Volodymyr Mykhailovych Viatrovych (; born 7 July 1977) is a Ukrainian historian, civic activist, and politician.
Viatrovych was the Director of the Center for Research of Liberation Movement from 2002 to 2010. Viatrovych is a member of the board of trustees of the National Museum-Memorial of Victims of the Occupation Regimes "Loncky street Prison" Museum.Biographical note in The Ukrainian Insurgent Army 2008 (in Ukrainian). From 2008 to 2010, he was director of the Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine. From 2010 to 2011, he was senior visiting scholar at the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, working in particular with the archival documents of Mykola Lebed. He was Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance from 25 March 2014 until September 2019.
As a historian, Viatrovych was criticized for whitewashing crimes by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II. He was dismissed from his post in September 2019, with Anton Drobovych succeeding him. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Viatrovych was number 25 on the election list of European Solidarity. Since 3 December 2019, he is a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
Biography and academic career (1994–present)
From 1994 to 1999, Viatrovych was a student at the history faculty of Lviv University (West Ukraine) where he specialised in Ukrainian history. In 2004, he defended his doctoral thesis: "UPA raids beyond Ukrainian borders as part of the creation of an anti-totalitarian national-democratic revolution among the nations of East-Central Europe" (He had already issued a book on the subject in 2001).
From November 2002 to March 2008, Viatrovych was director of the Centre for the Study of the Liberation Movement, based in Lviv. In 2005 and 2006 he lectured at the Ukrainian Catholic University. During that time he drew up the first course in Ukrainian higher education on "The Ukrainian Liberation Movement from the 1920s to 1950s" for students of the historical faculties of the Catholic University and the Ivan Franko Lviv University.
From August 2005 to December 2007, Viatrovych was a research associate at the I. Kripyakevich Institute for Ukrainian Studies at the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv.
From 2010 to 2011, he worked in the US at the Ukraine Research Institute at Harvard University.
Viatrovych subsequently became director of the Center for the History of State-Building in Ukraine at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
National Remembrance (2007–2019)
Between May 2007 and January 2008, Viatrovych was a representative of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance for Lviv Oblast.
In 2008, he served as research consultant to the international project, “Ukraine Remembers, the World Acknowledges” which aimed to popularise the subject of the Holodomor, the 1932-3 famine in Ukraine, and, through international lobbying, to gain world recognition that this was an act of genocide. From January to October 2008, Viatrovych was head of the archives department at Ukraine's Institute of National Remembrance.
From October 2008 to March 2010, Viatrovych was adviser on research to Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the head of the SBU or Security Service of Ukraine (2006–2010). Viatrovych was a moving force behind the idea of putting Stalin and other Soviet leaders of the time on trial for genocide for their part in the Holodomor. They were found guilty in January 2010 by the Court of Appeal in Kyiv.
Viatrovych has been a trustee of the Lontsky Prison National Museum-Memorial to the Victims of Occupation Regimes (Nazi and Soviet) in Lviv, since it was set up and opened to the public in 2009. From March 2008 onwards he has chaired the research council of the Centre for the Study of the Liberation Movement (Lviv).
On 25 March 2014, Viatrovych was appointed Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance by the First Yatsenyuk Government. In September 2019, the Honcharuk Government dismissed Viatrovych from the position of the Director."Ukraine fires historian criticised for rehabilitating wartime nationalists idolised by the far right" (retrieved September 23, 2019)
According to the Jewish Policy Center, in 2017, Viatrovych described the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych as an "eminent personality" and defended the legality of the public display of the symbol of the Galician SS division.
Political activism (2004, 2013–2015)
When the Orange Revolution took place in 2004, Viatrovych took an active part, supposedly as a leader of the PORA ("It's Time!") youth movement.
During the Euromaidan protests in 2013, Viatrovych called for active measures against the authorities.Mariana Petsukh, "Volodymyr Vyatrovich: 'We are obliged to leave the Maidan as an organised force'," Evropeiska Pravda website, 23 December 2013 (in Ukrainian). He coordinated mass demonstrations and led a column of activists to block the government buildings and the parliament (Verkhovna Rada).
Speaking of the rotation of Euromaidan activists he recalled the activities of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army or UPA: "In the 1940s and 1950s conditions in the underground were worse: people did not leave temporarily to go back to work, but because a comrade had gone forever. That is why we shall succeed!" He also commented: "We do not intend to halt after the regime has changed in Ukraine, when we have got rid of the rule of Yanukovych".Mariana Petsukh, "Volodymyr Viatrovych: 'We are obliged to leave the Maidan as an organised force'," Evropeiska Pravda website, 23 December 2013 (in Ukrainian).
In May 2015, President Petro Poroshenko approved four laws concerning decommunization in Ukraine. Volodymyr Viatrovych was involved in the drafting of two of these laws. The criminal sentences imposed by these acts and their phrasing came in for criticism within the country and abroad. The law "On access to the archives of repressive bodies of the communist totalitarian regime from 1917 to 1991" placed the state archives concerning repression during the Soviet period under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, then headed by Volodymyr Viatrovych.Halya Coynash, "'Decommunization' in Ukraine Carried Out Using Communist Methods", Human Rights in Ukraine website, 9 June 2016.
Canadian historian David R. Marples initiated an open letter addressed to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, calling on him not to sign the so-called anti-communism law and the law honoring the "heroes of the nation". This letter was signed by numerous historians involved with Ukraine. In a response, Viatrovych described the mass murders of Poles and Jews by Ukrainian nationalists as mere "individual opinions" and accused the signatories of spreading Russian propaganda.
2019 election to parliament In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Viatrovych was number 25 on the election list of European Solidarity. Electoral history and small biography of Volodymyr Viatrovych, Civil movement "Chesno" Only the first 23 candidates were elected. But, after Iryna Lutsenko gave up her mandate, Viatrovych did replace her and he was sworn in as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 3 December 2019. Instead of Lutsenko, Vyatrovich comes to the Rada, Ukrainska Pravda (12 November 2019) The Central Election Commission has let Vyatrovich to Rada, Ukrainska Pravda (14 November 2019) Number 24 of the election list European Solidarity, Nataliya Boyko, waived her right to enter parliament in favour of Viatrovych. Euro Solidarity candidate explains why she "missed" Vyatrovich in Parliament, Ukrainska Pravda (13 November 2019)
In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections, Viatrovych ran for the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Council as the first number on the list of European Solidarity. He did not take up his won seat.Deputies, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Council official website (visited on 17 September 2021)
Decorations and awards Cross of Ivan MazepaPresident of Ukraine Decree No. 1100/2009 «Про відзначення державними нагородами України» (2009), as department head at the Security Service of Ukraine. Vasyl Stus Prize"The Vasyl Stus prize has gone to a rights activist, a historian and a poet", UNIAN news agency. Other prize-winners that year were rights activist Evgen Zakharov and poet Irina Zhilenko. (2012), for his book History marked 'Classified Material''', 2011.
Viatrovych as historian (2002–2012) The first Volodymyr Viatrovych's book about the rallies of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Czechoslovakia was written based on his PhD thesis. It was devoted to a little explored area, and that this work has been appreciated and probably resulted in Viatrovich's appointment a director of TsDVR (Centre for the Study of the Liberation Movement).
Army of the Immortals (2002) His third book Army of the Immortals (2002) was discussed some years later on the Polit.ru website by Professor Alexei I. Miller of the Central European University in Budapest and Ukrainian historian Georgy Kasyanov from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In Miller's view the book was essentially glorification of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Many historical sources were disregarded in the book's writing, says Miller, and falsified stories were cited. Viatrovych preferred to ignore all criticism of the Army of the Immortals that originated within the academic community, says Miller.
In 2013, similar concerns about discussion of the past, the role and influence of Volodymyr Viatrovych, and the impact of divergent views on the present were raised in a discussion following a Columbia University workshop on “Russian and Ukrainian Nationalism: Entangled Histories”Taras Kuzio, "This is not how Ukrainian history should be debated", The Ukrainian Weekly, 19 May 2013.Discussion of David Marples, "The Limits of Tolerance", Current Politics in Ukraine website; contribution by Halya Coynash, 3 June 2013.
OUN Attitudes Towards the Jews (2006) This book provides a one-sided view on the OUN's attitude towards Jews.Taras Kuryło, John-Paul Himka, “Iak OUN stavylasia do ievreiv? Rozdumy nad knyzhkoiu Volodymyra Viatrovycha”, Ukraina Moderna 13 (2008), pp.252-265 The book portrays the Ukrainian nationalists and UPA as a "national liberation" movement and deny any accusations in their collaboration with Nazi Germany and involvement in the Holocaust. In his book Viatrovich presents only one critical article on OUN's anti-semitism, with the only purpose to immediately dismiss it.
John-Paul Himka and Taras Kurylo describe Viatrovich's methodology as follows:
Other authors agree that this book is an attempt to deny the crimes of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on Jews and to dismiss the allegations of its anti-Semitism.Per A. Rudling, "The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths", The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, No. 2107, November 2011, , pp.28-31Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, "Debating, obfuscating and disciplining the Holocaust: post-Soviet historical discourses on the OUN–UPA and other nationalist movements", East European Jewish Affairs, 42:3, pp. 207-208 In the opinion of Kurylo and Himka, this work does less to understanding history, but does much to distort it, however it contains an interesting material and forms the basis for further discussions on the relationship of the OUN and UPA to Jews.Taras Kuryło, John-Paul Himka, “Iak OUN stavylasia do ievreiv?..., p.264