Here we provide a preview of our latest publications. Follow this link to the Cultures of History Forum's website to get access to all our articles.
Politics of History
Putin justified his invasion of peaceful Ukraine in February 2022 by questioning the very idea that Ukraine has a national history distinct from Russia. At the core of this claim is the shared history of the Kievan Rus'. The article provides a critical analysis of the uses and abuses of Rus' history by both states and of their strategies to craft that history into a national narrative and weapon in the current war.
Exhibiting 20th Century History
The opening of this exhibition in the city museum of the small Czech town of Ústi nad Labem in November 2021 was as much a political milestone as it was a curatorial achievement: for the first time, the long and painful history of Germans and Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia is being displayed in form of a permanent exhibition. The curators succeed to approach the shared past with an openness towards the complex relational history and sometimes surprising technological interventions.
Politics of History
Since Russia started its war, Latvia has shown much solidarity with Ukraine - in military, humanitarian and symbolic ways. The latter involved the political decision to demolish Soviet-era Second World War monuments all across the country. The most important of them, the so called Victory Monument in Riga, was toppled on 22 August. The article discusses how it came to this and what it means for the future of Latvia's relations to its Russian-speaking population for whom this monument had great meaning.