Volume 35, Issue 2

This paper is devoted to the transformation of the practices of obtaining academic degrees in Ukraine by applicants from outside the Academy. My hypothesis is that neopatrimonial science, political regime, and credentialism have led to consumption of academic degrees in Ukraine. It is a socially and politically selective process, where the initial pattern is established by the reference groups of top officials. This pattern is subsequently copied and reproduced by lower ranks. It is related to (economically) favorable conditions contributing to the transfer of academic regalia from the category of luxury goods to objects of mass consumption. This process has its own specific features for different groups of applicants from outside the Academy, where the significant factors are the applicant’s position and its rank, regional structure of the political regime, and gender. The empirical basis of the work was: (a) career patterns of 642 former and current governors and/or heads of Regional Councils during 1992–2024; (b) 1,735 candidate (PhD) theses in political science defended during 1999–2024.

This article aims to better understand the quality of life in Left-bank Ukraine during the 18th and 19th centuries through the analysis of a wide range of social, economic, and demographic indicators. The concept of ‘quality of life’ is considered as an interdisciplinary framework combining sociological, economic, historical, and demographic approaches. The study also evaluates the potential of various sources, including diaries, chronicles, statistics, and population censuses. Particular attention is paid to the subjective perception of well-being and its treatment in historical sources. The research demonstrates that quality of life in the region was closely connected with access to resources, education levels, infrastructure development, and professional medicine. A significant aspect of the study is the exploration of differences in perceptions of well-being among various authors. For instance, foreign travelers often romanticized or, conversely, criticized the everyday life of Left-bank Ukraine, depending on their personal views and experiences. The article analyzes key spheres affecting quality of life, such as social inequalities, population density, agrarian culture, and urbanization levels. The author emphasizes that quality of life did not always improve alongside modernization, and the expansion of urban infrastructure, for example, often adversely affected living conditions for certain groups as a consequence of inadequate water supply and sewage systems. The study highlights the necessity of analyzing historical transformations through the integration of subjective and objective data. The conclusions suggest that to objectively assess the quality of life in the region, researchers need measurable and comparable markers, as well as integral indicators reflecting the impact of various factors on human lives. Mortality rates and life expectancy are proposed as such indicators. Existing data for Left-bank Ukraine indicate a noticeably higher quality of life in the region compared to the provinces of European Russia at that time. However, this data is insufficient, referring only to the quality of life in Left-bank Ukraine at its ‘exit point’ from its ‘exit point’ from its situation of subjugation to empire. Without knowledge of mortality and life expectancy at its ‘entry point’, when the Hetmanate was still a distinct social and economic entity, such data can be interpreted in various contradictory ways, as is happening now. Therefore, the next stage of research would require studying these same indicators as they apply to the Hetmanate.

This article explores the impact of internal displacement during wartime in Ukraine on individuals’ social isolation. This study focused on understanding and comparing feelings of isolation in two different contexts: the native community in territories temporarily occupied by Russian troops since the full-scale war and the host community. The research reveals a consistent pattern of isolation characterized by feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion among internally displaced people (IDPs), irrespective of their location. Cultural disconnection emerges as a significant factor in both settings, with war-induced changes in social norms and practices leading to a sense of alienation in native communities, and the challenge of adapting to new cultural environments in host communities. Furthermore, it highlights IDPs’ increased vulnerability to bias, stigma, and anxiety in social interactions. Overall, this qualitative study advances the understanding of the effects of displacement on social isolation and provides insights that can inform effective recovery strategies and foster a resilient, cohesive national identity in post-war contexts in Ukraine.

Combatting human trafficking calls for new solutions and strategies. The study aims to test whether sensory language promotes the effect of co-presence in media stories. Apart from the methods of corpus and narrative analyses, which showed the prevalence of visual, tactile, and acoustic sensory modalities, and the first-person presentation, an experiment was conducted. Forty Ukrainian humanity students were exposed to narrative text (G1) versus expository text (G2). The Paired Samples T -Test showed a significantly higher degree of responsiveness within G1, who were more emotionally involved in the story (V1), felt sympathy for the victim (V2), and imagined themselves being in the same situation (V3). The Independent Samples T -Test showed the differences between the reactions of G1 and G2 across six other variables. The results were significant with regards to the feeling of being inside the story (V4), visualising the setting (V6), and the feeling of being touched (V8), and insignificant for the willingness to interview a victim (V5); imagining sounds and voices (V7), experiencing the smell of the places described (V9). The results confirm the value of using media narrative in classroom activities and point to the effect of simulated co-experience evoked by sensory language.

In “Professions for women”, a 1931 speech originally intended as a sequel to a Room of One’s Own , Virginia Woolf sets out to kill the “angel in the house”, a metaphor taken from a poem by Coventry Palmore, who she felt haunted Victorian England and prevented women from having “a mind of their own”. What kind of “Angel in the house” can be found in Central European literatures at the same period, and to what extent are they caught between the dynamics of emancipation and sequestration, or even persecution? The aim of this paper is to answer this question using texts by Zofia Nałkowska (in particular Romans Teresa Hennert , 1924) and, to a lesser extent, Milena Jesenská (in particular “Ďábel u krbu”, Narodní listy , 1923), in order to highlight the tension between feminist thought and female condition.

Reproductive rights in Poland have been subject to fight for more than a hundred years. Since Polish independence in 1918, the topic of abortion has been present in literary forms of female artistic expression. One such play is A Maiden’s Love written by Maria Kuncewiczowa in 1932. The protagonist, a young woman named Inka, faces a weighty choice of whether to maintain the pregnancy having been left alone with this decision by her partner. In 1932 the piece was staged in Teatr Maly in Warsaw and widely discussed in the newspapers and magazines. It was also a year when a new penal code was established and abortion was criminalized. The Maiden’s Love conveys that theater can be considered as a form of social relation and that it is inherently interwoven with socio-political and economic discourse. In this paper, I would like to analyse Kuncewiczowa’s strategies for representing the subject of abortion as well as the reception and the critical discourse around of the play from Teatr Maly. I would also like to demonstrate the political potentialites in melodrama.

Diana Balyko (1979) is one of the most prominent Belarusian contemporary playwrights writing in Russian and Belarusian. Despite not adhering completely to the so-called post-Soviet New Drama, Balyko’s production is heavily influenced by the theatrical movement, as is evident by the use of verbatim and the brutal portrayal of violence. In the author’s work, violence manifests itself especially through medical and sexual discourse. They become part of a power dynamics between individuals, behind which in fact lies a desperate longing for recognition and acceptance. In this way, Balyko points the finger at the absence of high values in post-Soviet society and in post-Soviet Belarus at the beginning of 2000’s which appears especially in a disregard of human life. This research aims at exploring the theme of identity in Balyko’s work through the body, considered by many feminist studies one of the main sites for the construction of the self as well as the subject and object of violence. For this purpose, the plays Belyj angel s čërnymi kril’jami (Balyko. 2005. Belyj angel Ss černymi kryl’jami [A White Angel with Black Wings] ), about the social stigma of AIDS, and Gorjačaja točka (Balyko. 2006. Gorjačaja ttočka [Hotspot]). Foucaultian concept of biopower and biopolitics will be especially useful in the analysis.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 inflicted severe damage on the country’s cultural heritage, triggering an upsurge in attempts to export cultural property across its borders. This paper deals with relevant issues related to the policy of Ukraine regarding the prevention of the export of cultural property abroad and the expertise of confiscated cultural property, as well as underscores the significance of enhancing state policy in this sphere in response to the challenges caused by Russian invasion. The notable increase in illegal attempts to export antiquities abroad requires a revision of the procedure for appointing and conducting the expertise of confiscated objects. This primarily applies to excessively prolonged periods of expertise, the lack of uniform rules applicable to all art experts regardless of their affiliations, and the ambiguous criteria defining “cultural property” in Ukrainian legislation. The paper proposes measures to resolve these difficulties, including introducing preliminary expertise at customs control, unifying the requirements for experts’ conclusions, and clarifying definitions in legislation.