Ukraine and the World: Paradise(s) Lost?

XXIX. Greifswalder Ukrainicum – Greifswald Ukrainian Summer School under the scientific direction of Professor Dr. Roman Dubasevych (Greifswald)

The remarkable resilience and mobilization of Ukrainian society in the fight against Russian aggression often overshadow the profound feelings of nostalgia and mourning that have accompanied the war since its outbreak. The sorrow over immense human losses and the destruction of cities and landscapes is intertwined with a growing awareness of the irreversible changes Ukrainian society is undergoing—marking the end of a long period of peace and gradual evolution since World War II. Despite the promises of decolonization, decommunization, and de-russification giving allegedly the birth of a new European and global leader, Ukrainian society now appears as wounded and vulnerable as rarely before in its history.

Moreover, in 2025, it is striking to recall that just a decade ago, following Euromaidan, Ukrainians began embracing their cultural diversity and openness. This shift was exemplified by the growing recognition of multilingual poets and artists such as Andrii Kurkov, Borys Khersons’kii, Oleksander Roitburd, or Ievheniia Bilorusets’, as well as by historians’ ability to critically engage with the nation-centric approach to history and promote more entangled perspectives. By contrast, the re-legitimization of nationalism and monoculturalism as the key survival strategies in the war against authoritarian Russia is paradoxically accompanied by nostalgia reaching further into the past—ranging from the pre-2014 era to even flashes of Soviet nostalgia.

Revisiting Ukrainian TV shows from the early 2000s or 1990s, one cannot help but experience a paradoxical yearning for Ukraine’s recent past—a time marked by bewildering post-Soviet openness, diversity, peacefulness, and naivety, despite political and economic turmoil. Was there a paradise that has now been irretrievably lost in this war? And how do these feelings of loss correspond with the global disorientation and the erosion of liberal-democratic ideals in the face of the triumphant rise of the far-right populism? It is heart-wrenching to consider how the current war has shattered dreams of a freer, more just, and prosperous future—especially given the high price Ukraine particularly and post-Soviet societies in general have already paid for their transformation.

This year, Ukrainicum seeks to explore these contradictions and ambivalences, as well as their impact on the current cultural and political landscape. What do they reveal about Ukrainian society and the world at large? Are they a “natural” psychological response and compensatory mechanism for the ongoing trauma, destruction and disorientation? Are these moments of longing for a “lost paradise” merely decadent and “restorative” in the sense outlined by Svetlana Boym, or do they also represent a “reflective” effort to seek answers to pressing contemporary issues? Moreover, might they offer insights into the causes of the war—or, like Ariadne’s fragile thread, point the way out of the labyrinth of alienation and confrontation epitomized in ‘my nation first’-mentality?

The language of instruction is English. Successful participation requires language proficiency at the B2/C1 level or higher.