Towards an Intellectual History of Ukraine: An Anthology of Ukrainian Thought from 1710 to 1995

Myroslav Shkandrij is head of the Department of German and Slavic
Studies at the University of Manitoba, and editor of The Cultural
Renaissance in Ukraine: Polemical Pamphlets, 1925-1926.

One of the paradoxes of the discourse on Ukraine’s identity lies in
the conflict between assertion and subtext. Expressions of imperial
loyalty and professions of commitment to an “all-Russian”
perspective were frequently and subtly subverted by an insistence on the
vitality and distinctiveness of Ukrainian culture. The evolution of this
discourse from cultural affirmation to political separatism over the
last three centuries is a dominant issue in Ukrainian intellectual
history. The editors of this volume have done their English-language
readers a great service in bringing together in this anthology many of
the most important texts on this issue. Some are better-known than
others, but most will be completely unfamiliar to readers educated
within the paradigms that have dominated the study of Russian
civilization. The texts in this volume constitute, in fact, a
counter-discourse to what has frequently been accepted as a singular
history.

The volume contains literary, political, and philosophical writings. It
begins with an extract from Hetman Pylyp Orlyk’s Bendery Constitution
of 1710. There are excerpts from famous texts by Teofan Prokopovych,
Semen Divovych, Hryhorii Poletyka, Hryhorii Skovoroda, Nikolai Gogol,
Mykola Kostomarov, Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Pamfil
Iurkevych, Mykhailo Drahomanov, and other important 19th-century
figures. The 20th-century selections belong unequivocally in the realm
of political literature. They include manifestoes and speeches by
Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Volodymyr Vynny-chenko, Viacheslav Lypynsky, Dmytro
Dontsov, Petro Poltava, Milena Rudnytska, and other representatives of
the independentist movement. The more recent discussions are represented
by excerpts from works by Ivan Dziuba and Mykola Riabchuk.

The range of themes—from the nature of the national identity, to the
relationship of Ukraine to its Slavic neighbors, to the country’s role
in history—and views that emerge in this volume demonstrates the
richness of the debates. An excellent introductory survey provides
essential background.

This anthology will be particularly useful as a textbook for the
teaching of Ukrainian civilization, but it will be of service to any
interested reader who has not until now been able to access these
primary texts.