Volume 8 of Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus' " launched in Edmonton (12/01/02)

Volume 8 of Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine-Rus' " launched in Edmonton

by Serhii Plokhy

EDMONTON - The Peter Jacyk Center at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (University of Alberta) held a book launch on October 10 to mark the publication of Volume 8 of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's multi-volume "History of Ukraine-Rus' " in English translation.

The book, titled "The Cossack Age, 1626-1650," is the third volume of Hrushevsky's History to be issued by the Jacyk Center's Hrushevsky Translation Project and the second volume in Hrushevsky's subseries on the history of the Kozaks. It is the first volume to include his groundbreaking research on the history of the Khmelnytsky uprising.

Volume 8 was published thanks to the sponsorship of Hanna Mazurenko of Toronto, who made a donation to the project in memory of her husband, Danylo. The volume was translated by Marta Daria Olynyk of Montreal and edited by Frank E. Sysyn with the assistance of Myroslav Yurkevich. Dr. Sysyn, director of the Jacyk Center and editor-in-chief of the Hrushevsky Translation Project, wrote the introduction to the volume and, together with Iaroslav Fedoruk, prepared its extensive updates to Hrushevsky's bibliographic notes.

The book launch, which took place at University of Alberta Faculty Club, was well-attended by university students and faculty, as well as by members of the Ukrainian community. Before beginning the proceedings, Dr. Sysyn called on the audience to observe a moment of silence in memory of Mr. Jacyk, who had shown great generosity and devotion to the project. The audience was then greeted by Dr. Paul Sorenson, associate vice-president for research at the University of Alberta, who congratulated the Jacyk Center on its latest achievement and thanked members of the Ukrainian community for their continuing support of Ukrainian studies at the university. The director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Dr. Zenon Kohut, stressed the importance of the Hrushevsky Translation Project and the publication of Hrushevsky's monumental History in English translation for the dissemination of knowledge about Ukraine and its history.

Dr. Nancy S. Kollmann, professor of history and director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Stanford University, was the keynote speaker at the launch. She shared her views on the importance of Hrushevsky's history to students and teachers of East European history in North America.

Dr. Kollmann discussed her own courses on Russian and East European history, into which she integrates considerable material on Ukraine. She said she pays particular attention to Ukraine as an example of the emergence of cultural and national identity in the early modern period, despite the lack of an independent state in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Until now, Dr. Kollmann commented, she has been able to draw on a large mass of material from Russian historians, but relatively little from Ukrainian scholars. She said she is especially pleased that the publication of Hrushevsky's work, which develops the topics that she emphasizes in her courses, will allow her students to delve more deeply into the Ukrainian past. She argued that the publication of Hrushevsky's multi-volume work in English would help shift the focus of those interested in that part of the world from the history of states and elites to that of ethnonational and cultural communities.

Dr. Sysyn summarized the numerous tasks involved in producing a volume. He emphasized the success of the earlier volumes in sales and in scholarly reception. He then thanked the sponsors, the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S.A.), and the numerous donors in the Ukrainian community, many of whom were present, for their support of the project and presented the new volume to the audience.

Volume 8 of the history deals with the period in which the Kozaks' emergence as a political power, the Khmelnytsky uprising, and a variety of important political, social and economic developments made Ukraine a focal point of European and Near Eastern affairs. Hrushevsky provides a comprehensive account of Ukrainian Kozakdom in this period and gives his own interpretation of its importance in the history of Ukraine, Poland and Muscovy, as well as in Jewish and Ottoman history.

In addition to Edmonton, Volume 8 was launched also in Toronto on October 20, with Ms. Mazurenko and Nadia Jacyk, head of the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, in attendance. A book launch also took place in Montreal on November 8 and one is scheduled for Pittsburgh on November 24, during annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

The volume is available for purchase from CIUS Press offices in Edmonton and Toronto. Until May 31, 2003, Volume 8 of the "History of Ukraine-Rus' " can be purchased for the special price of $90. Until that same date, the entire 10-volume (in 11 books) "History of Ukraine-Rus' " can be acquired for the subscription price of $1,000. These special prices include shipping; in Canada they also include the GST. Outside Canada, prices are in U.S. dollars. After the designated date, prices will revert to their normal retail levels, that is, $119.95 for the single volume and $1,200 for the entire history. Orders should be sent to: CIUS, 450 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E8.

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