Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:31:28.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Making Soviet Ukraine Ukrainian: The Debate on Ukrainian Statehood in the Journal Suchasnist’ (1961–1971)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2019

Simone Attilio Bellezza*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, University of Naples “Federico II,” Naples, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract

This article analyzes the debate on Ukrainian statehood going on in the 1960s in Suchasnist’, the most intellectually prestigious journal among Ukrainian emigrants in the West. These intellectuals and political activists interpreted the renaissance of Ukrainian national culture in the 1960s (the so-called shistdesiatnytstvo) in various ways and proposed different political strategies to influence their original homeland and its future political and cultural developments. In the Ukrainian diaspora, two opposing factions emerged: the first, despite condemning Soviet imperialism, favorably evaluated the birth of a movement for the defense of human rights in Soviet Ukraine and was happy to exploit the rapprochement between the USSR and USA to finally have an opportunity to make contact with the motherland. The other did not consider the Ukrainian SSR as a real example of a Ukrainian state and acknowledged its existence only for tactical reasons; this faction thought that contact should be avoided and that the Soviets should be offered no opportunity to address the Western public. Eventually, at the beginning of the 1970s, even those who had opposed collaboration with any subject from Soviet Ukraine decided to embrace the cause of human rights and join the struggle led by the Ukrainian dissent.

Type
Special Issue on Ukrainian Statehood
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Jennifer. 2011. “Polishing the Soviet Image: The Canadian-Soviet Friendship Society and the ‘Progressive Ethnic Groups,’ 1949–1957.” In Re-imagining Ukrainian Canadians: History, Politics, and Identity, edited by Rhonda L. Hinther and Jim Mochoruk, 279328. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Bellezza, Simone A. 2010. “The Shistdesiatnytstvo as a Group of Friends: The Kompaniia of the Club of the Creative Youth of Kiev (1960–1965).” Snodi: pubblici e privati nella storia contemporanea 3 (5): 6482.Google Scholar
Dobrians’kyi, Mykhailo. 1972. “Chy mozhlyva Ukraïns’ka Vyzvol’na Polityka” In Konhres ukraïns’koï vil’noï politychnoï dumky: Zbirnyk ch. 1, 1826. Munich: Logos.Google Scholar
Dzyuba [Dziuba], Ivan. 1968. Internationalism or Russification? A Study in the Soviet Nationalities Problem. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.Google Scholar
Fink, Carole, . 2014. Cold War: An International History. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Fürst, , Juliane, Polly Jones, and Morrissey, Susan, eds. 2008. “The Relaunch of the Soviet Project, 1945–1964.” Special issue of The Slavonic and East European Review 86 (2): 201207.Google Scholar
Hanhimäki, Jussi M. 2010. “Détente in Europe, 1962–1975.” In Crises and Détente, edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, 198218. Vol. 2 of The Cambridge History of the Cold War . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Himka, John-Paul. 2006. “A Central European Diaspora under the Shadow of World War II: The Galician Ukrainians in North America.” Austrian History Yearbook 37: 1731.Google Scholar
Hryshko, Vasyl’ I. 1972. “Chy odym shliakh do jedynoï mety?” In Konhres ukraïns’koï vil’noï politychnoï dumky: Zbirnyk ch. 1, 1317. Munich: Logos.Google Scholar
Hryshko, Vasyl’ I. 1983. The Ukrainian Holocaust of 1933. Toronto, ON: Bahriany Foundation.Google Scholar
Isajiw, Christina. 2014. Negotiating Human Rights: In Defense of Dissidents during the Soviet Era. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press.Google Scholar
Isajiw, Wsevolod. 2010. “The Ukrainian Diaspora.” In The Call of the Homeland: Diaspora Nationalisms, Past and Present, edited by Allon Gal, Athena S. Leoussi, and Anthony D. Smith, 289319. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Karyi, Andriy. 1967. “Deiaki dumky z pryvodu Svitovoho kongresu vil’nykh ukraïntsiv.” Suchasnist7 (11): 8387.Google Scholar
Kasianov, Heorhii. 1995. Nezhodni: ukraïnska intelihentsiia v rusi oporu 1960–80-kh rokiv. Kyiv: Lybid’.Google Scholar
Khomiak, Rostyslav L. 1968a. “Deshcho pro Svitovyi z’ïzd studentiv.” Suchasnist’ 8 (1): 7577.Google Scholar
Khomiak, Rostyslav L. 1968b. “Nebuvalyi 1968: Ukraïna spravdi na mizhnarodnomu forumi.” Suchasnist8 (12): 8394.Google Scholar
Khomiak, Rostyslav L. 1999. “Publitsyst zi shkoly revoliutsioneriv.” Svoboda 106 (1): 28.Google Scholar
Koshevilets, Ivan. 1955. “Do Pershoho chysla ‘ULH.’” Ukraïnska Literaturna Hazeta 1 (1): 1.Google Scholar
Kuzio, Taras. 2012. “U.S. Support for Ukraine’s liberation during the Cold War: A Study of Prolog Research and Publishing Corporation.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 45 (1-2): 5164.Google Scholar
Lebed’, Mykola. 1965. “Suchasna Ukraïna i ukraïns’ka vyzvol’na polityka.” Suchasnist5 (10): 7693.Google Scholar
Lebed’, Mykola. 1968. “Nasha polityka shchodo Ukraïny.” Suchasnist8 (2): 117122.Google Scholar
Luciuk, Lubomyr Y. 2000. Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada, and the Migration of Memory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Luckyj, George S. N. 1985. “On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Sucasnist .” Journal of Ukrainian Studies 10 (1): 97100.Google Scholar
Maruniak, Volodymyr. 1985. Roky 1945–1951. Vol. 1 of Ukraïnska emihratsiia v Nimechchyni I Avstriïpo druhii svitovii viini . Munich: Akademichne vydavnytstvo d-ra Petra Beleia.Google Scholar
Motyl, Alexander J. 1982. “The Foreign Relations of the Ukrainian SSR.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 6 (1): 6278.Google Scholar
Panchenko, Oleksandr. 2001a. Mykola Lebed’: Zhyttia, Dial’nist’, Derzhavno-pravovi Pohliady. Lokhvytsia, Ukraine: Kobeliaky.Google Scholar
Panchenko, Oleksandr. 2001b. Myroslav Prokop: narys politychnoho portretu. Hadiach, Ukraine: Hadiach.Google Scholar
Petryshyn, Jaroslav. 2011. “‘The Ethnic Question’ Personified: Ukrainian Canadians and Canadian-Soviet Relations, 1917–1991.” In Re-imagining Ukrainian Canadians: History, Politics, and Identity, edited by Rhonda L. Hinther and Jim Mochoruk, 223256. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Posivnych, Mykola, and Brelius, Vasyl’. 2013. Narys zhyttia Dariï Rebet-“Orlian.” Toronto: Litopys UPA.Google Scholar
Prokop, Myroslav. 1961. “Do pytannia ukraïnsko-rosiiskykh vzaiemyn.” Suchasnist1 (6): 4961.Google Scholar
Prokop, Myroslav. 1966. “Pro zovnishniu polityky Ukraïns’koho kongresovoho komitetu Ameryky.” Suchasnist6 (8): 78105.Google Scholar
Prokop, Myroslav. 1968. “Pislja Svitovoho kongresu vil’nykh ukraïntsiv.” Suchasnist8 (1): 6574.Google Scholar
Prymak, Thomas M. 2015. Gathering a Heritage: Ukrainian, Slavonic, and Ethnic Canada and the USA. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Rakhmannyi, Roman. 1963. “Ukraïns’ka mizhnarodna polityka z positsiï vlasnoï syly.” Suchasnist3 (9): 76101.Google Scholar
Rakhmannyi, Roman. 1968. “Za iakyi prapor? Dumky pro Lykho vid rozumu na Ukraïni i na chuzhyni.” Suchasnist8 (6): 103113.Google Scholar
Rebet, Daria. 1964. “Patriotychni kuriozy, hromads’ke zlochynstvo i moloda syla.” Suchasnist4 (6): 9097.Google Scholar
Rudling, Per Anders. 2006. “Theory and Practice: Historical Representation of the Wartime Accounts of the Activities of the OUN-UPA (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army).” East European Jewish Affairs 36 (2): 163189.Google Scholar
Rudling, Per Anders. 2017. “Not Quite Klaus Barbie, but in that Category: Mykola Lebed, the CIA, and the Airbrushing of the Past.” In Rethinking Holocaust Justice: Essays across Disciplines , edited by Norman J. W. Goda, 158187. New York: Berghan.Google Scholar
Satzewich, Vic. 2002. The Ukrainian Diaspora. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shkandrij, Myroslav. 2014. “Review of Lidia Stefanowska, ‘Mission Impossible.’” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 1 (1): 107109.Google Scholar
Slynyk, Zenon. 1964. “Rutgers University Students Hear Representative of Soviet Ukraine.” Svoboda, April 18.Google Scholar
Stefanowska, Lidia. 2013. Mission Impossible. MUR i odrodzenie ukraińskiego życia literackiego w obozach dla uchodźców na terytorium Niemec1945-1948. Warsaw, Poland: Uniwersytet Warszawy Katedra Ukrainistyki.Google Scholar
SKVU (Svitovyi Kongres Vil’nykh Ukraintsiv). 1969. Pershyi Svitovyi Kongres Vil’nykh Ukraïntsiv: Materialy. Winnipeg: Vydannia Sekretariatu Kongresu Vil’nykh Ukraintsiv.Google Scholar
SKVU (Svitovyi Kongres Vil’nykh Ukraintsiv). 1986. Druhyi Svitovyi Kongres Vil’nykh Ukraïntsiv: Materialy. Toronto: Vydannia Sekretariatu Kongresu Vil’nykh Ukraïntsiv.Google Scholar
The Story of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (1940–1951). 1951. New York: Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.Google Scholar
“Vid redaktsii.” 1961. Suchasnist’ 1 (1): 3.Google Scholar
Zake, Ieva, and Gorley, Graham. 2010. “Integration or Separation? Nationality Groups in the US and the Republican Party’s Ethnic Politics, 1960s-1980s.” Nationalities Papers 38 (4): 469490.Google Scholar