January 13, 2017

Hrushevsky Translation Project Produces Volume 3 of “History of Ukraine-Rus’”

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Cover illustration of the “History of Ukraine-Rus’,” Volume 3: “Christ in His Glory,” from the Egbert (Trier) Psalter (11th century).

EDMONTON-TORONTO – The Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, and CIUS Press announced the publication of a new volume of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s “History of Ukraine-Rus’.” The new English-language Volume 3, like the eight volumes previously published (between 1997 and 2014), was prepared by the Jacyk Center’s Hrushevsky Translation Project. With its appearance in 2016, Volume 3, subtitled “To the Year 1340,” also marks the 150th anniversary of Hrushevsky’s birth.

Hrushevsky characterized his multi-volume “History of Ukraine-Rus’ ” as the story of the Ukrainian people’s existence from the earliest times to the modern era. In Volume 3 he deals with one of that history’s least known but most intriguing periods – the time of the preeminence of the Galician-Volhynian state and the spread of Tatar (Mongol) rule over the Ukrainian lands. In this volume the master historian also offers a comprehensive discussion of the political, social and cultural life of the Old Rus’ period, during the flourishing of the princely state centered in Kyiv.

Hrushevsky represents the Galician-Volhynian state as a Western-based successor to Kyivan Old Rus’. He describes the Galician-Volhynian state’s formation and the dynastic circumstances that subsequently led to its decline. One focus is on Danylo Romanovych, the eminent ruler who played a major role in the affairs of East-Central Europe and received a crown from the pope. Danylo succeeded in uniting the Volhynian lands and extended his rule over the Halych principality (Galicia), protecting his state against the Tatars while seeking support from the West.

In this volume Hrushevsky also describes the situation in the Dnipro lands after the Tatar invasion. Turning to an examination of life in the Ukrainian lands during the entire Old Rus’ period, Hrushevsky discusses the political, military and judicial systems, religious life, artistic and literary achievements, economic matters, social structure and the everyday life of ordinary people. Throughout his narrative Hrushevsky demonstrates the erudition and command of source materials for which he is renowned.

The English-language volume includes introductions addressing its contents and ongoing scholarly significance by Svitlana Pankova, director of the Hrushevsky Museum in Kyiv, and Volodymyr Aleksandrovych, historian at the Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of Lviv, as well as an appended essay dealing with literature and education in Old Rus’ by Robert Romanchuk of Florida State University.

Contents include Hrushevsky’s own detailed bibliographical essays with extensive updates by contemporary scholars, including Leontii Voitovych, Volodymyr Aleksandrovych, Christian Raffensperger, Charles J. Halperin, Tomasz Wiślicz and Maryna Kravets.

The volume also features a newly compiled bibliography of all works cited by Hrushevsky, four maps with accompanying notes and a genealogical table with explanatory note.

Work on the English-language edition of the “History of Ukraine-Rus’” is supported by the endowment established by the late Peter Jacyk of Toronto, founder of the Jacyk Center, and by the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, headed by Nadia Jacyk. The preparation of the new volume had the financial support of the Shevchenko Scientific Society Inc., U.S.A., which already in the 1950s proposed the translation of Hrushevsky’s “History” into English as essential to the development of Ukrainian scholarship. The estate of Edward Brodacky of London, England, provided a generous donation toward the volume’s publication, and the BCU Foundation, based in Toronto, provided funds for printing and dissemination.

Volume 3 was translated by the late Bohdan Strumiński, an eminent philologist and associate of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. Dr. Strumiński also translated Volume 7 (published in 1999) and Volume 9, Book 1 (2005).

Consulting editors of Volume 3 were Yaroslav Fedoruk of the Institute of Archaeography and Source Studies, Kyiv, and Robert Romanchuk, Florida State University. The volume was edited by Frank E. Sysyn, director of the Jacyk Center and editor-in-chief of the Hrushevsky Translation Project, assisted by managing editor Uliana M. Pasicznyk. Marta Horban-Carynnyk also edited the text.

Scholarly consultants included Christian Raffensperger, Charles J. Halperin, Renata Holod, Tomasz Wiślicz, Maryna Kravets, Victor Ostapchuk, Stephen Rowell, Michael Moser, Rostyslav Paranko, Giovanna Brogi, Olenka Pevny and András Riedelmayer.

The bibliography was compiled by Andrii Grechylo and Myron Kapral, and the index was compiled by Myron Kapral and Antonii Feloniuk. The “Table of Rulers” was compiled by Marko R. Stech and Tania Plawuszczak-Stech, who also worked on other aspects of the volume. Myroslav Yurkevich edited the bibliography, and Marta Daria Olynyk translated the introductions. Also providing editorial assistance were Serhii Plokhy, Andrij Hornjatkevyč and Dushan Bednarsky. Marko R. Stech, director of CIUS Press, supervised the publishing process.

A book launch of the new volume took place in Toronto on November 13, 2016. Like all volumes of the “History of Ukraine-Rus’,” Volume 3 can be purchased via the secure online ordering system of CIUS Press at www.ciuspress.com or by contacting CIUS Press by e-mail, [email protected], or telephone, 780-492-2972. The volume is priced at $119.95 (plus taxes and shipping; outside Canada, prices are in U.S. dollars). The complete 12-volume “History” is available at a subscription price of $1,100.

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