The project aims to make marginalized experiences visible in the context of history – beyond popular narratives and well-known historical data. We focus on countries, people, and stories that were on the periphery of world history and are still directly affected by its events today.

One of the key results was the establishment of a contemporary witness database that contains interviews, information on the historical context, and teaching materials for educators – both on the historical epoch and on working with contemporary witnesses in general. This can serve as teaching material to be used more easily as an educational resource. They consist of teaching modules on the post-soviet transition of the 1990s in four selected countries, focusing on marginalised groups and their increased vulnerability before, during, and after the transition. Teaching modules are available for each country, as well as on five international topics, socio-economic conditions, ethnic minorities and religion, civil society, counter culture and gender.

Project goals

• break down singular narratives, uncover hidden conflicts, and bring different social groups and generations into constructive dialogue both nationally and internationally;
• integrate various discourses and work with witnesses of the transformation period to create tangible educational offers;
• make new forms of learning available via the Internet, with a focus on civil society actors dealing with transformation.

Project partners

Congress of Cultural Activists (Ukraine), Sovlab (Georgia), SIQA (Georgia), Hazarashen (Armenia), Human Doc (Poland) and Perspektive³ (Germany)

About the project donors

The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, Civil Society Cooperation and the German Federal Foundation „Aufarbeitung“.