The making of independent Ukraine

The political and social developments in Ukraine during the last years of the Soviet Union (1988–1991) can be seen as an unfinished revolution. The proclamation of independence in 1991 marked a compromise between national-democratic forces and the republic’s old Soviet elites, which slowed down democratic transformations and kept the Red directors in power. The emergence of a mass opposition movement during the early 2000s represented a return to the unfinished agenda of the revolution. The Orange Revolution (2004–2005) and the Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) re-established the connection between the civil society’s struggle for democracy and the rights of the Ukrainian language and culture, which had first developed in the late 1980s. The emergence of a new Ukrainian political nation provoked an aggressive response from Putin’s Russia, but its all-out invasion of 2022 only served to consolidate a modern Ukrainian identity as separate from Russia both politically and culturally

Memory Wars on the Silver Screen: Ukraine and Russia Look Back at the Second World War

In post-communist Russia the state has been supporting the production of historical films reflecting the official politics of memory, in which primacy is given to the victory in World War II. Often filmed in Ukraine, where the national cinema industry was nearly extinct until recently, these films project an imperial stereotype of modern Ukrainian identity as a fake and Ukrainian patriots as traitors. In contrast, the Ukrainian patriotic war narrative has only been reflected in straight-to-DVD films celebrating the nationalist insurgency. This article focuses on three recent films: two Russian films set in Ukraine during the war, which caused protests in Ukraine, and the first full-length Ukrainian war film to receive mass distribution, Mykhailo Illienko’s Firecrosser (2012), interpreted here as an attempt to merge Soviet historical mythology with the Ukrainian one

Metahistorical Scepticism in Aleksei Goldenveizer’s Chronicle of Everyday Life in Kyiv, 1917–1921

The article was submitted on 19.07.2018.This article analyzes the memoir of a Russian-speaking Jewish lawyer, Aleksei Goldenveiser (1890–1979), as a source on the history of Kyiv during the revolutionary period (1917–1921). His work stands out among other reminiscences about the Revolution in Ukraine because of the author’s unprecedented attention to details of everyday life, along with his self-identification as simply an apolitical resident of Kyiv. Especially striking is the author’s satirical, even acerbic, tone in the description of all the political regimes that came to power in Kyiv during the Revolution: Ukrainian, White, and Bolshevik. This article proposes to conceptualize Goldenveizer’s position as metahistorical skepticism or as a strategy of conscious resistance to grand narratives, which is grounded in identification with the local and a focus on everydayness. It argues the Goldenveizer developed this narrative strategy following the failure, in the summer of 1917, of the political project of a civic, multinational, and urban identity. Although Goldenveizer served on the Executive Committee of United Civic Organizations in Kyiv and, briefly, on the Small Rada of the Ukrainian Central Rada, he felt like an outsider in politics of the day and described it as an astute bystander rather than participant. Because of this position, he was the first to note the reversal of imperial hierarchies and the creation of a new category: “national minorities.” At the same time, Goldenveizer consistently attempted in his memoir to check his own political and cultural biases, as one can see in his ambiguous treatment of the Ukrainian language and the Ukrainian national movement.Статья посвящена анализу воспоминаний русскоязычного еврейского адвоката Алексея Гольденвейзера (1890–1979) как источника по истории Киева революционного периода (1917–1921). Его труд выделяется среди других воспоминаний о революции на Украине благодаря беспрецедентному вниманию к деталям повседневной жизни, а также самоидентификации автора просто как аполитичного жителя Киева. Сатирический, даже желчный тон автора особенно заметен в описаниях всех политических режимов, которые приходили к власти в Киеве во время революции: украинского, белого и большевистского. Автор предлагает концептуализировать позицию Гольденвейзера как «метаисторический скептицизм», или стратегию сознательного сопротивления большим нарративам, которая базируется на идентификации с локальным и фокусе на повседневности. Показано, что Гольденвейзер выработал эту нарративную стратегию после поражения летом 1917 г. политического проекта гражданской многонациональной городской идентичности. Хотя Гольденвейзер был членом Исполнительного комитета Объединенных общественных организаций Киева, а также Малой рады Украинской центральной рады, в политике того времени он чувствовал себя аутсайдером и описывал ее как наблюдательный посторонний, а не участник. Благодаря такой позиции он первым обратил внимание на полную перестановку имперских иерархий и создание новой категории «национальных меньшинств». В то же время Гольденвейзер постоянно старался не допустить, чтобы его культурные и политические предпочтения сделали текст односторонним, что привело к неоднозначной оценке украинского языка и украинского национального движения

Cell Competition Boosts Clonal Evolution and Hypoxic Selection in Cancer

The comparison of fitness between cells leads to the elimination of less competent cells in the presence of more competent neighbors via cell competition (CC). This phenomenon has been linked with several cancer-related genes and thus may play an important role in cancer. Various processes are involved in the regulation of tumor initiation and growth, including tumor hypoxia, clonal stem cell selection, and immune cell response, all of which have been recently shown to have a potential connection with the mechanisms involved in CC. This review aims to unravel the relation between these processes and competitive cell interactions and how this affects disease progression

Single cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq analysis of cardiac progenitor cell transition states and lineage settlement.

Formation and segregation of cell lineages forming the heart have been studied extensively but the underlying gene regulatory networks and epigenetic changes driving cell fate transitions during early cardiogenesis are still only partially understood. Here, we comprehensively characterize mouse cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) marked by Nkx2-5 and Isl1 expression from E7.5 to E9.5 using single-cell RNA sequencing and transposase-accessible chromatin profiling (ATAC-seq). By leveraging on cell-to-cell transcriptome and chromatin accessibility heterogeneity, we identify different previously unknown cardiac subpopulations. Reconstruction of developmental trajectories reveal that multipotent Isl1+ CPC pass through an attractor state before separating into different developmental branches, whereas extended expression of Nkx2-5 commits CPC to an unidirectional cardiomyocyte fate. Furthermore, we show that CPC fate transitions are associated with distinct open chromatin states critically depending on Isl1 and Nkx2-5. Our data provide a model of transcriptional and epigenetic regulations during cardiac progenitor cell fate decisions at single-cell resolution

Good Ukrainians vs Petliurites: The Ukrainian Revolution as a Soviet, Young-Adult Tale

Abstract: Using as a case study Vladimir Beliaev’s popular young-adult novel The Old Fortress and its two film adaptations, this article examines evolving Soviet representations of the Ukrainian Revolution. Its main focus is on the cultural construction of “Petliurites” as the “other” of Soviet Ukrainian identity. The article demonstrates that the Stalinist model of historical memory required a strong Ukrainian nationalist enemy in order to highlight the heroic deeds of the positive protagonists, who are encoded as pro-Russian or culturally Russian. By the 1970s, Soviet cinema turned to satirical depiction of the weak nationalist enemies, but the portrayal of Soviet Ukrainians also became more ambiguous, with few markers of ethnicity. Like Soviet Ukrainian culture in general, the book and the films presented Taras Shevchenko’s legacy as the central field of contestation between the nationalist and Soviet versions of Ukrainian identity. Keywords: Vladimir Beliaev, Cinema, Propaganda, Symon Petliura, Identity, “Other

Entschluesselung der zellulären Heterogenität von Kardiomyozyten und Muskelstammzellen bei Pathologie und Alterung

Cellular heterogeneity is present on genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic levels. Single-cell approaches have revolutionized the detection of rare and subtle cellular subpopulations and are applicable to the majority of organs and tissues, including cardiac and skeletal muscles. Despite active research, many aspects of muscle heterogeneity remain unresolved. Examples for the latter, investigated in the current dissertation, are the evaluation of heterogeneity among cardiac muscle cells (CM) in basal vs. hypertrophic conditions, as well as juvenile vs. aged skeletal muscle stem cell (MuSCs) pool.In case of healthy adult cardiomyocytes wide ranging homogeneity was found with only minor transcriptional differences between cells of different nuclearity. When homeostasis was disturbed by traverse aortic constriction, which led to cardiac hypertrophy, a notable transcriptional heterogeneity among cardiomyocytes developed. Furthermore, cardiomyocytes located in poorly vascularized zones of the hypertrophic myocardium showed transcriptional signatures characteristic for hypoxic responses. In contrast to cardiomyocytes, strong cellular heterogeneity was found among quiescent MuSCs already at early age (2 month), which further changed with ageing (24 month). In particular, a subpopulation of quiescent MuSCs, defined by expression of the Gal gene, decreased, while a subpopulation expressing the Anxa3 gene emerged with age. Based on these findings, lack of Galanin and the induction of Annexin A3 were hypothesized to be of functional significance in the context of age- related reduction of muscle regeneration capacity. Systemic supplementation of Galanin peptide was applied to aged mice to restore juvenile levels of the neuropeptide. Intriguingly, application of Galanin partially rejuvenated the transcriptional profile of aged quiescent MuSCs. On the other hand, overexpression of Anxa3 gene in quiescent MuSCs abolished muscle regeneration and induced extensive muscle fibrosis in young mice, resembling conditions in aged muscles. Thus, Gal and Anxa3 are potential crucial factors, important for muscle regeneration in ageing animals.In conclusion, this work shows that cellular heterogeneity is not detectable among cardiomyocytes of different nuclearity, but appears when cardiomyocytes adapt to hypoxic conditions. Heterogeneity is, however, occurring in MuSCs upon ageing. The work presented in this thesis lays the groundwork to investigate whether the observed transcriptional and epigenetic heterogeneity is of functional relevance for organ homeostasis and pathological reactions in disease.Zelluläre Heterogenität existiert auf genomischer, epigenomischer, transkriptomischer, proteomischer und metabolomischer Ebene. Einzelzellansätze haben die Erkennung seltener zellulärer Subpopulationen revolutioniert und sind auf die meisten Organe und Gewebe anwendbar, einschließlich Herz- und Skelettmuskel. Trotz aktiver Forschung bleiben viele Aspekte der Muskelheterogenität ungelöst. Beispiele dafür sind die Bewertung der Heterogenität zwischen Herzmuskelzellen unter basalen und hypertrophen Bedingungen sowie der Pool von juvenilen und gealterten Muskelstammzellen. Die vorliegende Dissertation trägt zur Beantwortung dieser offenen Fragen bei.Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde bei gesunden erwachsenen Kardiomyozyten eine weitreichende Homogenität mit nur geringen Transkriptionsunterschieden zwischen Zellen unterschiedlicher Nuklearität gefunden. In Reaktion auf eine durch Aortenverengung gestörte und zu Herzhypertrophie führenden Homöostase, entwickelte sich jedoch eine bemerkenswerte Transkriptionsheterogenität unter den Kardiomyozyten. Darüber hinaus zeigten Kardiomyozyten in schlecht vaskularisierten Zonen des hypertrophen Myokards Transkriptionssignaturen, die für hypoxische Reaktionen charakteristisch sind. Im Gegensatz zu Kardiomyozyten wurde bei ruhenden Muskelstammzellen bereits früh (2 Monate) eine starke zelluläre Heterogenität festgestellt, die mit zunehmendem Alter (24 Monate) weiter evolvierte. Insbesondere verkleinerte sich eine Subpopulation ruhender MuSCs, die sich durch die Expression des Gal-Gens auszeichnet, während eine andere, für die Expression des Anxa3-Gens kennzeichnend ist, mit zunehmendem Alter erst auftrat. Basierend auf diesen Befunden wurde angenommen, dass der Mangel an Galanin und die Induktion von Annexin A3 im Zusammenhang mit der altersbedingten Verringerung der Muskelregenerationskapazität von funktioneller Bedeutung sind. Um dies weiter zu erhärten wurde Galanin gealterten Mäusen systemisch als Protein verabreicht, mit dem Ziel sein Niveau die juvenilen Mäuse anzupassen. Interessanterweise verjüngte die Anwendung von Galanin das Transkriptionsprofil gealterter ruhender MuSCs teilweise. Im Gegensatz dazu interferierte eine Überexpression des Anxa3-Gens in ruhenden MuSCs mit der Muskelregeneration und induzierte in jungen Mäusen eine ausgedehnte Muskelfibrose, was dem Phänotyp gealterter Muskeln ähnelt. Diese Ergebnisse lassen den Schluss zu, dass Gal und Anxa3 für die Muskelregeneration bei alternden Tieren wichtig sind.Zusammenfassend zeigt diese Arbeit, dass zelluläre Heterogenität bei Kardiomyozyten unterschiedlicher Nuklearität auf der Transkriptebene nicht nachweisbar ist, sich aber einstellt, wenn sich Kardiomyozyten an hypoxische Bedingungen anpassen. Heterogenität in MuSCs nimmt dagegen mit zunehmendem Alter zu. Die in dieser Dissertation vorgestellten Arbeiten bilden die Grundlage für weiterführende Studien, bezüglich der möglichen funktionellen Relevanz der beobachteten transkriptionellen und epigenetischen Heterogenität für die Organhomöostase generell, sowie im Kontext pathologischer Mechanismen