Why Ukrainian archives must be protected

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," George Orwell wrote in "Nineteen Eighty-Four."

As Russia's invasion approaches the two-year mark, is President Vladimir Putin exerting control over Ukraine's cultural identity, past and present? 

The settlement of Vysokopillya, which was founded as a German colony between 1869 and 1870, is located in the middle of farmland in the south of Ukraine. There is a main road, a train station and a church with a golden dome. Around 4,200 inhabitants live in the unassuming village, which was invaded by Russian troops in March 2022, before Ukrainian military forces recaptured it in September and hoisted the Ukrainian flag near Vysokopillia's hospital as part the Ukrainian southern counteroffensive.

During the six-month occupation, Russian soldiers lived in cellars, looting and destroying homes, schools, kindergartens, historical sites and the regional archive, which was housed in a four-story building.

Today, the building is in ruins. The canopy over the main entrance is broken off, the windows are cracked or missing altogether and the roof has collapsed. Rubble blocks the entrance. It would be life-threatening to enter, as mines have been laid. Documents that were not destroyed or could be brought to safety in time are now vulnerable to the weather.

The regional archives in Vysokopillya are just one of many examples that the looting and destruction of archives is part of how Russia is waging its war. A report by the Arolsen Archives, an international center for Nazi persecution, reveals how dramatic the current situation is. Russian soldiers are said to have stolen millions of documents from the archives in Kherson, amounting to around half of the entire collection. They also removed computers and printersbefore placing mines in the building. After the Russian troops withdrew, the mines were cleared, but recovering the remaining documents is a laborious process. There is a lack of scanners, computers, storage boxes, shelves and staff.

Ukraine's cultural memory in danger

"When a nation fights for its survival, it also fights to preserve its cultural identity. Museums are tangible repositories and archives and libraries are repositories of knowledge," Jörg Morré tells DW. He is the director of the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum, which, despite being founded as a German-Russian museum, is well networked with many Ukrainian museums and archives. Shortly after the Russian invasion, was already asking about the needs of Ukrainian institutions from Berlin and organizing support.

Among other things, files from the Soviet secret service are stored in the Ukrainian state archives. They document crimes such as the Holodomor genocide, a famine deliberately caused by the communist regime in 1932-33. The documents in Ukrainian archives are not under lock and key, but can be viewed by researchers and interested citizens.

During World War II, Ukraine was under German occupation between 1941 and 1944. This is why many archives also contain historical evidence from the Nazi era, including photos, letters from prisoners of war and forced laborers, and other documents about Nazi crimes.

"The files from the German occupation are not fundamental to the cultural perception of the Ukrainian nation, but from the Russian perspective, the successor state of the Soviet Union, the great victor against fascism, they are important," says Morre.

Russia sees itself as the rightful owner of these documents. In the Kherson archive, he explains, Russian emissaries went through the rows with lists and specifically took volumes and files from the German occupation. "This follows on from the great tradition of looted archives from World War II, when the Red Army brought files from German archives to Moscow on a grand scale. And they are still there today," says Morre. "These looted files were not touched at all for decades, not even by Russian researchers. It was all about possessing them. Russia is now acting according to this logic again."

Why Ukrainian archives are being destroyed and looted

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine is not a sovereign state. He made this clear in his pseudo-historical speeches and essays prior to the invasion on February 24, 2022.

Three days before the invasion, he declared in his speech to the nation that Ukraine was not simply a neighboring country for Russia. He sees both countries as a single entity. Ukraine was created by Russia and is an integral part of Russian history and culture, he claimed. Putin sees himself as the liberator of Ukraine, which has been infiltrated by nationalists and neo-Nazis.

From Putin's point of view, there can only be one truth, one history, namely the Russian one. Critical voices and the media are suppressed in Russia and access to archives is restricted. The destruction and looting of Ukrainian archives by the Russian military is a way of erasing Ukraine's history and depriving the Ukrainian people of their identity.

The attempt to deny people their culture has a long tradition: Ukrainian literature was already banned during the Tsarist Empire and Ukrainian was not allowed to be spoken. In the Soviet Union, family and city names were "Russified" and monuments glorifying the Soviet regime were erected even in the most remote areas of the empire. Many of these monumental statues are still part of the landscape in former communist states today.

Russian is currently the official language in the occupied territories in Ukraine. Only those with a Russian passport are allowed to see a doctor. Russian is spoken in schools. The approved textbooks spread Russian propaganda, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International, while Ukrainian textbooks are banned.

How can the archive documents be saved?

Several German institutions such as the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum, the Federal Archives, the German War Graves Commission, the Arolsen Archives and the "Save Ukrainian Archives" initiative are providing help in Ukraine.

According to museum expert Jörg Morré, the abduction of cultural assets is a topic that is very present in Germany. "We Germans know what it means when cultural assets are destroyed." During World War II, the Germans were the perpetrators and removed cultural assets from archives, libraries and museums, particularly in occupied Poland.

Funds are sought for high-resolution scanners, power generators, lamps, dehumidifiers, fire alarms, archive boxes, shelves, cameras, computers, special adhesives and paper. There is also a lack of staff. There are currently only half as many people working in most archives as before the war. Yet they urgently need professional support, because the archives are still in danger. Documents that are not digitized could be lost forever. And digitization also has its pitfalls. Although a lot is scanned, little is done systematically.

The destruction of archives, libraries and museums hits Ukraine hard, as the loss of cultural assets makes it more difficult to form a nation state, concludes Morré. "Sure, you can digitize everything, then the knowledge is preserved. But a nation state based on digital copies? We haven't yet reached the point with digitization where we can say that it's just as good."

This article was originally written in German.