Presentation of a Hrodna history publication to take place in Vilnius
On June 7, a presentation of the Belarusian translation of the book «History of Hrodna (1919—1991). Nationalization, Extermination and Sovietization of a Central European City» will be held in Vilnius, with the participation of its author Felix Ackermann.
Felix Ackermann is a German historian and publicist, a professor, and head of the Public History Department at the University of Hagen (Fernuniversität in Hagen).
This book is an attempt to write the history of 20th-century Hrodna from the perspective of cultural anthropology. Its basis includes oral accounts of Hrodna residents, archival research, and previous historiography, to which the author takes a distinctly critical stance. The question of how Belarusian Hrodna emerged is answered by considering the local history of the formation of three national projects — Polish, Soviet, and uniquely Belarusian — at the intersection of three countries — Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania.
Dozens of documents and photographs are published in the book, some of them for the first time.
To prepare this book, the author conducted interviews with dozens of local natives. Among them are Andrzej Poczobut, Professor Ales Smalianchuk, Aliaksandr Milinkevich, and local historian Aliaksandr Hostiyeu. The author's interlocutors included priests, anonymous teachers from Belarusian-speaking and Polish-speaking schools, and lecturers from Hrodna University. However, the book presents not only the voices of those who lived in Hrodna at the time of writing but also those who left it as part of the so-called repatriation. For this purpose, the author met with Hrodna Jews in Israel, and with Hrodna Poles who left after the war, in Poland. He also worked with Hrodna archives, including those currently located in Poland, with multilingual periodicals, and used little-known sources from German archives about Hrodna during the occupation.
This book is about:
- about Belarusian places and Belarusian figures in Hrodna during the interwar period.
- about conflicts between Christians and Jews during the same period.
- about the first Soviets in Hrodna (September 1939 — June 1941), who brought, on the one hand, deportations of the local population and other repressions, and, on the other hand, the Belarusianization of the education system.
- about the survival strategies of Hrodna's multi-ethnic population under German occupation and the mass murder of Hrodna Jews.
- about the second Soviets, and the waves of Russification and Sovietization they brought.
Time and place of the presentation:
June 7 (Sunday), 16:00 — 17:30.
Address: Belarusian House, Vilniaus gatvė 20, Vilnius.
The presentation is held with the support of the European Union program 'EU4Belarus: Support to Advanced Learning and Training (SALT II)'.