Ukrainianists hold third congress in Kharkiv (09/08/96)

Ukrainianists hold third congress in Kharkiv

by Marta Dyczok

KHARKIV - On the morning of August 26, the place to be for scholars specializing in Ukrainian studies was Kharkiv's train station. Professors, researchers, students and librarians from all over the world and from all corners of Ukraine were arriving to attend the third Congress of the International Association of Ukrainianists (MAU). On the rainy platform figures such as Yuriy Shevelov, Orest Subtelny, George Grabowycz and Yaroslav Isaievych mingled with junior scholars and conference organizers before getting into cars and buses and heading for the registration site.

Since Ukraine became independent, interest in Ukrainian studies has increased tremendously. Over 600 delegates from 25 countries and all Ukrainian oblasts, including the Crimea, participated in the conference.

Kharkiv was deliberately selected as the location for the congress. Prof. Isaievych, president of the Inter-national Association of Ukrainianists, spoke of the need to counteract the effects of centralization policies of the former Soviet authorities, which have led to marginalization of academic institutions outside capital cities.

Adding substance and continuity to this effort was the presence of Prof. Shevelov, the most prominent Ukrainian linguist, who worked at Kharkiv University before fleeing from persecution and setting up residence in New York as a professor at Columbia University. He is one of the living examples of the numerous Ukrainian intellectuals produced by the region.

Ivan Drach stirred memories and captured the imagination of assembled delegates during his welcoming address at the opening ceremony. "As I rode the train from Kyiv to Kharkiv, during the night, images of the famous sons of Slobozhanshchyna kept appearing around me," said the president of the Congress of Ukrainian Intelligentsia. "At one point I thought I saw the figure of Skovoroda walking alongside the train, later I imagined Khvyliovy sitting in the corner of my compartment," continued Mr. Drach, before wishing the Ukrainianists a successful conference.

The Ukrainian government acknowledged the importance of this congress, as evidenced by the presence of Vice-Premier Ivan Kuras, who delivered official greetings from President Leonid Kuchma. Echoing the sentiments expressed in his speech on the eve of Independence Day in Kyiv, President Kuchma's greeting repeated his commitment to the development of academia in Ukraine as a key component of democratic development of the new state. "The International Association of Ukrainianists is making a great and important contribution," the statement read.

Other dignitaries gracing the opening ceremony, held in the modern opera house, included the head of the State Committee on Nationalities and Migration, Volodymyr Levtukh; Vice President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Petro Tolochko; the head of the Kharkiv Oblast Administration, Oleh Diomin; Prof. Grabowycz of Harvard University; and heads of National Associations of Ukrainianists from around the world.

Perhaps the greatest impact was the presentation delivered by Kazuo Nakai from Japan. In fluent Ukrainian, he spoke about the role of independent Ukraine in the new international order, causing even the most talkative members of the audience to listen in awe to his linguistic abilities and academic analysis.

Japan is one of the new countries in which National Associations of Ukrainianists have been formed, and now has 20 members. Pioneers of this movement were scholars in Czecho-Slovakia, Canada and the United States.

The first International Congress of Ukrainianists was planned for 1968 but was never held because of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Two decades later a meeting was held in Naples on the initiative of academics from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute led by Profs. Omeljan Pritsak and Grabowycz, and their colleagues in other countries. A nucleus committee was formed of Eastern and Western scholars that organized the First International Congress of Ukrainianists in Kyiv in 1991.

It was then that the International Association of Ukrainianists was formed ("Mizhnarodna Assotsiatsia Ukraiinistiv" - MAU). National branches of the association began proliferating, and the Second International Congress was held in Lviv in 1993. Currently there are 23 such national associations, the largest ones being in the United States, Germany, Poland, Australia, Italy and Israel. New ones are in the process of being established in Sweden, Spain and Brazil.

At the Kharkiv congress the principal language was Ukrainian, but certain presentations were made in English and German. In 91 panels held over two days, topics ranging from "Social Changes in Contemporary Ukrainian Society: Problems and Tendencies" (Victor Horodianenko, Ukraine) to "The Image of Ukraine in the German Press" (Katrin Bertram, Germany) and "The Inner Language Form in the Theories of Humboldt, Steinthal and Potebnja" (Thomas Graig Christy, U.S.) were among those discussed.

The size and scope of the conference was indeed impressive. However, in some ways it seemed to have overwhelmed the organizers, and many logistical matters were poorly handled.

Delegates who had flown in from North America and spent the night on a train were kept waiting for hours before being able to check into hotel rooms. Some participants were unable to present their papers, since upon arrival they were informed about last minute changes to the program that had been made after they had made their return travel arrangements. Other complaints included inadequate advertising before the conference that precluded full and open participation by all interested scholars.

Two other major issues that the International Association of Ukrainianists must address in the future are maintenance of academic objectivity and institutional relations with the Ukrainian government. Representatives of the Ministry of Education were conspicuously absent from the congress, and some speakers made references to the patriotic nature of Ukrainian studies.

Prof. Subtelny from Canada commented, "As a scholar you have to have commitment to an idea, but in the West emotion is not considered part of academia, whereas in Ukraine it does sometimes enter the language of scholarly debates."

Debates and discussions, emotional and otherwise, are an important part of any conference. They were very much part of the atmosphere at the Congress of Ukrainianists in Kharkiv, thereby making it a useful forum for scholars to meet and continue the process of building links, and expand the dialogue in the emerging field of Ukrainian studies.