Petryshyn Lecture covers Ukraine's role in European history in 1905-1956 (05/20/01)

Petryshyn Lecture covers Ukraine's role in European history in 1905-1956

by Serge Cipko

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - "It is impossible to understand the history of the Soviet Union without acknowledging the role of Ukraine," says Andrea Graziosi, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Naples (Federico II). In fact, in Prof. Graziosi's opinion, it is essential to recognize the central role played by Ukraine and Poland in the critical events of Europe in the 20th century.

Prof. Graziosi spoke at Harvard University on April 2 at the invitation of the Ukrainian Research Institute to deliver the Vasyl and Maria Petryshyn Memorial Lecture.

In explaining the title of his presentation, "The Ukrainian Experience in the European War/Revolution of 1905-1956," Prof. Graziosi remarked that he recently wrote a book that bears the working title "What Happened in Europe in 1905-1956?" The book reflects on the years 1905-1956, a period of war and revolution that entailed the attempt of Soviet state-building of "a peculiar nature."

Why the year 1905 as the starting point? Because, explains Prof. Graziosi, it marked the defeat of Russia by Japan, a setback that shook all the major colonial powers. It was the year of the Russian Revolution that simultaneously had its responses in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and elsewhere.

The processes that then ensued unfolded in World War I and the Revolution of 1917. In Ukraine the period 1917-1921 is characterized by a number of state-building efforts and not only is the region a battleground, but also a site of competing ideologies. The upheaval in Ukraine, according to Prof. Graziosi, forced Lenin to think in national terms - thus the creation of a "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" as opposed to Ukraine becoming an autonomous part of an all-Russian federation.

Another period of Ukrainian state-building followed in the context of the Soviet Union, in which Marxism was used as a tool for building national states. This latest example of Ukrainian state-building was not allowed to develop beyond the 1920s: it was challenged by Stalin, who ultimately induced the horrendous famine of 1932-1933 to impose his will.

Ukraine had shown the strongest resistance (in absolute terms) to collectivization and to Soviet rule more generally, Prof. Graziosi stated, adding that Stalin decided to resolve the peasant question once and for all. In the Great Peasant War fought between peasants and the state, millions died. This "war" exposed the real lack of control and fear of the new state. "It was a peculiar state," remarked Prof. Graziosi, "one in which its elite knew it was not accepted by the majority of the population." A turning point came in World War II, when there was no government between Berlin and the eastern reaches of Ukraine, only a military occupation, which allowed for the movement of people. Ukraine, reconstituted from different parts, was rebuilt after World War II and a new phase in state-building began. In swallowing new territories the Stalinist regime swallowed new problems. The war may have ended in Western Europe in 1945, Prof. Graziosi noted, but in Eastern Europe it really continued until 1953.

Although 1956 is the year with which Prof. Graziosi chose to conclude his narrative, he acknowledged that it is not fixed. Prof. Richard Pipes had asked him just prior to the lecture why he chose that particular end point. During the lecture, Prof. Graziosi answered that any year in the mid-1950s could do, but 1956 had its share of defining moments, for example, Khrushchev's speech denouncing Stalin, the Suez Canal Crisis, the beginnings of the negotiations for the Treaty of Rome and the Hungarian Uprising. On the other hand, one could also have selected 1953 - the year of Stalin's death, the end of the war against the resistance in western Ukraine and the Baltic states, and the uprising of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) veterans in the gulags, among other events.

According to Prof. Graziosi, Ukraine is capable of revealing many of the trends of European and even world history. Ukraine was a site where land-based empires met and thus was "a prototype of Eastern Europe." Moreover, the evolution of Ukraine in the 20th century shows that it is wrong to assess East European history in terms of "war versus revolution" or "ethnicity versus class," instead historians should rather "see them as intertwined and reinforcing each other."

What happened in Ukraine had its echoes or later parallels elsewhere. For example, the use of the peasantry as a base for nation-building, methods of "resolving questions," and the effort at homogenization which, in Europe, is now being reversed to diversity. In particular, the greatest modern catastrophe suffered by the Ukrainian people, according to Prof. Graziosi, the Great Famine of 1932-1933, deserves more attention from historians. "I am convinced that contemporary historians will not understand our century until they are able to internalize what happened in Ukraine in 1932-1933," he underscored.

During his welcoming remarks, Prof. Roman Szporluk, the director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI), emphasized the significance of Prof. Graziosi's scholarship. His approach, said Prof. Szporluk, was to assess the USSR and communism in an all-European setting rather than as an isolated phenomenon. Moreover, he continued, his views and insights are thought-provoking and do not fit any ready schema. It was Graziosi's research in Soviet archives during the 1990s that gradually led him to understand the importance of Ukraine not only in Soviet history but also in the wider history of the European continent and beyond. In particular, his study of the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine led to a new view of the peasant question.

Prof. Graziosi's recent scholarly contributions include the following: "The Great Soviet Peasant War: Peasants and Bolsheviks, 1918-1934," which was published by HURI in 1996, and his more recent "A New, Peculiar State: Explorations in Soviet History, 1917-1937" (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2000), which includes an essay that originally appeared in the HURI journal Harvard Ukrainian Studies.

Prof. Graziosi is also the compiler and editor of the collection of Italian government documents on the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus titled "Lettere da Kharkov: la carestia in Ucraina e nel Caucaso del Nord nei rapporti dei diplomatici italiani, 1932-33" (Torino: Einaudi, 1991).

Prof. Graziosi's lecture was heard by approximately 75 individuals in the Thompson Room of Harvard's Barker Center for the Humanities. The annual Vasyl and Maria Petryshyn Memorial Lecture was established at HURI in 1994 by Dr. Wolodymyr Petryshyn and his family. Dr. Petryshyn, a distinguished mathematician who established the endowment in memory of his parents, was in attendance.

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