BOOK REVIEW

An analysis of economic conditions of Ukrainian peasants in 20th century

"Ukrainian Peasantry in the First Half of the 20th Century: Tragedy and Heroism" by Osyp Moroz and Stepan Zlupko; Lviv: Universum Publishers, 1997, 164 pp., (in Ukrainian).

by Dr. Dmytro Bodnarczuk

Using statistics and recently declassified Soviet documents, authors Osyp Moroz and Stepan Zlupko analyze the economic conditions of the Ukrainian peasants beginning with 1900 both in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires and end their overview in 1947 with the Soviet and Communist Polish repressions in western Ukraine.

The analysis and interpretations of those statistics span two world wars; the famines of 1921-1923, 1932-1933 and 1947; forced collectivization; duplicity of the New Economic Program; Russian and Polish colonization of Ukrainian farming regions; peasant resistance and brutal Soviet and Polish repression of this resistance.

The testimony of the statistics describing the suffering of the Ukrainian peasants becomes painfully unbearable to read. The peasant's emergence and vitality after each atrocity is like the land he tends: there is a springtime for sowing, but not always a time for harvesting, yet hope emerges from under the ruin and the peasant tries again and again to eke out a living for his impoverished family.

From the concluding segment of this book it appears that the authors, besides documenting the peasants' suffering and atrocities, wish to send a message to the "nation-builder" leaders of Ukraine: private ownership and the private initiative of cooperatives are superior to any government-imposed solutions to farming. The peasant social class is indispensable to the survival of Ukraine as a nation and a political state. The destruction of the peasant class will destroy the soul of Ukraine.

This book is a valuable contribution to the study of the role of the Ukrainian peasant to the survival of Ukraine as a nation. It is recommended reading for scholars, political leaders and particularly for the members of Parliament in Ukraine. This book should be translated into English in order to acquaint a broader base of readers with the tragedy and heroism of the Ukrainian peasantry.

Osyp Moroz is a graduate of the New York University School of Commerce with a B.S. in management, and a Ph.D. in economics from the Ukrainian Free University. His experience includes business administration at several academic and business institutions in the U.S., and he serves as a consultant to the Department of Science and New Technologies at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Stepan Zlupko is a professor of economics at the UFU, at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and is chairman of the economics department at the Lviv State University. He has authored over 800 works in the field of economics.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 28, 1999, No. 9, Vol. LXVII

| Home Page |