1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Scholarship: Ukraine is ignored no longer (12/25/94)

1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Scholarship: Ukraine is ignored no longer

While 1993 was a period of an explosion in Ukrainian scholarship, this year witnessed a consolidation of its standing in the world. In the past, the sheer intellectual weight of individual luminaries such as Harvard's Omeljan Pritsak and Columbia University's George Shevelov dictated that Ukraine, although on the back burner, could not be ignored entirely. Increasingly, the country's enduring presence on the geopolitical map has forced academic institutions to pay greater attention to matters concerning Ukraine and Ukrainians. This has given voices such as those of Harvard's Prof. Roman Szporluk greater resonance in government and academic circles.

In Ukraine, freedom had an ugly economic face, and this was felt in terms of sharp reductions in faculty, the closure or crippling of many research institutes, and contraction of research and publishing budgets. Meanwhile, the necessary streamlining of the bloated academic administrative apparat was stifled by politics and inertia. This was particularly apparent at Kyyiv State University and Ukraine's Academy of Sciences.

However, renewed academic freedom can galvanize scholars as money only wishes it could. With borders now fully open and the society professing to be democratic, the primary brakes were now gone. The Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy, led by its able and charismatic former rector and new president, Viacheslav Brioukhovetsky, positioned itself as the prime beneficiary of these changes.

In North America, the world's nascent interest in Ukraine was capitalized upon because the legacy of Ukrainian scholarly excellence had generated Ukrainian institutions at schools that mattered. In 1994, Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute, the University of Alberta-based Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, and Columbia's Harriman Institute played a major role in the arduous task of reorienting the academic world to confront post-Soviet reality.

Resurfacing in New York

A Ukrainian studies program "reappeared" at Columbia University's Harriman Institute to serve as a center of Ukrainian academic gravity in the New York area, thanks to the efforts of associate director Prof. Alexander Motyl and Prof. Mark von Hagen (who was nominated for the directorship in early December), as well as support from various endowments and the community.

In March, at a gala held by the Friends of Columbia University Ukrainian Studies (FOCUUS), a shot was fired across the bow of those who persist in hanging on to the past instead of re-examining it. The keynote speaker was the author of the landmark study of the famine of 1932-1933, "The Harvest of Sorrow," former Columbia fellow Robert Conquest. He assured the gathering that those who would deny the reality of the famine are now within the same "mule-headed minority" that refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust. FOCUUS also flexed its economic muscle, proudly announcing continued generous support from Canadian patron Peter Jacyk (who has contributed $75,000 to the program), and generating a five-figure purse during the course of the evening.

The program served up a compelling array of courses, conferences and lectures delivered by visiting scholars and officials from the U.S. and around the world. The latter included World Bank economist Francoise Le Gall; visiting German scholar Marion Recktenwald; Canada's assistant deputy minister for Europe, David Wright; New York psychiatrist Dr. Jurij Savyckyj; and R. Nicholas Burns of the Clinton administration's National Security Council.

In addition to the teaching done by Profs. von Hagen and Motyl, courses introduced by the program included an examination of 20th century Ukrainian poetry, presented with typical iconoclastic flair by Dr. Yuriy Tarnavsky, a member of the New York Group of poets. An offering on Ukrainian history was taught by Lviv University's Dr. Yaroslav Hrytsak.

In mid-year, it was announced that the New York Group's manuscripts, correspondence and other material will form a separate collection at Columbia's prestigious Bakhmeteff Archive.

In May, the Harriman Institute, together with HURI and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, honored one of the diaspora's most erudite scholars, the linguist and literary critic Prof. George Shevelov, with a conference dedicated to his work. The institute co-sponsored a cycle of conferences on the Black Sea region and the Crimea, held over the course of the year in Turkey, Ukraine and the U.S. In November, it hosted a scholarly conclave addressing the study of "Peoples, Nations and Identities: The Russian-Ukrainian Encounter, 1800-1917." It was the second in a series of conferences covering relations between the two nations from the 16th century to the present, which, many participants claimed, will do much to direct the field in a healthier direction.

Harvard

America's leading academic institution was the site of a similar re-orientative conference addressing "Ukraine: Current Trends, Future Perspectives." From July 31 to August 5, five days of intensive seminars and discussions addressing issues in domestic politics, society and culture, law and economics, foreign affairs and international security issues, were attended by a raft of U.S. government officials.

In May, Harvard hosted a U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored conference on Ukrainian military history, organized by HURI Associate Director Dr. Lubomyr Hajda and intern U.S. Army Capt. Bohdan Pyskir. Participants included, from Ukraine, former Defense Minister Kostiantyn Morozov; Lt. Gen. Ivan Olenovych, deputy superintendent of the army's Military Academy; Col. Yuriy Levchenko, chief of the Ministry of Defense Foreign Directorate; and Washington Embassy Military Attaché Ihor Smeshko.

Adding weight to the proceedings from the U.S. side were former NATO general staff member Maj. Gen. Nicholas Krawciw, James Brusstar of the U.S. Institute of National Strategic Studies, representatives of the State Department and members of the military-industrial think-tank, the Rand Corp.

From June 27 to August 19, HURI conducted its 24th annual Summer Institute with a wide-ranging program of instruction by Harvard's world-class faculty and visiting professors.

Mr. Morozov returned to Cambridge in September to spend a year as a senior scholar at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, to maintain contact with leading U.S. scholars and government officials, and deepen his knowledge of Ukrainian history. Mr. Morozov founded the Center for Research on Problems of Ukrainian Statehood in Kyyiv just prior to his departure.

The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies

On July 1, Dr. Zenon Kohut became the new director of the CIUS, after serving as acting director from January 1, 1993. Prof. David Marples, a frequent contributor to The Weekly, replaced Dr. Kohut as director of the Stasiuk Program on Contemporary Ukraine.

In a Weekly interview, Dr. Kohut outlined the institute's activities and his plans for the future of the CIUS's offices in Edmonton, Toronto and Kyyiv. He also discussed CIUS's participation in the Ukrainian community's effective rebuff of an attempt by Ralph Klein's Progressive Conservative government to eliminate bilingual Ukrainian-English instruction in Alberta. In this western Canadian province, voter discontent over a mounting deficit was used to excuse a wholesale assault on the province's health and educational systems. Fiscal slashing led to the closure of whole departments at the CIUS's parent University of Alberta, but in light of CIUS's excellence, the cut it faced was limited to five percent of its budget.

Despite this harsh environment, Dr. Kohut reported full-steam cooperation with scholars from Ukraine, an ongoing strong commitment to the Ukrainian Language Education Center (headed by Marusia Petryshyn) and its NOVA program, as well as to the Ukrainian Canadian studies program, headed by Dr. Frances Swyripa. The Journal of Ukrainian Studies published volume 17, and Roman Senkus of the Toronto CIUS Publication Office reassumed the editorship and sent volume 18 to press.

New titles issued by CIUS Press, directed by Prof. Maxim Tarnawsky, included studies of German-Ukrainian relations, the philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, and Ukrainians of the Eastern Diaspora. CIUS initiated its joint project in Russian-Ukrainian relations by co-sponsoring conferences at the University of Cologne in June and Columbia University in November.

Dr. Kohut mentioned that excellent sales of the five-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine (EU), completed in 1993 after an intensive 17-year effort, buoyed the CIUS financially. The Weekly carried a story about the June 2 official presentation of the reference work by its editor-in-chief, Prof. Danylo Struk, in Kyyiv before a gathering of Ukraine's academic heavyweights in government and scholarly institutions. Minister of Culture Ivan Dzyuba said the EU gave scholars and politicians alike "the possibility to present the image of Ukraine to the world in a completely new light."

On November 30, Francois Mathys, Canada's ambassador to Ukraine, sent a letter concerning the Encyclopedia to the CIUS in which he stated: "I am immensely grateful to the competent and knowledgeable team of scholars who have contributed to produce a truly indispensable learning tool about Ukraine."

Another monumental CIUS project is gathering momentum. The CIUS's Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research is producing an English translation of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's 10-volume "Istoria Ukrainy-Rusy" (History of Ukraine-Rus'). In a report to the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (which agreed to contribute $50,000 to the effort, and which assisted in the production of the EU), the center's director, Dr. Frank Sysyn, said the first volume will appear in print in late 1995.

The Jacyk Center also began its series of Ukrainian- language translations of historical works by Western scholars with the publication of the late Dr. Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky's "Historical Essays."

In September, CIUS announced the establishment of a new program in Ukrainian religious history, occasioned in part by the decision of Prof. Bohdan Bociurkiw to donate his extensive library and archive to the institute.

The University of Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy

In the rarefied and virtually cashless air of Ukrainian academia, one institution was able to make its mark as a vibrant center for teaching and scholarship. After a three-year struggle, the University of Kyyiv-Mohyla Academy established itself as "the most prestigious institution of higher learning in Ukraine," as its newly elected president, Viacheslav Brioukhovetsky, wrote in a commentary for The Weekly.

Dr. Brioukhovetsky visited the U.S. and Canada in November along with rector Serhiy Ivaniuk to sign a number of agreements with local universities, and present grant applications to major foundations. Mr. Ivaniuk, the UKMA's first dean and founder of its Faculty of the Humanities, was appointed rector in August, after Dr. Brioukhovetsky was elected to the newly created position of president.

In 1994, the UKMA had a fiercely contested enrollment of 628 students, drawn from all oblasts of Ukraine and the Crimea, as well as from Canada, the U.S., Germany, Poland, Japan, China, Finland and Italy. They were taught by just under 150 members of a faculty which, by years end, included former President Leonid Kravchuk (an early supporter of the academy). Over the past two years, over 60 visiting professors and instructors from around the world had lectured there.

Supported by the international Friends of the UKMA, the university established the best computer classrooms in the country, an extensive library, a foreign language lab, physics and geology laboratories and a modern print shop. Of all the universities in Ukraine, the UKMA is the only one where lectures are conducted exclusively in Ukrainian, except for those by visiting scholars who provide instruction in English.

According to Dr. Ivaniuk, who visited The Weekly offices, the UKMA intends to establish a working Internet hub for Ukraine, and is gathering funds for this capital-intensive project. The UKMA's other major projects include a Museum of the Diaspora and the restoration of the church and the residence of Halashka Hulevych, 16th century buildings where the academy is located.

Other doings in Ukraine

In late May, the "Kyyiv 94-International Education Fair" was conducted in the Ukrainian capital at the initiative of the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Information Agency and various congressional leaders. The conference was organized by Dr. Edward Lozansky, president of American International University in Moscow, with Petro Talanchuk, Ukraine's minister of education, delivering the welcoming address.

On October 17-24, the Lviv Polytechnic, Ukraine's oldest, marked its 150th anniversary together with a number of diasporan alumni. Rector Yevhen Rudavsky greeted the celebrants and presided over a program that focused on the school's past successes and its needs and vision for the future. Considered commercially successful, the teaching and research facility is pursuing contracts worth $1 million with firms from Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Canada.

The Sheptytsky Institute and Sheptytskiana

In the year of the 50th anniversary of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky's death, it was fitting that the theological institute in Ottawa bearing his name made great strides.

The Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies is an academic unit of St. Paul University's Faculty of Theology. Effective January 1, the Rev. Peter Galadza was appointed to a tenure-track position as the first full-time professor of Byzantine liturgy.

From June 18 to July 16, the institute held its seventh annual summer session on Eastern Christian studies at Mount Tabor Monaster in California. This session was unique because for the first time it included students from Ukraine. The three all work at the Lviv-based Institute of Church History, founded by the Sheptytsky Institute's Prof. Borys Gudziak as one of the units of a revitalized Lviv Theological Academy, over which Metropolitans Sheptytsky and Josyf Slipyj presided.

On September 22, St. Paul University's Chancellor Marcel Gervais, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ottawa, formally launched a degree program in Eastern Christian studies. The program and the attendant Chair of Eastern Christian Theology was made possible by a $1 million (Canadian) endowment established by Peter and Doris Kule of Edmonton. As a result, St. Paul's became the first university in the Western hemisphere to offer Eastern Christian studies from the undergraduate to doctoral levels.

Simultaneously, the Sheptytsky Institute's director since 1989, the Rev. Dr. Andriy Chirovsky, was installed as the first Peter and Doris Kule Professor of Eastern Christian Theology and Spirituality.

Metropolitan Andrey was also the subject of a number of scholarly conferences, including a single-day commemorative event devoted to the great humanitarian and ecumenist held by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York on November 5. Among the participants were Kurt Lewin, the son of Lviv Chief Rabbi Itzhak Lewin, who survived the Holocaust because Sheptytsky hid him in the library of the Lviv Theological Academy (his father was killed before his eyes). Mr. Lewin's book, "A Journey through Illusions," was published this year by Fithian Press in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Other highlights of diasporan academia

Although the announcement was made late in the year, it will certainly prove to be one of its more significant events. On October 28, Yale University President Richard C. Levin announced that the Chopivsky Family Foundation had made a $1 million (U.S.) fund to support the study of Ukraine. The foundation is headed by United Psychiatric Group founder and chairman Dr. George Chopivsky (Yale class 1969), also known for his support of the UKMA. The new fund will be used to purchase books for Yale-wide use and to provide scholarships and grants for tuition, travel and other expenses of students and scholars. It will be administered by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies.
In April, organizers, participants and supporters of the Ukrainian Student Association in the U.S.A. (USA/USA) held their inaugural meeting at Columbia University to discuss the recruitment of students from Ukraine, the provision of educational studies in the U.S., and the difficulties in managing exchanges.
On June 9, during the Congress of Canadian Learned Societies in Calgary, Alberta, the ecumenical Canadian Association of Eastern Christian Studies was formed to address issues the many aspects of Eastern Christianity, whether Orthodox, Eastern Catholic (Uniate) or Oriental Orthodox. Fifteen scholars from various religious backgrounds from universities across Canada attended the inaugural organizational meeting. Dr. Andrii Krawchuk of the Sheptytsky Institute was elected secretary/treasurer and announced that its first conference will be held in June 1995.
In August, the School of Area Studies at the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Institute established a Ukrainian area studies program geared for the training foreign service officers who would serve in Ukraine. The program was organized and will be conducted by Roman Popadiuk, who served as the first U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 1992 to 1993.
The 13th annual summer conference on Ukrainian subjects was held at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, on two main themes: "Censorship in Ukraine and Ukrainian Publications," coordinated by Prof. Bohdan Rubchak of the host institution, and "Ukraine in Transition, 1990-1994," coordinated by Prof. Taras Hunczak of Rutgers University.
The October 30 issue of The Weekly carried an announcement that the Kyyiv-based Pylyp Orlyk Institute was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington. The grant allows the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting democracy and free market economics in Ukraine, to continue its policy of providing national policy-makers in the country with accurate and timely information from the West, opportunities for education and research materials on policy issues.

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