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Press Release totheInternational Workshop “The Cultural and Academic Relations between the Eastern Bloc Countries and the West during the Cold War Period” (November 15th, 2019)

On November 15th, 2019, the International Workshop organized by the Ohara Institute for Social Research/Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)in cooperation with the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) was held concerning the theme of “The Cultural and Academic Relations between the Eastern Bloc Countries and the West during the Cold War Period”.

Famous scholars from Japan, Ukraine, Poland and Germany took part in the said event. The Workshop was mainly featured by being held online via Skype. It created an environment of easy, sincere, and benevolent exchange of views, best scholarly practices, and own memories of the time when the Soviet Union existed and maintained relations with Japan, Germany, Poland, and the USA.

Doctor Rikako Shindo, Professor (Hosei University, Tokyo), and Doctor (Candidate of Sciences in History) Viktoria Soloshenko, Associate Professor, and Deputy Director for Research of the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”,delivered their welcoming speeches to the Workshop’s participants. In welcoming speeches, they emphasized the importance of studying and analyzing the troubled period of world history known as the Cold War epoch, which formed the Iron Curtain between the nations, and divided the world into antagonistic military and political blocs. Even under such circumstances, scholars, cultural figures, and artists were looking for ways to communicate and develop international relations. Today, we need to analyse what consequencesthe cultural and scholarly connections between the countries divided into two camps had for peaceful global development.

Prof. Dr Rikako Shindo was the first to present a comprehensive report to the Workshop’s participants. The speech was dedicated to the problem of the cultural and political relations between the Eastern bloc countries and the West during the Cold War period (an example from the academic and cultural relations between Japan and the GDR in the 1960s and 70s.). Prof. Dr Rikako Shindo noted that as of today the represented theme is one of the insufficiently studied problems in the history of Japanese and German international relations. In turn, the researcher emphasized that Japanese scholars and artists first off sought to find the ways of overcoming political differences between the Socialist Bloc countries and the Westthrough academic and cultural exchanges and socialism experience studies. The important fact is that such exchanges began to develop in the late 1950s well before the official diplomatic relations between Japan and the GDR were established in 1973. One of the remarkable examples of such Japanese and German cooperation in the academic field analysed in detail by Prof. Dr Rikako Shindo was the process of establishing scholarly exchanges between Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan) and Humboldt University (Berlin, GDR) in 1957–1961.

The International Workshop was continued by a report of Andrii I. Kudriachenko, Doctor (Doctor of Sciences in History), Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Director of the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”, which was dedicated to the problem of cultural and academic relations between the Soviet Union and Japan.The famous Ukrainian scholar paid considerable attention to the formation and operation of academic and cultural entities for studying Japan in the former Soviet Union, such as Japan–USSR Organization, the Soviet and Japanese Relations Society, and the USSR and Japan Friendship Society.Memories of establishing cooperation between the Soviet Union and Japan as part of the city partner program, i.e. between Kyiv and Kyoto in 1971, triggered a lively discussion among the audience.

On the initiative of Ukrainian scholars, the problem of Soviet-Japanese cooperation in liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986 was also discussed during the Workshop. In this context, Doctor Akira Suzuki, Professor, Director of the Ohara Institute for Social Research (research department of the Hosei University, Tokyo), described providing material and technical assistance to the USSR by the Government of Japan and the Japanese people, and involving Japanese experts from Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Besides, the Workshop’s participants paid attention to Ukraine's support for Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011, including sharing of experience of developed expertise concerning the Chernobyl disaster.

Doctor Nobuko Hara, Professor (Hosei University, former Director of the Ohara Institute for Social Research) in her report shared a remarkable example of academic cooperation between the USSR and Japan based on personal experience with the Workshop’s participants.Thus, back in 1983, she became a participant of academic exchanges between Hosei University and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Science. This experience was of great importance for conducting research on Marxist political economy in which Prof. Dr Nobuko Hara took an interest at that time. She had a chance to visit the archives of the Institute of Marxism–Leninism and to familiarize with the original documents associated with outlined problems. Teaching courses for students of the Economy Department at Hosei University today, Prof. Dr Nobuko Hara has the opportunity to share the knowledge of such untypical of Japanese reality phenomenonas Marxism partly owing to her internship experience in the Soviet Union.

Doctor (Candidate of Sciences in History) Viktoria Soloshenko, Associate Professor, and Deputy Director for Research of the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”, was the next to speak.Her academicreport was dedicated to the problem of the USSR cultural policy and the Ukrainian question. It was emphasized that during the Soviet period of Ukrainian history, the communist regime upheld the principles of collectivism, socialist patriotism, and internationalism, which would promote the construction of socialist society and the formation of united Soviet nation according to the official definition. Assoc. Prof. Dr ViktoriaSoloshenkodescribed in detail how embarrassing Ukrainian reality was in the Soviet times, how human rights were affected, and how communism influenced on people. As a result, it was stressed in the scholar’s report the consequences of the Soviet politics for establishing the Ukrainian national identity while Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union.

The theme of Ukrainian and Russian relations in modern historical era was further developedby Doctor (Doctor of Sciences in History) Vasyl Tkachenko, Professor, and Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine. Having presented his report “InsidiousCold War Phenomenon”, the researcher emphasizedthe recurrence of Russia’s return to the authoritarian period expansionist policy nowadays drawing on the example of the Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014. Prof. Dr Vasyl Tkachenko presentedto foreign scholars his own opinion, according to which the Cold War did not actually become the thing of the past. It exists in insidious form of so called “hybrid war” in the present-day “post-bipolar world”. Thanks to the opinion offered by the scholar, it was reiterated that the West countries should enhance their support with regard to Ukraine in its opposition to the military aggression of the modern Russian Federation.

Every attendee was captivated by a speech of Doctor, Professor Anna G. Piotrowska (Jagiellonian University, Krakov) themed as “Polish-German Musical Relations during the Cold War Era. The role of politics and personal contacts”. Thus, despite the geographic proximity and the shared musical past, the musical connections of the Cold War period between Poland and Germany (both Western and Eastern) did not become intense, especially at the official level. At the same time, as Prof. Dr. Anna G. Piotrowska emphasized, private contacts between Polish and German musicians were constantly maintained during that period, which enabled some Polish performers, including folk ensembles, to gain the liking and popularity of German audience. The researcher summarized her report by underlining that the history of development of Polish and German musical relations in the complicated historical period such as the Cold War may serve as the further evidence of music to be a universal language meant to unite people despite political differences.

During theinteresting discussion German researcher Frank Riesner (Japanese-German Society in Tokyo) paid attention on the other fields of the cultural relations between the Eastern Bloc countries and the West at the times of the Cold War period. In particular, the Workshop’s participants discussed the role of souvenirs in the formation of every country’s cultural image.

The final report of the International Workshop was presented by Doctor (Candidate of Sciences in Economics) Oleh Oliinyk, Visiting Professor at Hosei University, and Leading Researcherofthe State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”. The scholar dedicated his speech to the history of relations between the USSR and the West countries through the past. Tracing back the main stages of the development of such relations, researcher Oleh Oliinyk finally highlighted the internal and external factors, which led the Soviet Union to a naturally determined collapse.

It is worth noting the high level of organizing of the International Workshop jointly held by Japanese, Ukrainian, Polish and German scholars, which took place in a warm and friendly environment. The participants thereof sincerely shared not only the best academic practices, but also memories of the past; favourite songs well known in the countries represented at the event were heard.This Workshop held via Skype became the first successful experience of using such modern communication forms for organizing international events with participation of the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”. Furthermore, it attested that Ukrainian scholars of our Institute started a new page of cooperation with their Japanese and Polish colleagues, the academic contacts with whom had been established accordingly since 2014 and 2017.

It is quite consistent that during the final discussion of the roundtable conference it was emphasizedon the need to continue the fruitful scholarly cooperation between the staffs of Hosei University, and Jagiellonian University and the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” in the long term. As of today, we have already received favourable feedback of the held academic event from our foreign partners; special gratitude for organizing the event has been expressed therein to Doctor, Professor RikakoShindo, Doctor (Candidate of Sciences in History), Associate Professor ViktoriaSoloshenko, and Doctor, Professor Anna G. Piotrowska. The research staff of the State Institution “World History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” is very pleased to support Prof. Dr Rikako Shindo’s initiative with regard to “flourishing transnational initiative between Kyiv, Krakow, and Tokyo in the future”.The International Workshop held with the participation of researchersfrom different countriesand continents not only contributed to deepening the knowledge of the problems associated with cultural and academic relations between the Eastern Bloc countries and the West during the Cold War period, but also became a successful contemporary example of international cooperation between Japanese, Ukrainian, Polish and German scholars.


Viacheslav Shved
Mariia Kravchenko

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