On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the War Museum hosted a public lecture by Oleksandr Hladun, a Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Economics. The meeting was moderated by Svitlana Demchenko, a museum worker.
The researcher spoke about the impact of the Second World War and the current russian-Ukrainian war on the demographic history of Ukraine through the losses and changes in the age, gender, and socio-professional composition of the population.
According to Mr. Oleksandr, we still feel the consequences of the Second World War and the Soviet repressive policy towards our compatriots and other peoples of Ukraine. Significant losses of the indigenous population were often replenished by the resettlement of russians into our country, which also caused deformations in national consciousness and identification.
Today, Ukraine is facing russian aggression and, as a result, human losses and forced mass migration of Ukrainians abroad.
Oleksandr Hladun stressed that women and children have left the country, so to overcome the demographic crisis, government policy should focus on Ukrainian schools, community and cultural centres that would help keep the connection between Ukraine and young people abroad alive.
The guests of the event actively participated in the discussion of the demographic aspects of the state’s functioning and raised a wide range of issues: how quickly and under what conditions can the population of Ukraine be restored, is it possible to predict labour migration after the end of the war, how the outflow of the working-age population may affect the economic situation in the country in the long term, and many others.
The War Museum is grateful to Oleksandr Hladun for his informative and interesting lecture, which revealed the impact of demographic changes caused by wars on various aspects of the country’s life.
