The Ukrainian Resurgence by Bohdan s> Nahaylo (review)

Abstract

i84 SEER, 79, I, 2001 in most cases it is quite well informed, and the bibliographyitself is synoptic and well-presented. Department ofPolitical Science ELLENT. CoMIsso University ofCalifornia, SanDiego Nahaylo, Bohdan. The Ukrainian Resurgence. Hurst and Company, London, I999. xix + 554 pp. Bibliography. Index. Maps. Illustrations. ?450.o; ? I6.95. DESPITE a recent upsurge in the number of publications on contemporary Ukraine, books on the subject are still few and far between. Hence any new publication is a welcome addition. Written in a genre of journalism and contemporaryhistory,in the author'sown words TheUkrainian Resurgence aims to 'serveas a surrogateconcise politicalhistoryof modern Ukraine and offera tentativepictureof the new independent Ukrainianstate'(p. xvi). The firstchapter concisely sketchesout the firstten centuries of Ukraine's history. The scope of the second chapter is considerablynarrower;focusing on the post-Stalin years in Ukraine, it contains a detailed survey of national Communism, dissident movement and their suppression by Moscow and indigenous Communists. Of the remaining sixteen chapters, no fewer than eleven aredevoted to perestroika'seventfulyearsof I985-9 I, whereasthe last four chaptersoffera comprehensive, although succinct, overview of developments in post-Soviet Ukraine between I992-96. The brief postscriptbrings the narrativeupto I998. The bookoffersa self-containednarrative,something which is also reflected in the brevity of the bibliography. Nahaylo does not engage with existing literatureon Ukraine, nor does he attempt to place the trajectoryof Ukraine'sstate-buildinginto a widercomparativeperspective. The book meticulously chronicles the prolonged struggle for, at first, nationalrevivaland, then, independence and scrupulouslyrecordsmanifestations of the 'indomitable spirit of patriotism' in Ukraine. It abounds with insightful accounts of the activities of the dissidents and the cultural intelligentsia,aswell aspoliticalelites.Inparticular,interviewswithCommunist dignitariesin Soviet Ukraine shed some welcome light on the functioning of the highest echelon of the Ukrainian nomenklatura.Forexample, Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi, the first secretary of Ukraine between 1972-89, was portrayed by his contemporaries as a 'very capable politician and administrator ',who, despite his well known subservienceto Moscow and hostilityto national revival in Ukraine, promoted Ukraine's economic development (PP. 50-5I')The book provides a comprehensivesurveyof all developments which can be broadlyclassifiedas manifestationsof 'nationalresurgence',whetherthese manifestationswere in the cultural,religious,political or economic domains. This is by any standards an ambitious task. Such broad coverage is only achieved by putting a premium on factual description, and hence the balance between the descriptive and analytical is skewed in favour of the former. The chronological organization of the factual material works for the more succinct chapters, but the wealth of graphic details in the eleven chapters covering the REVIEWS I85 period of I985-91 makes this part of the book somewhat galling for a reader looking for a concise overviewof perestroikain Ukraine. Although the concept of 'resurgence'featuresin the title, it is never defined. The use of the term seems to denote the willingnessof the oppressednation to rise to the challenges of dismantling imperial shackles and consolidating independence. The book restson the implicit,and yet contentious, premise of Ukrainians being a ready-made nation, which, despite being the largest in Europe, 'has been denied the right to self-determination'(p. xi) until i99i. This premise prevents the author from examining the complex interplay of social, culturaland political processes in Soviet Ukraine, which produced an array of motives, attitudes and views regarding 'national revival' and independence in the masses and elites and in differentregions both prior to and after the passage to independence. While tracing the manifestations of 'resurgence', Nahaylo focuses on the cultural intelligentsia, political eites, Western Ukraine and Kyiv but glosses over the patchy nature of mass mobilization;in particularthe Russophone regions of Ukraine are given thin coverage. Therefore, the book falls short of advancing the understandingof the intricate nature of the Soviet period in Ukraine's history, which, on the one hand, created the pre-conditions for Ukraine's independence, while, on the other,drainednationalismof itsvitality. Overall, the book contains an unmatched amount of factual information, which fully demonstrates the author's impressive knowledge of recent developments in Ukraine. But while the book offersmany intricatedetails in itsaccount of the sixyearsprecedingthe referendumon independence, it does not depart from the interpretationsprovided by an existing survey of the period by Taras Kuzio and Andrew Wilson Ukraine. Perestroika toIndependence...