DOCSLIB.ORG

UKRAINE: from CHERNOBYL' to SOVEREIGNTY Also by Roman Solchanyk

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UKRAINE: from CHERNOBYL' to SOVEREIGNTY Also by Roman Solchanyk UKRAINE: FROM CHERNOBYL' TO SOVEREIGNTY Also by Roman Solchanyk UKRAINE UNDER PERESTROIKA: Politics, Religion and the National Question By David R. Marples and from Palgrave Macmillan UKRAINE UNDER PERESTROIKA: Ecology, Economics and the Workers' Revolt Ukraine: From Chernobyl' to Sovereignty A Collection of Interviews Edited by Roman So1chanyk RFEIRL Research Institute, Munich Foreword by Norman Stone Professor of Modern History Oxford University Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-12862-4 ISBN 978-1-349-12860-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-12860-0 © RFEIRL, Inc. 1992 Foreword © Nonnan Stone 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 All rights reserved. For infonnation, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1992 ISBN 978-0-312-07549-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ukraine, from Chemobyl' to sovereignty: a collection of interviews / edited by Roman Solchanyk ; foreword by Nonnan Stone. p. cm. Translated from Ukrainian. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-312-07549-1 1. Ukraine-Politics and govemment-1945- I. Solchanyk, Roman. DK508.84.U364 1992 947'.71085'4-dc20 91-33064 CIP Contents Foreword by NORMAN STONE vii Preface xi Introduction xiii 1 Vecbimii Kyiv, the Voice of Perestroika in Ukraine: An Interview with Vitalii Karpenko 1 2 The Beginnings of "Rukh": An Interview with Pavlo Movchan 7 3 Little Russianism and the Ukrainian-Russian Relationship: An Interview with Mykola Ryabchuk 19 4 Language, Culture, and the Search for a Ukrainian Hero: An Interview with Yurii Pokal'chuk 31 5 The Current Situation in Ukraine: A Discussion with "Rukh" Chairman Ivan Drach 40 6 Ukraine and Poland: An Interview with Adam Michnik 57 7 The Democratization Process in Ukraine: An Interview with Anatolii Pohribnyi 67 8 Filling in the "Blank Spots" in Ukrainian History: An Interview with Stanislav Kul'chyts'kyi 81 9 Ferment in Western Ukraine: An Interview with Rostyslav Bratun' 95 10 Roman Szporluk and Valerii Tishkov Talk about the National Question 105 11 Inside Ukrainian Politics: An Interview with Dmytro Pavlychko 117 v vi Contents 12 Ukraine, Russia, and the National Question: An Interview with Aleksandr Tsipko 127 13 An Insider's View of Chernobyl': An Interview with Yurii Risovannyi 139 14 The Communist Party and the Political Situation in Ukraine: An Interview with Stanislav Hurenko 150 15 Ukrainian-Jewish Relations: An Interview with Oleksandr Burakovs'kyi 160 Name Index 170 Foreword "The Estonian people has been cultivating its existence on the shores of the Baltic for the past two thousand years, n ran one of the historic documents of communism. It came out in September, 1988; and it amounted to a statement ofindependence---technically, "sovereignty"­ by the one and a half million inhabitants of Estonia, the smallest of the republics that make, or made, up the USSR. This tiny pebble, in slipping, was the first sign of what has become a landslide. Now, three years later, Moscow itself has crumbled too: with the election of Boris El'tsin as President of the Russian Republic, a new Union treaty for the whole of the Soviet Union has been drafted. The place will no longer be called ·Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" but "Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics"; it will be a confederation, not a centralized state as before. Even then, a great many people in many of the republics want more: they want formal independence, in some cases membership in the Common Market. In all this, the Ukraine plays a key, in many ways the key, part. It is the second largest republic, its boundaries stretching from the Polish border in the west to the northeastern shores of the Black Sea. Its population, over fifty million, makes it one of the largest European states; and it is also naturally very rich, its soil and climate making it Europe's breadbasket and its minerals--coal, preeminently in the Donets Basin; oil; rare and very valuable metals, essential for enriching sophisticated steel-making it an all-important source for the things that ultramodern economies need. Its people, though historically divided, have their own language: Ukrainian is quite distinct from Russian, although, as with the Scandinavian tongues (Finnish apart), if you can read the one, you can make out the other. There ts a sizable Russian minority, and the great cities, L'viv in the west apart, are in majority Russian-speaking: Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa. Ukrainians will tell you (and they are probably right) that the populations there would revert to speaking Ukrainian if they were allowed to; but in the past the emphasis was all on Russian, and you were penalized if you used Ukrainian, or even protested. Time was, quite recently, when typewriters did not sport the three distinctive Ukrainian letters. But· there are other minorities. The Crimea is formally part of the Ukraine, and it contains not only Russians but also Tatars, once the majority of its population. There are Romanians, even Greeks; there are Poles-by one account, vii viii Foreword over half a million. And there are Jews, though no one knows quite how many. The question is: will this vast and variegated mass become not "the Ukraine"-a term that really means "the edges"-but "Ukraine," a new state within the European community? If this were to happen, then Russia itself-much of the country subarctic-would become, in Alain Besan~on's phrase, not a USA, but a Canada. Many Russians on the democratic side might not object: after all, Russians have suffered as much as, and maybe more than, their own subjects in the effort to maintain an empire. Events are now moving so fast that some kind of division of the old USSR could easily happen quite soon. Who, after all, would have thought, three years ago, that we could quite seriously be talking about Ukrainian independence? For a very long time, that matter was purely speculative. Nationalism is in any case rather difficult to discuss: you can fall, all too easily, into a mixture of lists and poetry. In the Brezhnevite USSR, with media so tightly controlled, evidence for the growth of national feeling was very slight indeed. Brave dissidents, a handful, surfaced and suffered, as Vyacheslav Chornovil and Levko Lukyanenko did in the Ukraine, emerging from years and years in prison to become leaders of the democratic forces as these were eventually allowed to win free elections. Remarkably, they survive with their energies and self-control in good shape: prison, far from breaking the best, can often make them even better. Now, they are in charge in the Western Ukraine-the L'viv, Ternopil', and Ivano-Frankivs'k regions--and their allies have done very well even in the largely Russified city of Kiev. Relations with the local Russians (and Jews) seem to be rather good. Unlike the cases of the Baltic states, there is no antinationalist grouping of Russian immigrants in the Ukraine, no "Interfront," as such organizations are called. True, the population of Odessa so far has not been greatly penetrated by Ukrainian nationalism. But the movement has spread now, quite far into the Eastern Ukraine, that half of the country on the left bank of the river Dnieper or Dnipro, which, once upon a time, was quite Russian-Russian in its Orthodoxy, much of its language, and some of its population. Nowadays, we can at last say something positive about this, because we are allowed to have evidence-unfaked elections, a free press, visas (even for declared nationalistic exiles) are now on hand, though there are still restrictions in different places and in different ways. One very important thing is the ability of Western observers to read the opinions of Ukrainians who have lived through the past generation or two, in which everything was kept down under a Soviet ice cap. They stirred, Norman Stone ix of course, and resented the oppression to which things Ukrainian­ "folklore" apart-were subjected. The testimonies that are gathered together in this volume come from interviews conducted by a number of experienced and skilled people, with the results edited, overall, by Roman Sokhanyk, of the RFE/RL Research Institute in Munich. Remi­ niscences and personal impressions are important evidence in the world of communism (and post-communism) precisely because so little else has been reliable. Similarly, the observations of central actors in the unfolding reemergence of a free Ukraine, are important for any Westerner anxious to know how matters in the USS(for "Sovereign")R will proceed. Ivan Drach, for instance, who promoted the popular movement "Rukh" from within the Writers' Union and its newspaper Literatuma Ukraina, speaks about his past.What is striking here is the way in which provincial Ukrainian links, within the Communist Party, could be used for Ukrainian (and, in the end, non-Communist) purposes. Much the same happened in Estonia and in Lithuania, where the Communist apparatus was used in defense of the local culture (as can be seen at a glance in Vilna [Vilnius), where the old architecture has been quite carefully restored). We should not blame the local people for behaving in this way, within a Communist apparatus: they had no choice. In this collection of interviews, Ukrainian voices can now speak hopefully about their present and future. These voices include tones that, in the past, might have been discordant. There is now, however, a good chance that. people in the Ukraine, whether of Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, or other origin, will have a state that they can call their own. NORMAN STONE Oxford University Preface Beginning in 1989 the political situation in Ukraine had changed to the extent that direct contact with the West became increasingly more common.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Anti-Semitism in Ukraine: Post Jackson-Vanik Graduation The
    The Eurasia Brief April, 2008 Anti-Semitism in Ukraine: Post Jackson-Vanik Graduation Aaron Ostrovsky, Research Analyst, Eurasia Center The Eurasia Center’s Program on Civil Freedoms, Religious & Ethnic Toleration “Judaism without Embellishments”-Trofim Kichko Anti-Semitism has continuously embedded thorns into the democratic stability of Ukraine. The issue of anti-Semitism has contributed to the reasoning behind Ukraine’s delayed Euro-Atlantic integration and EU membership. In accordance with EU regulations, certain levels of human rights violations will inhibit a country from membership. Historically rooted in Ukrainian society, anti-Semitism has unfortunately paralleled Ukraine’s evolution as a democratic state. Following Ukraine’s graduation from Jackson-Vanik, it has become increasingly clear that issues such as anti-Semitism and racism plague the underbelly of Ukrainian life. The underlining question which needs to be addressed is whether or not Judaism has a chance to survive and prosper in today’s Ukraine? Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the mass emigration of Jews, Ukraine still contains one of the largest Jewish communities in the world; Ukraine’s Jewish community is ranked the eleventh largest in the world and fifth in Europe. In 1992, it was estimated that around 100 Jewish organizations had emerged in Ukraine following Ukraine’s independence; this figure grew at a rate of 50 new organizations annually in 1992-1994.1 By 2000, there were approximately 500 Jewish groups in Ukraine. The Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine (AJOCU) reported that following a short period of relaxation in 1990-1991, new signs of anti- Semitism emerged.
    [Show full text]
  • General Information About Ukraine
    General Information about Ukraine Introduction The purpose of this document is to give a general overview of Ukrainian economy and the city of Slavutych to potential investors. The information provided covers a broad range of subjects to help potential investors understand Ukraine’s developing economy and was gathered from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. Ukraine is rich in culture, history and natural resources. The government of Ukraine is transforming its economic structure to a western market economy and continues solving problems related to this change. More detailed information about Slavutych, the hometown of Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers, is provided. As the date of the Chornobyl NPP closure approaches, the Ukrainian government is taking steps toward economic diversification, including educating and attracting foreign and domestic investors. This guide aims to provide valuable information about investment opportunities, geography, people, government, and the economy of Ukraine and Slavutych. Geography Ukraine sits at a favorable strategic position between Europe and Asia and is the second-largest country in Europe. The contemporary city of Kyiv is Ukraine’s capital and one of the biggest cities in Europe. With a population of almost 3 million, it stands preeminent as the administrative, economic, research, cultural and educational center. The President, Supreme Council (Verhovna Rada), all ministries and government departments are all located in Kyiv. Location Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland and Russia Time zone GMT +2:00 Area Total 603,700 sq. km (slightly smaller than Texas ) Land 603,700 sq.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Ukraine Advisory Board
    THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE ADVISORY BOARD John T. Alexander Professor of History and Russian and European Studies, University of Kansas Robert A. Divine George W. Littlefield Professor in American History Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin John V. Lombardi Professor of History, University of Florida THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE Paul Kubicek The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations Frank W. Thackeray and John E. Findling, Series Editors Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kubicek, Paul. The history of Ukraine / Paul Kubicek. p. cm. — (The Greenwood histories of the modern nations, ISSN 1096 –2095) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978 – 0 –313 – 34920 –1 (alk. paper) 1. Ukraine —History. I. Title. DK508.51.K825 2008 947.7— dc22 2008026717 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2008 by Paul Kubicek All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008026717 ISBN: 978– 0– 313 – 34920 –1 ISSN: 1096 –2905 First published in 2008 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48 –1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible.
    [Show full text]
  • Harvard Historical Studies • 173
    HARVARD HISTORICAL STUDIES • 173 Published under the auspices of the Department of History from the income of the Paul Revere Frothingham Bequest Robert Louis Stroock Fund Henry Warren Torrey Fund Brought to you by | provisional account Unauthenticated Download Date | 4/11/15 12:32 PM Brought to you by | provisional account Unauthenticated Download Date | 4/11/15 12:32 PM WILLIAM JAY RISCH The Ukrainian West Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts London, En gland 2011 Brought to you by | provisional account Unauthenticated Download Date | 4/11/15 12:32 PM Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Risch, William Jay. The Ukrainian West : culture and the fate of empire in Soviet Lviv / William Jay Risch. p. cm.—(Harvard historical studies ; 173) Includes bibliographical references and index. I S B N 9 7 8 - 0 - 6 7 4 - 0 5 0 0 1 - 3 ( a l k . p a p e r ) 1 . L ’ v i v ( U k r a i n e ) — H i s t o r y — 2 0 t h c e n t u r y . 2 . L ’ v i v ( U k r a i n e ) — P o l i t i c s a n d government— 20th century. 3. L’viv (Ukraine)— Social conditions— 20th century 4. Nationalism— Ukraine—L’viv—History—20th century. 5. Ethnicity— Ukraine—L’viv— History—20th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Ukrainian Literature in English: Articles in Journals and Collections, 1840-1965
    Research Report No. 51 UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH: ARTICLES IN JOURNALS AND COLLECTIONS, 1840-1965 An annotated bibliography MARTA TARNAWSKY Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press University of Alberta Edmonton 1992 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press Occasional Research Reports The Institute publishes research reports periodically. Copies may be ordered from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 352 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G2E8. The name of the publication series and the substantive material in each issue (unless otherwise noted) are copyrighted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. This publication was funded by a grant from the Stephania Bukachevska-Pastushenko Archival Endowment Fund. PRINTED IN CANADA 1 Occasional Research Reports UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH: ARTICLES IN JOURNALS AND COLLECTIONS, 1840-1965 An annotated bibliography MARTA TARNAWSKY Research Report No. 5 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press University of Alberta Edmonton 1992 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction v Journals and Collections Included in this Bibliography ix Bibliography 1 General Index 144 Chronological Index 175 INTRODUCTION The general plan Ukrainian Literature in English: Articles in Journals and Collections. 1840-1965 is part of a larger bibliographical project which attempts, for the first time, a comprehensive coverage of translations from and materials about Ukrainian literature published in the English language from the earliest known publications to the present. After it is completed this bibliographical project will include: 1/books and pamphlets, both translations and literary studies; 2/articles and notes published in monthly and quarterly journals, yearbooks, encyclopedias, symposia and other collections; 3/translations of poetry, prose and drama published in monthly and quarterly journals, yearbooks, anthologies etc.; and 4/ book reviews published in journals and collections.
    [Show full text]
  • Purifying National Historical Narratives in Russia
    A Trial in Absentia: Purifying National Historical Narratives in Russia Author(s): Olga Bertelsen Source: Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal 3 (2016): 57–87 Published by: National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy http://kmhj.ukma.edu.ua/ A Trial in Absentia: Purifying National Historical Narratives in Russia1 Olga Bertelsen Columbia University, Harriman Institute Abstract This study explores contemporary Russian memory politics, and analyzes the ideological underpinnings of the 2011 Moscow court verdict that criminalized a Ukrainian scholarly publication, accusing it of inciting ethnic, racial, national, social, and religious hatred. This accusation is examined in the context of Russia’s attempts to control the official historical narrative. Special attention is paid to the role of Russian cultural and democratic civic institutions, such as the Moscow library of Ukrainian literature and Memorial, in the micro- history of this publication. Deconstructing the judicial reaction of Russian lawmakers toward the Ukrainian publication, the study analyzes the Russian political elite’s attitudes toward the “Ukrainian” historical interpretations of Stalin’s terror and other aspects of common Soviet history, and demonstrates the interconnectedness of the preceding Soviet and modern Russian methods of control over education, history, and culture. Language and legislation play an important role in Russian memory politics that shape the popular historical imagination and camouflage the authoritarian methods of governing in Russia. The case of the Ukrainian
    [Show full text]
  • HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES EDITOR Lubomyr Hajda, Harvard University
    HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES EDITOR Lubomyr Hajda, Harvard University EDITORIAL BOARD Michael S. Flier, George G. Grabowicz, Edward L. Keenan, and Roman Szporluk, Harvard University; Frank E. Sysyn, University of Alberta FOUNDING EDITORS Omeljan Pritsak and Ihor Sevcenko, Harvard University BOOK REVIEW EDITOR Larry Wolff EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Daría Yurchuk DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Robert A. DeLossa ADVISORY BOARD Zvi Ankori, Tel Aviv University—John A. Armstrong, University of Wisconsin—Yaroslav Bilinsky, University of Delaware—Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, Carleton University, Ottawa—Axinia Djurova, University of Sofia—Olexa Horbatsch, University of Frankfurt—Halil inalcık, University of Chi- cago—Jaroslav D. Isajevych, Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, L'viv— Edward Kasinec, New York Public Library—Magdalena László-Kujiuk, University of Bucharest— Walter Leitsch, University of Vienna—L. R. Lewitter, Cambridge University—G. Luciani, University of Bordeaux—George S. N. Luckyj, University of Toronto—M. Łesiów, Marie Curie-Sktodowska University, Lublin—Paul R. Magocsi, University of Toronto—Dimitri Obolensky, Oxford Univer- sity—RiccardoPicchio, Yale University—MarcRaeff, Columbia University—HansRothe, University of Bonn—Bohdan Rubchak, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle—Władysław A. Serczyk, University of Warsaw at Białystok—George Y. Shevelov, Columbia University—Günther Stökl, University of Cologne—A. de Vincenz, University of Göttingen—Vaclav Żidlicky, Charles Univer- sity, Prague. COMMITTEE ON UKRAINIAN STUDIES, Harvard University Stanisław Barańczak Patricia Chaput Timothy Colton Michael S. Flier George G. Grabowicz Edward L. Keenan Jeffrey D. Sachs Roman Szporluk (Chairman) Subscription rates per volume (two double issues) are $28.00 U.S. in the United States and Canada, $32.00 in other countries. The price of one double issue is $ 18.00 ($20.00 overseas).
    [Show full text]
  • History of Ukrainian Statehood: ХХ- the Beginning of the ХХІ Century
    NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LIFE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE OF UKRAINE FACULTY OF THE HUMANITIES AND PEDAGOGY Department of History and Political Sciences N. KRAVCHENKO History of Ukrainian Statehood: ХХ- the beginning of the ХХІ century Textbook for students of English-speaking groups Kyiv 2017 UDК 93/94 (477) BBК: 63.3 (4 Укр) К 77 Recommended for publication by the Academic Council of the National University of Life and Environmental Science of Ukraine (Protocol № 3, on October 25, 2017). Reviewers: Kostylyeva Svitlana Oleksandrivna, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of History of the National Technical University of Ukraine «Kyiv Polytechnic Institute»; Vyhovskyi Mykola Yuriiovych, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Faculty of Historical Education of the National Pedagogical Drahomanov University Вilan Serhii Oleksiiovych, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of History and Political Sciences of the National University of Life and Environmental Science of Ukraine. Аristova Natalia Oleksandrivna, Doctor of Pedagogic Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of English Philology of the National University of Life and Environmental Science of Ukraine. Author: PhD, Associate Professor Nataliia Borysivna Kravchenko К 77 Kravchenko N. B. History of Ukrainian Statehood: ХХ - the beginning of the ХХІ century. Textbook for students of English-speaking groups. / Kravchenko N. B. – Куiv: Еditing and Publishing Division NUBiP of Ukraine, 2017. – 412 р. ISBN 978-617-7396-79-5 The textbook-reference covers the historical development of Ukraine Statehood in the ХХ- at the beginning of the ХХІ century. The composition contains materials for lectures, seminars and self-study. It has general provisions, scientific and reference materials - personalities, chronology, terminology, documents and manual - set of tests, projects and recommended literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv. by WILLIAM JAY RISCH, Pp
    SLOVO, VOL. 26, NO. 1 (SPRING 2014), 39-40. Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv. By WILLIAM JAY RISCH, Pp. 374. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Harvard Historical Studies, Volume 173. 2011. $49.99. ISBN 9780674050013. Soviet Lviv as a Shifting Phantasmagoria In Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv, William Jay Risch provides a detailed and nuanced account of the transformation of the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv, known as L’vov, Lwów, and Lemberg. Risch describes the transformation of Lviv from a center of the Halych-Volyn Principality of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, to a multiethnic town in the Habsburg Empire, and finally, to a unique Western Ukrainian Soviet city in the post-war Soviet Union. The story of Lviv’s transformation, he argues, does not follow a neat, linear path, but rather, is one complicated by shifting narratives, discourses, and allegiances. Despite Soviet state efforts to foster a ‘generic Soviet Ukrainian identity’, Risch argues, literary, linguistic, and cultural movements coalesced to shape a ‘specific Western Ukrainian Soviet identity’ of the city of Lviv (p. 4). In the first section of the book, Risch outlines post-war Soviet politics and the transformation of Lviv as a ‘Soviet city’. After the death of Stalin, the Soviet secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria, issued a report to encourage ‘localism’ and soon thereafter, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union passed a resolution calling for the election of ‘locals’. In keeping with the resolution, the first Party secretary for Ukraine, L.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping the Ukrainian Poetry of New York
    Introduction: Mapping the Ukrainian Poetry of New York In the midst of ever-increasing quantity, anthologies enable individual voices to be heard above the collective noise. —Czeslaw Milosz1 In the very city of New York literally every day poets read their work in dozens of different places: at museums, churches, universities, various institutions, libraries, theatres, galleries, cafes and private places. […] Every place that has a roof is a place for poetry. —Bohdan Boychuk2 This poetry is no hymn to the homeland; rather the gaze of the allegorist, as it falls on the city, is the gaze of alienated man. It is the gaze of the flaneur, whose way of life still conceals behind a mitigating nimbus the coming desolation of the big-city dweller. —Walter Benjamin3 The Encounter Legend has it that on a mid-fall day in 1966, while on an official trip to New York City as part of the Soviet-Ukrainian delegation to the annual convention of the United Nations, Ivan Drach—then a thirty-year-old aspiring poet and screenwriter—managed to escape the KGB personnel tailing the poet and headed into a district of the city totally unknown to him. After wandering around this strange neighborhood, the poet stopped before a cafeteria, entered it, and spotted a bearded, bespectacled man sitting in the corner as if waiting for someone. Drach approached him; the two men shook hands. The bearded man, believed to be the American poet Allen Ginsberg, lived nearby in an area known as the East Village. The Ukrainian poet did not know conversational English well, and Ginsberg did not know any Ukrainian.
    [Show full text]
  • Memorialization of the Jewish Tragedy at Babi Yar Aleksandr Burakovskiy∗
    Nationalities Papers Vol. 39, No. 3, May 2011, 371–389 Holocaust remembrance in Ukraine: memorialization of the Jewish tragedy at Babi Yar Aleksandr Burakovskiy∗ Independent Scholar, United States (Received 24 November 2009; final version received 26 January 2011) At the core of the debate in Ukraine about Babi Yar lies the Holocaust. Between 1941 and 1943 1.5 million Jews perished in Ukraine, yet a full understanding of that tragedy has been suppressed consistently by ideologies and interpretations of history that minimize or ignore this tragedy. For Soviet ideologues, admitting to the existence of the Holocaust would have been against the tenet of a “Soviet people” and the aggressive strategy of eliminating national and religious identities. A similar logic of oneness is being applied now in the ideological formation of an independent Ukraine. However, rather than one Soviet people, now there is one Ukrainian people under which numerous historical tragedies are being subsumed, and the unique national tragedies of other peoples on the territory of Ukraine, such as the massive destruction of Jews, is again being suppressed. According to this political idea assiduously advocated most recently during the Yushchenko presidency, the twentieth century in Ukraine was a battle for liberation. Within this new, exclusive history, the Holocaust, again, has found no real place. The author reviews the complicated history regarding the memorialization of the Jewish tragedy in Babi Yar through three broad chronological periods: 1943–1960, 1961–1991, and 1992–2009. Keywords: Babi Yar; Jews in Ukraine; anti-Semitism; Holocaust At the core of the decades-long debate in Ukraine about the memorialization of the Jewish tragedy at Babi Yar lies a lack of acknowledgement of the Holocaust.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reconstruction of Nations
    The Reconstruction of Nations The Reconstruction of Nations Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 Timothy Snyder Yale University Press New Haven & London Published with the assistance of the Frederick W. Hilles Fund of Yale University. Copyright © by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections and of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Snyder, Timothy. The reconstruction of nations : Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, ‒ / Timothy Snyder. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN --- (alk. paper) . Europe, Eastern—History—th century. I. Title. DJK. .S .—dc A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. For Marianna Brown Snyder and Guy Estel Snyder and in memory of Lucile Fisher Hadley and Herbert Miller Hadley Contents Names and Sources, ix Gazetteer, xi Maps, xiii Introduction, Part I The Contested Lithuanian-Belarusian Fatherland 1 The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (–), 2 Lithuania! My Fatherland! (–), 3 The First World War and the Wilno Question (–), 4 The Second World War and the Vilnius Question (–), 5 Epilogue:
    [Show full text]