The Making of Modern Ukraine
Timothy Snyder
Yale University
timothy.snyder@yale.edu
Fall Semester, 2005
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:30-5:00, Luce Hall 245

Question:

What brought about the Ukrainian nation? 

Topics:

The decadence of Polish rule in Ukraine; Russian and Austrian imperial rule; Jewish and Polish urban society; Romanticism and modern nationalism; the Bolshevik Revolution and its Ukrainian counterparts; Soviet modernization and terror; Nazi occupation, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing; the end of the Soviet Union; problems of post-Soviet rule, the Orange Revolution and prospects for democracy..

Chronology:

The middle ages to the present, with introductory lectures on the early periods, but concentration upon the nineteenth and especially the twentieth century.

Meetings:

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:30-12:30, plus section, Wed. evening (Brian Rohlik).

Grading:

You will be evaluated on the basis of two in-class examinations (25% each), a final examination (30%), and participation in section (20%).  Attendance of lectures is a requirement of the course as well as a prerequisite for effective participation in section.  Timely reading is also necessary for adequate participation in discussion.

Reading:

Paul Robert Magocsi, Ukraine: A History, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990.

Ivan L. Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1987.

Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

Books for purchase at Labyrinth.  Additional articles in packet from York Copy.

Lectures:

Lecture 1: The Orange Revolution, 2004-2005 (Thursday September 1)

Lecture 2: Who was Ivan Rudnytsky? (1)(Tuesday September 6)

Ivan L. Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1987, 37-48.

Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. 1-5.

Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996, 12-24.

Lecture 3: Who was Ivan Rudnytsky? (2 ) Thursday September 8)

Lecture 4: Slavic Europe (Tuesday September 13)

Lecture 5: Rus, Lithuania, Mongols, and Crusaders (Thursday September 15)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 36-126.

Lecture 6: A Polish Union (Tuesday September 20)

Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations, 105-114.

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 127-194.

Lecture 7: A Jewish Order (Thursday September 22)

Lecture 8: A Cossack Rebellion, 1648 (Tuesday September 27)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 198-237.

Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, 77-89.

Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations, 114-117.

Thursday September 29: First Examination (1000-1667)

 Lecture 9: The Cossacks in Russia (Tuesday October 4)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 238-304.

Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations, 117-119.

Lecture 10: The Partitions of Poland (Thursday October 6)

Lecture 11: Ukrainians in Russia (Tuesday October 11)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 306-364.

Lecture 12: The Springtime of Other Nations, 1848 (Thursday October 13)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 406-416.

Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, 123-141, 255-267. 315-353.

Lecture 13: Modern National Politics in Galicia (Tuesday October 18)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 417-456.

Snyder, Reconstruction of Nations, 119-139.

Ezra Mendelsohn, “Jewish Assimilation in L’viv: The Case of Wilhelm Feldman,” in Andrei Markovits and Frank Sysyn, eds, Nationbuilding and the Politics of Nationalism, Cambridge: Ukrainian Research Institute, 1982, 94-110.  In packet.

Lecture 14: Revolutions and Pogroms (Thursday October 20)

Snyder, Reconstruction of Nations, 133-144.

Henry Abramson, A Prayer for the Government: Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, 109-140.  In packet.

Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, 299-314.

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 461-520.

Lecture 15: Women, Empire, and Nation (Tuesday October 25)

Thursday October 27: Second Examination (1667-1918)

 Lecture 16: Soviet “Ukrainization” and Ukrainian Culture (Thursday November 4)

Snyder, Reconstruction of Nations, 144-153.

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 522-553.

Lecture 17: The Soviet-Polish Secret War (Tuesday November 2)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 583-608.

Lecture 18: Famine and Terror, the 1930s (Tuesday November 8)

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 553-582.

Lecture 19: Nazi Occupation and the Holocaust (Thursday November 10)

Karel C. Berkhoff, Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004, 1-111.  In packet.

Lecture 20: The Cleansing of the Borderlands (Tuesday November 15)

Snyder, Reconstruction of Nations, 154-217.

Lecture 21: The Thaw, Dissidence, and Neostalinism (Thursday November 17)

Serhy Yekelchyk, Stalin’s Empire of Memory: Russian-Ukrainian Relations in the Soviet Historical Imagination, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, 153-161.  In packet.

Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, 77-89, 315-353, 477-489.

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 638-665.

Lecture 22: The End of the Soviet Union (Tuesday November 29)

Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations, 217-293.

Magocsi, History of Ukraine, 666-675.

Roman Szporluk, “The Making of Modern Ukraine: The Western Dimension,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 25, Nos. 1-2, 2001, 57-91.  In packet.

Review session: To be scheduled.

Thursday, December 1: Third Exam (1918-present)