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Lesia Ukrainka was a Ukrainian poet, prose writer, and dramatist of universal importance. Her first collection of poetry, On the Wings of Song (1893), established her reputation as an accomplished lyrical poet. This collection contains her often-quoted poem "Contra spem spero" (Hope against Hope)--an expression of her remarkable strength of character and determination to face down a severe illness (tuberculosis of the bones) that afflicted her from an early age and caused her untimely death at the age of 42. Lesia Ukrainka wrote her masterpieces in the genres of drama and dramatic poetry, to which she turned her attention in the early 1900s. Many of her dramas were set in a variety of historical epochs, from those of ancient Greece and biblical Palestine to early modern Spain, eighteenth-century Muscovy, and the first Puritan settlers in America. Her most acclaimed play, The Song of the Forest (1911), is a symbolist fantasy drama in verse that evokes the neo-romantic concept of "living nature." Written in Kutaisi in the Caucasus two years before her death, it reflects Lesia Ukrainka's intense nostalgia for her native western Ukrainian region of Volhynia and her deep appreciation of the folkways, beliefs, and mythology of its countryside, where she grew up. In The Song of the Forest, Lesia Ukrainka expressed her deepest idealistic outlook, focusing on the contrast between good and evil, loyalty and betrayal, and highlighting the ideal of harmony between humans and nature and the importance of being a free, independent spirit. Patrick John Corness's meticulous translation of the play and his introduction and explanatory notes provide Anglophone readers with an opportunity to acquire a closer appreciation of this classic of Ukrainian literature.

This book contains the life stories of ten Ukrainian-Canadian women who survived the turbulent events of twentieth-century Europe. The older women were shaped by their experiences during the First World War and the revolutionary years of 1917-21, while the younger ones were profoundly affected, if not traumatized, by the trials and tribulations of interwar Polish or Soviet rule, the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Western Ukraine during the Second World War, or their deportation and forced labour in the Third Reich. Some of the women were politically active in Ukraine during the war; some experienced Soviet and Nazi persecution and even imprisonment. All ten women found refuge in the displaced persons camps in postwar Allied-occupied Germany or Austria. From there they immigrated to Canada, where they were active in the life and organizations of the Ukrainian émigré community. One became a published poet and writer. These life stories were selected from among the interviews of 250 Ukrainian émigré women conducted by the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre in Toronto and the Institute of Historical Research at Lviv National University. They are valuable contributions to the oral history of Ukrainian women, twentieth-century Ukraine, and Ukrainians in Canada.

Volodymyr Vynnychenko (1880-1951) was an extraordinary writer and political figure of the Ukrainian generation that was active in the early twentieth century. In his stories, novels, and plays he broke with populist and literary-realist traditions and rebelled against the social mores and political system of the tsarist empire, often raising provocative questions about morality and authenticity. Vynnychenko wrote most of his 23 plays while he lived as an émigré. A number of his plays were staged in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, and other countries. But in the English-speaking world, Vynnychenko is still largely unknown. This volume of six of his best-known plays, translated by George Mihaychuk, corrects this lacuna and introduces readers to a masterful dramatist.

In Eternal Memory: Monuments and Memorials of the Holodomor, Wiktoria Kudela-Swiatek provides an in-depth examination of "places of memory" associated with the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, supplemented by photographs from across the globe that highlight both the uniqueness of individual monuments and their commonalities. The author investigates the history, aesthetics, and symbolism of a wide array of commemorative spaces, including museums, commemorative plaques, and sites directly linked with the victims of the Holodomor (previously unmarked mass graves, for example). The book not only illuminates the range of meanings that communities of memory have invested in these sites but sheds light on the processes by which commemorative practices have evolved and been shared between Ukraine and the diaspora.

No period in Bohdan Khmelnytsky''s hetmancy was as rich in international and dynastic plans as the years 1650 to 1653. After the Zboriv Agreement of 1649, when the hetman resolved to find a way to break forever with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he set out to create the military and political conditions to achieve his goal. From Venice to Moscow the wily hetman spun his diplomatic and military plans. In his search for allies and in pursuit of his goal of establishing a political system that secured the Ukrainian Hetmanate, he looked above all to the Ottomans and their Danubian vassal states. Fusing the interests of his new state to those of his own family, the hetman aspired to found a new dynasty by marrying his son into the ruling house of Moldavia. And as Khmelnytsky was pursing these goals and aspirations, the Cossacks'' military victories and defeats were shaping the fate of a new Ukraine. The book also covers the dramatic development of Ukrainian-Moldavian relations in the years 1650-53, beginning with the Cossacks'' victorious campaign against Moldavia. The period witnessed the marriage of Tymish Khmelnytsky to Roksanda Lupu, the daughter of the Moldavian hospodar, and it ended with Tymish''s tragic death during the siege of Suceava by allied Polish, Wallachian, and Moldavian forces--a major blow not only to Khmelnytsky''s policy in the Danube region, but also to his dynastic aspirations. In covering these events, Hrushevsky again proved himself an outstanding researcher with scrupulous attention to detail. His portrait of Tymish, whom Bohdan Khmelnytsky was grooming to become his successor, remains the most complete in the literature. The book concludes on the eve of the Battle of Zhvanets (1653) and the Pereiaslav Council of 1654, events crucial to the future of Ukraine. This volume was translated by Bohdan Struminski and edited by Serhii Plokhy (consulting editor) and Frank E. Sysyn (editor in chief) with the assistance of Uliana M. Pasicznyk. The volume includes an extensive historical introduction, a full bibliography of the sources used by Hrushevsky, 3 maps, and an index. The preparation of this volume for publication was generously sponsored by Mrs. Sofiia Wojtyna of Hamilton, Ontario, in memory of Vasyl Bilash, Mykhailo Charkivsky, and Mykhailo Wojtyna.

Mykhailo Hrushevsky''s History of Ukraine-Rus,'' Volume 8: The Cossack Age, 1626-1650 deals with the period when the Cossacks'' emergence as a political power and the Khmelnytsky Uprising made Ukraine a focal point in European and Near Eastern affairs. Based on an exhaustive examination of the sources and scholarly literature, Hrushevsky''s volume 8 stands as the most comprehensive account of this dramatic period in Ukrainian history. Ukraine''s central role in the international politics of the time makes the volume important to specialists and students of East European, Central European, Ottoman, Russian, and Jewish history, as well as to those studying revolution and state building in early modern Europe. For her work in translating volume 8 Marta Daria Olynyk was awarded the 2004 AAUS Translation Prize. This volume was translated by Marta Daria Olynyk and edited by Frank E. Sysyn (editor in chief) with the assistance of Myroslav Yurkevich.

This tome, in which Mykhailo Hrushevsky analyzes the last two years of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky's rule, consists of the final chapters (10-13) of volume 9. Hrushevsky presents the most comprehensive discussion to date of Khmelnytsky's foreign policy in the aftermath of the Treaty of Pereiaslav (1654), a topic closed to research in Soviet Ukraine from the 1930s to the 1980s. He also discusses Khmelnytsky's renewed efforts to annex the western Ukrainian territories and to control the Belarusian lands conquered by the Cossacks. He concludes with an assessment of the hetman and his age that has long been controversial in Ukrainian historiography.The volume shows how Ukraine's relations with Muscovy were strained by the Muscovites' failure to help fend off devastating Polish and Crimean attacks, which prompted Ukrainian leaders to seek support elsewhere. Tensions were exacerbated by the Ukrainian-Muscovite dispute over Belarusian territory. When Charles X of Sweden attacked the Commonwealth in 1655, while Khmelnytsky sought to recover the western Ukrainian lands, a Swedish-Ukrainian alliance seemed to be in the making. A military convention was concluded, but Charles, under pressure from his allies among the Polish nobility, would not cede western Ukraine to the Cossacks. Once Muscovy declared war on Sweden in 1656, it opened peace negotiations with Poland to which Cossack envoys were not admitted, convincing Khmelnytsky's officers that the Muscovites had betrayed them. Khmelnytsky then began a complicated diplomatic offensive to break up Muscovite-Polish negotiations. After the Vilnius accord between Muscovy and the Commonweath (November 1656), he sought to form a Swedish-Transylvanian-Ukrainian league in cooperation with Brandenburg and supported the abortive effort by György Rákóczi II of Transylvania to gain the Polish throne. Khmelnytsky also negotiated with the Ottoman Porte, giving rise to the vexed question of his possible request for vassal status. Hrushevsky's exhaustive discussion of diplomatic affairs greatly advances understanding of the role of Ukraine and the countries of East Central Europe in the political crisis of the mid-seventeenth century.This volume was translated by Marta Daria Olynyk and edited by Yaroslav Fedoruk (consulting editor) and Frank E. Sysyn (editor in chief) with the assistance of Myroslav Yurkevich.In a comprehensive introduction to the volume, Yaroslav Fedoruk considers issues of foreign policy, as well as the larger problem of national historiographies and their limitations with regard to the highly complex European situation. Frank Sysyn analyzes Hrushevsky's assessment of Khmelnytsky's rule in chapter 13 as a polemic with the conservative historian Viacheslav Lypynsky (1882-1931). The preparation of this volume for publication was funded by a generous donation from Dr. Maria Fischer-Slysh (Toronto, Ontario) in memory of her parents, Dr. Adolf and Olha Slyz.

Volume 10 covers most of the hetmancy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky's successor, Ivan Vyhovsky (1657-59). Its three chapters constitute only the first part of the volume as Hrushevsky planned it. When he wrote them in 1929-30, the Soviet authorities in Moscow had begun their sweeping attack on Ukraine's political and cultural autonomy, including an effort to enforce conformity on the historical profession. Arrested in March 1931, Hrushevsky was exiled to Moscow, where he worked mainly on his History of Ukrainian Literature. After the historian's death in 1934, his daughter, Kateryna, edited the incomplete volume 10 and managed to have it published in 1936.Hrushevsky's account begins with the tensions surrounding Vyhovsky's assumption of the hetmancy following Khmelnytsky's death. The late hetman's son and designated successor, Iurii, was not yet of age and did not command the loyalty of the Cossack rank and file. Vyhovsky emerged as a 'caretaker' identified with the Cossack officer establishment. He was soon faced with a revolt of Zaporozhian Cossacks led by a rival for command of the Host, Iakiv Barabash, and the colonel of Poltava, Martyn Pushkar. Although Vyhovsky routed their forces in battle, his relations with Muscovy grew increasingly difficult, as he suspected the tsarist government of exploiting rank-and-file dissatisfaction in order to depose him. This led Vyhovsky to consider a reconciliation with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in which Rus' would be a co-equal principality--a settlement whose conditions were elaborated in the Treaty of Hadiach (1658). The volume closes with Hrushevsky's detailed assessment of the treaty, on which he renders a negative judgment.Volume 10 was translated by Marta Daria Olynyk, who is also the translator of volumes 8 and 9, book 2, part 1, and 9, book 2, part 2. The volume was prepared for publication by two staff editors--editor in chief Frank Sysyn, who was involved in all aspects of the volume, and senior editor Myroslav Yurkevich, who edited the translation for content and style--and two consulting editors, Andrew B, Pernal and Yaroslav Fedoruk. Professor Pernal provided an introduction discussing the sources and structure of the volume. Dr. Fedoruk provided a second introduction, based largely on archival sources, that offers the most complete account yet written of Hrushevsky's creative work during his final years.

The ninth volume of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's History of Ukraine-Rus' is by far the longest in the ten-volume series. Written in the late 1920s, after Hrushevsky had returned to Ukraine from exile, the volume is based mainly on a wealth of documents gathered by Hrushevsky and his students in the Moscow archives. Many of these documents were little used or unknown to previous historians. The pivotal event in this part of the volume is the Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654, which brought Cossack Ukraine under a Muscovite protectorate. Needing military assistance to continue the struggle with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, against which the Cossack Host and much of the Ukrainian populace had rebelled in 1648, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky was prepared to make an agreement that brought Muscovy into the conflict on terms favorable to the Cossacks. Hrushevsky analyzes the diplomatic and military developments that led up to the agreement, and in chapter 7 he presents the most detailed and thoughtful treatment in modern historiography of the Pereiaslav Council of January 1654 and the subsequent understandings with Moscow. In his discussion Hrushevsky deals not only with previous historiography and the documentary record, which is incomplete, but also with the negotiations, taking account of the conflicting motivations of the two sides. The subsequent chapters trace the difficult course of Cossack Ukraine's relations with Muscovy in 1654-55: the joint military campaign against the Commonwealth, which almost led to disaster because of poor coordination; the Cossack leadership's efforts to take control of the western Ukrainian and southern Belarusian lands; the ferocious battle of Dryzhypil; and the devastation of the Bratslav region by Polish and Tatar forces, against which Muscovy provided no effective protection. On the basis of the travel diary of Paul of Aleppo, a Syrian cleric, Hrushevsky gives an account of daily life in Ukraine at the time, with many details unavailable in other sources. Unparalleled in breadth of research, Hrushevsky's work brings to life a turbulent and politically decisive period in the life of the Ukrainian people. This volume was translated by Marta Daria Olynyk and edited by Serhii Plokhy (consulting editor) and Frank E. Sysyn (editor in chief) with the assistance of Myroslav Yurkevich. The volume includes an extensive historical introduction, a full bibliography of the sources used by Hrushevsky, 3 maps, and an index. The preparation of this volume for publication was funded by a generous donation from Mrs. Daria Mucak-Kowalsky (Etobicoke, Ontario) in memory of her husband, Mykhailo Kowalsky.

Volume 3 concludes the first cycle of the History of Ukraine-Rus', which Mykhailo Hrushevsky characterized as the story of the Ukrainian people's historical existence from its beginnings to the collapse of statehood in the fourteenth century. Here Hrushevsky 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. The volume also offers a comprehensive discussion of all aspects of political, social, and cultural life in the Old Rus' period. In discussing the Galician-Volhynian state, Hrushevsky describes its first prince, Roman Mstyslavych, as an effective and forward-looking leader. His son Danylo Romanovych protected his state against the Tatars while seeking support from the West. That policy continued under Danylo's successors, but with the extinction of the Riurykid dynasty the Galician-Volhynian lands were absorbed by Poland and Lithuania. During this same time the lands of the Dnipro region were experiencing the decline of the princely and military retinue system and increasing subordination to Tatar rule. In examining life in Old Rus', Hrushevsky discusses the rights and relations of princes, the functions of princely servitors and administrative officials, the legal code and judicial system, military organization, church organization, and the composition and structure of society. He goes on to describe economic relations, family and social relations, religious life, education, and artistic creativity. He also examines Old Rus' writings, particularly the Kyiv and Galician-Volhynian Chronicles. Throughout, the master historian demonstrates the erudition and command of source materials for which he is renowned.

With volume 4, Mykhailo Hrushevsky begins the second, 'Lithuanian-Polish, ' cycle of his History of Ukraine-Rus', which extends from the fourteenth-century collapse of Ukrainian statehood to the recovery of the late sixteenth century. Volume 4 covers political life, while volumes 5 and 6 deal with society and culture.The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland were the dominant powers in the Ukrainian lands during this period. Having attained statehood in the thirteenth century, Lithuania faced strong opposition from the Teutonic Knights in the northwest and Muscovy in the east. Accordingly, it expanded southward into the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands. Its rule was accepted with little opposition because the Lithuanian ruling stratum was rapidly assimilated by the demographically dominant Ruthenians, and the cultural legacy of Old Rus' reigned supreme. Ruthenian was the main language of the Lithuanian court, common and criminal law was adopted from that of Rus', and Ruthenian craftsmen shaped artistic tastes. Many Lithuanian rulers converted to Orthodoxy. Thus, as Hrushevsky points out, Lithuanian annexation of Ukrainian lands passed relatively unnoticed and left no deep traces in local tradition.Poland contrasts sharply with Lithuania in Hrushevsky's account: a strong state bent on eastward expansion, it was determined to assert its political and cultural dominance. The key to that expansion was the incorporation of Lithuania into a full union with Poland--a process that began with the Union of Kreva (1385) and culminated in the Union of Lublin (1569), which established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and brought the Ukrainian lands under Polish rule. Hrushevsky explains the intricate politics of the period in detail. A separate chapter chronicles the rise of the Crimean Tatars and their devastating raids, which gave the Ruthenians a compelling incentive to accept union with Poland.

Volumes 1 through 3 of Mykhailo Hrushevsky's ten-volume magnum opus, History of Ukraine-Rus', form a foundational unit for the history of the Ukrainian lands and people wherein the eminent historian explores the history of the Ukrainian lands from antiquity up until the dissolution of the Rus' state on western Ukrainian territories in the fourteenth century. Volume 2 acts as a chronological bridge within that unit. The first half of the volume provides what is still the best political history of medieval southern East Slavic territory in any language. It draws on an extraordinarily wide range of evidence to document events from the time of the death of Volodymyr the Great in 1015 through the period of Mongol devastations in 1237-41. Hrushevsky describes the consolidation of the Rus' state in the middle Dnipro region and its rapid political and cultural growth and increasing prosperity in East Slavic territory under the ever-expanding lines of Volodymyr's dynasty. In the second half of the volume, Hrushevsky exploits all of the literary and archaeological evidence available at the turn of the twentieth century to describe as accurately as possible the physical presence of Rus' society on Ukrainian territory, including in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Pereiaslav lands, in Volhynia and Galicia, and in the steppe (what is now southern and eastern Ukraine). These two parts of the volume together make Hrushevsky's case that the Ukrainian people had in their past a period of political statehood lasting for almost four centuries and that by 1900, they and their ancestors had lived continuously in the same territory for almost 1,500 years. Thus, Hrushevsky declares in his introductory remarks, "The history of the territory of present-day Ukraine is the history of the Ukrainian people."

"This book contains the proceedings of a two-day conference organized by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies titled 'Ukrainian Studies in Canada: Texts and Contexts.' Bringing together scholars and community members from across Canada, the United States, and Europe, this major event formed the basis of the present publication; the topics of the papers deal with the past accomplishments, current state, and future prospects of Ukrainian studies in Canada and abroad."--

A brilliantly imaginative and boldly surrealistic tale of struggle between good and evil.

The essays in this collection of symposium papers about the eminent Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhorij Skovoroda (1722-94) examine this unique figure from a number of perspectives: historical, social, literary, pedagogical, linguistic, theological, and philosophical. Hryhorij Skovoroda is a major figure in the history of Ukrainian and Russian literature and philosophy. Educated at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, he served variously as music director of the Russian imperial mission in Hungary, private tutor, and instructor of ethics and poetics at the Kharkiv Collegium. The last decades of his life, which he spent wandering about eastern Ukraine, were devoted to writing and contemplation. Skovoroda''s writings--verse, fables, philosophical dialogues--are profoundly steeped in biblical tradition and characterized by the striking use of symbol and metaphor, as well as sophisticated linguistic experimentation. His influence on Ukrainian and Russian writers began in his own lifetime and has continued and grown ever since. It is strongly evident in the works of such figures as Taras Shevchenko, Nikolai Gogol, Andrei Belyj, and Vasyl'' Barka, among others. Skovoroda is an indelible presence in the realms of philosophy, literature, religion, and linguistics. Yet he is inadequately appreciated, particularly in the West. Contributors include Dmytro Cyzevs''kyj, Karen L. Black, Stephen Scherer, George Y. Shevelov, Bohdan Rubchak, Bohdan Struminski, George Kline, Taras Zakydalsky, Mikhail Weiskopf, Aleksandr Lavrov, and others. This volume also includes an exhaustive bibliography of Skovorodiana compiled by Richard Hantula. See Dmytro Cyzevs''kyj, Nikolai Gogol, Ballad, and Lyceum in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

The making of modern Ukrainian identity is often reduced to a choice between "Little Russia" and "Ukraine." In this collection of essays, Zenon Kohut shows that the process was much more complex, involving Western influences and native traditions that shaped a distinct Ukrainian political culture and historiography. He stresses the importance of the early modern period and analyzes the development of Ukrainian historiography. Among the topics singled out for attention are the struggle for Cossack rights and liberties, the ambiguous role of the concept of Little Russia, the development of a stereotypical image of Jews, and post-independence relations between Ukraine and Russia. The book offers a rewarding and richly nuanced treatment of a contentious subject.

Post-Communist Ukraine by Bohdan Harasymiw is one of the most comprehensive and penetrating studies of the political and social realities of independent Ukraine. The masterfully written, multi-faceted analysis documents and explains that country''s successes and its more frequent failures during its transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Taking a comparative approach, Bohdan Harasymiw breaks free of the usual historical-cultural mode of dealing with Ukrainian politics. Step by step, he examines the primary elements of a modern democratic state and the degree to which these are in place: an agreed-on set of rules of the game in the form of an accepted constitution; a state capable of governing and claiming the loyalty of its people; a parliament representative of the public and able to legislate; a bureaucracy skilled at fashioning and implementing public policies, and not just following orders; a nation of fellow citizens living as a community; political parties channelling the interests of, and responsive to, their followers; elections that reflect the preferences of the voters; and policies ensuring the security and well-being of both state and society. These are analyzed in the light of other countries''s experience with these institutions and processes. As a result, a comprehensive portrait of Ukraine''s politics, which can be characterized as "post-Communist" but not yet "post-Soviet," emerges.

The English translation of Vladimir (Ze'sev) Jabotinsky i ukrains'ske pytannia: vselijuds'skist's u shatakh natsionalizmu. The journalist and historian Israel Kleiner invites the reader to consider an old problem--the history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations--from a fresh perspective. The eminent Zionist leader Vladimir (Ze'sev) Jabotinsky (1880-1940) is well known for his role in Jewish political history, but his writings on the Ukrainian question and his relations with Ukrainian politicians have not been the subject of extensive scholarly research. Jabotinsky, who was born in Odesa, worked as a journalist in that city and witnessed the crisis developing in the Russian Empire as a result of the unrelenting policy of official Russification. As the empire's non-Russian peoples began to mobilize for political and cultural autonomy, there was an increasingly violent reaction from Russian forces, which instigated anti-Jewish pogroms and called for discrimination against inorodtsy (non-natives). Unlike most Jewish leaders of the period, Jabotinsky believed that Ukraine was crucial to the empire's future: the growing Ukrainian movement was powerful enough to break the wave of Russification, and its political orientation would help determine whether the post-imperial order proceeded in the direction of freedom or tyranny. Well aware that most of the empire's secular Jewish elite was culturally Russified and active mainly in Russian political organizations, Jabotinsky advocated a reorientation. If an accommodation were not reached between the Jewish and Ukrainian movements, he warned, the Ukrainian masses might be swayed by reactionary elements who would persuade them that Jews were their political enemies. The pogroms of 1919 in Ukraine confirmed the validity of Jabotinsky's fears. Nevertheless, he did not break his ties with democratic Ukrainian politicians: in 1921 he signed an agreement with his old friend Maksym Slavinsky, a representative of the Ukrainian People's Republic government-in-exile, providing for a Jewish gendarmerie to defend the Jewish population against pogroms in the event of a new anti-Bolshevik campaign by Ukrainian forces. When the exiled leader of Ukraine's government, Symon Petliura, was assassinated in 1926 by a Bessarabian Jew claiming vengeance for the victims of the pogroms, Jabotinsky did not join the wave of approval but pointed out that political benefit from the assassination would accrue to the newly established Soviet dictatorship. Often slighted as a marginal or eccentric figure, Jabotinsky emerges from this account as a thinker with a coherent view of nationalism and as an extraordinarily sensitive observer who often correctly foresaw the course of political developments. His fundamental principle of mutual respect between nations provides a sound basis for the development of relations among Ukrainians and Jews.