How Cultural Sites Shape Collective Memory | Nikita Shevchenko

One morning, I woke up to a message from the owner of an underground museum in Kyiv: “The museum has been blocked. Post about it immediately.” My heart started racing. A centuries-old archaeological site was once again under threat, not from war, but from political and business interests. In that moment, I realised that cultural heritage often disappears not because people hate it, but because too few are willing to defend it. And I learned that protecting it does not always require power or money. Sometimes, a united and active community is enough to change the course of history.

Resources:
1 Elbaum, R. and Joselow, G. (2021). The Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's ancient Buddha statues. Now they're welcoming tourists. [online] NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taliban-destroyed-afghanistans-ancient-buddhas-now-welcoming-tourists-rcna6307
2 Salsano, I. (2025). The absent framework: a legal semiotics inquiry into the destruction of collective memory through cultural heritage loss. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11196-025-10382-w
3 UNESCO. (n.d.). Damaged cultural sites in Ukraine verified by UNESCO. [online] Available at: https://www.unesco.org/en/ukraine-war/damaged-cultural-sites

Видео How Cultural Sites Shape Collective Memory | Nikita Shevchenko канала Мала академія наук України