“War, Memory, Reconciliation: Past and Present”

9.5.2023

“War, Memory, Reconciliation: Past and Present” was the topic of the round table meeting held on May 8 by the history teacher O.M. Karpenko for the students of the Professional College of LTSNU. 

The meeting took place in a friendly atmosphere in an online format. Teachers and students had the opportunity to turn the pages of national history and talk about wars related to Ukrainian lands. The most terrible of them were the First and Second World Wars. The loss of Ukrainians in them amounts to about ten million people. Along with this, huge destruction, deportations, extermination, looting, mutilated destinies and great pain, which has not subsided for a century. The wages of the Ukrainian people were quite high.

The participants of the round table had the opportunity to review the presentation on the decision to celebrate the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation in Ukraine. They expressed their own point of view regarding these events. It was said that the tragic events of the Second World War had something to do with every Ukrainian family. They remembered their relatives who fought on the fronts and in active armies. It was said that in the context of the Second World War, Ukrainians essentially took part in eight well-defined wars – from the German-Polish 1939 to the Soviet-Ukrainian 1944-1955 (underground war).

Currently, the educational institution is located in the city of Lubny. The city was under German occupation for two full years (September 1941 – September 1943). The college history teacher O.M. Karpenko introduced the round table participants to his own local history books about the period of occupation: “Called by the heart” (about the activities of the underground group “Voice of the Fatherland”) and “Essays on the history of the Lubny region during the war and occupation 1941-1943 years”.

The participants of the round table turned the pages of the historical present, giving a proper assessment of the Russian military invasion of Ukrainian lands in 2014, which has been going on for 9 years. Nazi evil, lies, extermination, and destruction were replaced by Russian (racist) evil. History repeats itself. The copying system worked perfectly. But this is all a sign of totalitarian regimes and their dictators.

The conclusion of the round table was the judgment that the long-suffering Ukrainian people during their thousand-year history always had the courage to defend their native land, defending it from the enemies of the invaders. It was always like that. It is so now. This is the truth.

Professional College of LTSNU