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The 24th meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Commission on Improving the Content of School History and Geography Textbooks was held in Uzhhorod on January 27-30. This year, the opening of the intergovernmental commission, which has been operating since 1995, was dedicated to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On January 27, a Commemoration Ceremony dedicated to this date was held in the premises of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration. The historians, educators and scientists were addressed by Maryana Marusynets, Director of the Department of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration (Uzhhorod); Dr. Igor Shchupak, Director of “Tkuma” Institute, Member of the International Council of Auschwitz (Poland), Member of the Ukrainian-Polish Commission of Experts on Improving the Content of School Textbooks; Raisa Yevtushenko, Chief Specialist of the Department of Educational Content, Extracurricular and Educational Work of the Directorate of School Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Secretary of the Ukrainian-Polish Commission of Experts; Dr. Yehor Vradiy, Deputy Director of “Tkuma” Institute, Member of the Ukrainian-Polish Commission of Experts; Dr. Faina Vynokurova, Deputy Director for Scientific and Methodological Work of the State Archives of Vinnytsia Region, Honored Cultural Worker of Ukraine (Vinnytsia); Iryna Piskareva, Head of the Educational Department of “Tkuma” Institute.

Remembering the victims of the Nazi genocide, I would like to emphasize the symbolism of the time and place of the Ceremony. After all, it was the Jews of Transcarpathia who were mostly killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau – the terrible “death factory” that ceased to exist as a place of targeted killing exactly 80 years ago. On the other hand, then, as now, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the irrationality of Evil lies in the desire to destroy a certain community of people for the sake of diabolical interests and imperial ambitions. Not only the speakers, but also all the participants of the event spoke about the parallels between the Holocaust and Russia’s policy against Ukrainians.

The next day, January 28, a plenary session of the Ukrainian-Polish Commission of Experts took place, in which, from the Ukrainian side, in addition to the aforementioned R. Yevtushenko, Dr. I. Shchupak, Dr. Y. Vradiy, Prof. Stanislav Kulchytsky, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Ukrainian History of the NAS of Ukraine (Co-Chairman of the Commission from Ukraine); Prof. Ihor Hyrych, Corresponding Member of the UVAN (USA), Head of the Department of the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the NAS of Ukraine; Prof. Myroslav Zayachuk, Dean of the Faculty of Geography of the Yuri Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. From the Polish side, the Ukrainian educators were addressed by Prof. Grzegorz Motyka, Member of the Board of the Institute of National Remembrance of the Republic of Poland, Director of the Military History Office (Co-Chairman of the Commission from Poland); Prof. Andrzej Korytko, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.

Of particular interest to those present were the “parallel” reports on the phenomenon of genocide and their modern assessments. Prof. G. Motyka spoke on the Polish side. On the Ukrainian side, in the reports of Dr. Yegor Vradiy and Dr. Igor Shchupak, the topic of genocide was examined, in particular, through the prism of the modern Russian-Ukrainian war and genocide by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

After the plenary reports, the participants of the All-Ukrainian Pedagogical Seminar of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Tkuma Institute, which was held in Uzhgorod these days, had a wonderful opportunity to directly communicate with members of the Ukrainian-Polish Commission within the framework of a “round table”. The commonality and difference of the historical experience of the Polish and Ukrainian peoples’ resistance to imperialism, the peculiarities of universal approaches in teaching national and world history and understanding the roots of patriotism are an incomplete list of questions and theses of a meaningful, partly emotional, and maximally frank conversation between academic scientists and Ukrainian history teachers. After all, it is not so often that Ukrainian teachers have the opportunity to dialogue with both Ukrainian scientists, textbook authors, and Polish partners who are based on values ​​​​shared with us but have their own vision of certain historical and social problems.

In a similar atmosphere of sincerity and openness, the discussion took place during the working sessions of the commission, dedicated to the analysis of Polish and Ukrainian textbooks on history and geography. Observing the work in the dynamics of ten years, one can clearly see how the recommendations and familiarity with the peculiarities of national textbook creation influence the authors of textbooks in Ukraine and Poland. In addition to the aforementioned members of the Commission, I would like to note the extremely deep and detailed reviews of Polish experts – Prof. Karol Sanojca (University of Wroclaw), Dr. Piotr Kroll (University of Warsaw), as well as from the Ukrainian side – Roman Gladkovsky, Chief Specialist of the Department of Educational Content, Language Policy and Education of National Minorities of the Department of General Secondary and Preschool Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Soon, authors in both Ukraine and Poland will have the opportunity to read the reviews and therefore will have important material for further work and improvement of the most important books on historical topics - school textbooks. The assessment of Ukrainian textbooks by Polish experts from “Orion” publishing house was pleasant.

Finally, I would like to note that many participants of the All-Ukrainian Seminar and the Ukrainian-Polish Commission of Experts discovered for the first time the world of multicultural Transcarpathia and Uzhhorod in particular. This would not have been possible without the informative and extremely interesting practical classes of Dr. Yuriy Slavik, Associate Professor of Uzhhorod National University. It is worth noting that, Y. Slavik is one of the leading researchers of the Holocaust in Transcarpathia, and his book (“The Road to Auschwitz: The Holocaust in Transcarpathia”), published in 2017 by the Tkuma Institute, is still one of the most comprehensive studies of the Nazi genocide in the region.

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