The Roots of Ukrainian Nationalism: Galicia as Ukraine's Piedmont by Paul Robert s> Magocsi (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 383 Bosniansof all ethnic groupstraditionallyreferredto themselvesas 'Bosniaks'. These inaccuracies neverthelessillustratethe continued need for more hardheaded books such as Gallagher's to expose the myths that continue to surroundthe Yugoslavconflict. Faculty ofHistoy MARKO ATTILA HOARE University ofCambridge Magocsi, Paul Robert. 7he Rootsof Ukrainian Nationalism: Galiciaas Ukraine's Piedmont . University of Toronto Press, Toronto, London and Buffalo, NY, 2002. Xi+ 214 PP. Maps. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. $50.00: /32.oo. THEabove is not a monograph which would have been interesting.Instead, its value lies in collecting together eight of Magocsi's previous essays. The reader also gets two unpublishedworks:an overview piece called 'Galicia:A Brief Historical Survey', and a shorter chapter on 'Ukraine and the Habsburgs'.The olderpieces benefitfromlight editing and usefulupdatingsuch as the summary of recent work on Galician Old Ruthenianism and Russophilism(p. i i8, note 45). Not everything is on Galicia. The article on 'The Ukrainian National Revival: A New Analytical Framework'is mainly concerned with comparing conditions in Romanov and Habsburg Ukraine in the nineteenth centuryalthough it is certainlyone of Magocsi's best. The restmake a coherentwhole in terms of a narrow focus on Galicia alone; but, given the title of the collection, there is little on how the 'Galician idea' was converted into the 'Ukrainianidea', or how Galicianshave triedto selltheirversion of Ukrainian identity to the rest of Ukraine and how it has been received there. (The essay on the language question includes a brief surveyof disputesbetween Galician and Dnipro Ukrainian language planners between I876 and I905 see PP. 97-98). Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi'sidea of Galicia as the 'UkrainianPiedmont', first expressed in I906, was only a metaphor after all. The differences between Galicia, certainly culturally 'European' but economically underdeveloped, and the economic powerhouse of north-westItaly are not examined. Nor did Galicia have the ruling dynasty and importance to traditional European geopolitics of the Italian House of Savoy. Moreover, the influence of the 'UkrainianPiedmont' on the restof Ukraine has fallen sharplysince the early I990s. Given Ukraine's current economic and political problems it is not surprisingthat a certain disillusionamongst smallintelligentsiacirclesin L'viv has set in since around i 999, and that they have revived the idea of 'Galician autonomism'. On the otherhand, thistype of politicscould disappearin a puff of smoke if Viktor Yushchenko,the remodelled national-democrat, is finally successfulin the presidentialelections due in 2oo4. Of course, Magocsi is not to blame for not linkingpast and present. Recent developments are entirely explicable in terms of the theses developed in the book's various essays. However, the reader should be aware that this is a 384 SEER, 82, 2, 2004 collection of historicalpieces, which it is extremely useful now to have in one place. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ANDREW WILSON University College London Korosteleva, E. A, Lawson C. W. and Marsh, R. J. (eds). Contemporagy Belarus: Between Dictatorship andDemocracy. RoutledgeCurzon, London and New York,2003. XVii+ 20I pp. Tables. Notes. Index. ?550.o. THEneed fornew literatureon contemporaryBelarushaslong been apparent. Some readersmight express surprisethat, in terms of the subtitleof the book under review, Belarus is described as 'between dictatorship and democracy', but the assembled authors make a good case for their title, seeking to investigate the real roots of President Lukashenka'spopularity at the same time as giving due weight to his flagrantabusesof power. Two of the best chapters,byJan Zaprudnikand David Marples,breaknew ground in terms of historical background. Perceptionsof Belarusianidentity depend very much on when the clock is set ticking. If the story begins with Polatska-Rus'or the supposedlySlavic GrandDuchy of Lithuania/Litva, then the Belarusiansare a centralEuropean (and GreekCatholic)nation emerging from two hundred years (I795-199 ) of Russo-Soviet repression.If the story begins in the 1940S then a Soviet Belorussian nation was created almost ex nihilo,albeit by drawing on earlier versions of original common East Slavic Orthodox identity. The trouble faced by Belarusiannationalistssince I99I is not that the firstversion of Belarusian history is implausible, but that it has little to say to the life experiences of the vast majority of the population, dominated by the twin myths of wartime sufferingand victory, and post-war reconstruction.Marplesisparticularlyacuteon the importanceto Lukashenka of the 'myth of Masherau', head of the local Communist...