John Vsetecka on Courage and Fear
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Ola Hnatiuk. Courage and Fear. Trans. Ewa Siwak. Ukrainian Studies Series. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020. xvii + 534 pp. $45.00, paper, ISBN 978-1-64469-251-6. Reviewed by John Vsetecka (Michigan State University) Published on H-Empire (April, 2020) Commissioned by Gemma Masson (University of Birmingham) Originally published in Polish in 2015 (Odwaga her monograph. The purpose of the book is to over‐ i strach), Ola Hnatiuk’s book Courage and Fear is come simple definitions of people and places, and now available in English translation thanks to it is Hnatiuk’s goal “to cross-examine historical Academic Studies Press. The text, which is translat‐ verdicts so often mandated by ethnic loyalties” (p. ed by Hnatiuk’s sister, Ewa Siwak, is an exemplary x). In doing so, she demonstrates that Poles, Jews, history of the city of Lviv and its intellectual milieu and Ukrainians often crossed personal, profes‐ during World War II. The book is not a typical his‐ sional, and state-dictated boundaries as a way to tory of war and destruction in the standard sense; survive and help each other during the war years. rather, Hnatiuk chooses to construct a narrative During World War II, the multilingual and built from carefully examined sources that pro‐ multinational city of Lviv, also known as Lwów, vide the reader with intimate insight into the per‐ Lvov, and Lemberg, among others, faced a con‐ sonal lives of academics, scientists, painters, musi‐ stant rotation of Soviet and German occupations. cians, and nationalist sympathizers as they navi‐ Depending on who the occupier was on a specific gate their lives during the war. The book is divided day meant the difference between life and death. into seven chapters, and the list of protagonists Hnatiuk states that “for some, that day meant a grows with each. The author’s carefully organized flight ridden with obstacles; for others, a no less text allows her to introduce new faces in each difficult return; for many, death; for a few, libera‐ chapter to the ever-growing circle of Lviv’s intel‐ tion” (p. 25). The constant threat from occupying lectual society. The characters represent the di‐ forces changed life trajectories for many. For ex‐ verse populations that inhabited the city during ample, in Hnatiuk’s second chapter, “Haven at the the war, but the author pays acute attention to the Clinic,” readers are introduced to Fryderyka Lille role of Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews. Hnatiuk is (also known as Irena) who worked as Lviv’s only careful to avoid reducing these personal relation‐ female hematologist. She was also Jewish. After es‐ ships to ones based solely on nationalist leanings tablishing herself as a successful scientist and aca‐ and ethnic hatreds, and she rightfully points to demic, rising antisemitism in the city forced her to several examples of interethnic cooperation give up her noted academic career and move her among the individuals and families who occupy medical practice into a private location. Only with H-Net Reviews help from her mentor and former boss, Franciszek years, especially from Pravda and Izvestiia, the au‐ Groër, was Lille able to continue with her work. thor finds that “the media repeatedly emphasized This all changed when the Germans arrived in Lviv how Poland had economically handicapped the on June 30, 1941, and Lille and her family were Ukrainian and Jewish populations, stirring up ha‐ forced to evacuate their apartment out of fear. tred for the oppressors as well as hope for a change Hnatiuk writes, “Barely two weeks later Lille and of fortunes” (p. 135). This is how the Soviets justi‐ her mother-in-law found shelter in the home of a fied their existence in Lviv. These rivalries were mixed Polish-Ukrainian couple” (p. 71). The played upon further in the university setting where courage of neighbors and other ethnic groups al‐ Ukrainians were privileged in admissions and na‐ lowed some, like Lille, a chance at survival. Like tive tongue, at least theoretically. many of their contemporaries, the Lille family be‐ To make matters worse for their Polish and came adept at navigating their established net‐ Jewish colleagues, Ukrainians were once again works in Lviv. granted higher status under the Germans. During Perhaps of most significance to the Soviets the German occupation, nationality served as a were the universities. Hnatiuk dedicates ninety marker of status. The Germans used their own pages to her chapter “Academic Snapshots,” which identity markers (Kennkarte) to distinguish be‐ speaks to the importance of education and propa‐ tween nationalities and to maintain control of the ganda in Soviet ideology during the war. Aca‐ various populations under their occupation. demics and the institutions in which they worked Hnatiuk asserts, “The General Government im‐ were targeted as spaces in which professors could posed a hierarchy of nationalities, according to teach their students how to fit in to the new Soviet which a Kennkarte with the letter ‘U’ (which certi‐ order. The author contends that “the Soviets re‐ fied documented Ukrainian origin) entitled its car‐ structured the university and quickly politicized rier to more than a card with a ‘P’ (that is, of Polish the campus, turning it into an ideological instru‐ ethnicity), while the Jewish population was com‐ ment” (p. 221). The Soviets relied on local party pletely stripped of all rights” (pp. 369-370). Howev‐ functionaries, such as Mykhailo Marchenko, to im‐ er, as the author reminds us, it is important to note plement these new policies. Marchenko was a his‐ that these simple categorizations of peoples re‐ torian and member of the Communist Party of flected Nazi policy and not those of Ukrainians, Ukraine, and he prepared special reports about the Poles, or Jews. Both the Soviets and the Germans seizure of western Ukraine for first secretary of were responsible for creating hierarchies among the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lviv’s diverse population as a way to control, ma‐ Ukraine, Nikita Khrushchev. The dedicated work of nipulate, and influence. These actions did not al‐ Marchenko made him a trusted man, and he was ways reflect the ideas and beliefs of those who rewarded with the position of university president were subjected to them, but the legacy of national at the State University in Lviv. A major function of and ethnic tensions created by the occupying Marchenko’s position was to admit more Ukrain‐ forces continue to haunt Ukrainians, Poles, and ian students and to shift the language of instruc‐ Jews to this day. tion from Polish to Ukrainian. The Soviets knew Following the lives of other intellectuals in that they would need the help of local populations Lviv, Hnatiuk highlights Maksym and Iaroslava to carry out their orders, so they turned their at‐ Muzyka in her chapter titled “Artists from Café de tention to stirring up ethnic rivalries in the media. la Paix.” Maksym was a microbiologist, doctor, This is where Hnatiuk’s scrupulous reading of and dean of the Ukrainian Underground Universi‐ sources unveils a much more complex story. Using ty. His wife, Iaroslava, was a painter and chairman various newspaper articles from the early war 2 H-Net Reviews of the Association of Independent Ukrainian is required to work in even one country. To sort Artists (ANUM). In 1944, the Soviets launched an through documents in a variety of tongues allows operation called “Shchos” (Something) to locate one to access the most personal details of past members of the Ukrainian underground resis‐ lives. Hnatiuk uses an array of sources, including tance movement. Iaroslava was tapped to become memoirs, testimonies, newspapers, ego-docu‐ an intermediary between the Soviets and the ments, and security files. She ambitiously wades Ukrainian underground, and she regularly relayed through nine Ukrainian archives and libraries, six messages between the two groups. The Soviets Polish ones, and several others in the UK and the leveraged their connection to the Muzykas to infil‐ US. This is in addition to the twenty-seven newspa‐ trate their wider circle of friends, which the Soviets pers and periodicals from which she draws. believed to be spies, traitors, and members of the Hnatiuk should also be praised for her ability to resistance movement. Hnatiuk states that “the make sense of such a large amount of material. NKVD [People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs] She is at her best, I think, when she reveals to the began working the artist and her closest circle. reader the nuances of overlooked sources like They named the operation ‘Muzykanty,’ and tar‐ song lyrics and magazine articles. In one instance, geted the artist along with her husband and friends Hnatiuk dissects Pavel Grigeoriev’s lyrics in “Only from ANUM” (p. 444). Iaroslava was later arrested in Lviv.” The song was rewritten to fit new political on trumped-up charges of owning a personal li‐ standards, and Hnatiuk cleverly reveals the hid‐ brary and working for the Organization of Ukrain‐ den meaning in the new version: “This simple ian Nationalists (OUN). She was imprisoned in metaphor for the Soviet order was meant to con‐ Kyiv but later released. She continued painting for vince the listeners of the city’s sunny atmosphere a time before devoting her energy to the Shistdesi‐ and hospitality. The Russian version ended with an atnyky (the 1960s generation) where she published invitation to Lviv” (p. 280). In another case, the au‐ poems outside of official circulation. Her artistic thor reads between the lines of a magazine article endeavors were once again targeted by the Soviet written by Mykhailo Dmytrenko in Literatura i secret police in 1972, and she eventually passed mystetstvo. She concludes her reading of this away in 1973.