PERSPECTIVES: Nationalism - a new anthology (01/28/01)

PERSPECTIVES

by Andrew Fedynsky

Nationalism - a new anthology

Late last year, Smoloskyp Publishers in Kyiv unveiled a massive anthology titled "Nationalism." Need I say that publishing a book with that title is controversial and provocative? For many Ukrainians, the term itself is fraught with negative connotations and foreboding - even horror. During Soviet times, the mere accusation of "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" usually meant a death sentence or half a lifetime in a labor camp. Chillingly, the term could be stretched to fit just about anyone.

Mykhailo Hrushevsky, for example, was routinely called a "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist." This was crude, but technically accurate: Hrushevsky was middle class and therefore "bourgeois." As president of the Ukrainian National Republic, he was a nationalist. But what are we to make of Hrushevsky's rival, Mykola Skrypnyk? In March 1918 he became chairman of the first Soviet government in Ukraine so, clearly, he was a Communist, yet Stalin condemned him as a "bourgeois nationalist," no different than Hrushevsky. In 1933 Skrypnyk became one of the countless victims of Soviet terror, committing suicide to escape the torture chambers of the NKVD.

Hysteria over "nationalism" was not just a Stalin-era phenomenon. In 1959 the KGB assassinated Stepan Bandera. As the most prominent leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Bandera, posed a potential threat to the Soviet Union, so for them he was a mortal enemy. But what about Petro Shelest? In the 1960s, he was the boss of Soviet Ukraine - a "card-carrying Communist" if ever there was one - yet 13 years after the murder of Bandera, Shelest was purged for "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism." Go figure.

In a fascinating introduction to the "Nationalism" anthology, editors Oleh Protsenko and Vasyl Losovy point out that nationalism takes many forms. At its most sublime, it gives us Wagner's operas, the symphonies of Sibelius, Walt Whitman's poetry and Henryk Sienkewicz's novels. Taken to extremes, nationalism degenerates into horror: the trench warfare in World War I; the Nazi Holocaust. Europe is littered with gravesites of nationalism gone mad. For Ukrainians, the editors point out, Marxism-Leninism was just another form of Russian nationalism that Stalin took to genocidal extremes.

President George Bush, of course, raised the specter of "suicidal nationalism" in his memorable speech to the Ukrainian Parliament. Ukrainians, however, were familiar with nationalism in its most homicidal forms and Mr. Bush's warnings were a flop. After all they'd been through with the Third Reich and the Soviet "utopia," self-determination for Ukrainians seemed more like salvation than suicide.

Now, 10 years later, the euphoria of independence is over and Ukrainians are working to untangle the mess the Soviets left behind. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Agency for International Development have been telling Ukrainians what to do to create a free-market economy. This is essential, of course, but what's also needed is a spark, an enthusiasm, a vision of what it means to be Ukrainian and where the country is going. For that, the country needs to tap into the mobilizing energy that nationalism - in the most positive meaning of that word - can provide. Call it patriotism, if you prefer. Ukraine could use some.

Smoloskyp's anthology on nationalism is a timely publication. The hefty 870-page volume features selections from 37 authors, translated into Ukrainian from their original English, French, German, Polish and Italian. Included are political philosophers and historians like John Stuart Mill, Guiseppi Mazzini, Johann von Herder and Johann Fichte. Incredibly, these selections have never been available in Ukrainian before. That says a lot in itself.

The anthology also features selections from Ukrainian writers like Ivan Franko, Hrushevsky, Yulian Bachynsky, Michael Sosnowsky exploring issues related to Ukrainian national identity and a variety of political perspectives, including Marxism. The anthology does not neglect Mykola Mikhnovsky and Dmytro Dontsov, the theoreticians who developed the ideological basis for the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which played such a big role in 20th century Ukrainian history.

According to the editors, nation-building is an intellectual process conducted by historians, linguists, novelists, poets and composers whose works help to define a people. For Ukrainians, that process essentially began with Shevchenko in the 19th century. It was short-circuited by the Soviet terror that began around 1930 and lasted into the mid-1980s. Not only were basic books from Ukrainian culture systematically destroyed; the authors who wrote them were murdered; the people who read them were imprisoned.

Last year, I visited a mass grave in Berdychiv where teachers, journalists, poets, artists and others had been executed during the Great Terror. It was the size of half a football field. Every town and city in Ukraine, I was told, has a similar killing field for "nationalists." Over time, people rigorously avoided what otherwise would be normal forms of national self-expression for fear of being labeled a "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist."

Finally independent, Ukraine displays all the age-old symbols that had long been forbidden - the trident, the blue-and-yellow flag, the anthem, the language itself. Now Ukraine needs a sense of forward-moving destiny - a mobilizing nationalism, a healthy patriotism. This is politically complex and potentially dangerous. Ukraine, after all, includes people from many backgrounds and religions: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Armenian, Tatar, Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim. A healthy sense of what is "Ukrainian" must recognize and respect the diversity of its many peoples.

The Smoloskyp anthology is packed with fascinating essays and information. Since it requires a good knowledge of Ukrainian, it may not be for everyone. For Ukraine's political leaders and scholars, though, it will be a valuable tool to help them define who they are as a people and craft a positive vision for their country. Only then can they can proceed confidently and successfully down the path they chose when 90 percent voted for independence less then a decade ago. (The book is available for $35 [$25 in paperback] from Smoloskyp, P.O. Box 8041, Bridgewater, NJ 08807.)

| Home Page |