Czech academic carves niche in Ukrainian ethnographic studies (09/01/96)

Czech academic carves niche in Ukrainian ethnographic studies

by Jeff Picknicki Morski

Slovak by birth, Czech by nationality and living in the city of Prague, Dr. Nadia Valaskova may seem misplaced when included among the list of leading researchers and academics working in the field of Ukrainian ethnographic studies.

In fact, not only does she belong on this list for her significant contribution to the field, within it she has carved for herself a unique niche through her extensive work on the legacy of 19th century Czech ethnographer Frantisek Rehor. Her solid academic training, strong background in ethnography and love and affection for her subject has made her one of today's leading specialists in this field of Ukrainian studies.

Nadia Surkalov Valaskova was born in the city of Presov, Slovakia, and graduated with a Ph.D. in ethnology and folklore studies from Prague's Charles University in 1969. In 1966-1969, she worked as a researcher at the Museum of Ukrainian Culture in Svidnik, Slovakia, and then at the Cabinet of Ethnology of Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1972, she began her work as a researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, which she continues to the present day.

With varied interests ranging from the study of the Ukrainian minority in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the family cycle of rites and rituals, a great deal of Dr. Valaskova's research and writing activities have, in addition, centered around the life and work of Frantisek Rehor. Rehor, a Czech ethnographer who lived in present-day western Ukraine during the late 1800s, amassed an enormous collection of Ukrainian ethnographic artifacts, photographs and writings that with little exception, has remained largely unstudied since his premature death in 1899.

Dr. Valaskova, in continuing the work of researcher Michal Molnar and others, has devoted years of study to surveying Rehor's collections at the National Museum in Prague and working through his written materials in the city's Literary Archive. One of her most comprehensive articles on this subject appeared in the Czech-language journal Cesky Lid (The Czech People) in 1990 on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Rehor's death.

Concurrent with her work on Frantisek Rehor, the most recent of which has been amending the bibliography of his published works, Dr. Valaskova has also undertaken a study of the former Czech social and cultural activist Vojta Naprstek. Naprstek, whose Czech Technical Museum in Prague was the original home to Rehor's Ukrainian ethnograph artifacts, provided financial support to Rehor during the time he spent in western Ukraine and encouraged him in his further study and documentation of the Ukrainian people. Other current research projects include a study of the immigration of Ukrainians to the Czech Republic following the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

Like Messrs. Rehor and Naprstek before her, Dr. Valaskova has made an invaluable contribution to the study and preservation of the Ukrainian culture. Most notably it is her dedication to the Rehor legacy that has set her work apart from that of others. By using these mostly untapped and previously forgotten sources, she has been able to show, in details seldom before seen, the rich, vibrant and progressive society that was the Ukrainian homeland.

Jeff Picknicki Morski's book "The Land They Left Behind: Canada's Ukrainians in the Homeland" (Watson and Dwyer, Winnipeg) is based around the photograph collection of Frantisek Rehor.