Prof. Motyl recalls "the passion of '72" (05/28/06)

Prof. Motyl recalls "the passion of '72"

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - The keynote speaker at the Graduate Symposium was Prof. Alexander Motyl of Rutgers University who provided a look at the situation of Ukrainian studies since what he called "the passion of '72" - the summer of 1972 when Ukrainian student activists (of whom he was one) in the U.S., Canada and Europe got involved in activities taking place in Ukraine.

"This was a very interesting time because the kinds of processes that were set in motion in the 1960s in Canada, the U.S. and Europe were processes that had an impact on us, students in the Ukrainian ghetto and the diaspora communities. This was also a time when exciting things were taking place within the Soviet Union, specifically Ukraine. [Petro] Shelest had just been removed, a dissident movement had emerged and publications produced by dissidents - the names of [Ivan] Dziuba, [Valentyn] Moroz and Chornovil are obviously familiar to you - that were interesting and provocative were appearing. There was a lot of passion, a lot of engagement going on at that time. There was a sense that things mattered and that we could somehow make a difference," he said.

"But, once we got involved, we were immediately confronted with a deep and profound variety of ethical dilemmas. Most of the dissidents were working for change within the system - maybe one or two were supporting revolution, transformation or destruction of the Soviet system - but by in large they were actually interested in reforming communism, interested in reforming the Soviet Union as it existed. That forced one to ask: What was one's attitude supposed to be towards Soviet Ukraine - the system, the society, the Communist regime? These were deeply political and moral questions. They forced one to confront the reality, forced one to accept a certain kind of complexity, a certain kind of anxiety. My point is that it forced one to deal with a variety of ambiguities. So while, on the one hand, there was exhilaration, passion and engagement, there was also a great deal of angst and uncertainty," he explained.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ukrainian studies was a parochial field - an interest not rewarded by anyone within scholarship nor in the academic, policy or journalist communities, while in the larger world, the country did not exist. Yet he pointed out that "the passion of '72" produced a variety of very impressive people for Ukrainian studies - individuals who took part in the student activities, continued with their interest in Ukraine and were able to transform it into something in the nature of a vocation. He mentioned Adrian Karatnycky, Bohdan Nahaylo, Roman Kupchinsky, Oleh Ilnytsky and George Liber from the U.S.A., and Bohdan Krawchenko, Marko Bojcun, Myroslav Shkandriy, Roman Senkus, Halyna Hryn, Halya Kuczmij and Yuri Boshyk in Canada.

Prof. Motyl then summarized some of the changes in Ukrainian studies since independence in 1991: a scholarly conference devoted solely to the study of Ukraine, as was this graduate student conference, would not have been possible 15 years ago; there are people doing Ukrainian studies now with no Ukrainian background, as well as a large number of people from Ukraine pursuing Ukrainian studies in Western universities; there has been an explosion of empirical research in Ukrainian studies; Ukrainian studies now offer career opportunities.

And finally, Prof. Motyl said, the impact of the Orange Revolution on Ukrainian studies is very profound - "1991 made Ukraine respectable, made it exist; after 2004 Ukraine not only exists but it exists in a good sense. This will be important for the kind of reception scholarly work on Ukraine has. The Orange Revolution has rekindled, both in Ukraine and here, the kind of passion and engagement that we experienced in the 1970s," he said.

"But the year after the Orange Revolution has been one of terrible disappointments. It didn't quite work out for a number of reasons, and there is an important lesson in terms of Ukrainian studies. The Orange Revolution brought back the passion and engagement and with it, what I believe is the necessary complement - the anxiety and the uncertainty. I think those things have to go together. The last 12-13 months have forced all of us to confront the reality that things aren't easy - there are no simple answers. It is impossible to reconcile these tensions - it is impossible to reconcile the passion and engagement and the anxiety and the uncertainty," Prof. Motyl explained.

The question to scholars is how to combine these two contradictory impulses, he said. "On the one hand we feel impelled, as we did in the 1970s, to choose sides. But at the same time we feel we should be objective. We want to be able to claim that we have some sort of grasp of truth. We want to be on the inside, on the maidan. But to write about it you have to step outside the maidan. So we want to be inside and outside at the same time," he said.

"The bottom line is that we are not in the ivory tower, we are in the world. We as academics have an obligation, if we really want to pursue Ukrainian studies, to take on this tension between commitment and anxiety, and be willing to overcome the barrier between the ivory tower and the world. It is incumbent on us to communicate what we have to say to others - businessmen, foreigners, journalists and average people," he concluded.

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