Preserving oral history. Digital archive of Holodomor and collectivisation of Ukrainian SSR created
Pravda Ukraine
The project called Oral history of Ukrainian peasant culture of 1920-1930 has been released on the platform of Great Transformations archives. It tells the audience about the impact of collectivisation on the lives of Ukrainians – in particular, about the consequences of the Holodomor of the 1930s and changes in the cultural sphere through participants’ eyes in these events.
Source: The Great Transformations website
The collection contains materials gathered during the expeditions conducted by William Knoll and the team of the Сentre of Research Oral History and Culture in the 1990s. These include audio files, transcribed stories, photographs, and archival materials.
Quote by Knoll: “Collectivisation was not only a significant event from the point of view of the political economy with life-threatening consequences, but also a cultural disaster of truly enormous proportions. … In the Ukrainian SSR, it was carried out through mass repressions, with the participation of many thousands of activists. As for the peasants, this campaign included violence, famine, expulsion from their homes, confiscation of property, murder, prolonged imprisonment, and the almost incredible suffering of a huge number of people”.
Details: The platform works as an open digital archive of oral history and music for researchers in these areas. The next projects will be called Instrumental Rural Music and Kobzars and Lirnyks (kobza and lira are folk instruments; hence, kobzars and lirnyks were musicians who played them – ed.). Photos, videos, songs, and instrumental music recordings will be collected.
During 1993-1995, William Knoll, an American researcher on ethnomusicology, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, with the participation of Ukrainian scientists, conducted field research on the method of oral history. Together, they interviewed more than 400 peasants and collected archive materials belonging to those who witnessed the Holodomor and collectivisation in the Ukrainian SSR.
Knoll collected the records of the expeditions in the book called Transformation of Civil Society. The oral history of Ukrainian peasant culture in 1920-1930, released in Ukraine in 1999.
In May 2023, the Canadian publishing house McGill-Queen’s University Press published a book by William Knoll in English, enjoying the support of the HREC, the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium.
“Millions died directly due to the introduction of the idea of collectivisation of peasant farms. In Ukraine alone, six million people died of starvation. In contrast, millions more died due to harsh natural conditions after being expelled from their homes or in exile, or from abuse, disease, and epidemics, which were direct consequences of collectivisation… There is no doubt that collectivisation in the Ukrainian SSR can be classified as one of the greatest crimes against humanity in the twentieth century.” William Knoll noted in the book.
The online platform Great Transformations started functioning in the autumn of 2023 as a digital archive of audio materials.
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