BOOK REVIEW: Handbook a sign of coming of age of independent Ukrainian state (09/22/02)

BOOK REVIEW

Handbook a sign of coming of age of independent Ukrainian state

"Handbook of Modern Ukrainian Philately: A Catalog of Stamps, Stationery and Cancellations 1991-2000," by George D. Fedyk and Ingert J. Kuzych. Springfield, Va.: Ukrainian Philatelic Resources, 2002, 236 pp.

by John-Paul Himka

There are certain reference books that are more than just convenient repositories of information. They themselves function as certificates of maturity. For instance, when Mykhailo Hrushevsky began publishing his multi-volume history of Ukraine, this meant much more than a summary of the facts of the past: it also implied that the Ukrainian nation had reached that stage in its existence when it could reflect on itself and codify itself in relation to the past. It meant that the nation had an infrastructure that produced professional history and professional historians, and could undertake a massive publishing project.

Similarly, when the late Volodymyr Kubijovyc launched the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, first in Ukrainian and then in English, this was not just a matter of collecting a mass of information on Ukraine into an accessible format (although this was an incredible accomplishment). He also meant to demonstrate that Ukrainians had the intellectual resources to produce and a complex enough vision of who they were to warrant the publication of this reference book of references.

In its own way, the handbook under review belongs to the same category as the works mentioned above. It is both a testament to the maturation of Ukrainian stamp collecting as a hobby and an indication of the progress of Ukrainian state-building. It is a full, illustrated listing of all the stamps and related philatelic material issued by the Ukrainian postal authorities since the country's regained independence and through the year 2000.

Let's first consider what transpired to allow such a fundamental work of philately to appear. What are the foundations upon which this particular edifice is erected? To begin with, it reflects the fact that Ukrainian philately now has a distinguished pedigree in the English-speaking world. The Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society, based in North America, has over 50 years of existence under its belt. Both co-authors of the "Handbook of Modern Ukrainian philately" are associated with it.

Ingert Kuzych is currently president of the UPNS and George Fedyk is the vice-president for Australia. Dr. Kuzych was long the editor of the UPNS journal Ukrainian Philatelist, (1985-1996), and now Mr. Fedyk holds that position. Mr. Fedyk was also a founding member of the Ukrainian Collectibles Society, based in Australia, and long the editor of its excellent journal, The Southern Collector (1995-1999). In short: Ukrainian stamp collecting has produced cadres with years of accumulated organizational and editorial experience.

Turning to the "Select Bibliography" at the end of the volume, where the authors list the sources on which they drew for information, one sees an impressive array of other publications and catalogues that paved the way for the arrival of the handbook.

Of course, most publishing on Ukrainian philately is now done in Ukraine, and the authors used extensively the announcements and studies in the Ukrainian philatelic press. The Ukrainian post office itself issues a philatelic journal, which has improved considerably since the first issue appeared in 1995 (called Poshta i Filateliia until 2000, when it changed its format and its name to Filateliia Ukrainy).

The Association of Philatelists of Ukraine publishes a small, but very useful newsletter. And Roman Byshkevych in Lviv has a largely one-man operation, the journal Halfilvisnyk, which collectors find quite informative. (Missing from the bibliography is the oldest running philatelic journal in Ukraine, Ukrainskyi Filatelistychnyi Visnyk, which began to appear in 1989 under the editorship of Viktor Mohylnyi, later joined by Viacheslav Anholenko. Since this journal has a historical focus and is little concerned with the official issues of Ukraine today, the omission is a sensible one.)

The bibliography also generously lists the other major catalogues in existence. Two of these are particularly noteworthy. One is the series of Ukrainian-language catalogues published in Ukraine by Ukraine Post and Marka Ukrainy, at first edited by Volodymyr Bekhtir, but now published without attribution to an editor. These have about as much information as our handbook, but omit the former Soviet stamps overprinted with tridents in 1992. Their illustrations are in color (the handbook, which does not have the same kind of financial backing, makes do with black and white). The Ukrainian series is a bit inconvenient to use, because it is spread over five volumes, while the handbook puts everything together. Obviously, the Ukrainian series can only bring information about Ukrainian stamps to a Ukrainophone audience.

The other major catalogue is on the internet, Bohdan Hrynyshyn's Ukrainian Electronic Stamp Album (http://www.ukrainian-philately.info/). This is a major achievement. It has some bugs (the illustrations, in color, are often distorted) and is not quite as authoritative as the handbook, but every collector of Ukraine who can connect with the web makes use of it. One of the most popular worldwide stamp catalogues, Scott Standard Postage Catalogue of the United States, keeps a bookmark on this site.

In sum, if one looks behind this handbook, one sees a large infrastructure supporting it, the result of years of effort by many enthusiasts. This in itself is a fact of significance. Much of the history of modern Ukraine has been the story of completing a long checklist of desiderata: Ukrainians wanted their own codified history, their own encyclopedia, their own symphonies, their own theater, their own upper classes, their own state. The basics now are taken care of, and the details, like the hobby of stamp collecting, are falling into place.

For many, though, the main point of interest of the handbook, will not be its relation to the hobby, but its scrupulous codification of information on Ukrainian postage stamps and related items such as pre-stamped envelopes and postal cards.

Postage stamps are an attribute of statehood. They reflect the progress of that state. Leafing through the "Handbook of Modern Ukrainian Philately" with that perspective in mind is an illuminating exercise.

The handbook opens with a stamp it numbers as "0." This is a stamp of the Soviet Union commemorating the declaration of Ukrainian sovereignty of July 16, 1990, the prelude to independence. This was the first in what was expected to be a regular series of stamps with Ukrainian themes and in the Ukrainian language issued as Soviet stamps. But the Soviet Union collapsed before another stamp could come out in the series. With a stamp commemorating the 500th anniversary of Kozakdom, issued on March 1, 1992, No. 1 of the handbook, independent Ukraine began to issue its own stamps.

Where the stamps were printed tells quite a story. In the first year of independence, the stamps of Ukraine were printed partly in Moscow and partly in Canada. From December 1992 until the fall of 1993, all Ukrainian stamps except one were printed in Austria (the exception was printed in Hungary). After not particularly positive experiences with expensive printers in the West, Ukraine relied primarily on Moscow again to print its stamps. As of 1995, though, most stamps began to be printed in Ukraine. The last postage stamp Ukraine printed abroad was one honoring the Kharkiv zoo; it was printed in Moscow on March 23, 1996. It's the story of modern Ukraine in a nutshell: the struggle for self-sufficiency, the wavering orientation between Russia and the West.

Another eloquent story is told in the face value of stamps for domestic usage. The first Ukrainian stamps, issued March 1, 1992, had a face value of 15 kopiiky. A year later stamps had a face value of 15 karbovantsi (100 times as much). In the winter of 1994 the stamps bore a face value of 200 karbovantsi. Most stamps had a 20,000 to 50,000 karbovantsi face value by the summer and fall of 1995. Things finally settled down with the stamp honoring Ukrainian strongman Ivan Piddubnyi issued on November 16, 1996. This was the first stamp to reflect the successful currency reform that made the switch from karbovantsi to hryvni and ended the rampant inflation of the first years of independence. Implied in the story of these leaping face values is the runaway inflation that turned families' life savings into an amount sufficient to buy a box of matches. Much of the social discontent that still dogs the independent Ukrainian state was generated in this period.

The themes of the stamps make a fascinating story that cannot even be outlined here for lack of space. In a few words: the predominance of safe Kozak themes, concessions early on to the Soviet version of Ukrainian history, no concessions to the nationalist version of history, Hrushevsky but not Symon Petliura, increasing religious themes over time, with time issues more savvily geared to the world philatelic market, many sports themes (another "common ground" topic). One could write an interesting study just on this aspect of the stamps. The envelopes and postal cards with stamps already printed on them have a wider thematic spectrum than stamps, and commemorative postmarks (also covered in the handbook) an even wider one.

There's a lot in the "Handbook of Modern Ukrainian Philately," and it deserves a place on the shelf not only of all collectors of Ukrainian stamps, but of all who seriously follow current Ukrainian affairs. Mr. Fedyk and Dr. Kuzych have done a marvelous job.

| Home Page |