Roots Of Ukrainian Nationalism

This study provides a solid background for understanding nineteenth-century Galicia as the historic Piedmont of the Ukrainian national revival.

among the peasantry.

The first English-language biography of Dmytro Dontsov, the “spiritual father” of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, this book contextualizes Dontsov’s works, activities, and identity formation diachronically, reconstructing the cultural, political, urban, and intellectual milieus within which he developed and disseminated his worldview.

****The second edition, published by Columbia University Press in 1963, is cited in BCL3. It is now revised in light of much German archival material opened since 1963. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In Brothers and Enemies, Johannes Remy reveals that the roots of Ukrainian independence were planted fifty years earlier. Remy contextualizes the Ukrainian national movement against the backdrop of the Russian Empire and its policy of oppression in the mid-nineteenth-century.

It is a truism that, with only a few notable exceptions, western scholars only belatedly turned their attention to the phenomenon of minority nationalism in the USSR. In the last two decades, however, the topic has increasingly occupied the attention of specialists on the Soviet Union, not only because its depths and implications have not yet been adequately plumbed, but also because it is clearly a potentially explosive problem for the Soviet system itself. The problem that minority nationalism poses is perceived rather differently at the "top" of Soviet society than at the "bottom. " The elite views - or at least rationalize- the problem through the lens of Marxism-Leninism, which explains nationalist sentiment as a part of the "super structure," a temporary phenomenon that will disappear in the course of building communism. That it has not done so is a primary source of concern for the Soviet leadership, who do not seem to understand it and do not wish to accept its reality. This is based on a fallacious conceptuali zation of ethnic nationalism as determined wholly by external, or objective, factors and therefore subject to corrective measures. In terms of origins, it is believed to be the result of past oppression and discrimination; it is thus seen as a negative attitudinal set the essence of which lies in tangible, rather than psychological, factors. Below the level of the leadership, however, ethnic nationalism reflects entrenched identifications and meanings which lend continuity and authenticity to human existence.

The complex interrelationship between Russia and Ukraine is arguably the most important single factor in determining the future politics of the Eurasian region. In this book Andrew Wilson examines the phenomenon of Ukrainian nationalism and its influence on the politics of independent Ukraine, arguing that historical, ethnic and linguistic factors limit the appeal of narrow ethno-nationalism, even to many ethnic Ukrainians. Nevertheless, ethno-nationalism has a strong emotive appeal to a minority, who may therefore undermine Ukraine's attempts to construct an open civic state. Ukraine is therefore a fascinating test case for alternative nation-building strategies in countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

"Contrary to the prevailing opinion, the idea of Ukrainian independence did not emerge at the end of the nineteenth-century. In Brothers and Enemies, Johannes Remy reveals that the roots of Ukrainian independence were planted fifty years earlier. Remy contextualizes the Ukrainian national movement against the backdrop of the Russian Empire and its policy of oppression in the mid-nineteenth-century. Remy utilizes a wide range of unpublished archival sources to shed light on topics that are absent from current discourse including: Ilarion Vasilchikov's alliance with Ukrainian activists in 1861, the forged revolutionary proclamation used to deport Pavlo Chubynsky (who is known today as the author of the Ukrainian national anthem), and the 1864 negotiations between Kyiv activists and the Polish National Government. Brothers and Enemies is the first systematic study of imperial censorship policies during the period and will be of interest to those who seek a better understanding of the current Ukrainian-Russian conflict."--