Review of “History of Ukraine-Rus'". Vol. 4, by Mykhailo Hrushevsky, transl. by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj and ed. by Frank E Sysyn. Sixteenth Century Journal, LI/3 (2020): 835-838. (original) (raw)
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Volume 6 of Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi's (Hrushevsky's) monumental History of Ukraine-Rus' is the concluding tome of a three-volume series (volumes 4, 5, and 6) dedicated to the Lithuanian-Polish epoch of the history of the Ukrainian people. Volumes 1 to 3 of Hrushevs'kyi's History, together, address the period ending with the fall of Kyivan Rus' and the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, while the tomes after volume 6 deal with the early stages of the Cossack period and the (re-)establishment of Ukrainian sovereignty in the form of the Cossack Hetmanate. Hrushevs'kyi's conceptualization of the "history of the Ukrainian people" can be seen as one of his most important contributions to Eastern European historiography. In his work, we encounter the study of the Ukrainian people as a whole-as opposed to the study of various distinct entities located within a number of neighbouring states (Poland; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Hungary and then Austria-Hungary; Muscovy and then Russia; and so on). Hrushevs'kyi conceived of a fundamental unity permeating the history of the Ukrainian people from the time of Rus' all the way to the goal and apogee of the historian-cumpolitician-the re-establishment of a unified and independent Ukraine in the twentieth century (a project that Hrushevs'kyi himself took part in, both in its glorious beginnings and in its heartbreaking failures). In setting down a thesis on the continuity of the history of the Ukrainian people, Hrushevs'kyi provided subsequent generations of students of Ukrainian history with an essentially anti-statist methodological framework that allowed them to explore a subject area not merely reduced to a political history of a state with precisely delineated political borders. Such theoretical innovation and foresight have secured Hrushevs'kyi's high stature in the field of history-and especially in the study of Ukrainian cultural history. Mention should also be made of Hrushevs'kyi's importance in the study of the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (PLC) as a whole. By creating a model that includes the dwellers of the Brest and Pinsk regions of what is now Belarus within a definition of the Ukrainian people and that thoroughly documents them, Hrushevs'kyi has indirectly given us a paradigm for conducting cross-cultural and cross-national research that aims to
East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies
Volume 6 of Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi's (Hrushevsky's) monumental History of Ukraine-Rus' is the concluding tome of a three-volume series (volumes 4, 5, and 6) dedicated to the Lithuanian-Polish epoch of the history of the Ukrainian people. Volumes 1 to 3 of Hrushevs'kyi's History, together, address the period ending with the fall of Kyivan Rus' and the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, while the tomes after volume 6 deal with the early stages of the Cossack period and the (re-)establishment of Ukrainian sovereignty in the form of the Cossack Hetmanate. Hrushevs'kyi's conceptualization of the "history of the Ukrainian people" can be seen as one of his most important contributions to Eastern European historiography. In his work, we encounter the study of the Ukrainian people as a whole-as opposed to the study of various distinct entities located within a number of neighbouring states (Poland; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Hungary and then Austria-Hungary; Muscovy and then Russia; and so on). Hrushevs'kyi conceived of a fundamental unity permeating the history of the Ukrainian people from the time of Rus' all the way to the goal and apogee of the historian-cumpolitician-the re-establishment of a unified and independent Ukraine in the twentieth century (a project that Hrushevs'kyi himself took part in, both in its glorious beginnings and in its heartbreaking failures). In setting down a thesis on the continuity of the history of the Ukrainian people, Hrushevs'kyi provided subsequent generations of students of Ukrainian history with an essentially anti-statist methodological framework that allowed them to explore a subject area not merely reduced to a political history of a state with precisely delineated political borders. Such theoretical innovation and foresight have secured Hrushevs'kyi's high stature in the field of history-and especially in the study of Ukrainian cultural history. Mention should also be made of Hrushevs'kyi's importance in the study of the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (PLC) as a whole. By creating a model that includes the dwellers of the Brest and Pinsk regions of what is now Belarus within a definition of the Ukrainian people and that thoroughly documents them, Hrushevs'kyi has indirectly given us a paradigm for conducting cross-cultural and cross-national research that aims to
Ukraine's Transnational History
How do you write a history of a country that for centuries was split into several empires, lacked both an uninterrupted tradition of statehood and an established high culture with a standardized language, was inhabited by several ethnic groups, the dominant one -the "little Russians" or "Ruthenians" -being mostly illiterate peasants concentrated in rural areas who left no written records for wide swaths of time and lacked any national consciousness until World War I? How does one write about the history of these people who, even when they became literate, were forbidden to publish literature in Ukrainian (within the Russian Empire), and when Ukrainian history did not even exist as a field of study in universities? The answer, according to an international consortium of historians, is to write "transnational history," which they generally define as the study of relations between cultures and societies, focusing on "agents of cultural exchange" (pp. 3, 86). The purpose of this book, A Laboratory of Transnational History. edited by Georgiy Kasianov (Institute of Ukrainian History of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev) and Philipp Ther (European University Institute, Florence), is to contemplate alternative, more accurate, ways of interpreting Ukrainian history, eschewing "linear and longue durée causal explanations, as well as teleology,"
This book elucidates complex and long process of the "Ukrainian Historical Journal" transformation from the republican professional publication, founded in 1957 to a modern journal of Ukrainian historians. Esseys and materials connected with the journal's history are published in two main segments: 1) materials covering the history of Ukraine in the Soviet and post-Soviet times; 2) esseys with analytical interpretation of journal's publications and its changes with regards to the defi nite problems, topics, periods and epochs of the history of Ukraine, in particular, history of the Middle Ages and early modern history, history of the XIX — the early XX centuries, the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921, inter-war and post-war history of Soviet Ukraine, Ukrainian dimension of the history of World War II, and also studying the problems of the world history in the journal's publications, etc.
From "the Ukraine" to Ukraine. A Contemporary History 1991 2021 short
Stuttgrat: ibidem Verlag, 2021
In this book, we aim to present the contemporary history of the people of Ukraine. Ukrainians deserve a contemporary history that follows their own expression not only through politics but also in private entrepreneurship, art, religion, and self-imagination. Ac- cordingly, the chapters that follow cover thirty years of Ukraine’s development in the fields of politics, economics, energy, society, media, contemporary art, religion, national identity, and democ- racy. One of our major tasks was to find a meeting point for the per- spectives of Ukrainian and Western scholars on this three-decade story of contemporary Ukraine. For this reason, each chapter was co-written by authors from Western and Ukrainian universities and research institutions in what was often a time-consuming and com- plex interaction. Additionally, each chapter was written in an at- tempt to blend academic depth and rigor with accessibility to a wider, not only academic, readership. We hope that readers will agree that the result was worth the effort.