BOOK NOTES

New volume details cross-cultural encounters on the steppes of Ukraine

"Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1784-1861," by John R. Staples. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003, 253 pp, $55 (hardcover).

In John R. Staples "Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783-1861," the processes of colonization, the ways that people transformed their environment on the Ukrainian steppe frontier, and how, in turn, the people were transformed by the environment," are examined.

The people who transform the land, and whom the land transforms consist of Mennonites, Nogais, Russians, Ukrainians and other groups.

When Ukrainians settled the Molochna Basin in 1783, it changed from a vast expanse of open steppe to a small village with horses, cattle and sheep, and finally to an agricultural area accompanied by a few towns which contained "textile mills, forges brick works."

The author covers everything in this work from colonization and administrative policy, to the Great Drought of 1832-1834, to the path taken by the Orthodox State Peasants in reference to land repartition.

This non-fiction book is very informative, and presents prodigious information in the form of charts, graphs and maps, which abound throughout its pages. These data include statistics about climate, economy and population. The author uses archival Ukrainian and Russian information never before studied or used by a Western scholar. A history of how peasant groups evolved in the way in which they think and act when adjusting to a new environment is heavily present in Mr. Staples' book.

In addition to being a writer, Mr. Staples is an assistant professor in the department of history at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 5, 2003, No. 40, Vol. LXXI

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