The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation by Andrew Wilson (review)

Abstract

SEER, 91, 4, OCTOBER 2013 894 he became increasingly antisemitic. But even aside from his prejudices there were good propaganda considerations not to stress the attempted genocide of the Jews by the Germans. Hicks devotes considerable attention to the reception of Soviet films and documentaries in the West. He correctly argues that Western audiences failed to appreciate and understand Soviet films and the depictions of Nazi barbarities committed on the Eastern front. Neither during nor after the war could they fit into the perception of Western audiences that the Soviet people won the war and in the process suffered incomparable losses. After 1945 neither in Communist nor in Western countries did people regard the Holocaust as a central issue for which the war was fought. One or two generations had to pass before we came to regard the murder of the Jews as an example of ultimate evil. Stevenson College Peter Kenez University of California, Santa Cruz Wilson, Andrew. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Third edition. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT and London, 2009. xviii + 392 pp. Chronology. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Index. £14.99 (paperback) In the third edition of his excellent, unorthodox history of Ukraine, Andrew WilsonupdateshisnarrativetoincludetheOrangeRevolutionanditsaftermath. First published in 2000, his account of Ukrainian history is distinguished by a ‘constructivist’ approach that works very well in deconstructing both Ukrainian and Russian historical mythologies. The author sees the Ukrainian nation as a work-in-progress, as an incomplete cultural and political project. He makes a point of avoiding the loaded term ‘nation building’ with its teleological assumptions, trying instead to explore counterfactual questions. What if a single Ruthenian nation had developed, including both the modernday Ukrainians and Belarusians? What if the Russian Empire had absorbed Galicia, that future stronghold of Ukrainian nationalism, either in 1772 or during 1813–15? Or, on the contrary, could have the Soviet Union survived into the twenty-first century if Stalin had not overextended it westward? The point of such provocative suggestions is, of course, to challenge the reader to think outside the box, to de-nationalize the familiar structures of ‘national history’. Such a creative deconstruction of nationalist metanarratives is particularly important in the Ukrainian case, in which the intertwined tropes of national victimhood and nationalist triumphalism have defined much of the native historical writing after independence. Wilson’s irreverent and imaginative approach also makes his book stand out among other, more traditional, English-language surveys of Ukrainian history. The author’s decision to begin with the chapter on Kyivan Rus´ and only then deal with the land’s more ancient past seems counterintuitive at first, REVIEWS 895 but its logic soon becomes apparent to the reader. By dissecting the often extravagant nationalist historical mythologies, Wilson introduces an important theme in his book, that of the cultural construction of the nation. Similar considerations justify another violation of the chronological order: the relegation of a historical survey of Ukrainian geopolitical theories to the block of chapters dealing with contemporary politics. This time the lesson for the reader is that Ukraine’s alleged ‘Europeanness’ has always been a political proposition. Another feature of Wilson’s history that contributes greatly to its readability is the author’s subtle analysis of cultural artefacts. He is always on the lookout for a painting, play, or novel that could be used to illuminate his point. The author’s vivid gallery of vignettes encompasses a wide range of literary figures, from such classics as Nikolai Gogol´, Taras Shevchenko, and Mikhail Bulgakov, to our contemporaries Yuri Andrukhovych and Oksana Zabuzhko. Along the way, Wilson also provides an excellent interpretation of Il´ia Repin’s famous painting Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–91) and reveals to the reader his personal favorite on the Ukrainian rock scene — ‘Where We Are Not’ (1998) by the group Okean El´zy, which he reads as a commentary of sorts on Ukraine’s relation to Europe. The Western general reader will find helpful the author’s extended explanation of how Ukraine’s historical entanglement with Russia is both similar to and distinct from the relations between Scotland and England. Specialists on Eastern Europe will appreciate Wilson’s excellent analysis of blurred cultural boundaries and mixed national identities during...