Contribution short abstract:

The unspeakability of trauma is well known. However, Frosh argues that "the failure to deal with trauma" is not "the failure of speaking" but rather "the failure of listening". Can this idea be applied to the Ukrainian trauma? How can we listen to the unspeakable and untold?

Contribution long abstract:

Our silenced past can haunt us as a ghost. The history repeats itself. The ugly ghost of the past has come to life again, opening new wounds on top of the old traumas that still remain not fully ’digested’. Millions of lives have been broken or destroyed by the totalitarian machine. Ukraine has a long history of silenced traumas due to the ‘code of silence’ imposed by the government. The situation is very different now. We want to speak about our collective trauma. However, is there always the audience that wants to listen?

Furthermore, the former KGB archival materials remained ‘secret’ until 2014. Today, despite many years of forced silence, we can rethink and reflect on the traumatic experiences of our past that can help make more sense of our today's struggles.

In this presentation, you will be invited to re-engage with the past through opening some archival materials collected by the presenter at the State Archive Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in 2021 (criminal cases of Soviet Ukrainian dissidents declared 'insane' and incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals).

However, can we uncover authentic voices in these archives? How can we invite the ghost of the past to speak while working with them? While trying to come to terms with our own emotional responses in research, how can we avoid the two extremes described by LaCapra as "full identification" and "pure objectification"? How can we listen without being traumatised ourselves? How can we ensure that we approach the material ethically?