How the Confronting Memories programme is shaping historical dialogue

Kristina Smolijaninovaite joined the Civil Society Forum nearly thirteen years ago and has since been one of its key drivers. Now serving as the Deputy Director, she is at the helm of many of the organisation’s diverse projects and programmes. For instance, Kristina is the founder of the Confronting Memories programme, which has been working with history educators from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Poland, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine for four years, with the network continuing to grow.

Originally from Lithuania, Kristina grew up speaking Lithuanian, some Polish and Russian. She’s also fluent in German and English, but jokes that she knows “four languages total, plus 0.5 in Polish,” as her mother was part of the Polish minority in Lithuania. We spoke with Kristina about the Confronting Memories programme’s origins and future plans—even finding out where she’d go if she had a yearlong vacation (spoiler alert: it isn’t a country Confronting Memories works with).

How did the idea for the Confronting Memories programme evolve?

The idea developed from the exhibition that a number of like minded people and I created in 2015: “Different Wars”. The exhibition took a deep dive into the differences in the narration and perception of the history of World War II in modern high school textbooks of the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. It was an important social project that triggered discussion on different aspects of the war.

This exhibition also provided educational materials for teachers and educators all around Europe, which gave me an idea to create Confronting Memories. Confronting Memories works with educators and history teachers and helps them to go beyond the national narrative in history teaching. This is done via capacity building workshops offered by experienced educational consultants. These workshops are often connected with the creation of educational materials – for teachers, by teachers.

These materials aim to promote multiperspectivity and value-based education that includes such concepts as empathy and critical thinking in history education.

Confronting Memories now has enjoyed four years of work with history educators from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Poland, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine and the network will continue to expand.

How do you select topics for the programme – and how do you find collaborators and partners?

We provide a broad historical focus for the programme, which in the past years was WWII, and since 2022 we have added recent and current conflicts on the European continent.

In other words, we mostly focus on the conflicts and events of the 20th and the 21st centuries.

As a rule, teachers and educators who are selected to collaborate with the programme choose the specific topics, as long as it fits within our general focus. How are they selected? We have a specific criteria for choosing teachers to work with, which ensures we work with a diverse group from various regions—not just from capital cities. And we work closely with local coordinators in each country who help us to find teachers through intermittent open calls.

The core audience of the Confronting Memories programme are teachers. Do you see a lot of interest from teachers in using Confronting Memories materials in their classes and with their peers?

We just had the Summer School in Dilijan, Armenia for history teachers and educators, in which we utilise many of our materials. Since then, we’ve heard about participating teachers from Ukraine now introducing Confronting Memories to other teachers in the country. Last year we produced a short film “War is Not Over” with participation of one school in Poland. Many teachers we work with also use this film as a material in their own history classes.

From this autumn we will train teachers to become Confronting Memories ambassadors, who will apply our lesson materials in their regions at schools. They will also organise trainings using our teaching materials for other educators. Together with an external evaluator we will evaluate how effective our programme and our lesson materials are—and what added value they bring to the official education materials in those countries.

Confronting Memories works with Moldova, Georgia, Poland, Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Germany and Ukraine. Why did you select these countries?

We started with the regions which I know better from my professional work, but I would like to expand the programme to geographical areas I know less well like Southern Europe, the Balkan regions and more countries in West Europe.

Growing up with three languages due to my family’s background as well as experiencing changes in political and social systems, it is imbedded within me to look at what connects us and what divides us, particularly with regards to communication between different groups of people.

What challenges do you face in your work?

There were many clashes and disagreements that I have experienced with teachers coming from different regions, and now it is even more sensitive in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine or other current conflicts like the one in Nagorny Karabakh.

However, I think it is important to see those differences, acknowledge them and respect them as much as possible.

Besides Confronting Memories, what other activities are you involved in within the Forum?

Many of them. For instance, I curate the project Europe Lab, which is an annual leadership programme for younger professionals and change-makers across Europe. During Europe Lab, young people can provide new perspectives and solutions to current challenges. We tackle such global issues as climate change, migration and displacement of people and historical traumas. It is a truly multicultural European project, one which reminds me of my education at many universities, all of which offered a multicultural environment.

In addition, I am looking for to kick off the Berlin Hub with my colleagues at the Secretariat. With this project, we would like to bring together the multicultural Berlin activist and NGO community through diverse activities and formats in Berlin and Brandenburg. Watch this space!

What’s your background in historical memory? Has it always been a focus of your work and research?

I studied languages and cultural heritage, so there’s a strong link there.

When I joined the Forum almost thirteen years ago, I introduced the topic of historical memory mainly focused on WWII and initiated a working group of the Forum dealing with historical memory and education.

Back then, I instigated the working group because WWII remains one of the most painful and conflicting episodes in the memories of nations across the world. WWII touches everyone. Now Russia’s war against Ukraine and other current conflicts on our continent do too.

What is the most important quality you bring to work?

I have a tendency towards being a perfectionist. However, in every project one cannot achieve results alone. Teamwork is crucial, bringing lots of different talents and contributions to the table. That’s why, I think communication is most important, taking time for the people you work with and being a team player.

If you didn’t have to work for the next year and had unlimited money to do anything you want, what would it be?

I would like to travel. I would probably spend some time in Southeast Asia and Japan, which is my favourite region to travel to when I have time.

I would also like to spend more time in my hometown in Lithuania, near the Baltic Sea, and walk in the forest and the seaside, which is my favourite place to be.