Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917-1934

Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917-1934
Author: George S. N. Luckyj
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1990
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780822310990

Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917-1934 illuminates the flowering of Ukrainian literature in the 1920s and the subsequent purge of Soviet Ukrainian writers during the following Stalinist decade. Upon its original publication in 1956, George S. N. Luckyj's book won the praise of American and English critics, but was violently attacked by Soviet critics who labeled it a "slander on the Soviet Union." In the current political environment of glasnost, the book's findings have been acknowledged and supported by Soviet scholars. Moreover, this new critical corroboration has enabled the author to discover that the 1930s purge was more brutal than was previously estimated. The new edition reissues Luckyj's critical work in light of current political developments and reflects the revision of previous findings. Luckyj originally drew on published Soviet sources and the important unpublished papers of a Soviet Ukrainian writer who defected to the West to describe how the brief literary revival in the Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s was abruptly halted by Communist Party controls. The present volume features a new preface, an additional chapter covering recent Soviet attitudes toward the literature of the 1920s and 1930s, and an updated bibliography.

Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917-1934

Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917-1934
Author: George Stephen Nestor Luckyj
Publisher: Freeport, N.Y. : Books for Libraries Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 1971
Genre: Literature and state
ISBN: 9780836959543

"Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine," 1917-1934 illuminates the flowering of Ukrainian literature in the 1920s and the subsequent purge of Soviet Ukrainian writers during the following Stalinist decade. Upon its original publication in 1956, George S. N. Luckyj's book won the praise of American and English critics, but was violently attacked by Soviet critics who labeled it a "slander on the Soviet Union." In the current political environment of glasnost, the book's findings have been acknowledged and supported by Soviet scholars. Moreover, this new critical corroboration has enabled the author to discover that the 1930s purge was more brutal than was previously estimated. The new edition reissues Luckyj's critical work in light of current political developments and reflects the revision of previous findings. Luckyj originally drew on published Soviet sources and the important unpublished papers of a Soviet Ukrainian writer who defected to the West to describe how the brief literary revival in the Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s was abruptly halted by Communist Party controls. The present volume features a new preface, an additional chapter covering recent Soviet attitudes toward the literature of the 1920s and 1930s, and an updated bibliography.

Ukrainian Literature in the Twentieth Century

Ukrainian Literature in the Twentieth Century
Author: George S. N. Luckyj
Publisher: Published for the Shevchenko Scientific Society by University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 152
Release: 1992
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

A survey of the main literary trends of Ukraine, its chief authors, and their works, as seen against the historical background of the present century. Luckyj (Slavic studies emeritus, U. of Toronto) provides information about literary developments both in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Russian Literary Politics and the Pushkin Celebration of 1880

Russian Literary Politics and the Pushkin Celebration of 1880
Author: Marcus C. Levitt
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2018-09-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1501731904

In an event acknowledged to be a watershed in modern Russian cultural history, the elite of Russian intellectual life gathered in Moscow in 1880 to celebrate the dedication of a monument to the poet Alexander Pushkin, who had died nearly half a century earlier. Private and government forces joined to celebrate a literary figure, in a country in which monuments were usually dedicated to military or political heroes. In this richly detailed narrative history of the Pushkin Celebration and the developments that led up to it, Marcus C. Levitt explores the unique role of literature in nineteenth-century Russian intellectual life and puts Russian literary criticism, and Pushkin's posthumous reputation, into fresh perspective. Drawing on Soviet archival materials not readily available in the West, Levitt describes the preparations for the monument and the unfolding of the celebration. His sustained discussions of Turgenev's role and of Dostoevsky's famous "Pushkin Speech" shed new light on what was for both a culminating moment in their careers. In Levitt's view, the Pushkin Celebration represented the articulation of liberal, post-Emancipation hopes for an independent Russian intelligentsia and culture. His analysis of the problems faced by Russian liberalism illuminates the failure of concerted efforts to secure freedom of speech in nineteenth-century Russia.

Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge

Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge
Author: Mayhill C. Fowler
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1487501536

Cover -- Copyright page -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note to the Reader on Transliteration -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: The Beau Monde on the Borderlands -- 1 The Russian Imperial Southwest: Theatre in the Age of Modernism and Pogroms -- 2 The Literary Fair: Mikhail Bulgakov and Mykola Kulish -- 3 Comedy Soviet and Ukrainian? Il'f-Petrov and Ostap Vyshnia -- 4 The Official Artist: Solomon Mikhoels and Les' Kurbas -- 5 The Arts Official: Andrii Khvylia, Vsevolod Balyts'kyi, and the Kremlin -- 6 The Soviet Beau Monde: The Gulag and Kremlin Cabaret -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

Ukrainian Nationalism

Ukrainian Nationalism
Author: Myroslav Shkandrij
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2015-01-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300210744

Both celebrated and condemned, Ukrainian nationalism is one of the most controversial and vibrant topics in contemporary discussions of Eastern Europe. Perhaps today there is no more divisive and heatedly argued topic in Eastern European studies than the activities in the 1930s and 1940s of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). This book examines the legacy of the OUN and is the first to consider the movement’s literature alongside its politics and ideology. It argues that nationalism’s mythmaking, best expressed in its literature, played an important role. In the interwar period seven major writers developed the narrative structures that gave nationalism much of its appeal. For the first time, the remarkable impact of their work is recognized.

The Ukrainians

The Ukrainians
Author: Andrew Wilson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2022-11-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300272499

As in many postcommunist states, politics in Ukraine revolves around the issue of national identity. Ukrainian nationalists see themselves as one of the world’s oldest and most civilized peoples, as “older brothers” to the younger Russian culture.Yet Ukraine became independent only in 1991, and Ukrainians often feel like a minority in their own country, where Russian is still the main language heard on the streets of the capital, Kiev. This book is a comprehensive guide to modern Ukraine and to the versions of its past propagated by both Russians and Ukrainians. Andrew Wilson provides the most acute, informed, and up-to-date account available of the Ukrainians and their country. Concentrating on the complex relation between Ukraine and Russia, the book begins with the myth of common origin in the early medieval era, then looks closely at the Ukrainian experience under the tsars and Soviets, the experience of minorities in the country, and the path to independence in 1991. Wilson also considers the history of Ukraine since 1991 and the continuing disputes over identity, culture, and religion. He examines the economic collapse under the first president, Leonid Kravchuk, and the attempts at recovery under his successor, Leonid Kuchma. Wilson explores the conflicts in Ukrainian society between the country’s Eurasian roots and its Western aspirations, as well as the significance of the presidential election of November 1999.

Post-Soviet Political Order

Post-Soviet Political Order
Author: Barnett Rubin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2002-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134697597

Post-Soviet Political Order asks what is shaping the institutional pattern of the post-Soviet political order, what the new order will be like, what patterns of conflict are emerging, and what can be done about stabilising the region. In considering these questions the contributors converge on four common themes: * the institutional legacy of empire * the social processes unleashed by imperial collapse * patterns of bargaining within and between states to resolve conflicts arising out of the imperial collapse * the impact of the wider international setting on the pattern of post-imperial politics Focusing on the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the contributors show how strong state institutions are essential if conflict and political instability are to be avoided.

Yiddish Literature Under Surveillance

Yiddish Literature Under Surveillance
Author: Gennady Estraikh
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2024-09-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1666938017

Yiddish Literature Under Surveillance: The Case of Soviet Ukraine gives a broad view on Soviet Jewish literary life, and on the repression suffered by Yiddish writers under Stalinist rule. It moves from the paradigm of writing almost exclusively about the most prominent authors, whose execution in Moscow on August 12, 1952 is tragically known as "The Night of Murdered Poets." Instead, the narrative is built as a group biography of five writers whose literary home was in Kyiv, the capital of Soviet Ukraine from 1934 to 1991. Those authors are as follows: Avrom Abchuk (arrested and executed in 1937), Chaim Gildin (arrested in 1940; died in a camp in 1943), Itsik Kipnis (arrested in 1949; released in 1955), Rive Balyasne (arrested in 1952; released in 1955), and Hirsh Bloshteyn, an enthusiastic agent of the secret police. In addition, this book is populated by other Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Russian literati. Kyiv was the primary fountainhead for Yiddish literary creativity in the early postrevolutionary period for seven decades and remained a leading Soviet Yiddish literary center, second in importance only to Moscow. Attention is paid to the victims’ rehabilitation, posthumous or otherwise, in the mid-1950s and onwards.

The Affirmative Action Empire

The Affirmative Action Empire
Author: Terry Martin
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 519
Release: 2001-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501713310

The Soviet Union was the first of Europe's multiethnic states to confront the rising tide of nationalism by systematically promoting the national consciousness of its ethnic minorities and establishing for them many of the institutional forms characteristic of the modern nation-state. In the 1920s, the Bolshevik government, seeking to defuse nationalist sentiment, created tens of thousands of national territories. It trained new national leaders, established national languages, and financed the production of national-language cultural products.This was a massive and fascinating historical experiment in governing a multiethnic state. Terry Martin provides a comprehensive survey and interpretation, based on newly available archival sources, of the Soviet management of the nationalities question. He traces the conflicts and tensions created by the geographic definition of national territories, the establishment of dozens of official national languages, and the world's first mass "affirmative action" programs. Martin examines the contradictions inherent in the Soviet nationality policy, which sought simultaneously to foster the growth of national consciousness among its minority populations while dictating the exact content of their cultures; to sponsor national liberation movements in neighboring countries, while eliminating all foreign influence on the Soviet Union's many diaspora nationalities. Martin explores the political logic of Stalin's policies as he responded to a perceived threat to Soviet unity in the 1930s by re-establishing the Russians as the state's leading nationality and deporting numerous "enemy nations."