Reflections

The Manifesto, issued on July 25, 1792, bears the name of the Duke of Brunswick, a prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and a commander of the Coalition’s army. This proclamation aimed to frighten the French with threats of total destruction and military courts in case they resisted the invading troops or tried to harm the French king. However, the Duke was not an author of the document; he only signed it with significant hesitation. Later, Brunswick openly expressed his regrets about doing so. The document was drafted by émigrés Geoffroy de Limon and Pellenc, assisted by a royalist journalist and propagandist, Jacques Mallet du Pan, dispatched by the French king. Louis XVI and the royal...

The documents are two proclamations given by General Napoleon Bonapart to the Army of Italy in 1796, the first year of Napoleon’s First Italian campaign (1796-1797). The first proclamation, dated March 27, 2 days after Napoleon’s arrival at the army’s headquarters, was relatively short, but it precisely addressed the most significant issues of the soldiers. After being appointed commander of the Army of Italy (one of three French armies (the Army of Sambre and Meuse, the Army of the Rhine and Moselle, and the Army of Italy) supposed to strike Austria), General Bonapart faced the real state of his troops. The Army of Italy experienced greater hardships than the other two armies. It...

The video by Sashko Drugli, posted in May 2024, aims to prove that homophobia in Ukraine is a consequence of Russian colonial policies. The author suggests that homophobia has nothing to do with Ukrainian traditions and calls it a “Russian colonial import.” He does that by explaining how Russian homophobic readings of Christian writings enforced by the Russian Orthodox Church are likely to be the reason for Ukrainian Christian-based homophobia. He then brings forward an interpretation of forced celibacy in Zaporozhian Sich as an equal treatment of both homosexual and heterosexual relations. Sashko Drugli proposes that homophobia in Ukraine developed after the Russian empire defeated Zaporizhian Sich and criminalized "sodomy, which he compares...

This video is a recording of Verka Serdiuchka’s representation of Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song “Dancing Lasha Tumbai.” Verka Serdiuchka is a drag persona performed by a male Ukrainian comedian, actor and singer Andriy Danylko. The character of Serdiuchka embodies a unique cultural archetype: a strong yet simple post-Soviet woman with Ukrainian rural origins. This is usually reflected in the lyrics, her costume designs and her use of “Surzhyk,” a mixed language combining Ukrainian and Russian elements. Danylko’s persona is often labelled as a "jester", both by nationalist-leaning audiences and in some academic circles (Yekelchyk 2010). Some others refer to it as "drinking songs" with heavy use of...

Admiral C. Turner Joy (1895-1956), an influential US Navy commander with a three-decade military career, played an important role in World War II and the Korean War. He organized naval operations while serving as the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in the Far East and also played a significant part in the talks for the Korean Armistice.  Following the Korean War armistice discussions, Admiral Joy wrote an article, "The Communist Prevented a Negotiated Peace," that was published during the early Cold War period. It is based on Joy's personal experience as a prominent figure in the Panmunjom armistice discussions (1951-1953). The article’s principal objective is to condemn communist negotiation techniques, claiming that they...

Henry Kissinger, born in 1923 in Fürth, Germany, escaped Nazi persecution and emigrated to the United States in 1938. During World War II, he served in the military before pursuing his academic interests at Harvard University, where he earned his doctoral degree in political science. His doctoral thesis, titled “A World Restored,” examined 19th-century European diplomacy and revealed his profound interest in power dynamics and international order. In 1954, the Council on Foreign Policy was convened in the United States, gathering esteemed experts to formulate a comprehensive understanding of the state of affairs in the field of international relations. The necessity for this initiative arose from the realization within the political, military, and...

“The Value of Science is in the Foresight”  is an article by Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces. It is based on theses of his speech at the annual general assembly of the Russian Academy of Military Science and was published in the Voyenno-Promyshlennyy Kurier military journal in early 2013. 

The development and use of nuclear weapons in the second half of the 20th century led to the emergence of the so-called doctrine of nuclear deterrence, which began gaining traction among American policymakers in the late 1940s. According to this doctrine, a state's possession of nuclear weapons serves as a safeguard against the use of force by other states, as they understand that any aggression toward a nuclear-armed state could result in catastrophic losses. However, when the United States, through its Manhattan Project, ceased to be the sole state monopolizing the development and possession of weapons of mass destruction, already tense relations between the two hegemons — the USA and the USSR —...

The manifesto was issued on July 9, 1955, by Bertrand Russell, during a time when the Cold War and the arms race were escalating. It was signed by 11 eminent scientists, including Albert Einstein. Shortly thereafter, in 1957, the manifesto was publicly presented at the First Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs.

In the 1930s, the Kyivan Prince Yaroslav the Wise sarcophagus was repeatedly the subject of scientific research attended by historians, doctors, museologists, anthropologists, and other scientists. For example, on 25 January 1936, a commission headed by the director of the Museum Town, M. Bahrii, examined the contents of the sarcophagus for the first time. At the bottom of the sarcophagus, they found a disorderly accumulation of bones belonging to a man and a woman, as well as small fragments of a child’s skull. The sarcophagus was opened for the second time in 1939. At that time, the commission, which included the famous Soviet scientist V. Ginzburg, decided to transfer the recovered bone remains...

The proposed reflection by Dr. Pavlo Yeremeev concerns the issue of possible styles of teacher interaction with those students who, for religious reasons, do not accept the approaches of modern historical science in the field of ancient history and biblical studies. These considerations are based on the author's experience of teaching courses that include the history of religion at the Department of History, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

This is an interview with Professor of history at Kherson State University Oleksandr Cheremisin about his experience of research work in the archives of the South and East of Ukraine right before the beginning of Russian aggression and the occupation of Crimea in 2014.