This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JEWS IN UKRAINIAN LITERATURE This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Jews in Ukrainian Literature Representation and Identity Myroslav Shkandrij Yale University Press This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Published with assistance from the Mary Cady Tew Memorial Fund. 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. Set in Ehrhardt Roman types by The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shkandrij, Myroslav, – Jews in Ukrainian literature : representation and identity / Myroslav Shkandrij. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN ---- (pbk. : alk. paper) . Jews in literature. Ukrainian literature—History and criticism. I. Title. PG .J S .Ј4—dc A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z . – (Permanence of Paper). This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions For Alexandra and Helena This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:12:10 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Contents Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration List of Abbreviations Introduction . Confronting the Other, – . Meeting at the Crossroads, – . A Dream of Rapprochement, – . Constructing Jewish Identity in Ukrainian Literature, – . A Jewish Voice: Leonid Pervomaisky . The Rising Tide of Resentment, – . The Second World War and Late Stalinism, – . Awakening from History, – . Postindependence Ironies Conclusion Bibliography Index This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:14:12 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:14:12 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Acknowledgments mong the colleagues and friends who read various drafts of this book and shared their comments and insights, I would like to thank John- Paul Himka, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, Serhy Yekelchyk, Orest AMartynowych, Elena Baraban, and Zina Gimpelevich. Several indi- viduals directed my attention to sources and helped me find materials, among them Viktoria Khiterer, Yurii Shapoval, Vira Aheieva, Viacheslav Aheiev, Mykola Klymchuk, Yaryna Tsymbal, Robert Klymasz, Jars Balan, Serhy Cipko, Bohdan Harasymiw, and Denys Volkov. Oksana Oliferovych and Adriana Choptiany helped with translations and tracking down difficult references. The following individuals and institutions were invaluable in finding materials: Leonid Fin- berh and the Judaica Institute in Kyiv; Sophia Kachor, Bohdana Bashuk, and the archival staff of the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre (Oseredok) in Winnipeg; James Kominowski in the Slavic Collection and staff in Document Delivery at the University of Manitoba’s Dafoe Library. A special thanks goes to my wife Natalka, who was a first reader, commentator, and supporter of the proj- ect throughout. I would like to acknowledge the Ukrainian Quarterly for permission to re- produce sections of the text that appeared in the journal as “The Jewish Voice in Ukrainian Literature,” . (): – ; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a grant that allowed me to conduct research; and the University of Manitoba for research-study time. Finally, I would like to point out that I alone am responsible for the views ex- pressed in this book. This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:16:20 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:16:20 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Note on Transliteration modified version of the Library of Congress transliteration system has been used for proper names in the text. Hard and soft signs have been omitted, and in order to approximate English usage and pro- Anunciation Ya- and Yu- have replaced Ia- and Iu- as the initial sylla- ble in names, while -y has replaced -yi or -ii in surname endings. The full system has been used to transliterate Slavic text, author-date citations, and the reference list. The rule of thumb has been to transliterate Ukrainian place names from the Ukrainian language, and Russian from the Russian. A few exceptions were made in cases where established English usage was considered preferable because of its familiarity and acceptableness to all parties (Galicia, Volhynia), or because of its closeness to the Slavic pronunciation (Ignatiev). This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:18:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:18:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Abbreviations Cheka Extraordinary Commission. Short for VChK or the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Fighting Counterrevolution and Sabotage (– ), the Soviet secret police. The term is often applied to all the organization’s later incarnations under their vari- ous names: GPU, OGPU, NKVD, MVD, MGD,KGB CP(B)U Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine EIEO Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society GPU State Political Administration ( – ), successor of the Cheka KGB Committee for State Security ( – ), successor of the MVD KOMZET Committee for Rural Placement of Jewish Laborers MAUP Interregional Academy for Personnel Management MGD Ministry of State Security ( – ) (a branch of the secret po- lice), successor of the NKVD MUR Ukrainian Artistic Movement MVD Ministry of Internal Affairs ( – ) (a branch of the secret po- lice), successor of the NKVD NDP National Democratic Party NKVD People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs ( – ) (at various points controlled the GPU and OGPU), successor of the Cheka OGPU Unified State Political Administration ( – ) (the central agency that controlled all republican GPUs), successor of the Cheka OPE Society for Spreading Enlightenment Among Jews in Russia OUN Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists OZET Society for Settlement on Land of Working Jews This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:21:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SVU League for the Liberation of Ukraine VAPLITE The Free Academy of Proletarian Literature ( – ) VUFKU All-Ukrainian Photo-Cinema Management UGA Ukrainian Galician Army UNA-UNSO Ukrainian National Assembly—Ukrainian National Self-Defense UNR Ukrainian National Republic (also known as Ukrainian People’s Republic) USDP Ukrainian Social Democratic Party WUNR Western Ukrainian National Republic This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:21:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Introduction ews have lived for many centuries on the territory of what is today Ukraine. Their interaction with the local population is recorded in the earliest East Slavic written records, such as the Paterik of the Kyivan JCaves Monastery, which reports a dialogue between Kyiv’s Christians and Jews in the eleventh century. The Jewish presence has been large—at the beginning of the twentieth century almost a third of all world Jewry lived in Ukraine—and it has played a significant role in Ukrainian life. The rich imprint left by this presence on Ukrainian literature is the subject of this book. The focus is on key works in modern writing, roughly from the s to the present. The crystallization of literary narratives and myths (the latter term un- derstood here as powerful, iconic ways of imaginatively ordering experience) is described within both the historical context and the contemporary discourse concerning Ukrainian-Jewish relations. Changing literary conventions have also shaped the depiction of Jews, especially the period-styles of romanticism, pop- ulism-realism, modernism, socialist realism, the vogue for national heroism in the s, and postmodernism, all of which have influenced characterization and the generation of plots, imagery, and tropes. Some narrative elements, such as the Jewish “leaseholder” ( orendar in Ukrainian) who rents the Orthodox church from the Polish Catholic landowner and makes worshipers pay to hold their services, or characters such as Ahasuerus and Marko Prokliaty, appear in several periods, receiving a different treatment in each. While recognizing the importance of period-styles, this account also situates the literature within the history of Jewish-Ukrainian relations, and of the identity-building projects of both Jews and Ukrainians. This content downloaded from 128.184.220.23 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:23:58 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions There is much that is not included. In the first place no attempt is made to cover the depiction of Ukrainian-Jewish relations in Yiddish, Russian, Polish, German, or other literatures. References are made to texts in these literatures only to illustrate a particular point, or to throw into relief perceptions of Jews in Ukrainian literature. Studies of texts in these and other languages, although they form a part of Ukraine’s multilingual literary environment and heritage, await future scholars.