In this publication we ask “Why should we reconsider the past?” There is no single answer to this question in Ukraine. Isn’t it possible just to forget the past and stop talking about it? Or isn’t it possible instead of painful reconsideration simply to refer to national myths, creating certain political framework for the history? Juriy Shapoval clearly indicates in his work, that processing of the past plays an important role in democratic consolidation of society.
First of all it is necessary to return the facts back, and for the citizens in some way to bring their biographies back. For a long time the ideology was more important than facts. Thoughts were put on the first place instead of facts, and because of that the reality was lost. But coming back to reality is possible only through comprehensive memory, through remembering not only about success but about losses as well.
Witnesses of dictatorship lost not only facts but reality, and very often they were deprived of sympathy to the victims. Only sympathy to themselves was preserved. In the conditions of dictatorship the citizens turned into residents and the residents gradually turned into the prisoners of state. In community where civil society is built, prisoners should become citizens again. Without reconsidering the past, citizens will never receive the autonomy.
Nation and state can’t loose when reconsidering the past. Vice versa: they can only win. The
Truth makes you free.
Nico Lange
Kiew, February 2010