Book release “History of Nikopol. Our Memories and the Present”
On January 11th, 2025 the Adult Education Center of Nikopol held an online German-Ukrainian conference to present the book “History of Nikopol. Our Memories and the Present” as part of the project “Urban X-Change Network II: City Images of Nikopol and Leverkusen”.
The event was organized by the team of the NGO “Cossack Alert” Adult Education Center of Nikopol in the partnership with Volkshochschule (vhs) Leverkusen with supporting of DVV International. The author of the book is the Ph.D. Head of the NGO “Cossack Alert” Adult Education Center of Nikopol Olga Pastushok.
The aim of the event was to publicise the preserved architectural and historical heritage, traditions, customs and culture of the pre-war period of the city of Nikopol and to highlight its destruction by enemy military action in the present day.
Everything has changed in the city of Nikopol since February 24th, 2022, after the full-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine. On the night of March 4th, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Station was captured by the Russian troops - the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which is 4 km across the Kakhovka Reservoir to the city of Nikopol. This city was once protected from the Russian military by the Kakhovka Reservoir, but after the occupiers blew up the Kakhovka dam, the water receded. Now Nikopol is divided from the enemy by the willow-covered bottom of the former reservoir, the Dnipro in its channel, and several other small rivers. Peaceful residents are terrorized daily - the city is shelled, and its architecture is destroyed by artillery and drones.
The painted works in the book show the life of Nikopol citizens before the war and nowadays. They were created by adult students of the Adult Education Center of Nikopol, students of the Art Nikopol City School and their teacher Tetyana Drobot, as well as by ordinary Nikopol residents. A total of 66 Nikopol residents have participated in its creation: the youngest participant is six years old and the oldest is 76 years old. The book was presented to representatives of vhs Leverkusen and their citizens.
The project "Urban X-Change Network II" is supporting citizen diplomacy, intercultural exchange, understanding and cooperation between cities of Germany, Ukraine and Poland and is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. The goal is to expand the ties of twin cities and their cooperation through the active participation of their adult education institutions and civil society networks.
The conference was held in two languages: English and Ukrainian.