On April 16, 2026, a round table meeting titled "The Chernobyl Tragedy: Humanitarian Dimension" was held, organized by the humanitarian institutions of the NAS of Ukraine – the Institute of the Ukrainian Language, the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology, the Institute of Ethnology, and the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature.
The meeting heard reports from linguists, folklorists, ethnographers, and literary scholars. The speakers shared a synthesis of the most important studies that emerged as a result of comprehensive long-term research on issues provoked by the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986. This event is associated with human casualties, the destruction of the lives of thousands of residents of the area adjacent to the plant affected by radiation, the destruction of a territory that became unsuitable and dangerous for human habitation and had to be abandoned. The complete evacuation of residents from the affected zone and the depopulation of the ethnolinguistic space of Ukrainian Polissya became a major challenge for Ukrainian and pan-Slavic humanities. In the folk speech of the Polissya inhabitants, in the proper geographic names (toponyms, hydronyms), in the song and material culture of the Chernobyl linguistic-cultural space, researchers recorded numerous unique archaic elements that gave scientists from various countries convincing grounds to link this area with the Proto-Slavic era. After April 26, 1986, the linguistic-cultural mine of Slavic archaic heritage in the mandatory resettlement area was destroyed and lost forever.
To save the information that was just beginning to be lost, expeditions of scientists from Ukrainian academic institutions and universities were organized, who conducted mass interviews with Polissya resettlers in their new compact settlements. The main form of presenting the obtained information was narratives, thematically defined stories; later, expeditions were conducted to villages in the Exclusion Zone, where the owners returned (to their homes).
The acquired audio and video recordings, photographic materials were processed by researchers in the formats of descriptive studies, collections of transcribed dialect speech texts, folklore and ethnographic collections, photo albums. At the same time, numerous reflective works by writers, publicists, painters appeared, anthologies of artistic and journalistic works were published, including translations into other languages... No one remained indifferent: Chernobyl touched everyone!
In scientific publications and reports at many conferences, researchers emphasized the heuristic value of the empirical data recorded during the expeditions, the use of which deepened knowledge about the language world, ancient culture, and historical past of the destroyed archaic region. The tradition of deepening the knowledge of Ukrainian Polissya was continued at the round table "The Chernobyl Tragedy: Humanitarian Dimension." The participants noted that from the tradition of studying this area, new directions in the humanities have emerged, in particular:
- systematic description of individual dialects based on extensive narrative collections;
- comparative study of phenomena recorded at different times in a defined topos (micro- and macro-diachronic analysis);
- creation of local phonotheques and textotheques of transcribed narratives of dialect speakers;
- synergy of linguistic and ethnological information;
- consideration of the Chernobyl area in the general Ukrainian and pan-Slavic contexts.
The mentioned analytical procedures are used as a model for studying other Ukrainian linguistic-cultural areas.
At the round table meeting, the following reports were presented:
- "The Chernobyl Tragedy: Ukrainian and General Civilizational Dimensions" (Director of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor P.Yu. Hrytsenko);
- "Chernobyl: Steps of Understanding, Bitter Lessons" (Director of the Institute of Ethnology of the NAS of Ukraine, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine S.P. Pavlyuk);
- "Preservation of the Ethnocultural Heritage of Kyiv Polissya – a Model for Ensuring the Ethnic Identity of Ukrainians of the Region in the Modern Civilizational Space" (Acting Director of the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Historical Sciences N.S. Stishova);
- "Chernobyl as a Palimpsest: Images of the City in the Modern Cultural Space" (Head of the "Ukrainian Ethnological Center" Department of the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Historical Sciences H.B. Bondarenko);
- "The Linguistic Space of the Chernobyl Area from the Perspective of Time" (Senior Researcher of the Dialectology Department of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Philological Sciences M.M. Tkachuk);
- "The Dialect of the Village of Masheve – a Promising Dialectological Experiment" (Senior Researcher of the Dialectology Department of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Philological Sciences L.V. Ryabets);
- "Cultural Heritage of the Chernobyl Region: Methods of Modern Representation" (Leading Researcher of the "Ukrainian Ethnological Center" Department of the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Historical Sciences L.H. Ponomar);
- "Chernobyl in Ukrainian Literature: Theme and Genre" (Senior Researcher of the Department of 20th Century Ukrainian Literature and Contemporary Literary Process of the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Philological Sciences T.P. Holovan).
The speakers and participants of the discussion emphasized the value of the collective experience in studying the problems of the Chernobyl zone for modeling methods of restoration (renovation) of regions of Ukraine that suffered destruction due to Russian aggression, and whose residents were displaced from temporarily occupied territories.
Interest was aroused by the exhibition of publications by scientists of the NAS of Ukraine – the Institute of the Ukrainian Language, the Institute of Ethnology, the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology, and the T.H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature – about the language and culture of the Chernobyl area.
All reports presented during the round table will be published.
According to the Department of Literature, Language, and Art Studies of the NAS of Ukraine
