The Ukrainian Impact on Russian Culture, 1750-1850

Hans B. Neumann is a history lecturer at Scarborough College, University
of Toronto.

David Saunders, a specialist in Russian history, has written an exhaustively researched, scholarly book on the ambitious theme of the cultural influence of the southern (Ukrainian) on the northern (Russian) fulcrum of the emerging Russian Empire during the period 1750 to 1850. The outlines of this theme, as well as a succinct discussion of the historiographical dimensions of this thorny and controversial question, are presented in a cogent and illuminating introductory chapter. The scholarly nature of the book is indicated by 78 pages of endnotes identifying source material for the nine chapters of the text, and by a further 76 pages devoted to a bibliography listing primary and secondary sources used.

Saunders presents his theme by selecting a number of Ukrainian and Russian intellectuals who were instrumental in transmitting the Ukrainian cultural heritage northwards during this period. These intellectuals and their careers are introduced to the reader in the form of analytical biographical sketches of varying length. Fields of intellectual endeavour from which the selected sample were chosen include journalism, literature, and historical writing.

While this currently popular prosopographical approach tends to support the author’s arguments in the limited context of his chosen methodological vehicle (although even within these confines it is difficult to evaluate the impact or influence of the discussed intellectual efforts), this approach does not span the full dimension of the author’s self-proclaimed theme. More quantitative evidence (such as that discussed on pp.56-58) would have been helpful to underpin the author’s ambitious major theme. Also, by focusing so narrowly on the intellectuals’ contribution to the process of cultural interaction, Saunders seems to take an unnecessarily limited view of the possible modes of cultural transmission, a perspective all the more surprising given the rich and varied past dimensions of analyses of this historical topic. Finally, the single-page conclusion to the body of the text of the book is a source of disappointment. Surely such a vast and fascinating topic deserved a more comprehensive summing up.

Despite these shortcomings, the book represents an interesting and informative discussion of the subject matter for the serious reader who is not fluent in any of the East Slavic languages. For the Ukrainian intellectual historian of the period 1750 to 1850, this book constitutes a veritable gold mine of information, digested source material, and archival references.