National identity and history writing in Ukraine

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Notes

1. Russian involvement in Ukrainian domestic politics, as, for example, during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections, is therefore not understood by Russia as “interference” in the domestic affairs of a foreign country. During the 2004 Ukrainian elections and Orange Revolution, Russia strongly protested against Western “interference” because it did not perceive its own activities in support of the pro-regime candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, in the same way. Tor Bukkvoll succinctly argues that, in not recognising Ukraine as a “foreign” country, Russia has failed to formulate a coherent policy towards Ukraine. See Tor Bukkvoll, “Off the Cuff Politics—Explaining Russia's Lack of a Ukraine Strategy,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 53, No. 8, 2001, pp. 1141–1157. On Russian intervention see T. Kuzio, “Russian Policy towards Ukraine during Elections,” Demokratizatsiya, Vol. 13, No. 4, 2005, pp. 491–517.

2. For an earlier survey of how post-Soviet Ukrainian historiography has changed see T. Kuzio, “Nation-State Building and the Re-writing of History in Ukraine: The Legacy of Kyiv Rus,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2005, pp. 30–58.

3. For a survey see T. Kuzio, “History and National Identity among the Eastern Slavs. Towards a New Framework,” National Identities, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2001, pp. 109–132.

4. See T. Kuzio, Ukraine. State and Nation Building (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 198–229 and “The Nation-Building Project in Ukraine and Identity: Toward a Consensus,” in T. Kuzio and Paul D'Anieri, eds, Dilemmas of State-Led Nation Building in Ukraine (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002), pp. 9–28.

5. Jaroslaw Pelenski, The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1998), p. 1.

6. Ibid., p. 4.

7. For historiography surveys see Stephen Velnychenko, National History as Cultural Process. A Survey of the Interpretations of Ukraine's Past in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian Historical Writing from the Earliest Times to 1914 (Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1992) and Shaping Identity in Eastern Europe and Russia. Soviet-Russian and Polish Accounts of Ukrainian History, 1914–1991 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1993).

8. See Vera Tolz, “Rethinking Russian–Ukrainian relations: A New Trend in Nation-Building in Post-Communist Russia,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2002, pp. 235–253.

9. Yaroslav Isayevych, “Problema Pokhodzhennia Ukrayinskoho narodu: istoriohrafichnyi I politychnyi aspekt,” Ukrayina, No. 2, 1995, pp. 7.

10. B. Grekov, Kievskaia Rus (Moscow/Leningrad: Progress, 1944).

11. V. Tolz, “The Lay of the Host of Igor in the Service of Ideology,” Radio Liberty Research, RL 390/85, 22 November 1985.

12. J. Pelenski, “The Contest for the Kievan Inheritance in Russian–Ukrainian Relations: The Origins and Early Ramifications,” in Peter Potichnyj, ed., Ukraine and Russia in Their Historical Encounter (Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1992), p. 4.

13. Anna Chernenko, Ukrayinska Natsionalna Ideya (Dnipropetrovsk: DDU, 1994), p. 4.

14. Yuriy Badzio, “An Open Letter to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU,” trans. Roman Senkus, Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1984, pp. 74–94 and No. 2, 1984, pp. 47–70.

15. Holos Ukrayiny, 22 December 1998.

16. Vremya, 11 February 1997.

17. Holos Ukrayiny, 11 June 1999.

18. In the 2002 parliamentary elections, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc dominated Western and Central Ukraine. In the 2004 presidential election, Viktor Yushchenko won his greatest support in these two regions, going on to win the election. The Orange Revolution, a reaction to election fraud, also drew most of its adherents from these two regions. See T. Kuzio, “Kuchma to Yushchenko: Ukraine's 2004 Elections and ‘Orange Revolution’,” Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2005, pp. 29–54.

19. Orest Subtelny, Ukraine. A History (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1988), Ukrayina. Istoriya (Kyiv: Lybid, 1991) and Ukraina. Istoria (Kyiv: Lebid, 1994).

20. “Istorii Ukrayiny—nove vysvitlennia,” Ukrayina, No. 41, 1989, p. 4.

21. The text was refused publication in Ukraine and circulated in samizdat (samvydav) before being published abroad. See M. Yu. Braichevsky, Pryednannia chy Vozzyednannia? Krytychni Zauvahy z Pryvodu Odniyeii Kontseptsii (Toronto: Novi Dni, 1972).

22. Literaturna Ukrayina, 12 October 1989.

23. “Ukrainians are the eldest (of the three Eastern Slavs),” one author emphasised in Flot Ukrayiny, 18 November 1995.

24. Vasyl Kremen and Vasyl Tkachenko, Ukrayina: shliakh do sebe. Problemy suspilnoii transformatsii (Kyiv: DrUK, 1998), p. 187. Kremen was the minister of education between 1997–2004 and a member of the pro-presidential Social Democratic United Party. Although Kremen supported the Ukrainophile school within Ukraine's education system, the political party of which he is a senior member inclines more towards the Eastern Slavic school. In the last three years of Kuchma's administration, when SDPUo leader Viktor Medvedchuk was head of the presidential administration, the SDPUo was a vocal critic of the alleged “nationalism” of opposition leader and presidential candidate Yushchenko.

25. Yuriy Kanyhin and Zenoviy Tkachuk, Ukrayinska Mriya (Kyiv: Leksykon, 1996), p. 36.

26. See M. Kotliar and V. Kulchytsky, Shliakhamy Vikiv. Dovidnyk z Istorii Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Ukrayina, 1993) and Dovidnyk Istorii Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Ukrayina, 1996); V. Smoliy, V. Verstiuk, S. Vidnianskyi, V. Horbyk, V. Danylenko, M. Koval, M. Kotliar, S. Kulchytskyi, V. Lytvyn, O. Mayboroda, P. Panchenko, Yu. Pinchuk, V. Sarbey, A. Sliusarenko, P. Tronko, eds, Malyi Slovnyk Istorii Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Lybid, 1997) Ihor Sharov, 100 vydatnykh imen Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Alternatyvy, 1999) and 100 Nayvidomishykh Ukrayintsiv (Kyiv: Orfey, 2001); Yu. M. Alekseeyeva, ed., Istoriya Ukrayiny. Navchalnyi posibnyk (Kyiv: Novyi Svit, 2002). M. F. Kotliar's Istoriya Ukrayiny v Osobobakh. Davnoruska Derzhava (Kyiv: Ukrayina, 1996) only deals with Kyiv Rus and Galicia-Volynia.

27. I. Pidkova and P. Shust, eds, Dovidnyk Istoriya Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Institute of Historical Research, Lviv State University, 2001).

28. L. Zalizniak, “Kyivska Rus-praukrayinska derzhava,” Istorychnyi Kalendar (Kyiv: n.p, 1997), p. 183.

29. Leonid Zalizniak, “Ethnohenez Ukrayintsiv,” Heneza, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1995, p. 151.

30. This book was originally published in Moscow in 1846 by Moscow University Press. It was reprinted and translated into Ukrainian in 1991 by the Lviv publishing house Atlas with an introduction by the well-known writer and then head of the Ukrainian Popular Movement (Rukh), Ivan Drach.

31. Narodna Armiya, 1 October 1996.

32. The Eastern Slavic school has two Western adherents. See Andrew Wilson, Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s. A Minority Faith (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1997) and The Ukrainians. Unexpected Nation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), and Paul R. Magocsi, A History of Ukraine (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1996).

33. O. P. Tolochko and P. P. Tolochko, Kyivska Rus (Kyiv: Alternatyvy, 1998).

34. V. Kremen, Dmytro Tabachnyk, and V. Tkachenko, Ukrayina: Alternatyvy Postupu, Krytyka istorychnoho dosvidu (Kyiv: ARC-UKRAINE, 1996), pp. 62–63, 111.

35. Kremen and Tkachenko, Ukrayina: shliakh do sebe, p. 18.

36. S. Kulchytsky, “Davnokyivska Spadshyna u Vystvitlenni Mykhaila Hrushevskoho,” Polityka I Chas, No. 9, 1996, p. 80.

37. Interview with P. Tolochko by Dmytro Kyianskyi, “My Bilshe Ruski, Niz Vony. Istoriya Bez Mifiv I Sensatsii,” Zerkalo Nedeli/Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, 27 January to 2 February 2001.

38. See T. Kuzio, “Identity and Nation Building in Ukraine. Defining the ‘Other’,” Ethnicities, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2001, pp. 343–366.

39. See P. P. Tolochko, Vid Rusi do Ukrayiny (Kyiv: Abrys, 1997) and Tolochko and Tolochko, Kyivska Rus.

40. Hromada was led by former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who fled Ukraine in 1999 to seek asylum in the US, where he is standing trial on charges of money laundering. Tymoshenko was an ally of Lazarenko but after he (Pavlo Lazarenko) fled created her (Yulia Tymoshenko) own Fatherland Party. In 2002 the Fatherland Party merged with the radical nationalist Conservative Republican Party led by Stepan Khmara. Tymoshenko's bloc was elected to parliament in 2002 and 2006. In the 2004 elections Tymoshenko backed Yushchenko.

41. Tolochko interviewed in The Day, 22 August 1998.

42. Tolochko, “My Bilshe Ruski;” Zerkalo Nedeli/Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, 27 January to 2 February 2001.

43. On this point Magocsi and Tolochko part company. Tolochko's view that “Rusyn” is simply an old term for “Ukrainians,” as it was in Galicia until the late nineteenth century, is disputed by Rusyn activists, including Magocsi who is a long-time advocate of Rusyns as a fourth Eastern Slavic people. The Eastern Slavic and Ukrainophile camps both agree that Rusyns are a sub-group of Ukrainians. Magocsi, as a long-time advocate of Rusyn identity, disagrees. Interview with Professor Magosci, University of Toronto, 9 September 2002. See T. Kuzio, “Rusyns in Ukraine: Between Fact and Fiction,” Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, Vol. 32, Nos 1–2, 2005, pp. 17–29.

44. Bukkvoll points out that, of the three largest centrist oligarchic clans, the SDPUo was the strongest supporter of Ukraine's integration into the CIS Single Economic Space. See T. Bukkvoll “Private Interests, Public Policy. Ukraine and the Common Economic Space Agreement,” Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 51, No. 5, 2004, pp. 11–22. In the 2006 elections the SDPUo, as part of the Ne Tak! (Not Like This!) bloc, campaigned against NATO membership and in favour of the CIS Single Economic Space. The Ne Tak! bloc came 11th out of 45 blocs in the 2006 elections with 1.01% of the vote.

45. Mykola Kotliar, “Zvilnennia vid nasliduvannia,” Prezydentskyi Visnyk, 31 July to 6 August 2000.

46. S. O. Kychyhyn, ed., Leonid Kravchuk. Ostanni Dni Imperii…Pershi Roky Nadii (Kyiv: Dovira, 1994), p. 207.

47. Former Ukrainian ambassador under both Kravchuk and Kuchma to Canada, US, and Israel, Yuriy Shcherbak included Kyiv Rus within a broad swathe of Ukrainian history that also includes Ukraine within the Russian empire, the People's Republic of 1917–1918, and the USSR. See Y. Shcherbak, The Strategic Role of Ukraine. Diplomatic Addresses and Lectures (1994–1997) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1998), p. 25. Shcherbak is an adviser to parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, a centrist politician, whose Lytvyn bloc came seventh in the 2006 elections with 2.44% of the vote.

48. Kuchma's preface to L. V. Reshod'ko, Mykhailo Hrushevsky (Kyiv: Ukrayina, 1996).

49. Roman Szporluk, “Kiev as the Ukraine's Primate City,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1979–1980, pp. 843–849.

50. Frank Lipsius, “Blood Ties and Bloody History,” Financial Times, 5 October 1982. http://www.izvestia.ru/politic/article3094512 (translated by Lisa Koriouchkina for UKL).

51. Frank Lipsius and Roman Solchanyk, “Kiev's 1500th Anniversary and Soviet Nationalities Policy,” Radio Liberty Research, RL 186/92, 5 May 1982. See also Omelian Pritsak, “Za kulisamy proholoshennia 1500-littia Kyeva,” Suchasnist, No. 9, 1981, pp. 46–54.

52. Lipsius Solchanyk, “Kiev's 1500th Anniversary and Soviet Nationalities Policy,” p. 2.

53. Ibid., p. 4.

54. Yuriy Hnatkevych, “Derusyfikatsiya Kyiva: Konteptsiya, Napriamy, Zasoby,” Vechirnyi Kyiv, 18 September and 11 October 1996.

55. On the Soviet era see Serhiy Pirohov, “Do pytannia pro 'ukrayinizatsiu” Kyiva,' Suchasnist, No. 6, 1980, pp. 61–64. On the post-Soviet era see Dominique Arel, “A Lurking Cascade of Assimilation in Kiev?” Post–Soviet Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996, pp. 73–90.

56. Interview with O. Omelchenko, Ukrainian Weekly, 10 November 2002. See also Natalia A. Feduschak, “Renaissance of Kyiv: One of Europe's Most Vibrant Cities,” Ukrainian Weekly, 3 November 2002, and Marta Kolomayets and N. A. Feduschak, “Renaissance of Kyiv: A Religious Capital for a Diversity of Faiths,” Ukrainian Weekly, 8 December 2002.

57. Ukrainian Weekly, 10 November 2002.

58. Ibid. Omelchenko was named “Man of the Year” by New York City's Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA). He opened a multimedia exhibit entitled “Renaissance of Kyiv” at the UIA. See Ukrainian Weekly, 22 December 2002.

59. Ukrainian Weekly, 8 December 2002.

60. See Alexei D.Krindatch, “Religion in Post-Soviet Ukraine as a Factor in Regional, Ethno-cultural and Political Diversity,” Religion, State and Society, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2003, pp. 37–73 and T. Kuzio, “The Struggle to Establish the World's Largest Orthodox Church,” RFE/RL Newsline, 5 September 2000.

61. Oleksandr Shmorhun, “Osnovyi Zmist Poniattia ‘Ukrayinska Natsionalna Ideya’,” Rozbudova Derzhavy, No. 6, 1997, pp. 10.

62. Mykhaylo Hrechka, “Chy Mozhlyve Stanovlennia Natsii Bez Natsionalnoii Ideii?” Viche, December 1996, p. 82.

63. Hryniv argued that Ukraine's roots in Kyiv Rus reinforce Ukraine's ties to Europe. See Oleh Hryniv, “Dvi Pravdy Ukrayinskoii Istorii?” Molod Ukrayiny, 26 September 1996.

64. See T. Kuzio, “Is Ukraine Part of Europe's Future,” Washington Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2006, pp. 89–108.

65. Serhiy Datsiuk, “Ukrayina: evraziystvo i atlantyzm,” Den, 2 September 1999.

66. Zerkalo Nedeli/Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, 6 December 1998.

67. Uriadovyi Kurier, 28 August 1997.

68. Bohdan Klid, “The Struggle over Mykhailo Hrushevskyi: Recent Soviet Polemics,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1991, p. 45.

69. Ihor Burkovskyi, “Chy Mala Mova Kyivskoii Rusy Davnomoskovsku Osnovu?” Rozbudova Derzhavy, No. 12, 1996, pp.15–18 and Ukrayinska hazeta, 7 March 1996.

70. Pelenski, The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus, p. 218.

71. Burkovs'kyi, “Chy Mala Mova Kyivs'koii Rusy Davn'omoskovsku Osnovu?” and Ukrayinska hazeta, 7 March 1996. The Russian view that the language of Kyiv Rus was closest to modern-day “Russian” is given by Oleg Trubachev, a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in Pravda, 27 March 1987.

72. Shmorhun, “Osnovyi Zmist Poniattia,” p. 10.

73. Volodymyr Borysenko, “Anty. Rusy. Ukrayintsi,” Viche, July 1993, p. 148.

74. “Mayemo chym hordytysia, z koho braty pryklad,” Holos Ukrayiny, 14 May 1999.