Current State of Oral History Initiatives in Ukraine: Research Results From the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and Gradus Research

The first Forum of Oral History of Ukraine, which took place in Kyiv on 10 October 2023, included a presentation of an analytical report based on the results of a comprehensive survey by the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and Gradus Research Company on the topic The Current State of Oral History Initiatives in Ukraine.

The event was organized at the initiative of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Museum of Civilian Voices in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation and the Oral History Association, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin).

The survey, among other aspects, covers the following relevant topics:
— concepts and features of oral history
— the process and participants of collecting and disseminating oral stories
— challenges and aspects of special attention in this field
— the importance of documenting oral history evidence for society.

The results also reflect the outcomes of the polling among Ukrainians regarding their personal experience of witnessing the events of the full-scale war and the need to share such stories with their compatriots and the world.

Detailed information can be found in the presentation available at the link.

Natalya Yemchenko, Public Relations and Communications Director at System Capital Management and member of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s supervisory board, and Evgeniya Bliznyuk, sociologist, founder and director of Gradus Research, presented the report in the framework of the Forum of Oral History of Ukraine.

The Forum is an initiative of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, which documents first-person accounts of civilians about the war and has now collected more than 85,000 stories. Follow the news about the held event on the Museum’s website at https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/en/news/