BOOK NOTES: Volume 8 of Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus' "published in English translation (11/10/02)

BOOK NOTES

Volume 8 of Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus' "published in English translation

"History of Ukraine-Rus'," by Michael Hrushevsky, Volume 8, "The Cossack Age, 1626-1650." Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2002. 808pp., $90.

EDMONTON - Volume 8 of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus' " has just been published. Titled "The Cossack Age, 1626-1650," the handsomely bound book (lxxv, 808 pp.) is the third volume of the English translation of Hrushevsky's monumental "Istoriia Ukrainy-Rusy" to appear in print.

The English-language edition of the classic 10-volume work is produced by the Hrushevsky Translation Project of the Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research and published by CIUS Press. The center and the Press are units of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), University of Alberta, which also has offices at the University of Toronto.

In "The Cossack Age, 1626-1650," Hrushevsky gives a complete account of the Ukrainian Kozaks from their defeat at Lake Kurukove to their reemergence under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky as the "elemental force" in Ukrainian history. Here he deals with the attempts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commmonwealth to reach an accommodation with the Cossacks and the Orthodox Church and includes an analysis of the era of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla. He goes on to examine the causes and outbreak of the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the personality of Hetman Khmelnytsky, and the uprising's early phase and climactic years of 1648-1649, when it represented the interests of the Kozak and peasant masses. He concludes the volume with a discussion of the failure of the Zboriv Agreement and the Kozaks' decision to break completely with the Commonwealth.

Based on an exhaustive examination of the sources and scholarly literature, Hrushevsky's volume stands as the most comprehensive account of this dramatic period in Ukrainian history. The master historian provides a wealth of scholarly and bibliographical information, which the editors have supplemented with bibliographic updates. The English edition includes a new compilation of all sources and publications used by Hrushevsky, a comprehensive index, and four maps, including a fold-out map indicating the territory and course of the Khmelnytsky uprising.

Ukraine's central role in the international politics of the time makes the volume important to specialists and students of East European, Central European, Ottoman, Russian and Jewish history, as well as to those studying revolution and state-building in early modern Europe.

The preparation of "The Cossack Age, 1626-1650" was funded by a generous donation from Hanna Moroz-Mazurenko of Toronto in memory of her husband, Danylo Mazurenko. A translation grant was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington.

The volume was translated by Marta Daria Olynyk, a Montreal-based editor and translator. Frank E. Sysyn, director of the Jacyk Center and editor-in-chief of the Hrushevsky Translation Project, served as the volume's consulting editor and wrote the extensive introduction assessing the volume's place in Ukrainian historiography. Myroslav Yurkevich edited the volume. Other editors included Serhii Plokhy, Uliana M. Pasicznyk, Marta Horban-Carynnyk, Marko Stech, Andrij Hornjatkevyc, Dushan Bednarsky, Tania Plawuszczak-Stech, Olena Plokhy and Lada Bassa. Andrii Grechylo and Iaroslav Fedoruk worked on the bibliography and updates. Scholarly consultants included Ihor Sevenko, Maria Subtelny, Victor Ostapchuk, Jeffrey Wills, David Frick, Paulina Lewin and Nicolae Pavliuc.

The volume may be ordered from CIUS Press, 450 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E8; fax, (780) 492-4967; e-mail, [email protected]. Until the end of May 2003, the volume is available for the special price of $90, shipping included (in Canada GST is included; outside Canada the price is in U.S. dollars). Subscription to the 10 volumes (in 11 books) of the entire "History of Ukraine-Rus' "is also being made available at the special price of $1,000. After May 2003, the price of volume 8 will be $119.95, and the subscription price will revert to $1,200.

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