Nation and Memory in Eastern Europe

Lecture 8Ukrainian History II

Week 9

Outline

1.Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century2.Russification and Ukrainian nation building3.The Ukrainian Piedmont4. Narratives of Ukrainian history5. Conclusion

Phase A

1798 Ivan Kotlyarevsky publishes “Eneyida” (in the vernacular, i.e. Ukrainian)1823-1825 Secret Brotherhood of Slavs1834 Founding of the University of Kyiv (Russian)1837 Appearance of “Dnister Rusalkas” (Ruthenian Triad: Markiian Shashkevych, Yakiv Holovatsky, and Ivan Vahylevych) 1840 Taras Shevchenko publishes “Kobzar”1846/47 Brotherhood of Sts. Cyril-Methodius (Kyiv)1848 Liberation of peasants in Galicia1861 Emancipation of serfs in the Russian Empire

Outline

1.Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century2.Russification and Ukrainian nation building3.The Ukrainian Piedmont4. Narratives of Ukrainian history5. Conclusion

Phase B1848 Liberation of peasants in Galicia1861 Emancipation of serfs in the Russian Empire1863 Use of Ukrainian language prohibited by Russian government – prohibition confirmed 18761861 ff: Railways in Ukraine, industrialization of the Donbas, iron ore mining in Kryviy Rih1898 Publication of the first volume of Michael Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus1905 Russian Revolution: restrictions on the use of Ukrainian language in Russian Empire lifted

What is Russification?

Three varieties (Thaden)

Unplanned: certain individuals take on Russian culture and

language, takes several generations

Administrative: demand by the Russian government that

Russian must be used in administration everywhere in the

empire

Cultural: active policy that aims to replace a population’s

native culture with Russian

Edward C. Thaden et al., Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, 1855-1914 (Princeton, 1981), pp. 7-8Theodore R. Weeks, ‘Russification: Word and Practice 1863-1914’, in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol 148, No. 4, December 2004, pp. 473-474

Monument of field marshal Ivan Paskevic in Warsaw

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral,Warsaw, before 1914

Ukrainians in the Russian Empire• Assimilation• “Little Russians”• Orthodox faith• Attraction of Russian

culture• Upward mobility -

chances

• Ukrainian nationalism

• Ethnicity and historical traditions

• Small group of pro-Ukrainian noblemen

• Ukrainian language and literature

• Partial coincidence of social and ethnic boundaries

Major Ethnic Groups in the Russian Empire 1897 (125,640,000)

Russians 44.31%Ukrainians 17.81%Belorussians 4.68%Poles 6.31%Jews 4.03%Other ethnic groups in the West 4.47%Ethnic groups in the North 0.42%Ethnic groups Wolga/Ural 5.85%Ethnic groups in Siberia 0.99%Ethnic groups in the Steppe 1.99%Ethnic groups in the Transcaucasus 3.53%Ethnic groups in the Caucasus 1.05%Ethnic groups in Central Asia 5.69%Diaspora groups (1.43% Germans) 1.91%

Outline

1.Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century2.Russification and Ukrainian nation building3.The Ukrainian Piedmont4. Narratives of Ukrainian history5. Conclusion

Crownland Galicia and Lodomeria, 1910Population: 8 Million

West Galiciain %

East Galiciain %

Together

Roman-Catholic 2,381,940 88.6 1,349,630 25.3 3,731,570 46.5

Greek-Catholic 86,585 3.2 3,294,420 61.7 3,381,005 42.1

Jewish 213,173 7.9 658,722 12.4 871,895 10.9

Protestant 7,953 0.3 30,371 0.6 28,324 0.5

Orthodox 165 0.0 2,680 0.0 2,845 0.0

Options• Polish option – “gente ruthenus, natione

polonus”

• Ruthenian option – “Rusyny”

• Russian option – Russophiles

• Ukrainian option – Ukrainophiles

• (Panruthenian option) – including Belarussians

John-Paul Himka, ‘The Construction of Nationality in Galician Rus’: Icarian Flights in Almost All Directions’, in Ronald Grigor Suny and Michael D. Kennedy (eds.), Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation (Ann Arbor, 1999), pp. 109-64.

Phase B/C• 1848 Ruthenian Council

• Reading Clubs (Prosvita)

• Co-operative movement

• Emergence of a secular elite

• Ruthenian-Ukrainian parties (since 1890s)

• Ruthenians/Ukrainians represented in Austrian parliament and in Galician Diet

Outline

1.Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century2.Russification and Ukrainian nation building3.The Ukrainian Piedmont4. Narratives of Ukrainian history5. Conclusion

Volodymyr Antonovych 1834-1908

Mykhailo Hrushevsky1866-1934

Main work

History of Ukraine-Rus’

10 volumes,

The Russian narrative

• Moscow tsardom and the Russian Empire are the legitimate

successors to the Kievan Rus (principality of Kiev)

• The population of the territory of the principality came under foreign

rule (Lithuanian, Polish), Belarussians and Ukrainians were alienated

from the Great Russians

• Ukrainians and Belarussians are not separate nations, they belong to

the Russian nation

• The Russian Empire collected the land of the Kievan Rus and

liberated Belarussians and Ukrainians from foreign oppression

The integration of this territory into the Russian Empire is

historically necessary, legitimate and unites Ukrainians and

Belarussians after several hundred years of enforced

separation with their Russian brothers and sisters.

The Polish narrative

• The occupation of the Ruthenian lands in the 14th century and the union

of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Principality of Lithuania brought

Western and Polish culture and civilisation to these eastern territories

• The union of Poland and Lithuania was profitable for both parts and

made the Commonwealth the most powerful empire in Eastern Europe

• Belarussians, Ruthenians (Ukrainians) and Lithuanians are separate

ethnies, but they will only profit from accepting superior Polish culture

• The partitions were a crime and a violation of divine and human law

• Belarussians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians have to accept the

reconstitution of the Commonwealth under Polish leadership

• Only under the guidance of the Polish nation with her state building

abilities will they be able to defend themselves against the semi-Asiatic

and autocratic Russian Empire

The reconstitution of the Polish-Lithuanian

Commonwealth is an expression of historical justice

The Ukrainian narrative

• The Ukrainian nation is the legitimate heir of the Principality of Kiev

• Not Moscow but the Principality of Halychina was the successor of Kiev

• Great Russians are a mixture of Finns, Tartars and East-Slavic tribes,

Ukrainians are pure East Slavic with some Varangian influences

• In early modern Europe Ukrainian culture was superior to Russian culture

• Ukraine was partitioned and occupied by Moscow and Poland

• Ukrainians are democratic, Russians authoritarian

• There were always Ukrainians who wanted to build an independent state,

the Cossack Hetmanate was a genuine Ukrainian state whose autonomy

was abolished by evil Russian tsars

• The Ukrainians are a nation, which was forced to live under foreign

(Russian, Austrian/Polish, Hungarian) rule

• Poetry and folklore of Ukrainians superior to Polish or Russian folklore

Ukrainians need cultural and political autonomy within the

Austrian and Russian Empire, in the longer perspective

there can be an Ukrainian nation state

The Lithuanian narrative

• The union of the Grand Principality of Lithuania with Poland was a mistake

• Lithuania was dominated by Polish culture and Polish politics and became

a partner with fewer rights

• Poland profited from the union, but not Lithuania

• Lithuanian noblemen who were polonized betrayed the Lithuanian nation

• The union endangered the existence of the Lithuanian nation, made

Lithuanian cities Polish and destroyed the basis for a nationally conscious

political elite

• The majority of Belarussians are peasants, who played only a minor role

for

the important position of the Grand Principality in medieval and early

modern times.

Lithuanians need an own nation state, to prevent the

destruction of the Lithuanian nation

The Belarussian narrative

• Belarussians are also heirs of Kiev

• Belarussian was the dominant culture in the Grand Principality of

Lithuania

• Belarussians lost their elites through lithuanization, russification and

polonization

• Belarussians are a distinct nation with an own distinct language, culture

and historical past

Belarussians have the right to live their culture and speak

their language, cultural autonomy

Outline

1.Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century2.Russification and Ukrainian nation building3.The Ukrainian Piedmont4. Narratives of Ukrainian history5. Conclusion

The Making of the Ukrainian Nation

PRO • Ukrainian language and literature in the vernacular since 1798•Greek-Catholic faith in Galicia a barrier to assimilation by the Polish nation• Common history until the 17th c.• Social antagonism to Polish or Russian/Russified overlords• Cossack autonomy in early modern Europe and short period of independence• Cultural bonds: similar traditions, costumes, songs and so on

CONTRA • Ukrainian language not yet a fully developed “high language”, Russian/Polish available as alternative languages for higher education• Since 1667/1772 Eastern part has common history with Russia, Western part with Poland/Austria • traditional elites have become Russians or Poles• no uncontested Ukrainian state in history • Potential members of the nation live in different empires as non-dominant ethnic groups• Opportunities for educated Ukrainians in Russian Empire• almost no middle class• Different denominations• Politics of Russification/Polonization