The official launch of INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange took place on 7 September 2024 in Lviv. The historian Timothy Snyder and Serhiy Zhadan, poet and serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, spoke at the event. Their conversation was chaired by the journalist and Vice-President of PEN Ukraine Myroslava Barchuk.
The official launch of INDEX drew an audience of more than 200 intellectuals, community organisers, journalists, and cultural practitioners. The co-founding institution of INDEX, the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna) was represented by its Rector Misha Glenny, Executive Director Katharina Hasewend, the Research Director of the Ukraine in European Dialogue programme Mariia Shynkarenko, and the Ukraine Programmes Coordinator Anastasiia Kovach.
The establishment of INDEX has been driven by the work and vision of two Permanent Fellows of the IWM, Dr Katherine Younger and Professor Timothy Snyder. At the launch, Timothy Snyder gave a short lecture in Ukrainian on the traditions of thought and histories of documentation, from the Holodomor to the Holocaust and Gulag, that inform the mission of the Institute for Documentation and Exchange.
As Timothy Snyder observed, the future needs history but history is created here and now. Without work, documentation, and active engagement, this history for the future will not exist. The documentation of facts and creation of history is the kind of work INDEX and the institution’s partners lead on.
The writer, intellectual, and servicemаn of the 13th Brigade of National Guard of Ukraine “Khartiia” Serhiy Zhadan represents Ukraine’s culture of resistance. During the exchange with Timothy Snyder, Zhadan responded to Myroslava Barchuk’s question regarding the disillusionment of Ukrainians with the idea of justice: “Justice is not a given. It is similar to the problem of electricity during wartime in Ukraine. In order for us to have electricity, many people have to undertake specific actions to fix the grid. Likewise, we need to understand that justice is the result of specific decisions, efforts, and acts.” The evening finished with a reading of Zhadan’s newly published book of short stories documenting the war, Arabesques.
“We have called the launch ‘INDEXing the Future’ for a reason”, Dr Sasha Dovzhyk, INDEX’s Programme Director, explained in her remarks. “Intellectual exchange enables documentation of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the development of a stable archive which will serve as an index, a guide, and a warning for future generations not only in Ukraine but all over the world.”
The INDEX team is grateful for the invaluable support during the set-up of the institution to its partners, including the Lviv City Council, Center for Urban History, PEN Ukraine, and the family of the late writer and Documenting Ukraine grantee Victoria Amelina. The media partner of the launch is Radio Khartiia. Above all, our gratitude for the opportunity to act and testify amidst Russia’s full-scale invasion goes to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
