Instrumentalisation of History or Inclusive Narrative? Regional Policies and Ethnic Memories in Ukraine.

The paper examines the concept of instrumentalisation of history in today's Ukraine from the perspective of experts in history from Kiev, Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Based on interviews with historians, this instrumentalisation is described as a resource that is used by different actors and entities and cannot exclusively be attributed to the ultra-nationalist camp.Instrumentalisation is interpreted as a rather natural process. The following actors applying instrumentalisation were mentioned: individuals, families, NGOs/civil society, teachers, media, cinema/literature/art producers, academic historians, social movements, all political forces/parties, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, presidents, any group that has its own identity. The goals of instrumentalisation can vary from identity processes to trauma healing and prevention of violence and war. Inclusiveness of the regional and ethnic memories in the experience of history teachers is analysed as an example of non-nationalistic construction of a national narrative. Three indicators for the inclusiveness of a narrative in formal history education are proposed: the search for a common narrative and for including the memory of the ethnic "Other" into "our" memory," the recognition of regional history in the national narrative, the practical realisation of inclusiveness in the form of interregional exchange of memory.It was revealed that there is space for an inclusive narrative of ethnic memories, but the usage of it depends on several factors: the teacher's character, the access to historical sources, the possibility of cooperation with other institutions, such as NGOs, academia, museums, ethnic communities, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]