Russian-Speaking Families and Public Preschools in Luxembourg: Cultural Encounters, Challenges, and Possibilities

in Open Cultural Studies (2023)

In the twenty-first century, multicultural encounters have become an experience that is familiar even to the youngest. In superdiverse trilingual Luxembourg, over 50% of the population are foreigners, and ... [more ▼]

In the twenty-first century, multicultural encounters have become an experience that is familiar even to the youngest. In superdiverse trilingual Luxembourg, over 50% of the population are foreigners, and many of them do not speak the titular language of the country. Multicultural classrooms are studied very closely, but Russian-speaking students, a new but exponentially growing addition to the cultural mix, have not been studied yet in their journey of school integration. There is a gap between the parents and the teachers regarding perception of the content of the studies and family aspirations. Instruction in the Luxembourgish language, usually unfamiliar to Russian families, is not the only obstacle for a child to make good progress at school. The Slavic family group and the Cyrillic alphabet, different holiday calendar and traditions, as well as differences in behavioural patterns and educational models complicate the perception of implicit school rules both for the children and their parents. In this short ethnographic study, based on five in-depth semi-structured interviews with parents, qualitative data were analysed in order to single out the main challenges that Russian-speaking families face while adapting to the public Luxembourgish preschool, the first contact with Luxembourgish language and community life. [less ▲]

Standing for Ukraine. Support for the Ukrainian research community

Report (2023)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered a worldwide wave of support and solidarity, also with C²DH, where our staff agreed that the centre should be strongly committed to supporting ... [more ▼]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered a worldwide wave of support and solidarity, also with C²DH, where our staff agreed that the centre should be strongly committed to supporting Ukrainian researchers. Over time, three intertwined focus areas of activities emerged: efforts to foster cooperation between the Ukrainian research community and the C²DH, efforts to offer future-oriented training for Ukrainian researchers and students, and efforts to document the war, preserve Ukrainian cultural heritage and create opportunities for future research activities. [less ▲]

Ostarbeiters in Luxembourg during WWII

Presentation (2023, March 15)

The talk was held as a part of the public outreach of the ZWANG project which considers the fate of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian forced labourers called Ostarbeiters and the Soviet prisoners of ... [more ▼]

The talk was held as a part of the public outreach of the ZWANG project which considers the fate of the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian forced labourers called Ostarbeiters and the Soviet prisoners of war [less ▲]

Интервью с Инной Гэншоу - исследователем Университета Люксембурга, 22.02.2023г.

Speeches/Talks (2023)

The interview treats the creation of the Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network LURN at the C2DH and the oral history project with war the testimonies of Ukrainian refugees in the Greater Region "24.02 ... [more ▼]

The interview treats the creation of the Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network LURN at the C2DH and the oral history project with war the testimonies of Ukrainian refugees in the Greater Region "24.02.22, 5 am: Testimonies from the War". У нас в гостях исследователь университета Люксембурга Инна Гэншоу @innaganschow. При ее непосредственном участии на базе Люксембургского университета была создана Украинская ассоциация ученых - LURN. Ее цель - познакомить украинских ученых с академической культурой Люксембурга и запустить новые совместные проекты, создать базу для двусторонних и международных проектов, обмена, коопераций. А также наработки навыков и партнерств, которые помогут академическому сообществу Украины восстановить науку и интегрировать ее в европейский контекст. [less ▲]

Скончалась Эмилия Пух

Article for general public (2023)

Biography of Emmy Poukh (1933-2023), the wife of the Russian-Orthodox priest Luxembourgs Serge Poukh (1926-2016)

Paper and ink in the Soviet camp 188 in Tambov: capturing the camp life of Luxembourger conscripts

Presentation (2022, October 27)

In the talk by Inna Ganschow, the camp experience in the Soviet Union will be treated as a consequence of the forced conscription, namely in its artistic processing. Secretly written diaries and letters ... [more ▼]

In the talk by Inna Ganschow, the camp experience in the Soviet Union will be treated as a consequence of the forced conscription, namely in its artistic processing. Secretly written diaries and letters of Luxembourg Wehrmacht soldiers or poems of deceased comrades learned by them by heart, they also reached their homeland. The camp literature, which has its roots in the prison and prisoner of war literature, has a dimension of the documentary speaking about the Luxembourger conscripts in the Soviet detention 1943-1953, which as a text genre does not always fall under the term "literature" meaning "fiction". Ego documents, as contemporary history researchers call them today, represent private, handwritten texts of a personal nature. The range of texts to be examined in the presentation ranges from the smuggled out notes and letters that their released comrades took with them to Luxembourg the diaries, speeches and self-made dictionaries to poetry, short stories and drawings, some of which were created in the camp and some immediately after returning from Tambov and other camps in the Soviet Union. Going through these few valuable pieces of paper from 1943 to 1946 and collecting them as a catalog of the genres, the presentation will show, how the biographies and the methods used by the writers of the texts managed to capture or to record the camp life. The question that is in the foreground is the examination of the thesis of the Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and neurologist from Vienna, that giving meaning to life in the camp - logotherapy - can have a self-healing effect and increase the chances of survival. The written texts of the Luxemburgers in the Soviet camps in Russia as well as in East Germany or Poland are considered with this possible intention in mind that the writing helped to give meaning to the life, suffering and destiny of their authors. The focus of the talk lies on leitmotifs, images and topoi, which the authors use, consciously or unconsciously, to find the necessary spiritual support and (re)gain the feeling of being in control of their own lives. [less ▲]

Die Uni Luxemburg vernetzt kluge Köpfe für die Nachkriegszeit

Article for general public (2022)

"Am Campus Belval sollen die Forschenden aus der Ukraine durch das LURN (Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network) ein interdisziplinäres Netzwerk aufbauen, also Forschende außerhalb ihres Fachgebiets ... [more ▼]

"Am Campus Belval sollen die Forschenden aus der Ukraine durch das LURN (Luxembourg Ukrainian Researcher Network) ein interdisziplinäres Netzwerk aufbauen, also Forschende außerhalb ihres Fachgebiets kennenlernen. Zusätzlich sollen sie Berührungspunkte mit der luxemburgischen Forschungslandschaft bekommen." [less ▲]

Toy created by an Ostarbeiter

in Cauvin, Thomas; van Donkersgoed, Joëlla (Eds.) HistorESCH. Histories of Esch Told in 25 Objects (2022)

During the war, the steel industry in Esch played an important strategic role for the Germans. To ensure and increase production, unskilled additional labour was needed. Thus, the German occupiers ... [more ▼]

During the war, the steel industry in Esch played an important strategic role for the Germans. To ensure and increase production, unskilled additional labour was needed. Thus, the German occupiers resorted to the occupied peoples of Soviet Union and Poland, who were transported to Luxembourg to work in the steel mills and mines. The first so called Ostarbeiter entered Luxembourg during October 1942 and were placed in different barracks called Ostarbeiterlager. Most of these barracks were located in the south of Luxembourg, close to the iron and steel industries. One of those camps was situated close to what is today the Ramerish roundabout. In Esch, they worked in the ironworks. Although the inhabitants were forbidden to communicate with the Ostarbeiters, some inhabitants gave them food or clothing to compensate for the lack of food and the poor living conditions. In return the Ostarbeiters were crafting wooden dynamic toys for Luxembourgish children. [less ▲]

Die unfreien Befreiten. Über die lange Heimkehr der sowjetischen ZwangsarbeiterInnen aus Luxemburg.

Scientific Conference (2022, May 17)

Inna Ganschow untersucht in ihrem Vortrag die verschiedenen Typen totaler Institutionen im Sinne Erving Goffmans auf dem Weg von ZwangsarbeiterInnen aus der Sowjetunion nach Luxemburg und zurück. Von den ... [more ▼]

Inna Ganschow untersucht in ihrem Vortrag die verschiedenen Typen totaler Institutionen im Sinne Erving Goffmans auf dem Weg von ZwangsarbeiterInnen aus der Sowjetunion nach Luxemburg und zurück. Von den nationalsozialistischen Durchgangs- und Kriegsgefangenenlagern über die luxemburgischen Werk- und Ostarbeiterlager bis hin zu den sowjetischen Sammel- und Filterlagern endete die lange Reise nach Hause oft nach einigen Monaten oder Jahren erneut in einem Lager oder einer Zwangsansiedlung. Die Repatriierung junger ukrainischer, weißrussischer und russischer Frauen wird anhand von erhaltenen Dokumenten aus erster Hand, verschiedenen Lager- und Betriebsunterlagen sowie Augenzeugenberichten rekonstruiert. Die Rückführung wird im Hinblick auf ihre Funktion analysiert, die eine Bestrafung, eine Belohnung oder ein Schutz sein konnte. [less ▲]

Help for Ukrainian Refugees

Speeches/Talks (2022)

The interview focuses on the work of the migration researcher Inna Ganschow as a volunteer in a German organization MMS-Humanitas e.V. helping to transport and accommodate Ukrainian refugees in ... [more ▼]

The interview focuses on the work of the migration researcher Inna Ganschow as a volunteer in a German organization MMS-Humanitas e.V. helping to transport and accommodate Ukrainian refugees in Luxembourgish and German families. In addition to talking about the experience of an interpreter accompanying buses from the Ukrainian-Luxembourg border to Germany, the scientist shares her observations on the emergence of a new diaspora. [less ▲]