2003: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: New books of 2003: notable publications (01/11/04)

2003: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

New books of 2003: notable publications

Books, too, were in the news during 2003. Below are some of the more notable releases during the past year. (See also the section on arts under the heading of literature.)

"Beheaded - The Killing of a Journalist" by J.V. Koshiw was launched on January 22 at www.artemia-press.co.uk. While deputy editor of Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper published in Ukraine, Mr. Koshiw authored more than 70 articles on politics. The book tells the story of why journalist Heorhii Gongadze was kidnapped and examines the evidence that President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine was responsible for his death. Mr. Koshiw spent eight months in Ukraine investigating the Gongadze case, from the time he disappeared in September 2000. "Beheaded" is Mr. Koshiw's third book.
In April, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press published a new and important book on Ukraine's historical relations with its most powerful neighbor, Russia. The book, "Culture, Nation and Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter, 1600-1945," is based on a series of four sessions on the Russian-Ukrainian encounter held alternately at Columbia University and Cologne University from June 1994 to September 1995, which had their origin both in the world of great political events and the realm of scholarly discussions.

The editors of "Culture, Nation and Identity," representing the Seminar for East European History at Cologne University, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, invited 70 specialists to examine the Russian-Ukrainian encounter, from the 17th century to the present. This work is a selection of 16 articles developed from presentations on the Ukrainian-Russian encounter from the early modern period to World War II.
Thanks to the support from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and its affiliate at Kharkiv National University, the Kowalsky Eastern Ukrainian Institute (KEUI), the first Ukrainian-language edition of George Y. Shevelov's fundamental monograph "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language" was published in late 2002 in Kharkiv. "Historical Phonology" was translated into Ukrainian by the Kharkiv linguists Andrii Danylenko and Serhii Vakulenko. The book was published by the Kharkiv-based publisher Akta under the title "Istorychna Fonolohiia Ukrainskoyi Movy."

Dr. Shevelov (1908-2002) was a prominent Ukrainian linguist whose monumental work, "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language," was published in 1979 with the support of the CIUS. Its appearance prompted the scholarly world to revisit not only the historical phonetics of the Ukrainian language but also the history of the language itself. This work remains the only phonology of any Slavic language.
On May 20, the Great Hall of the House of Artists in Kyiv saw the book launch of an expanded edition of George Grabowicz's book "Do Istorii Ukrainskoi Literatury" (Towards a History of Ukrainian Literature), recently printed in Ukrainian by Krytyka Press. Compared to the first edition, the new one is a considerably larger collection of Dr. Grabowicz's essays, articles and two self-contained monographs, published over the last 30 years and covering a period of 400 years, starting with the 16th century religious polemicist Ivan Vyshensky and ending with the last century.

Dr. Grabowicz is the Dmytro Cyzevskyj Professor of Ukrainian Literature at Harvard and former director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He is well-known in Ukraine not only as an influential literary critic but primarily as the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal Krytyka. Prof. Grabowicz has also established a highly successful and respected publishing enterprise under the same name.
"It is a travel diary, a photo album, a handbook for learning modern Ukrainian and slang terms, an attempt to connect two worlds, and an exploration of thoughts and ideas about modern Ukrainian culture and life of Ukrainians." That's how Maria Kachmar, author of "Semestr u Lvovi" (Semester in Lviv), describes the creative non-fiction piece. Ms. Kachmar is a fourth-year education student at the University of Alberta, who last year studied at the Lviv National University. The book describes her adventures there as a young Ukrainian Canadian who goes to the unknown land of her ancestors to make up her own mind about modern Ukraine.

Ms. Kachmar's sister, Larissa, assisted her in the visualization and design of the book. In a radio interview with Maria Kachmar, Orest Solytykevych pointed out that even if you do not speak Ukrainian, "the book is worth buying just for the pictures." Ms. Kachmar hoped to translate her book into English and even publish it in Ukraine.
"U.S. Intelligence Perceptions of Soviet Power 1921-1946" by Leonard Leshuk was published in January of 2003, claiming to be the first comprehensive study of U.S. intelligence regarding the strength of the Soviet Union in the period from 1921 to 1946. Using previously classified U.S. intelligence files, Dr. Leshuk attempts to determine what the U.S. intelligence perceptions were, on what information they were based and what connection they had to U.S. policy. A major focus of the book is to determine how and why the United States underestimated the strength of the Soviet Union.

Dr. Leshuk is a researcher and independent intelligence analyst in Washington. He spent several years helping the Afghan resistance in the war with the Soviet Union, and more recently has examined first-hand much of the Soviet-era industrial infrastructure remaining in the successor states of the USSR. The book also contains revelations about the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933.
"Lesia's Dream," a novel for young adults by Laura Langston, poignantly details the struggles of a Ukrainian family adjusting to their adopted country of Canada during World War I. Fifteen-year-old Lesia and her family are from Shuparka, in the Halychyna region of Ukraine, which was under the rule of Austrians just before World War I. Lesia and her brother, Ivan, save and borrow enough money to get their whole family to Canada, however this strange land looks nothing like the country they fled.

"Lesia's Dream" highlights a little-known Canadian historical fact about the internment of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans during World War I. Filled with intricate details of Ukrainian customs and traditions, "Lesia's Dream" is a gripping story about a family's survival.
In August 2003 the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press released a 232-page collection of 11 essays by Serhii Plokhy and Frank Sysyn titled "Religion and Nation in Modern Ukraine." Drs. Plokhy and Sysyn wrote their studies on the topic during the years 1983-1999. The book is indispensable for anyone interested in the history of Ukraine or in the church-state-nation relationship in 20th century Eastern Europe.

Among the topics the authors discuss are the formation of modern Ukrainian religious culture; the impact of the traditions of the Kyiv Metropolitanate on the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous movement; the foundation of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church in Canada in relation to the formation of national identity in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora; the role of the international factor in the Soviet liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in 1946; the rebirth of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the USSR (1989-1991); the role of the Moscow Patriarchate in independent Ukraine in the early 1990s; the struggle for a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate in Ukraine in the early 1990s; and the Church-state relationship in contemporary Ukraine.
"The Natashas: the New Global Sex Trade" is the title of Victor Malarek's fourth book, which pursues the story of the most recent wave of trafficking - the buying and selling of flesh for the worldwide sex industry. Mr. Malarek estimates that of the 1 million young women sold worldwide for sex every year, one-quarter come from Eastern Europe, including about 100,000 from Ukraine alone.

One of the most appalling aspects of this trade is the targeting of orphans throughout Eastern Europe. Girls must leave orphanages when they graduate, usually at the age of 16 or 17 and, having no money for living expenses or any education or training to get a job, they easily fall prey to bogus job offers in other countries. In the past three decades there have been four waves of trafficking, with the latest from Eastern and Central Europe, dubbed the fourth wave whose "speed and proportion is staggering," Mr. Malarek writes. In its 2003 trafficking report, the U.S. State Deptartment estimates that approximately 800,000 to 900,000 persons are trafficked across international borders worldwide and 25 percent of this trade is traffic from Eastern and Central Europe. Ten years ago it was non-existent. "The Natashas" is an investigation to find out how it happened and why it continues to thrive.

One of Canada's foremost investigative journalists, Mr. Malarek has written for The Globe and Mail, has been the host of CBC's investigative documentary program "the fifth estate" and is now an investigative journalist on CTV's current-affairs show "W-5." The book was launched in October in both Ottawa and Toronto.

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