What parts of the world come to mind when you hear the phrase “decolonial history”? To judge by a quick Google search on the phrase, chances are it’s not Eastern Europe. On most history syllabi the study of Eastern Europe and its peoples is little more than an afterthought, and in the field of postcolonial history it is virtually nonexistent.
That state of affairs, and the assumptions that underpin it, are however under challenge. Back in May 2023, the historian Oksana Dudko organized a workshop at the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage in the Canadian city of Saskatoon, which brought together scholars from a variety of vantage points who were intent on bringing decolonial perspectives to bear on the study of Eastern Europe – a quest that Russia’s accelerating war on Ukraine has made all the more urgent. In the year that followed, Oksana and the historian Anna Hájková put together an email forum on the subject involving six historians of Eastern Europe, a forum that has now been published in issue 99 of History Workshop Journal under the title Teaching Eastern Europe in the Age of Russia’s Imperial Invasions: A Conversation On Being Postcolonial When No One Takes Any Notice.
In this episode, recorded on 14 October 2025, Oksana and Anna discuss the questions that the forum raised and the responses they’ve had to the article since its publication.
