regions of Ukraine:
6. Zaporizhzhia (March 17, 2016)
- Venue: Zaporizhzhia National University, Faculty of History.
- Participants: Kateryna Kobchenko, Helinada Hrinchenko, Tetiana Pastushenko.
7. Berdiansk (March 18, 2016)
- Venue: Berdiansk State Pedagogical University.
- Participants: Kateryna Kobchenko, Oksana Kis, Tetiana Pastushenko.
8. Mariupol (March 18, 2016)
- Venue: Mariupol State University, Faculty of History.
- Participants: Kateryna Kobchenko, Oksana Kis, Tetiana Pastushenko.
In the fall of 2016, a number of similar events took place in the western and central regions of Ukraine:
9. Lutsk (October 20, 2016)
- Venue: the Scholarly Library of Lesia Ukrainka Eastern European National University.
- Participants: Oksana Kis and Marta Havryshko. The event was organized with the assistance of Oksana Yarosh, Director of the Center for Gender Studies.
10. Uzhhorod (October 24, 2016)
- Venue: Uzhhorod National University.
- Participants: Oksana Kis, Marta Havryshko.
11. Nizhyn (October 2016)
- Venue: Nizhyn Mykola Hohol State University.
- Participants: Kateryna Kobchenko, Tetiana Pastushenko (with possible participation of Oksana Kis).
12. Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi (October 2016)
- Venue: Hryhorii Skovoroda Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi State Pedagogical University.
- Participants: Kateryna Kobchenko and Tetiana Pastushenko.
Tour logistics: the participants traveled between cities by train and bus with financial support from the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The presentations, held in the format of panel discussions with co-authors and co-editors of the collected volume, reached leading pedagogical and classical universities and scholarly institutions across Ukraine, engaging students, professional historians, and women’s movement activists in discussion.
The events were supported by a broad information campaign, including local television and university websites. These events not only presented the book but also served as forums for discussion about the relevance of women’s wartime experience in the context of the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine.
Scholarly Resonance In the years that followed, several scholarly reviews of the publication appeared, including a review by Iryna Sklokina published in Krytyka in May 2016 (https://krytyka.com/ua/articles/zhinky-na-viyni-konstruyuyuchy-i-dekonstruyuyuchy-stereotypy).