Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies

The sixteen documents behind 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗩𝗼𝘇𝗺𝗲𝘇𝗱𝗶𝗲 share a working vocabulary. The Ukrainian diaspora is 𝘶𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘻𝘩𝘶𝘢𝘻𝘯𝘺𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘺 (украинские буржуазные националисты), Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists. Émigré organizations are 𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘬𝘰𝘪 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘪 (центры идеологической диверсии), centres of ideological subversion. Church leaders become a 𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘭'𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘢 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘬𝘢 (клерикальная верхушка), a clerical clique. People who took part in events are 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪 (главари), a word reserved for the ringleaders of a gang.

These were not descriptions. They were instruments. A label fixed in a file could then travel: into a forged letter, a planted article, a rumour placed with a sympathetic outlet, each one meant to erode the credibility of Ukrainian organizations abroad and loosen their ties to the communities and governments around them. The point of naming the diaspora this way was to act on it.

That is what makes the vocabulary worth studying rather than simply quoting. It shows the raw material of an information operation at the stage before it reached the public, when the terms were still being set. This was settled language, worked out over decades and taught to officers in KGB training materials going back to the 1950s.

Our CIUS project reads that language closely and makes it searchable. On the site you can look up any of these terms, see which files they appear in, read the documents in parallel Russian and English, and compare how human experts and a language model classified the same passages.

A ready-made vocabulary carried into public debate through channels that look independent is a pattern that outlived the archive it sits in. Look up the terms yourself: cius-kgb.github.io/cius-kgb-lab

Following last year’s devastating fire, we couldn't be prouder to stand alongside our friends at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village for Ukrainian Day 2026.

Come celebrate culture and community with us this Sunday, 16 August. Stop by the CIUS tent to say hi, explore our latest research, and see what exciting events we have coming up. We’d love to connect with you!

For the full schedule & details: ukrainianvillage.ca/ukrainian-day-2026

See you there!

As a leading voice in Ukrainian Canadian history and cultural studies, Jars Balan (Director, Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre at CIUS) will be part of a stellar lineup of global scholars and researchers exploring Ukraine's continued and growing role in contemporary history and the humanities.

Don't miss the chance to hear from Jars and other thought leaders — register to join us at the Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World International Symposium, in-person or online. The full symposium program will be published soon.

To register: cius-50.ca

Whether you're trying to beat the heat or seeking an escape on a rainy afternoon, there's nothing quite like turning the pages of a great book. We asked our colleagues and campus friends what they happen to be reading this summer to get inspired — and here are their top picks!

Looking to expand your own summer list with remarkable reads on Ukrainian history, culture, and literature? Explore the diverse collection at CIUS Press and discover your next great summer story today: ciuspress.com

📢 TODAY! 10:00 a.m. MST 📢

Join CIUS and the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium - HREC for an online colloquium on how famine denial and state propaganda have evolved across decades.

Dr. Ruslan Siromskyi (Professor of History at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv | Львівський національний університет імені Івана Франка) will share how disinformation and denialist narratives surrounding the Holodomor were used as Soviet countermeasures against the Holodomor memory campaign in Canada in the 1980s.

Dr. Siromskyi will be joined by fellow researchers Dr. Henry Prown and Anneliese Schenk-Day to trace these historical patterns into today's digital landscape.

Join the conversation: ualberta.ca/en/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/news-and-events/events/2026/online-colloquium-holodomor-denial.html

The Holodomor Legacy Initiative (HLI) is funded by Canada’s Canada’s International Development – Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Cowater International in partnership with the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. See less

Since 1976, supporting scholarly excellence has been at the core of CIUS’s mission. Through our grants, scholarships, and fellowships, we are proud to foster groundbreaking research and publications in Ukrainian Studies worldwide.

A huge congratulations to this year’s award recipients! We celebrate your hard work and dedication to advancing the field of Ukrainian Studies.

Explore funding opportunities and view award details: ualberta.ca/en/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/funding-and-awards/index.html

As a Professor of Political Science, Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, and co-author of 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦’𝘴 𝘜𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘞𝘢𝘳: 𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 2022, Dr. Dominique Arel brings decades of insight into Ukrainian politics and language dynamics.

Join us in Edmonton this October at the Recentring the Humanities: Ukraine and the World International Symposium to gain invaluable perspectives from Dr. Arel, one of the leading experts in the field of Ukrainian Studies.

Register to take part, whether in-person or online. The full symposium program will be published soon.

To register: cius-50.ca

In March 1983 the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR filed a memorandum about what it called an "anti-Soviet gathering" in Canada. The subject was a symposium on the 50th anniversary of the Holodomor, organized by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies together with universities in Quebec.

Read the memorandum closely and you notice the language doing work. The word "symposium" sits inside quotation marks. The conference is a 𝘴𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘤𝘩𝘦 (сборище), a word closer to "mob" than to "meeting." James Mace's book on collectivization is a 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘷𝘪𝘭' (пасквиль), a libel. The Holodomor itself appears as an "artificial famine," in quotation marks, as though the deaths were a claim rather than a fact.

This vocabulary was not written down to be filed and forgotten. Labels like these were the working material of KGB active measures: once the diaspora was defined this way in the files, the definitions could be built into stories and pushed outward to discredit Ukrainian organizations in the eyes of the Western publics they worked among. The document is where the language was manufactured.

The memorandum, with fifteen other documents, is now published online in the original Russian with an English translation alongside. Prepared vocabulary moving through seemingly independent channels to discredit its target is a mechanism worth recognizing wherever it appears. Read the 1983 document here: cius-kgb.github.io/cius-kgb-lab

𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦:
𝘈 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 1983 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯; 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦-𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 "𝘴𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘤𝘩𝘦."

Has famine denial evolved in the digital age? Join CIUS and the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium - HREC this Friday for an online colloquium examining the history and contemporary realities of Holodomor denial.

In her presentation, "Genocide Denial in Russian Discourse on the Holodomor," Anneliese Schenk-Day (PhD Candidate in Sociology at The Ohio State University) will discuss her data-driven approach to uncovering how denialist narratives unfold across contemporary Russian social media in the 2020s.

Anneliese will be joined by fellow researchers Dr. Ruslan Siromskyi and Dr. Henry H. Prown to trace how these propaganda tactics have shifted from mid-20th-century media to modern digital networks.

Join us from anywhere in the world—register today: https://www.ualberta.ca/en/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/news-and-events/events/2026/online-colloquium-holodomor-denial.html

The Holodomor Legacy Initiative (HLI) is funded by Canada’s International Development – Global Affairs Canada and implemented by Cowater International in partnership with the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.