Protest against the harassment of a historian by the Ukrainian SBU
We protest against the harassment of a historian by the Ukrainian secret service, or SBU On 9 September 2010 the SBU detained the historian Ruslan Zabilyi and confiscated his research material. Now the SBU is seeking to launch a criminal case against him. Whether we share Ruslan Zabilyi’s views or not, we consider it absolutely impermissible for a security service to harass researchers and obstruct intellectual activities. Many of us are signing this petition in spite of the fact that we seriously disagree with Ruslan Zabily’s politics and his views of Ukrainian history. Even while we abhor the politicization of history that has become so evident in the recent years of Orange versus anti-Orange debates, we believe that the resolution of scholarly disputes depends upon the free flow of ideas, and free access to historical sources no matter how controversial they may be. We believe that a truly democratic and independent Ukraine needs and facilitates full and free inquiry into its history. Such an enquiry can only take place with the broadest access to Ukrainian archives. Given the record of denial of access to archives and libraries, suppression of dissenting views, denial of academic freedom, and isolation of Ukraine from the international scholarly community in the past, any Ukrainian government must be especially vigiliant not to revive such practices. Against this background, the treatment of Ruslan Zabilyi points to a reversion to regrettable and dangerous practices of the totalitarian past. We find this incident extremely worrying, especially in view of earlier illegitimate uses made of the SBU in the realm of academia and civil society under the new Ukrainian government. Even strong disagreements about Ukraine’s past and its politics of memory and history cannot be solved by methods that amount to harassment and intimidation. Ukraine’s reputation is also bound to suffer very severely from such methods. We call on the SBU and the Ukrainian government to show responsibility. We call on Ukraine’s public and its scholarly community not to tolerate the intrusion of blatant police methods where research, scholarly dispute, and public debate should be the means of resolving – or living with – differences. We urge the Ukrainian public and the Ukrainian and international scholarly community to join us in supporting Ruslan Zabilyi and in censuring the use of police methods to try to quash scholarly discussion.
Tarik Cyril Amar, Assistant Professor,
Melanie Arndt, Dr., Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung,
Jars Balan, Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies
Centre, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies,
Omer Bartov John P.
Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History,
Jan Behrends, Research
Fellow,
Karel Berkhoff, Associate Professor, Center for
Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, Professor Emeritus,
Tim Buchen, Center
for the Research on Antisemitism, Technische
Universität
Jeffrey Burds, Associate
Professor of Russian & Soviet History, Northeastern University
Tetyana Bureychak,
Associate Professor, Department of History and Theory of Sociology, I.
Marco Carynnyk, Writer,
Istvan Déak, Seth
Low Professor Emeritus,
Roman Dubasevych,
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald
Oles Fedoruk, Research
Fellow, Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature,
Rory Finnin, Lecturer in Ukrainian Studies,
Michael S. Flier, Director,Oleksandr
Potebnja Professor of Ukrainian Philology, Ukrainian Research Institute,
Elena Gapova,Associate Professor, Western
Michigan University/European Humanities University
Alexandr Gogun, PhD
student,
Semion Goldin, The
George G. Grabowicz,
Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures,
Sofia Grachova, PhD
Candidate in History,
Andrea Graziosi, Professor,
Borys Gudziak, Rector,
Mark von Hagen, Professor, Director, SHPRS,
Lubomyr Hajda, Associate Director, Harvard
Ukrainian Research Institute
Elizabeth V. Haigh,.Professor Emeritus, Saint
Mary's University Halifax, Canada
Karl Hall, Associate Professor,
Director of Undergraduate Programs,
Patricia Herlihy,
Professor Emerita, Brown University; Louise Wyant Professor Emerita, Emmanuel
College, Boston; Adjunct Professor, Watson Institute for International Studies,Associate, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
John-Paul Himka, Professor,
Alexandra Hrycak,
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of
Halyna Hryn, Editor, Harvard Ukrainian Studies
Dr Liudmyla Hrynevych,
Dr Vladyslav Hrynevych, Professor, Senior
Researcher, Institute of Political and Ethno-National Studies,
Yaroslav Hrytsak, Professor,
Maciej Janowski, Professor,
Oksana Kis, Historian,
Senior Reserach Fellow,
Bohdan Klid, Assistant Director, Canadian
Zenon E. Kohut, Professor,
Department of History and Classics, Director,
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Boris Kolonitskii,
Professor, European University, St. Peterburg; Institute of History, St.
Peterburg Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Ihor Kosyk, PhD student,
Mark Kramer, Director,
Cold War Studies Program,
Alexander Kratochvil, PhD, Exzellenzcluster "Kulturelle Grundlagen von
Integration", Universität Konstanz,
Kravchenko, Volodymyr,
Professor, President of the International Association for the Humanities
Sergei Kravtsov, Senior Researcher, Center for Jewish Art,
Serhiy Kudelia,
Assistant Professor, National Univeristy "
Serhij Kvit, Rector,
Maria Lewicka,
Professor,
André Liebich, Professor, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Torsten Lorenz,
Paul Robert Magocsi, Professor,
Еmil Majuk,
Stowarzyszenie “Panorama Kultur”,
Liudmyla Males,
Associate Professor, Sciology,
Ihor Markov, Political
Scientist, Director of the Department for Ethno-National Studies,
David R.
Marples, Distinguished University Professor, Department of History
& Classics, University of
Terry Martin, George F. Baker III Professor of Russian Studies,
Department of History,
Igor Martynyuk, Ph.D. Ab Imperio Quarterly
Jarred McBride, PhD
Candidate (UCLA)
Askold Melnyczuk, Associate Professor,
Oleksandr Melnyk, PhD Candidate,
Joanna B. Michlic, Ph.D.,Director Project
on Families, Children and the Holocaust,
Marina Mogilner, PhD, Editor for Russian and
Alexander Motyl, Associate
Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, Deputy Director of the
Center for Global Change and Governance Co-Director of the Central and East
European Studies Program
Iryna Musiienko, Associate Professor,
Krzysztof Michalski, Professor, Director of the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna
Eleonora Narvselius,
Centre for European Studies,
Larissa Onyshkevych,
Ph.D.,
Vitalii Perkun, Research
Fellow, Insitute of History,
Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern,Associate Professor,
Director, the
Dieter Pohl , Professor,
Institut für Geschichte,
Andriy Portnov, Ukraina Moderna Journal, Kyiv
Anna Procyk, Professor,
Roman Procyk, Ukrainian Studies Fund,
Wojciech Przybylski, Res Publica Nowa, Chief
Editor
Robert Pyrah, CEELBAS
Postdoctoral Research Fellow,
Vasyl Rasevych, Senior Research Fellow,
Institute of Ukrainian Studies,
Shimon Redlich, Prof.
Emeritus of History,
Inna Reut, PhD student,
Bohdan Rubchak, Professor Emeritus, Unversity of
William Risch,
Malte Rolf, Osteuropäische Zeitgeschichte,
Leibniz Universität Hanover
Per Anders Rudling, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald
Natalka Rymska, Essayist, Translator, Lviv
Roman Senkus, Director,
CIUS Publications Program,
Ostap Sereda, Senior Research Fellow,
Viktoria Sereda, Assistant Professor,
Christopher Stroop, Ph.D. Candidate,
Andrzej Szeptycki, Dr.,
Volodymyr Sklokin, kandydat istorychnykh nauk,
Iryna Sklokina, Ph.D. student,
Ihor Skochylias, Dean,
Timothy Snyder, Professor,
Department of History,
Mykola Soroka, PhD,
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies,
Myron Stachiw, Historian,
Director, Fulbright Program in
Lidia Stefanowska,
Assistant Professor,
Jan Surman, MMag., PhD
Student,
Frank Sysyn, Director, Peter Jacyk Centre for
Ukrainian Research,
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of
Roman Szporluk, Professor emeritus,
Philipp Ther, Professor, European University
Institute,
Iryna Vushko PhD,
Anna Wylegała, PhD
student,
Theodore Weeks, Southern
Amir Weiner, Associate
Professor of Soviet History,
Andrew Wilson,
Dr. Sergei Zhuk, Associate Professor,
Arsen Zinchenko,
Insitute of History,
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