On May 23, 2024, the thirtieth Open meeting of the Student Historical Circle took place, which was timed to a significant date - the 75th anniversary of the institute. The theme of the meeting was "Development of critical thinking in historical education at the classes of the Student Scientific Historical Circle."

The department of domestic and foreign history invited colleagues and management of the institute, employees of the Bakhmut and Chasovoyarsk local history museums, school teachers and students, and the public of the Bakhmut district to participate.

Since the event had a professional orientation, at the beginning of the event, the head of the department of domestic and foreign history, prof. Halyna Dokashenko told about the historical specialty, and also thanked the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to live, work and study and reminded that the historical sections of the scientific conference of the institute "Research of young scientists in the field of historical sciences" are dedicated to the memory of the fallen soldier, a graduate of the historical specialty Ivan Karagodin , who died defending Ukraine on March 8, 2022.

Head of the Historical Circle, Assoc. Yulia Stukanova told the audience about its creation and activities. The Historical Circle includes male and female students of various ages and forms of education, from various educational programs of the institute.

A video prepared by Valeria Tkachenko, a 2nd year student, helped deepen the understanding of the activities of the Student Historical Circle and the motivation of its participants. In the format of an interview, the members of the group answered two questions: "Why are you interested in attending classes of the group?"; "How exactly do the practical classes of the Circle complement the lectures and seminars of the educational program for you?". 

The second part of the Open meeting was devoted to practical exercises on history. Yulia Stukanova, head of the Historical Circle, invited everyone present to actively participate in the discussion. The first two exercises involved the analysis of sentences on historical topics and were aimed at finding and recognizing the construction of the image of the enemy and desubjectivization by means of silencing. In the third exercise, a gender analysis of ideological posters of Stalin's times should have been provided. The fourth exercise offered to draw historical parallels between the propaganda and disinformation used by the Russian Empire during the First World War and modern Russia during the war against Ukraine. The last, fifth exercise involved the application of the method of historical hermeneutics to the proposed text (the search for "source biases", according to the words of historian Natalya Yakovenko). The participants of the Historical Circle delighted everyone present with a lively and interested discussion of the proposed exercises, as well as an accurate and in-depth analysis. The highlight of the practical part was the active participation of the deputy director, prof. Tetyana Marchenko, who added depth to the analysis of individual quotes and showed Gurtkov students a model of applying theoretical knowledge in practice with her example.

The open session of the Historical Circle was held in a warm, creative atmosphere. In the end, the importance of the formation of critical thinking through the means of historical education was emphasized and it was suggested to continue the tradition of holding open meetings of Student scientific circles and problem groups of the institute. 

Video of the meeting of the circle: