Cherkas T. Consequences of the Second World War in the humanitarian cooperation between Ukraine and Germany (1991-2014)

The main directions and problems of cooperation between Ukraine and the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) in 1991-2014, related to overcoming the humanitarian cost of the Second World War were determined in the thesis. The problems of cooperation between Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of overcoming the humanitarian cost of the Second World War have so far not been the subject of a comprehensive special study in Russian historiography. The international legal basis of bilateral Ukrainian-German political cooperation is considered and the place of the humanitarian component in interstate relations between Ukraine and Germany is determined. On the example of the Ukrainian-German interstate relations 1991-2014 one can observe how the humanitarian policy connected with overcoming the tragic consequences of the complex historical relationships of the two peoples in the 20th century has become a factor in integrating the post-Soviet state into the European and world community. The humanitarian cooperation between the two countries was analyzed to address the problem of the return and resettlement of ethnic Germans repatriates on the territory of Ukraine in the 1990s. One of the first issues that appeared in the context of the Ukrainian-German dialogue over overcoming the tragic consequences of the totalitarian past was the problem of moral rehabilitation and the return to Ukraine of citizens of German descent who were deported by the Stalin regime in the 1930s-1950s. Consistently solving this problem, Ukraine has created the foundations of the necessary political and legal basis. The activity of state bodies, public organizations and business structures of Ukraine and Germany on the establishment and implementation of lump sum payments to Ukrainian citizens who were victims of forced labor and prisoners of Nazi concentration camps was investigated. The issue of financial compensation to victims of Nazism from the territories of the former USSR, and in particular Ukraine, became practical in 1992. with the creation of special funds, on whose accounts Germany could transfer funds. Potential beneficiaries of assistance were defined: prisoners of concentration camps, victims of medical experiments, ghetto prisoners and Ostarbeiters. Lump-sum payments to these categories of citizens were carried out in several stages during 1994-1998. and 2001-2007. The practice of interstate Ukrainian-German cooperation in the field of restitution of cultural and historical values has been processed. The main reason for the inhibition of the restitution of cultural property in the interstate relations between Ukraine and Germany is the lack of political will of the parties. Now the restitution cooperation between Ukraine and Germany is limited to single shares for the exchange or transfer of cultural valuables, exported from the territory of both countries during the Second World War and in the post-war period. Humanitarian cooperation with Germany in the activities of public institutions of both countries in the context of the search for and reburial of the victims of the Second World War in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries was considered. The question of search and reburial of those who died in wars, including in the Second World War, remains especially urgent for the Ukrainian-German humanitarian contacts of the last quarter of the century, as two world wars have passed through the territory of Ukraine, and millions of unburied ones worthy of their victims continue to remind us of these terrible Tragedy. The conducted research made it possible to formulate a number of practical recommendations on ways to further improve the humanitarian cooperation between Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany in the context of Ukraine's European aspirations.