Religion and Nation in Modern Ukraine by Serhii s> Plokhy Frank E. Sysyn (review)

Abstract

558 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 but in all cases where nationalism arises. He argues that the Croatian nationalism of the I990S- what he calls 'Franjoism'- was a mobilization force that brought together differentparts of Croatian society in support of Croatia's independence and, later, territorialintegrity.However, once those goals were largely achieved, the aggregatingeffectof 'Franjoism'gave way to growing differences. These different elements were always present, as the author points out. By focusing on five differentareasof social practice in the empirical heartland of the book chapters five and six Bellamy shows how initial, or apparent, homogeneity disguised 'disputesabout the meaning of Croatian national identity' (p. 104). The six areas he selects are the economy, football, the region of Istria,language, education and the Roman Catholic Church. These cases are the third level of analytical abstractionin his study, building on discussion of frames and competing conceptions of national identity. The six areas representsocial practice, where discourseon national identity blends with other concerns, such as the transnational characterof the Roman Catholic Church(althoughBellamywronglycallsthis 'multinational'), or the traditional identity of football clubs, to create a political environmentthat can both bolsternationalism,or serveto challenge and undermineit. In the end, the realbenefitof Bellamy'sbook is thatit shows throughclose examination how thiswas the case in Croatia. King'sCollege London JAMES Gow Plokhy, Serhii and Sysyn, Frank E. ReligionandNation in ModernUkraine. Canadian Instituteof Ukrainian Studies Press,Edmonton and Toronto, 2003. XVi+ 2I6 pp. Notes. Index. $27.95 (paperback). THIScollection of eleven essays ten of thempreviouslypublished is proof that the authors'scholarshiphas stood the test of time well. Serhy Plokhyand Frank E. Sysyn, both of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Edmonton, are known as North America's leading experts on Ukraine's religious history, and the breadth of their erudition displayed in this volume fullysupportstheirreputation.The ten previouslypublishedpapersoriginally appeared in print between I983 and I999, but all have been thoroughly updated, and thus provide the readerwith an up-to-date guide to the history of EasternChristianityin the Ukrainianlands. A helpful new Introduction is followed by Sysyn's two chapters on the formation of modern Ukrainian religious tradition during the early modern period. Focusing on the Orthodox religion, he argues that, in addition to seeing the church as a national institution, the Ukrainian tradition as it developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included active participation by the laity and the election of church officials by councils. Attempts during the twentieth century to establish a Ukrainian church separate from the dominant Russian Orthodox Church inevitably were framed as a returnto the spiritof UkrainianOrthodoxy. Plokhypicksup this story in his chapter on the establishmentof the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada in I9I8-I9, for this was another attempt to create a national church institution for Ukrainians. The two chapters that follow REVIEWS 559 examine church life in Soviet Ukraine. Plokhy writes about the I946 dissolutionof the UkrainianGreekCatholic (Uniate)Church (UGCC) as seen in the context of Soviet-Vaticanrelations,while Sysynprovidesa comprehensive overview of the 'UkrainianOrthodox question' in the USSR in the early I980s, in the absence of an independent UkrainianOrthodox church. The next cluster of chapters analyses the revival of church life in Ukraine duringthe late i980s and early i 990s. There is some repetitionof materialin chapterssix to ten, but this only helps the readerto understandthe confusing religious strugglesin post-Soviet Ukraine. In I989 some Ukrainian parishes began abandoning the Russian Orthodox Church for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), which had existed in Ukraine in the 1920S and under the German occupation during World War Two, and had survivedamong Ukrainiansabroad.The Moscow Patriarchatethen renamed its Ukrainianbranch the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and grantedit autonomy, thus trying to create for it the image of a 'national church'. This was not good enough for the administration of Ukraine's first post-Soviet president,LeonidKravchuk(I991-94), which soughtto establisha fully separate, national Orthodox church. In I99 I the Ukrainian authorities persuaded the long-serving head of the UOC, Metropolitan Filaret, to push forseparationfromMoscow, resultingin hisexcommunicationby theMoscow Patriarchateand move to the UAOC thevery churchhe had persecutedin the past. The government-supportedmerger in 1992 between the UOC and UAOC produced a new church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate(UOC-KP...