On March 31, 2017 Dnipro City Council hosted All-Ukrainian Scholarly and Practical Conference “Park of Totalitarian Periods as a Tool for Dnipro Decommunisation”, organized by communal enterprises “Ethnographic Parks of Dnipro” and “Agency of Dnipro Development” of Dnipro City Council.

The main goal of the event was to form and improve the basic principles of construction of park of totalitarian period, its content, techniques and methods by which park and museum compositions have to be settled for overcoming the rudiments of the Soviet past and development of Ukrainian historical memory of Dnipro residents and guests.

The conference gathered scholars and historians from Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro. Among them there were Prof. Natalia Romanets (Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University), Prof. Oleksandr Nikiliev (Oles Honchar Dnipro National University), Dr. Pavlo Hai-Nyzhnyk (Ukrainian Studies Research Institute of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine) and others.

Introductory report by Dr. Volodymyr Panchenko, deputy of Dnipro City Council, director of “Agency of Dnipro Development” caused a long and significant discussion. During the discussion variety of proposals to develop the concept and define the functions of the park of totalitarian regime were expressed. The most important it has to be a sort of vaccination with memory of the horrors of the Communist and Nazi totalitarianism, so they are not repeated in the future.

Report by Dr. Iegor Vradii, head of research and museum department of “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies”, “Victims of Nazi Totalitarianism in Dnipro Memorial Sites” raised great interest of the audience.

The conference participants visited the Holocaust Museum and noted its high level of content and forms as well as ways of interaction with visitors. Also, researchers were able to learn more about novelties in scholarly literature published by “Tkuma” Institute.