Nationalism and Human Rights: The Cultural Renovation of the Ukrainian Shistdesiatnyky

Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University for a presentation by Simone Bellezza (Visiting Assistant Professor, Columbia University).

This talk will present the cultural ferment of the Ukrainian non-conformist intellectuals of the 1960s assessing its importance for the history of Ukrainian nationalism and of the global history of human rights. This group of artists and intellectuals will be analyzed through the lens of the kompaniia, which allows keeping together the private and the public spheres of action of the shistdesiatnyky. The main figures of the movement will be presented (Ivan Dziuba, Viacheslav Chornovil, Valentyn Moroz, Leonid Pliushch), as well as some of their interlocutors (Oles’ Honchar, Petro Shelest). Finally, some data about the relevance of the shistdesiatnyky for the evolution of the transnational movement for the defense of human rights will be presented, sketching possible developments of future scholarly research in these fields.

From the Harriman Institute.