Role of Ukraine in 20th century discussed at Yale conference (06/13/99)

Role of Ukraine in 20th century discussed at Yale conference

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Ukraine in the 20th century was the topic of a conference sponsored on April 23-24 by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies and the Yale-Ukraine Initiative at Yale University. The conference, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine: A Century in Perspective," brought together more than 20 speakers, includeding scholars, businessmen, journalists and political leaders from Ukraine, Europe, Canada and the United States.

There were five panels and a roundtable at the two-day conference and opening remarks were offered by Gustav Ranis, director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, and Harvey Goldblatt, chair, Yale-Ukraine Initiative. The keynote address, "Ukraine in the 20th century: A Search for Perspective," was given on April 23 by Prof. George G. Grabowicz of Harvard University and the speaker at the banquet was National Deputy Serhii Holovatyi, also a former minister of justice of Ukraine, who spoke about "Ukraine at the Millennium: Indecision and Uncertainty at the Crossroads."

The conference was supported by the Chopivsky Family Foundation and the Edward J. and Dorothy Kempf Fund at Yale University, with assistance from the Council on Russian and East European Studies at Yale University and Pierson College.

Prof. Paul Bushkovitch of Yale University chaired the first panel on April 23, "The Historical Legacy," at which presentations were given by Yaroslav Hrytsak, director of the Institute for Historical Research at Lviv State University, on the topic "Ukrainian Revolution, 1914/17-1923: New Perspectives and Interpretations" and by Georgii Kasianov, senior research fellow at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU) on the topic "The Ukrainian Intelligentsia: A 'Phenomenon' and the 'Stratum.'" Also speaking was Yuri Shapoval, director of the Center of Ethno-national and Political Studies at NANU, whose presentation evaluated the significance for the political history of Ukraine of the recently discovered GPU-NKVD (secret police) documents about the 1937 Solovky prison camp executions.

A research fellow at the NANU, Volodymyr Kulyk, gave his presentation on the topic "The Legacy of Brotherhood: The Impact of the Experience of Post-Soviet Nation-Building in Ukraine" as a participant in the second panel on April 23. The panel on the topic of political and economic history was chaired by Frank Sysyn, director of the Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research at the University of Alberta. Also participating in the panel were Iwan S. Koropeckyj of Temple University on the topic "Economic Relations between an Empire and an Ethnic Region" and Volodimir Bandera, also of Temple University, who spoke about international aspects of Ukraine's economic development in the 20th century.

"Contemporary Politics" was the theme of the third panel on April 23, which was chaired by Prof. Peter Rutland of Weslyan University. Hryhoriy Nemyria, a senior research fellow at Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko National University spoke on the topic "Current Political Dynamics in Ukraine: Identities and Interests." Other panel participants included Taras Kuzio, an honorary research fellow at the Ukraine Center, University of North London, whose presentation was titled "The National Factor in Ukraine's Quadruple Transition" and Dominique Arel, assistant professor of political science at Brown University, who addressed the issue of the Ukrainian state and identity formation.

On April 24 the morning session was devoted to economics and society, and was chaired by the director of Yale University's Economic Growth Center, Robert Evenson. Explaining the complexities of Ukraine's shadow economy was the Financial Times' corespondent in Ukraine, Charles Clover. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Senior Counselor Joel Hellman's presentation was titled "The Political Economy of Partial Reform in Ukraine," and the Managing Director of Bank Creditanstalt-Ukraine Oleksander Savchenko spoke about Ukraine in transition.

Bohdan Rubchak of the University of Illinois, Solomea Pavlychko of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Mykola Ryabchuk, deputy editor of the journal Krytyka, gave presentations at the final panel, "Literature and Culture," which was chaired by Prof. Grabowicz of Harvard. Dr. Rubchak's topic was "Ukraina and Amerika: Constructing Hyper-realities"; Ms. Pavlychko's, "Commemorating Kotliarevskyi and the Birth of Ukrainian Literature in 1898 and 1899: An Examination of Cultural Discourses" and Mr. Ryabchuk "A Queen without a Court: The Current State of Ukrainian Literature."

The conference concluded with a roundtable led by Prof. Goldblatt and Bohdan Nahaylo, senior policy advisor, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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