Decolonization is a complex process. At times it can even be painful. It definitely can’t be boiled down to “let’s get rid of everything Soviet and call it a day”. This journey requires tackling the issues which were previously swept under the rug. It requires comprehension and communication, dialogue and understanding. Read our text to discover how the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program works with these topics.

Unpacking our past

Almost three years have passed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has been going on for over ten years. Yet, Ukraine had been affected by Russia for centuries, be it the reign of the Russian Empire or the times of the Soviet Union. The latter claimed that it was a union of equals, while in reality, it brought us wars and genocide, torturing, executing, and deporting us. The typical colonialist model was deployed: everything was done for the sake of the all-encompassing economic and cultural Russia’s domination. We had to gravitate to Moscow, and be proud of the “great culture” and “mighty language”. We were expected to listen to Russian music and admire Russian ideas. In the ideal world of the occupants, there would be no independent Ukraine. What the terrorist state had failed to accomplish over the last centuries, it strives to achieve during the invasion. Instead, it accelerates the Derussification and decolonization of Ukraine which go at an unprecedented pace.

Only Schrödinger’s box may contain both dead and alive cat at the same time. We, however, need to understand: till we get rid of someone else’s garbage we store, it would be hard to make room for things that belong to us: memory, identity, values, and vision for the future.
Discarding things mindlessly won’t do the trick. To free ourselves of the colonial burden, we need to have a closer look and unpack it. It will help us to understand what is our own and what was imposed, what is needed and what has turned to dead weight. Anyway, this journey will include discussing and coming to terms with the past, and not blindly denying it. If you close your eyes, it won’t go anywhere.

Yulia Lyubych, Photo: NGO “STAN”

“If we simply forget what had happened, not analyzing how it affected our everyday lives, we won’t be able to move on,” muses Yulia Liubych, designer of the educational program “Young Diversity Ambassadors” (YDA). “That’s why decolonization is an active process. It is not about packing things in the boxes, but about coming to terms with the old attitudes and challenging them. Packing the past won’t do. On the contrary, we need to unpack and reassess it.”

Oleksandr Voitenko, photo: NGO “STAN”

Oleksandr Voitenko, an education expert and a human rights trainer in the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and OSCE in Ukraine, co-author of the handbooks on historical memory, also supports this idea.
“I am terrified when as part of the decolonizing effort we try to erase the Soviet period from the narrative, pretending it had never happened,” Voitenko says. “It’s not like if we forgot Chapayev or Shchors, it would be easier. It is often ridiculous: instead of rejecting heroization and evaluating the past critically, we are erasing it from the memory. This way, we are erasing the times of our parents, grandmas and grandpas… When in STAN we discuss the memory narratives, memory spaces, or memorialization, what we primarily mean is not nurturing hate for communism, but rather comprehending how awful communism and its consequences were. In turn, it helps us to form an opinion. We expect it to be adequate, as human is the measure of things.”

Decolonization and dialogue

Despite the long colonial history, the decolonization discourse in Ukraine is fairly recent. As a result, it is constantly being reinterpreted, both in the country and in the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” program. The approaches regarding the format of research and discussion are constantly evolving. “Decolonization is a new topic. To discuss it, the community must have a lot of reflections,” Yulia Liubych says. “Youth wants to tackle the underrepresented topics.”

From STAN’s experience of working with young people, we know that they deem necessary the existence of media resources, informational or physical platforms for sharing ideas and discussing complicated questions weren’t getting the attention up until recently. “It is indirectly but strongly related to decolonization and finding your own voice,” Yulia explains. “Decolonising means finding your own voice, and you are doing this via the dialogue. Dialogue is a result we would like to see, as it is necessary in a society built on trust, which includes trust in the authorities. It proves that society is able to discuss the future it wants to see, willing to shape this future together.”

Participants of the Young Diversity Ambassadors program, photo: NGO “STAN”

Hutirka

Dialogue has always been one of the key tools for youth projects. Consider that last year organizers of “RepinNASH Fest”, be it consciously or intuitively, went to the suburban trains. They didn’t hold lectures about the prominent artist but rather wanted to talk about him. They wanted to listen to others and express their own ideas. Maybe young people who grew up in an independent country feel aversion to the very idea of imposing or forcing ideas on others. If that’s the case, it’s wonderful.

“A series of interdisciplinary talks about memorialization and decolonization” established by the student organization “Hutirka” was created in the environment of the Ukrainian Catholic University. It is one of the recent projects that utilizes a dialogue approach. “Hutirka” means “talk”. Since its founding, the organization has held talks with interesting people. The first guests were mainly professors who came to talk to their students in an informal setting. Later they started to invite other speakers and experiment with formats. For instance, they organized human libraries.

Visual materials of the Repin festival, Behance: Yulia Danylova

After the “Young Diversity Ambassadors” workshops, the initiative group has planned three more meetings focusing on decolonization and memorialization. There is a word  “interdisciplinary” in the name of the project, and that’s why every meeting will feature speakers working in the different spheres. Building on their experience and expertise, they will search for answers together.

The first talk was held with a therapist, author of the popular psychology books and podcasts Volodymyr Stanchyshyn, and a pianist, journalist, associate professor at the Culturology department in the Ukrainian Catholic University Marta Kusii.

The talk emphasized the importance of psychological recovery during the war, caring about your energy, and discussed how art, in particular music, can help with it. The other topic was rethinking colonial influence both in music and in therapy. For instance, psychological disorders and therapy are still stigmatized in our society. These are lingering remains of the Soviet experience when quality psychological or therapeutical help wasn’t accessible. Instead, repressive psychiatry bloomed. Kusii told about fairly underrated or under-discovered Ukrainian music, which was affected by the metropolia politics which imposed “brands” of Chaikobskyy or other Russian composers.

The first talks were mainly limited to the university environment, but now the discussions are leaving the campus. “The main focus is on psychological recovery. We also want to invite more people than UCU students,” says Iryna Mohetych, head of “Hutirka”. “We’ll be joined by the school students from the small communities and villages and many other people.”

Hutirka on Instagram: @hutirka

Coming back home

You need to remember that decolonization is a long-term process. Every step you take was made possible by all the previous steps. What we do today secures our tomorrow. A striking example is “Portraits of the Luhansk Region”established in 2023. Back then, the team began filming memories of people who had to flee the Luhansk region. They filmed short videos, trying to capture the piece of the puzzle the Luhansk region brought to the image of the whole Ukraine.

Later the initiative group created a short film about Luhansk Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater which was relocated to Siverskodonetsk in 2014 and moved to Sumy in 2022. “The film is more about us wanting to tell the story about the resilience of our people,” explains Yaroslava Hubova who co-produced the movie. “About the lengths they are willing to go to keep the Ukrainian culture alive. We aspired to preserve the initial idea of “The Portraits…” in the film, putting emphasis on people in the theater rather than the theater itself. It is undoubtedly a matter of preserving, capturing contemporary Luhansk culture. Sure, physically it is not on the territory of the Luhansk region, but it is alive among us.”

Movie characters, former and current theater directors and actors discuss theater, how it was, how it is now, how it changes. Why it is needed by spectators and themselves. How it feels when performances get interrupted by the air raid alarms, and how it feels to go back from the shelter on stage to finish the play.

It is also a movie about theater in times of war, and people in times of war. “People in Siverskodonetsk have learned to work regardless of everything,” says Maksym Bulhakov, the theater director. “The most important thing is to work, not letting sadness and melancholy in. You have to accomplish many things, because we may not be here by tomorrow. That’s what sets a mood for work. I believe we have also conveyed this mood to the theater in Sumy.

In our opinion, it was an actor Volodymyr Blahyi who best expressed the essence and role of the theater. “For people coming to us, Luhansk theater is part of the Luhansk region. There are memories about the days long gone when everything was normal. You lived and knew what to expect. You could build plans and dream. I really would like to come and look at the Luhansk theater, forgetting today and coming home for at least 1.5-2 hours. Maybe, that’s exactly why they come to us.”

The project “A network for democracy: Building a future with the European leaders of tomorrow” is implemented by the NGO “STAN” and ActionAid in partnership with the NGO “Center for Social Transformations TENET”, NGO “Insight”, NGO “Chernivtsi Association “Zakhyst” with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Denmark). This project is a part of the program “Young Diversity Ambassadors”

This is a program for youth and youth workers to strengthen social cohesion to create an inclusive, peaceful society, minimize the likelihood of conflicts arising between different groups, and accelerate the integration of young IDPs. The program is implemented by the NGO “STAN” in partnership with the Alliance for Rights, Equality and International Solidarity “ActionAid” with the support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), Global Fund for Children (USA), Terre Des Hommes (Germany) and IM Swedish Development Partner (Sweden).