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MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY CHOMIAK R E D IS C O V E R IN G T H E H U M A N IT IE S IN U K R A IN E In the fa ll o f 1992, M a rth a B o h a c h e v s k y C h o m ia k to ok leave fro m the E n d o w m e n t to go to U k ra in e to tea ch u n iv e rs ity students. In this a rtic le she d esc rib es the s h iftin g a c a d e m ic atm osphere. What happened to a country that loses its history? How does a people emerge simultaneously from the dual vise of inefficient totaliarianism and culturally per vasive colonialism? Is there room for the humanities amid political and economic instability? As I prepared for a year of teaching at the University of Kiev, I won dered how Ukrainian students would react to an Ameri can teaching them the history of their land. In the past, only the rare courageous instructor permitted some questions at the end of the session. I worried how to establish the discourse of the humani ties in a country in which the terminology used in hum anistic discourse had been debased. How does one introduce the notion of teacher-student dialogue when the last seventy years killed the very concept of that relationship? I have been working on topics of Ukrainian, Rus sian, and Eastern European history for more than a quarter of a century. My ancestors come from Ukraine, born in the same cities but because of shifts of borders, in different countries — the Austrian Empire, Poland, Russia. I grew up in the United States, a full-fledged product of the American educational system. The pecul iarities of the Soviet system were such that I could not get a visa there until 1980. But I traveled through East ern Europe, and met enough Soviet citizens to have had a good understanding of the system before I even set foot on its erstwhile territories. Ukraine is a large country, with a developed infras tructure of scholarly institutions, economic resources, cultural establishments, a trained and often hard-working population. Oppression, want, and poverty are not immediately apparent. To the contrary, it is the beauty of the land that makes the first impression, its gently rolling countryside, the majestic rivers with miles of rushes hiding fishermen, the seemingly unspoiled, un populated sandy beaches that touch the pristine steppe. The vast sky is still often clear blue, and even the marshes of Polissia gleam with an iridescent celadon mist that has its charm. In the cities one sees well- dressed people, the youth joking, the behatted adults ambling along. One sees the potential power of this second largest European country. Through the last two centuries Russia had grappled with the question of whether Russia is Europe, or as the romantic poet Tuitchev argued ’’she has an essence of its own...” Ukrainian intellectuals, on the other hand, had no hesitation about Ukraine being Europe. Although often cut off from the West, they prided themselves on their Western heritage — Renaissance, Reformation, private schooling, even Latin connections. Now they are surprised that their credentials are questioned. Obviously, Russia is a major problem for Ukraine, a love-hate relationship complicated by long-term impe rial and Soviet policy of settling Russians in non-Russian territory. Ukraine struggles with building a new state on the rubble of the old colonial administration, under con stant provocation from Russian nationalists whom Pres ident Yeltsin cannot hem in. Economic reform, and hence aid, is moving faster to Russia than to Ukraine. Lenin laid the groundwork for the policy that sub jected Ukraine to untold visitations — loss of independ ent farmers in the brutal collectivization campaign of 1928; loss of millions in the famine of 1933; loss of more lives in the deportations and arrests of 1945. Industriali zation was implemented at great human cost to serve the center. In the entire Soviet Union not one factory was set up so that it could draw on local resources — 18 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 1994 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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