Yuliia Kovalenko from Ukraine has joined the research team of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences
Yuliia Kovalenko from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture has been involved in the implementation of the Baltic 100 project thanks to the additional funding granted by the Latvian Council of Science aimed at attracting research personnel from Ukraine. Various socio-economic and demographic data from the Baltic States during the last 100 years have been collected and analyzed in the project, including data at the level of current statistical and planning regions. The gross domestic product of the Baltic States is being calculated, and an interactive database has been created where the collected data will be available to the interested parties.
The leader of the Baltic 100 project, leading researcher of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences Gatis Krūmiņš comments: “Yuliia's joining is important for us as it allows us to expand our field of activity – to get even more data and especially about the complicated period of occupation of the USSR. Most of the documents from this period containing the information we need, are only in Russian which creates difficulties in attracting the new generation of researchers from the Baltic States. Yuliia is fluent in Russian and has experience working in archives. Currently, together with Yuliia and ViA doctoral student Baiba Kļaviņa, we are working on the data characterizing Latvian agriculture during the period 1945-1960. It is already evident that the analysis of the obtained data will allow us to look at the history of this period in a different way, especially at the regional level. How collectivization affected different regions of Latvia, for example Latgale and Vidzeme, and what were the demographic and socioeconomic consequences – the data will help find another answer to the questions we are looking for in the context of today and even future.” Yuliia will have similar tasks analyzing the documents as well from Lithuania and Estonia.
Yuliia has not only started research work in the Latvian archives, but thanks to care of ViA researcher Ieva Gintere, she is getting to know Latvia, for instance, by attending a concert in the Cēsis concert hall. Yuliia continues to keep in touch with Ukraine and shares her experience of how lectures are conducted at her university – all the lectures are held online, and the schedule is unpredictable, as there are frequent interruptions in electricity and internet communications due to Russian attacks on the civil infrastructure. However, the studies are ongoing, and the students’ motivation has even increased.
Project “Quantitative data about societal and economic transformations in the regions of the three Baltic states during the last hundred years for the analysis of historical transformations and the overcoming of future challenges” No. EEA-RESEARCH-174 @ViA @EEANorwayGrantsLatvia #standforukraine