Call for Papers: Annual Conference of the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History

Vergrößern

Call for papers: Annual Conference of the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History

The Politics of Nazi Accusations: The Soviet Union and anti-Soviet Nationalisms in the Cold War

Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History at the Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, and Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich; Lviv: 5-8 October 2025

Deadline: 7 April 2025

A fundamental component of Russian propaganda to justify the ongoing war against Ukraine is the assertion that Ukraine is ruled by a “Nazi regime”. This motif is not a recent invention; in fact, it can be traced back to the Soviet era, where similar accusations were levelled also at “bourgeois nationalists” of other Soviet nationalities, particularly those from the Baltic countries. The Soviet allegation was that they had served Nazi Germany before and during the Second World War and continued their collaboration with the enemies of the Soviet Union in the service of the Americans and other Western powers. Even before the Second World War anti-Soviet nationalists who strived for independence were counted among the “fascist” enemies of the Soviet Union.

Accordingly, the Eastern European, anti-Soviet diaspora groups in the West were at the centre of these accusations, especially since the 1960s. Indeed, many of those who had been involved with the German occupational regime in local administrations or police units had departed the occupied territories with the German troops and subsequently found themselves as “Displaced Persons” in the western occupation zones in Germany at the end of the war.

However, Soviet publications and other activities apparently were not aimed at contributing to historical clarification of the complex issue of collaboration with Nazi Germany, but mostly propagated an enemy image to mobilise against the independence efforts in the respective Soviet republics, distract from Soviet crimes and combat the influence of the various anti-Soviet exile groups at home and abroad.

We invite suggestions for papers that explore the prehistory of the current “Nazi” accusation and its impact within the Soviet Union and beyond its borders. The conference will have a focus on the Ukrainian case, but intends to include also other cases. The Cold War will be the core period that the conference aims to address, but also the use of similar accusations from the end of the Cold War to the present are of interest.

Possible topics of interest to the conference include, but are not limited to:

• the Soviet propagandistic discourse about “bourgeois nationalists” – motifs, phases, and contexts
• Soviet trials against alleged perpetrators of crimes during German occupation between propaganda and justice
• Soviet activities with regard to the Soviet diaspora nationalities
• activities of the diaspora nationalities with regard to the Soviet Union
• the Soviet Union and debates about crimes under German occupation and the Holocaust in the West
• Soviet depictions of Zionism as “bourgeois nationalism”
• accusations of fascist tendencies in Russia’s foreign policy since the 1990s

Convenors: Yaroslav Hrytsak, Martin Schulze Wessel, Kai Struve

Travel expenses and accommodation during the conference will be covered by the organizers. Due to the continuing war the conference will take place in hybrid form. On-site and on-line participation will be possible.

Please send an abstract (up to 300 words) and a short CV not later than 7 April 2025 to cmh@ucu.edu.ua.