Slavic 218 Ukrainian Literature and Culture Lecture Notes

Transcription

Slavic 218
Ukrainian Literature and Culture
Lecture Notes
I provide these lecture notes to the students in SLA218 at the express request of the students,
against my own better judgment. I honestly believe they are likely to be the cause of confusion
and difficulty. These are notes I made for myself, to guide me in my lectures. They are not a
conspect of the ideas in the course, they do not reflect the most important ideas (indeed, they do
the opposite, since I remember the main points without notes but I do need notes to recall the
minor ones), and they are not meant as a study guide. There are very many dates in these notes
because I usually don’t remember them (and don’t expect students to remember them either).
Nevertheless, I bow to your sincere desire to have my notes.
These notes go back, in some cases, for a number of years. The numeration of the lectures has
since changed and the number of weeks in the term has been reduced. Thus, there may be
numbers skipped in the sequence. I have not kept back any lecture notes—the missing numbers
either never existed or were dropped from the course.
Slavic 218
Lecture 1, Fall
Literature and Culture
1. Aims of the course.
Survey the written record of civilization in Ukraine, with a focus on cultural process.
Trace the intellectual development of Ukrainians from the beginning of historical time to the
present.
Look for what is characteristic of the Ukrainian cultural process, how has the process changed
over time.
Survey and identify the various points of interest along the way as we follow the development of
the cultural process--as the required survey course for Ukrainian specialists and majors, to give
an idea of what is out there that might attract more detailed attention.
2. What the course is not.
Since this course has been various things in the past and since the title, Literature and Culture,
does not mean the same thing to everyone, let me say a few words about what we are not going
to do.
This is not a course in ethnography. We do not study the customs and mores of Ukrainians. We
will not look at pysanky. We will not study Christmas Eve traditions. We will not study the
hopak.
This is not a course in cultural anthropology. We will not study Ukrainian mating rituals. We
will not study the role of extended family ties among Ukrainians. We will not study Ukrainian
communal settlement patterns.
This is also not a course on the achievements of Ukrainians in the arts. We will not study
Ukrainian architecture. we will not study Ukrainian painting. We will not study Ukrainian music.
What we will study is the process by which Ukrainian culture developed and continues to
develop AS IT IS REFLECTED IN LITERATURE.
This is justified on two counts. 1) This course is offered in the department of Slavic languages
and literatures, not in the department of Fine Arts or Art History or Music or Architecture. We
teach our own subject. They teach theirs. I'm not really qualified to explain the history of music
or the history of architecture. 2) The second and more important justification is that only
literature actually reflects the cultural process accurately and completely. For various reasons and
particularly in Ukraine, the Arts do not give an accurate reflection of the cultural process.
Slavic 218
Lecture Two, Fall
Pre-history of Kyivan Rus’
1. Geography Mountains and Seas to West and South but no other natural boundary, astride the
border between forest and steppe, 95% flat plain, land bridge to Europe from Asia
2. Archeology
Who are the people who inhabit this territory? When did they first show up here?
The migration of peoples, especially from the steppes of Central Asia
Primitive man 150,000 BC
Homo sapiens 40,000 BC
Neolithic period, first agricultural communities evolved somewhere about 5000-4000 BC
Trypillian culture, 4000-2000 BC, on the Buh and Dnister
Nomads
first appear in left bank Ukraine around 3000 BC, the Seredost culture
1500-700 BC Cimmerians, pastoralist become nomads, apparently and indo-european people
perhaps from the lower Volga basin, first horsemen in Ukraine
700-300 BC Scythians, from Central Asia, Indo-Europeans, nomads, Iranian language, trade with
Greek Colonies on Black Sea coast
513 BC Persian King Darius invades Ukraine but Scythians forced him to retreat with a scorched
earth policy
200 BC - 200 AD Sarmatians, also Iranian, nomads from lower Volga. Apparently women had a
better position in Sarmatian society than in others, women were warriors along with men.
These are military states, nomadic empires, loose federations of related tribes, the protection of
trade routes is a major concern
around 270 AD an invasion by Germanic Goths, little impact, short duration
370 Huns, as in Attila the Hun. Apparently a Turkish people from Asia. they conquer Europe.
558 Mongol-Turkic Avars
7th century Khazar state, Turkic nomads. lasts into 9th century. in the 8th to 9th century they
adopt Judaism as state religion.
Greek collonies on Black Sea coast from about 700-600 BC. After 100 AD Rome is master of
Black Sea coast till 270 AD Goths overrun them
In the northern forests all along are agricultural people.
The importance of: Steppe, nomads, trade routes. Varangians, Byzantium, Northern Europe,
Asia.
Slavs apparently come from Carpathian mountain-Prypiat marshes area and spread. 6th -7th
century AD? By about 8th century various Slavic tribes in Ukraine: Polianians—central Ukraine;
Derevlianians—northwest; Severians—northeast; Ulychians and Tivertsians—southwest;
Volhynians and Dulibians—west.
How is the Kievan State formed?
the end of nomadic empires, switch to sedentary economies.
Pritsak—trade route explanation: emergence of Constantinople for North South trade route
conquest of Avars by Charlemagne (800 AD) for East (Khazar) - West route
Kievan Rus’ as The Hudson's Bay Company of the East
Pre-history of Kievan Rus’
Old Church Slavonic
862 Prince Rostislav of Moravia (now in Czech republic) asks the Byzantine emperor for
someone to teach Christian law “in our own language” (to counter German influence). Emperor
sent Constantine, a native of Salonika, a diplomat and a scholar, and his brother, Methodius, a
civil servant.
They developed an alphabet (Glagolitic, Cyrillic comes later, apparently by their followers),
translated liturgical texts, and started training Moravians for the clergy
869 brothers travel to Rome to have their pupils ordained. Constantine fell sick in Rome, took
Monastic vows and the name Cyril and died
Methodius returns to Moravia but Rostislav has died. New ruler, Sviatopluk, is surrounded by
German preists who are against Slavic liturgy (only Greek, Latin, and Hebrew are sacred
languages)
Methodius imprisoned, Pope gets him freed after two years but after Methodius dies German
preists stamp out Slavic liturgy and drive out the priests. Two groups of the followers of
Methodius escape, one to Bulgaria the other to Macedonia.
Bulgaria crushed by Byzantium in the 970s
Macedonian state falls in 1014
Only Rus’ left as a Slavic state.
Rus’ gets Christianity in 988, more or less
There is this language (OCS) without an owner
Rus’ fills the vacuum and takes up the language
some differences but basically this is their language
they srart actively using it for religious purposes, translating texts into it etc. in the mid 11th
century.
Slavic 218
Lecture Three, Fall
Kyivan Rus'. Translated and Religious Literature
1. The existing OCS texts from Moravia, Bulgaria etc. Gospels, etc.
2. Translating in Kiev
Jaroslav sets up a “commission” 1037
3. Later, translating moves to Mount Athos
Translating Religious texts.
Purpose: religious use and instruction
Texts translated:
Gospels, 2 kinds. 4 full texts or texts used on Sundays, or throughout the week, or year. i.e. a
practical selection; also selected quotations from the Old Testament used in the liturgy
Psalms, the best-known part of the Old Testament.
Apostles, Acts of. full text or selections used for mass
Annotated versions of any of the above.
Lives of the Saints. Christian heroes series.
Apocrypha, the stories that did not make it into the Bible.
The Virgin's Harrowing of Hell, Õîæäåí³º áîãîðîäèö³ ïî ìóêàõ
Translated secular works.
Byzantine historical chronicles.
Chronicle of John Malalas, Chronicle of Georgius Hamartolus, and other chronicles
Popular works of natural science. The nature and origin of things, Discovery channel in 900 AD
Collections of Quotations, or Sayings. wisdom literature
Collections of Miscellaneous writings
What is missing?
Homer, Aristotle, Plato. These are not translated. This is 10th century Byzantium they are
copying, not 5th century BC Greece. But everybody in Byzantium can read Greek. They can read
Homer, and they sometimes even quote him. For the Slavs, this level of culture remains
inaccessible
Original literature.
Characteristic style: According to Èyževs'kyj, these works are characterized by stylistic
simplicity. There is a focus on the message presented, usually at the end, little embellishment,
simple direct sentences, little organization or structure
2 dominant ideas: Statehood (the unity of Rus’) and celebration of the acceptance of Christianity.
Sermons:
Hilarion1 - first non-Greek metropolitan in Kiev. His Sermon on Law and Grace, where
1
Ilarion b ?, d before 1054 in Kiev. Eminent church and literary figure of the 11th century; the
first non-Greek metropolitan of Kiev. Ilarion was a priest in Berestove near Kiev when in 1051,
according to the wish of Yaroslav the Wise, an episcopal sobor elected him metropolitan. He
codified the laws governing church life and defended the independence of the Rusä church from
the Byzantine hierarchy. A brilliant preacher and talented writer, Ilarion is credited with four
SLA218. Lecture 3. Religious Literature
Law is the Old Testament, and Grace is the New Testament
read on pp. 18-19, par 43-46, then 57, 60-62 on pgs 22-25, The Eulogy to Our Kagan
Vladimir, the civil and religious component
Kievan Crypt Patericon, glorifying Kiev and Crypt Monastery (Ïå÷åðñüêà ëàâðà)
we have saints too, like Byzantium.
Empasis on humility, withdraw from the worldly, self-sacrifice, challenges or temptations from
the worldly, the rational, Read opening pars.
Feodosij challenged by his mother,
Feodosij pilgrimage, mother stops him, then baking bread for church and poor, mother also
complains (28-29)
The Byzantine influence
it lasts until 17th century
visible in language, literature, theology, architecture, art, law (tell students to read the Ševèenko
brochure)
Byzantium at two removes. translated and translated in Moravia
Good news and Bad news: Translation meant faster, wider cultural penetration and growth. (as
opposed to Slavs learning Latin or Greek, for example)
Translation meant shallow culture. No exposure to the breadth of Greek culture, Helenic
culture, non-Christian culture.
The situation in Western Europe with Latin is very different.
Church schism, 1054.
works: Slovo o zakoni i blahodati (Sermon on Law and Grace, before 1052), a prayer, a
confession of faith, and a short collection of instructions for priests. The first work has been
preserved in more than 50 redactions of the 15th and 16th centuries, and had an important
influence on Ukrainian and other Slavic literatures.
Slavic 218
Lecture Four, Fall
Kyivan Rus'. Chronicles. Igor's Tale.
Today we turn to the original, secular literature of Kievan Rus’. Basically that means The
Slovo o Polku Igoreve (The Lay of Igor's Campaign) and the Povest Vremennyx Let (The Tale of
Bygone Years), more commonly called The Primary Chronicle). There are other secular works
(the Instruction of Monomax is at least in part a secular work) but these are the most important.
Èyževs'kyj divides the history of 11th to 13th Rus’ literature into the Monumental and
Ornamental Periods. Most other critics don't agree. It is important for us to note that both styles
come from Byzantium. I suggest we treat the period as one. Since we read the works in
translation, the fine points of Èyževs'kyj's distinctions are lost on us anyway.
The Slovo and the Chronicle, in their own genres represent a considerable intellectual and
artistic achievement. It's not that they are unique—they are not—but rather that they are
indications of the level of culture reached by Kievan Rus’.
Slovo (Revise presentation of this)
1. What is the Slovo?
Physically. It is a Manuscript discovered and published in the late 18th century. Then the
manuscript was lost in a fire.
Authenticity. Highly suspect. Keenan.
Genre. The work has no linguistic rhythm, no metrical pattern. Is this poetry? It is usually
thought of as such. It is a heroic tale. It contains various internal structures, various devices,
shifts in narration, repetition, and so on.
The Story
Igor of Novgorod-Seversk (This is not the Novgorod that is famous in early Russian history.)
wages war against the Kumans (also known as Polovcians). We know from history that there
really was such a battle in 1185. Igor lost and was taken captive. Later he escapes. The Slovo tells
this story.
There's a brief invocation.
1. Rus’ armies fight with Kumans and lose.
2. The Author's Laments. Sviatoslav's dream (He is prince of Kiev and theoretically the ruler
of all Rus’.
3. Jaroslavna's lament. Igor's escape.
Zenkovsky suggests three levels on which the Slovo operates:
(p. 168) Three distinct structural planes can be discerned in the Lay. The first concerns the
destiny of Prince Igor, his campaign, defeat and escape from the Kumans. This plane, the
narrative core of the work, is somewhat clouded by invocations to the late bard, Boyan,
reminiscences of past glory, and the allusive atmosphere of foreboding. The second plane
consists of portents and lamentations over the outcome of the campaign and [the fate of Rus’],
such as the dream of Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev and the lament of [Jaroslavna], the wife of Igor.
The final plane consists of the author's admonitions to the princes to unite, and his censure of
their feuding.
SLA 218-104
Kyivan Rus'. Chronicles. Ihor's Tale.
The Slovo is
1. A story about the fate of Igor.
2. A statement about the political situation in Rus’.
3. A tale about the glory of heroic military traditions.
Characteristic Features of the Slovo:
1. Literariness. The invocation of Boyan, for example.
Might it not behoove us, brethren
to commence in ancient strains
the stern lay of Igor's campaign,
Igor, son of Sviatoslav?
Then let this begin
according to the events of our time,
and not according to the cunning of Boyan.
For he, Boyan the Seer,
when composing a song to someone,
soared in his thoughts over the tree (of wisdom),
ran as a gray wolf over the land,
flew below the clouds as a blue-gray eagle.
When he recalled the feuds of former times
he would let loose ten falcons upon a flock of swans.
And the first swan overtaken
was the first to sing a song
to old Yaroslav,
to brave Mstislav,
who slew Rededia before the Kasog regiments,
and to handsome Roman, son of Sviatoslav.
Boyan, however, did not let loose ten falcons
upon the flock of swans.
But rather he lay his wise fingers
upon the living strings
and they sounded lauds to the princes.
Let us begin this narration, brethren,
from the old times of Vladimir to this present time of Igor,
who strengthened his mind with courage,
who quickened his heart with valor
and, thus imbued with martial spirit,
led his valiant regiments
against the Kuman land
in defense of the Rus’ land.
2
SLA 218-104
We don't know who he is but this is an effective literary device. The prestige of tradition.
Also the devices in Part VII
And so it used to be.
There were battles and campaigns,
but there had never been such battle as this.
From early morning to night,
from evening to dawn
there flew tempered arrows,
swords rained down upon helments,
Frankish lances resound,
and all this in the unknown prairie,
in the Kuman land.
The black earth under the hooves
was strewn with bones,
was covered with blood.
Grief overwhelmed the Rus’ land.
What noise do I hear?
What clinking comes to my ears
so early in the morning, before the dawn?
Igor turns about his troops.
He is saddened by the fate of his brother, Vsevolod.
They fought for one day.
They fought for another day.
At noon on the third day Igor's banners fell.
Here, on the shores of the swift river Kaiala,
the brothers parted.
The wine of this bloody banquet was drunk to the last drop.
The Rus’ gave their guests to drink from the same cup.
They died for the Rus’ land.
The grass withered from sorrow,
and the saddened trees drooped earthward.
“Wine of this bloody banquet” etc. Rather sophisticated literary devices and also they
present a significant non-material world view.
2. (Second characteristic) Rus’ patriotism.
—the whole story is told one-sidedly, even nature is on the side of the Rus’; the eclipse
omen, trees droop when Rus’ lose, etc.
—the whole second part and the frequent references elsewhere to the disunity among the
Rus’ princes—patriotic wish to undo this chaos, but this is reality, Rus’ is falling apart.
—the whole work can be seen in a nostalgic vein. Westerns, the way it was.
3. Focus on the personal level, individuals, especially Igor and Jaroslavna. Igor's quest for
3
SLA 218-104
4
glory in spite of omens and wisdom. Jaroslavna's lament, personal human side of things. Male vs.
female?
Importance of Slovo for later literature is large.
Povest Vremennyx Let (The Tale of Bygone Years)
1. What is it?
—a document that tells the history of Rus’ in a yearly chronology (unlike Byzantine
chronicles which follow the reigns of emperors).
—a collection of various stories, documents, etc.
—the first part of many other, later chronicles.
2. How was it created? Let Pritsak tell us.
The Povìst' vremennyx lìt or “Tale of Bygone Years” has come down to us in a form other
than its original. It has been preserved (in both abridged and unabridged versions) as the first
component of several hundred manuscripts, of which three are primary for research:
1. The Laurentian copy of 1377, reflecting the tradition of 12th to 14th century northern
(Rostov-Tver') chronicle writing;
2. The Hypatian copy of ca. 1425, reflecting the tradition of 12 to 14th century southern
(Kiev-Halyè-Volodymyr) chronicle writing;
3. The Novgorodian I Commission copy of ca. 1450, reflecting the tradition of Novgorodian
chronicle writing after 1075.
Of decisive importance for research was the very productive discovery made by the Russian
philologist Aleksej Aleksandroviè Šaxmatov (1864-1920) that the Novgorodian I Commission
copy represents an earlier stage of Kievan chronicle writing, the so-called “Naèal'nyj Svod” or
“Original Collection” of 1072-1074.1
3. Why was it created? How are we supposed to read it? What is it about?
—Let the text answer these questions.Lets play Jeopardy. I'll give you the answer, you tell
me what the question is.
This is the Tale of Bygone Years: From Whence Came the Rus’ Land, Who First Ruled in
Kiev, and From Which Source the Rus’ Land had its Beginning.
Otkuda est' pošla Ruskaja zemlja
kto v Kieve naèa perveEe knjaziti
otkuda ruskaja zemlja stala est'
Let us begin this tale in this way: after the flood the sons of Noah—Shem, Ham and
Japheth—divided the earth among them. To the lot of Shem fell the Orient, and his share
extended as far as ...
To the lot of Ham fell the southern region, comprising Egypt, Ethiopia, etc.
To the lot of Japheth fell the northern and the western sections, including Media, Albania,
Armenia ... and the territory to the north extending as far as the Pontus and including the Danube,
the Dniester, and thence even to the Dnieper....
In the share of Japheth lie Rus’, Chud, and all the gentiles: Meria, Muroma, Ves, etc. The
SLA 218-104
5
following nations are a part of the race of Japheth: the Varangians, the Sweedes, the Normans,
the Rus’, the Angles, the Gauls, the Italians, the Romans, the Germans, etc.
859 (6367) The Varangians from beyond the sea imposed tribute upon the Chud, the Slavs,
the Merians, the Ves, and the Krivichians. But the Khazars imposed it upon the Polianians, the
Severians, and the Viatichians, and collected a squirrel skin and a beaver skin from each hearth.
860-62 (6368-6370) The tributaries of the Varangians drove them back beyond the sea and,
refusing them further tribute, set out to govern themselves. There was no law among them, but
tribe rose against tribe. Discord thus ensuedamong them, and they began to war one against the
other. They said to themselves, ”Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us
according to the law.“ They accordingly went overseas to the Varangian Rus’: these particular
Varangians were known as Rus’, just as some are called Sweedes, and others Normans, Angles,
and Goths, for they were thus named. The Chuds, the Slavs, and the Krivichians then said to the
people of Rus’, ”Our whole land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and
reign over us.“ They thus selected three brothers, with their kinfolk, who took with them all the
Rus’, and migrated. The oldest, Rurik, located himself in Novgorod; the second, Sineus, in
Beloozero; and the third, Trubor, in Izborsk. On account of these Varangians, the district of
Novgorod became known as Rus’ land. The present inhabitants of Novgorod are descended from
the Varangian race, but aforetime they were Slavs....
With Rurik were two men [Askold and Dyr] who ... sailed down the Dnieper and in the
course of their journey they saw a small city upon a hill. Upon their inquiry as to whose town it
was, they were informed that three brothers, Kii, Shchek, and Khoriv, had once built the city, but
that since their deaths, their descendants were living there as tributaries of the Khazars. Oskold
and Dir remained in this city, and after gathering together many Varangians, they established
their domination over the country of the Polianians at the same time that Rurik was ruling at
Novgorod.
So what is the question to which that was an answer?
Who are we? self identification, self glorification, self preservation.
Let's let Pritsak tell us his version of how the PVL was created.
The first annalistic collection, the Naèal'nyj svod, was created at the Kiev Monastery of the
Caves (the first intellectual center in Rus’, established in 1051) as a constituent part of an official
celebration of the first translation of the relics of the first dynastic saints, Boris and Glìb, in
1072.
In 1115, again at the Kiev Monastery, a new annalistic collection, based on the first, was
compiled, within the framework of the second translation of the relics of the same saints. The
chief editor-compiler, the monk Nestor, wrote a new introduction (actually, the PVL par
excellence). He was able to compliment the southern data with details from the north, since by
birth he was from northern Beloozero. He also revised and updated the text until the year 1111.
In 1113 as a result of a ”popular revolution“ in Kiev, Volodimer Monomax came to power.
He was the son of a Byzantine princess, but also of an usurper (Vsevolod Jaroslaviè). Volodimer,
SLA 218-104
6
therefore, was eager to have the text of the chronicle revised by someone whom he trusted. Wary
of Nestor's independent ideology, Monomax took the responsibility for chronicle writing away
from the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, and in 1115 commissioned Sil'vester, the trusted
hegumen of his father's Vydobyèi St. Michael Monastery, for the task. The learned hegumen
introduced new sources, among them the Slavic translation of the Hamartolus Continuator (a
10th century Byzantine chronicle) as well as the Rus’-Greek treaties. Sil'vester finished his work
in 1116.
In 1118 a new revision of the chronicle was undertaken, probably by a layman, which
covered events up to and including 1117. The inquisitive writer was a retainer of Mstislav-Harald
Monomaxoviè, who in 1117 had to leave his appanage in Novgorod and became his father's
heir-apparent. Son of a Danish princess, and married to the Swedish king's daughter, Mstislav
took care that the Varangian perspective also be reflected in the chronicle, now being compiled
under royal patronage.
In the interim, Sil’vester, who had since become bishop of Rus’ in Perejaslav, returned to
chronicle writing to make a new revised edition. He was able to produce a new revised chronicle
covering events through the year 1110 before he died suddenly in 1123.
The Hypatian chronicle represents the 1118 revision while the Laurentian chronicle gives the
text of the second Sil’vester redaction of 1123.2
1. Omeljan Pritsak. “The Povìst’ vremennyx lìt and the Question of Truth” USF Millennium
Series, History and Heroic Tale: A Symposium. Tore Nyberg, ed. Odense University Press 1983,
p. 134-35.
2.Omeljan Pritsak. “The Povìst' vremennyx lìt and the Question of Truth” USF Millennium
Series, History and Heroic Tale: A Symposium. Tore Nyberg, ed. Odense University Press 1983,
p. 135-37.
Slavic 218
Lecture Five, Fall
Renaissance and Reformation, 14th-16th centuries
After Yaroslav the Wise (ruled 1019-1054) Rus’ was divided among his sons. Gradual decline,
reflected in Slovo.
Rather than one center, Kyiv, a number of centers, each with its prince. Among them:
North—Vladimir-Suzdal (from which the Muscovite state will emerge), Polotsk, Novgorod
East—ernihiv, Novhorod-Sivers'kyj
West—Haly, Volhynia
The geography of these divisions might be significant.
Constant wars with Polovtsians (Kumans in Slovo) weaken Kyivan state.
First half of 13th century—Mongols led by Jenghis Khan and his sons sweep across Eastern
Europe and into Hungary and Germany
1169. Capture and defeat of Kiev by Andrei Bogoliubsky
1240 Kyiv destroyed. Brutality of Mongol invasion
1237 Moscow destroyed, but it was not yet an important place
Mongols by 1260 rule an area that includes China and Eastern Asia, Turkestan, Persia, and
Eastern Europe
Rule is basically paying tribute but no cultural development
After the Mongol invasion the Haly and Volyn' principality survives fending off both Mongols
and princes of Poland and Kings of Hungary. 1340 last prince of Halyè dies without successor.
Schism in Chritian Church, 1054
Decline of Byzantium. It will not fall to the Ottomans until 1453, but Islam is gaining ground.
Jerusalem is captured by Turks in 1077.
First Crusade attacks Byzantium an the way to Jerusalrem
New power—Lithuania. Lithuanians are a Baltic people, not Slavs. During the 13 and 14th
centuries Lithuania is growing in power and significance. Shortly after 1340 the Halyè and
Volyn' principality is split between Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania also eventually gets the
principalities of Kyiv, Èernihiv, Perejaslav, and Novhorod-Sivers'k. But Lithuanian traditions are
young and not fully developed. The traditions of the Kyivan state are old and well developed.
The Lithuanian conquest of Rus' lands, unlike that of the Mongols, involves, to a significant
degree, the victors absorbing the culture of the vanquished. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania,
which by the end of the 14th century is a very powerful state, benefits from absorbing Rus'
culture, its law, its social structures. Lithuania begins to move closer to Orthodoxy and Eastern
Slavic.
Lithuania is also pressured by Muscovy a rising state, which challenges them militarily in the
East.
But there is a great attraction in the advanced culture of Poland, whose Catholic, Latin culture
puts it in touch with Western Europe. In 1386 Grand Prince of Lithuania, Jagiello married the
Polish Queen, Jadwiga. He becomes the sovereign of both countries. He becomes Catholic and
SLA 218- 105
Renaissance and Reformation
2
accepts it as official religion of Lithuania. Gradual polonization. But the two states are still
separate. That means the Rus' traditions are still partially maintained in Rus' territory because the
Lithuanians allow them to continue.
1569 Union of Lublin. The gradual Polonization of Lithuania reaches its logical conclusion in an
agreement that unites the two states and transfers the southern Rus' principalities (i.e. Ukraine) to
Poland. The nobles of these territories would now have the same political rights as Polish
nobility while their Orthodox religion, Rus' language, and old laws were guaranteed. All
Ukrainian lands united and separate from other East Slavs. Poland would hopefully offer more
protection from the Tartars (the Slavic term for the Mongols whose state is known as the Golden
Horde) than did the Lithuanians, who by this time are more concerned with Muscovy.
Read: Cambridge History of Poland, pp. 283-86. (chapter on “Renaissance in Poland” by O.
Halecki)
And even before the conclusion of the Polish-Lithuanian Union under Jagiello, Poland's
eastern expansion, begun by Casimir the Great, had at the same time been an expansion of
Western culture, which gained a rapidly growing centre in the city of Lw6w. Since these early
days, all the outstanding events in the evolution of Polish civilization throughout the Renaissance
period had an almost immediate repercussion in the Lithuanian and Ruthenian provinces of the
Jagiellonian federation, which thus entered the Western community of nations at an extremely
propitious moment. Polish influence, the missionary activity of the Roman Church in pagan
Lithuania and Greek-Orthodox Ruthenia, and the advance of Latin civilization in its early
Renaissance form, were indeed inseparable. With these aims in view, Jadwiga and Jagiello had
planned the reorganization of Cracow University, whose second Rector was a Lithuanian prince,
and where students from the eastern borderlands of the commonwealth enrolled in increasing
number. At the Council of Constance delegates from Lithuania, including Samogitia, the last
stronghold of paganism, and from all the Ruthenian territories, conducted by the Orthodox
archbishop of Kyiv, of Bulgarian descent, appeared together with the Poles. The charter granted
to the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania in 1447 was not only modelled on the Polish constitution, but
included the permission to visit foreign countries, and very soon the first guests from these
remote regions came to the Renaissance courts of Italy, Burgundy, etc. But it was, of course,
chiefly the sixteenth century which, in close connection with the cultural development of Poland
proper, introduced the Renaissance and humanism into Lithuania and what later was called
White Ruthenia and the Ukraine, while the appearance of these cultural trends in Muscovite
Russia, under Ivan III, had been only momentary. The political frontier between the two great
powers of Eastern Europe thus became not only a boundary of forms of government, but also the
extreme limit of Western civilization.
Lithuania proper, which had been directly converted from paganism to Roman Catholicism,
avoiding the growing influence of Russian culture, proved a particularly fertile ground for Latin
penetration. The Latin language immediately began to be used in some of the most important
official documents besides the usual language of the administration, which was White Ruthenian.
The Lithuanian nobles, when trying to show that they were of still more ancient and glorious descent than the Poles, wished to
make them believe that the very name of Lithuania was nothing but a distorted form of "L'Italia", and that the ancestors of the
Lithuanian aristocracy were exiles from ancient Rome who had left the Empire at a moment of internal struggles! This legend,
repeated in the Lithuanian chronicles of the sixteenth century, is typical of the Renaissance influence in a country which never
before had had any relations with Italy. Now this Lithuanian nobility became Polonized and Latinized at the same time, and even
those of its leaders who in political life opposed too close a union with Poland were the first to accept, through Polish
SLA 218- 105
3
intermediaries, Western culture in its contemporary form.
Albert Gasztold, Chancellor of the Grand-Duchy under Sigismund I, was in close contact with men like Peter Tomicki,
and, not less than the Polish Vice-Chancellor, was interested in Roman law, which later was propagated in Lithuania by a
Spanish humanist, Peter Roysius, and left traces of its influence in the Lithuanian code of law. The most striking example is,
however, the Radziwill family who, after a century of growing power, occupied the first position in the Grand-Duchy under
Sigismund Augustus. Although eagerly defending the political autonomy of Lithuania, they co-operated with the Poles in both
the Reformation and the Renaissance movement, and the court of Nicholas Radziwill "the Black", prince of the Holy Roman
Empire, was, like the Wilno court of the Jagiellonians themselves, an important centre of humanistic culture in the eastern part of
the Federation.
Most of the eastern part of the Polish-Lithuanian Federation was, culturally not Lithuanian
but Ruthenian, the difference between the White Ruthenian northeast and the Ukrainian
south-east being yet insignificant, as the national consciousness of both linguistic groups was far
from being finally formed. Both, being Slavonic, were so closely akin to the Poles, that it was not
so much the difference of the spoken languages which was realized in Polish-Ruthenian
relations, but rather the difference of characters in writing, which were Latin in Polish, Cyrillic in
Ruthenian. And there was still another reason why the spread of the Polish language, greatly
facilitated, as in Lithuania, by frequent intermarriage, at the same time propagated Latin
humanistic culture all over these territories. The Western culture proved so much stronger and
more attractive than the Eastern, because the latter was then declining together with its traditional
representative, the Greek Orthodox Church. And here again, as among the Lithuanians, the
aristocratic families, while attached to local autonomy, were equally anxious to join the realm of
Latin civilization; their conversion to the Roman Church, sometimes after having temporarily
accepted Protestant doctrines, was usually the first step in that direction. Numerous were those
who, like Orzechowski, called themselves, in Latin: gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus.
After the failure to introduce the Florentine Union in this part of Europe, there had been isolated attempts aiming at a
rebirth of native Ruthenian culture in direct connection with Western humanism. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when
the Poles already had a number of flourishing printing-offices and before the Radziwills founded theirs in Lithuania, Francis
Skoryna, a White Ruthenian who had graduated doctor at Padua, began to print books in his own language at Polock. But little is
known of his success. In the same city of Polock a Jesuit College was established under Bathory, and towards the end of the
century to re-establish their religious union with Rome again seemed the best way of securing an intellectual revival among the
Ruthenians.
This union, concluded in 1596, after a visit of the most distinguished Ruthenian bishops to the Vatican, promoted by
Skarga's literary and oratorical talent, and favoured also by Zamoyski, maintained the oriental rite among the "Uniates", but was,
of course, another step towards better relations and closer contacts with the Latin West; and even those who for religious or
personal reasons opposed that Union perfectly realized that only Western influence, i.e. humanistic culture received through
Polish intermediaries, could strengthen the intellectual forces of the Ruthenians. The example of the most powerful Ruthenian
magnate, Prince Constantine Ostrogski, who after having been seriously interested in the Union movement, later became the
main leader of the opposition against it, is particularly illuminating: when organizing a better education of the Orthodox people,
especially in the well-known school of his own city of Ostrog, he did it on the Western pattern, preferring, however, rather to
co-operate with and to use the services of Protestants than to join the Catholics.
The Ruthenian provinces, except the White Ruthenian part, were then already united—since
the Lublin Diet of 1569—in the Polish half of the Commonwealth, so that Polish influence now
directly penetrated into the formerly Lithuanian provinces of Volhynia and Kyiv. And when the
old and glorious city of Kyiv itself, after centuries of decline, again became an important cultural
centre under Polish rule, a most interesting synthesis of Ruthenian Orthodoxy and Latin spirit of
a truly humanistic character was produced at a moment when one can hardly speak of a
continued Renaissance movement in Western and Central Europe. After the official restoration
of the Greek Orthodox hierarchy, its most eminent representative, archbishop Peter Mohyla,
himself coming from Moldavia, another country where Poland successfully propagated Western
culture, founded in Kyiv a college, which soon developed into a real academy; and that nucleus
SLA 218- 105
4
of a first university among the Eastern Slavs was at the same time a stronghold of the Orthodox
faith and deeply penetrated by Latin civilization. It was from here that the same cultural influence
penetrated still farther into Muscovite Russia, to which Kyiv and the Eastern Ukraine had to be
ceded politically in the second half of the seventeenth century. Almost at the same time, in 1661,
a Catholic University, directed, as in Wilno, by the Jesuits, was formed in Lviw, radiating over
those Ukrainian provinces which remained with Poland.
During the whole Renaissance period, which in this part of Europe had started later, but
lasted longer than in the Western countries, all the territories once connected with the
Jagiellonian federation were something like a cross-roads of the great European trends of
civilization. But they also were the extreme border regions where these currents really were
assimilated, at least by an intellectual elite, leaving behind them permanent traces in the whole
cultural development. The purely Polish part of the Commonwealth had made it possible, and
that was certainly a most important Polish contribution to the Renaissance movement.
It was, however, not the only one. The eastern expansion of Renaissance culture would not have been possible if that
culture had not reached such a high standard in Poland proper. From a general European point of view it was remarkable that in
this country cultural currents coming from the Romance nations, combined with a traditional Slavonic background, produced a
special type of humanism which enriched the variety of European thought. Favoured by the enlightened patronage of kings,
bishops and statesmen, and by important educational institutions, Polish literature and learning in this period contributed a series
of masterpieces to the common European heritage, expressing many stimulating political and social ideas.
For Poland herself the humanistic "Golden Age" had a twofold importance. It created a national patrimony which was
never forgotten and made possible the subsequent cultural revivals in politically critical moments—at the end of the eighteenth
century, and in the nineteenth. And it for ever connected Poland with the Latin West by a spiritual union which neither the
cultural decline in the second part of the seventeenth century and in the first part of the eighteenth, nor foreign rule and
oppression by non-Latin conquerors, could ever destroy.
Benefits: Higher Culture, there's a university in Cracow, unity of Ukrainian lands, contact
with the west—Renaissance and Humanism
Drawbacks: still no protection from the tartars who constantly terrorize Ukrainian territories.
1482 Kyiv sacked, Catholic onslaught—the counter-reformation, social system based on
exploitation of the peasant
Brotherhoods form around Orthodox churches in 15th and esp 16th century, first in L’viv
then in Kyiv—defence of Orthodoxy and cultural activity. Also schools
Printing comes to Lviv at the latest in 1574 when Ivan Fedoriv published the “Apostol”
there. Fedoriv himself had already printed in Moscow where he was run out. probably there was
some printing earlier in Ukraine too.
Renaissance, Humanism, and Protestantism
MAN, Plato & Aristotle, Classical Literature & Art, etc
their absence, relatively, in Ukraine.
Byzantine traditions, religious culture
Ukrainian participation in Polish renaissance, humanism and reformation
Comes later, after counter-reformation Signs of it in religious polemics and Mohyla
academy.
SLA 218- 105
First Crusade 1095–1099
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – January 8, 1337)
Dante Alighieri (May/June c.1265 – September 14, 1321)
Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374)
1417-1436 Brunellischi creates the dome of Florence Cathedral
1455 First printed book, the Gutenberg Bible is published
Michelangelo 1475–1564
1504-1505 Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”
1512 Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”
1513 Machiavelli begins “The Prince”
Martin Luther, 1483–1546; 95 Theses 1517
Union of Brest, 1596
5
Slavic 218
Lecture Six, Fall
Early 17th Century
Before the Xmel'nyc'kyj Revolution
1596 Union of Brest (Ukr. = Berestja, Berestejs'ka unija)
Stimulus for the Union is the disarray in Orthodox church.
Orest Subtelny on the problems in the church:
Following the practice of the times, the grand princes and, later, the kings of Poland acquired the
right of patronage; that is, they could appoint Orthodox bishops and even the metropolitan (in
Kiev) himself. Thus, the crucial issue of the leadership of the Orthodox faithful was left in the
hands of secular rulers of another, increasingly antagonistic, church.
The results were disastrous. With lay authorities capable of appointing bishops, the
metropolitan's authority was undermined. And with every bishop acting as a law unto himself,
the organizational discipline of the Orthodox church deteriorated rapidly. Even more deleterious
was the corruption that lay patronage engendered. Recently ordained fortune hunters frequently
bribed their way into the bishop's office so that they could plunder the diocese by selling off its
icons, jewels, and lands. Eventually, even common noblemen took to auctioning off parishes or
monasteries situated on their lands to the highest bidder or assigning them to unqualified
relatives. Even the highest clergy behaved in the most unseemly manner. Metropolitan Onysifor
Divochka, for example, was accused of bigamy; Bishop Kyrylo Terletsky was taken to court, and
acquitted, of manslaughter, rape, and assault; Bishop Ion Borzobohaty charged the faithful a fee
to use the church. Following the lead of their superiors, parish priests behaved so badly that
contemporaries complained that only “human refuse” was to be found among them and that they
were more likely to visit a tavern than a church.1
- 1453 Constantinople falls to the Turks: disarray in Byzantine church
- 1458 re-establishment of a Metropolitanate in Kiev under Patriarch of Constantinople.
- 1589 creation of the Moscow patriarchate
- 1483–1546 Martin Luther
- 1517 95 Theses on church door 1521 he’s excommunicated
- 1545–63 Council of Trent, reform of Catholic church, counter reformation
- 1540 Society of Jesus (Jesuits) are formed
- Pressure from Polish Catholic Counter-reformation
- Immorality and abuse of positions by some of the clergy
- Ironically, growing power of the brotherhoods leads some bishops to see Union as a way of
recovering their power and freeing themselves from the power of lay brotherhoods and the newly
created Patriarch in Moscow. e.g. letter of Bishop Terlec'kyj to bishop Potij (2 principal
supporters of the Union from the Orthodox Bishops):
“...The Patriarchs will go frequently to Moscow ... and on their way back will not bypass us.
Jeremia has already deposed one metropolitan, established Brotherhoods which will and already
are hounding the bishops ... They may even succeed in deposing anyone of us from our
bishoprics--judge for yourself what a disgrace that would be! The King invests with benefice for
the duration of a life and does not reclaim it except for criminal acts while the Patriarch defames
and deprives [a bishop] of office even on unfounded denunciations--judge for yourself, what
SLA 218 - 106
Early 17th Century
2
slavery. When, however, we submit to the Pope of Rome, then we shall not only retain our
bishoprics for life but will also be seated on the senatorial benches together with the Latin
bishops and will [thus] more easily regain possessions taken away from the church.”2
A reflection of the tension:
1582 Pope Gregory reforms calendar, 10 days disappear despite Polish Catholic pressure,
Orthodox do not accept, some attempts to force them, they seek and win protection in the Sejm,
where Ruthenian nobles hold some power.
There is a clear sense that religious differences are being supplemented by national
consciousness
Church hierarchy, some of the clergy, aristocracy, and burghers (city dwellers, merchants) are
FOR the Union
2 Bishops (Balaban and Kopystens'kyj, ironically, these two were originally for the union but in
1595, when all hell broke loose about this union, they backtracked and turned against it), Prince
Ostroz'kyj (the most powerful aristocrat in Ukraine), the brotherhoods, and ALL the peasants are
AGAINST the Union
Uniates are not readily accepted by Catholic Poles, Orthodox in disarray at least until 1620 when
6 new bishops consecrated and a Patriarchate in Kiev by the Patriarch of Jerusalem
Kiev Caves Monastery had traditionally been a place for asceticism, to look at the upper or lower
caves is sufficient to understand it did not play a public role
1615 the monastery acquires a printing press, attracts some major religious thinkers. 1631
Mohyla starts a school there
Kiev Epiphany Brotherhood founded 1615, in 1616 Hetman Sahajdanyj and the entire
Zaporožian host join the brotherhood, from the start it has a school for the children of the
aristocracy and burghers
Mohyla Academy
Petro Mohyla (1596-1648) was a Moldavian (Roumanian) who came from an important noble
family. Family fortunes declined, they move to Poland. Peter gets a good Polish
education--there's even a possibility that he studied in France. Moves to Kiev and takes monastic
vows in 1625. Becomes Archimandrite (1627) of the caves Monastery and founds a school that
will bring the best in education to Kiev.
Why? To strengthen Orthodoxy. To preserve Orthodoxy against the Latin Catholic Poles. To
keep the children of the aristocracy from having to travel to the west to get an education. How?
by giving them the best of what is available in the West. Latinization of Kiev culture. Greek is in
decline anyway.
The school he founds at the Caves Monastery in 1631 is in danger of being closed by an angry
community because they see it as too Latin, i.e. too Polish. Mohyla, the politician, arranges a
merger with the Brotherhood school, which is not suspect, and thereby saves his school, his hide,
and the idea of bringing the best of Western thought.
Literature
Textbooks for the Mohyla Collegium (Academy in 1701)
SLA 218 - 106
Early 17th Century
3
in Latin, on Poetics, Rhetoric, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy. Nothing very new here--copied
from Western models.
The real importance of the Mohyla Academy is as a part of the rejuvenation of Orthodox culture
after long decline and the severe blow of the Union. Conduit of Western Ideas. This will become
VERY important when Ukraine passes from Poland to Muscovy.
Some important people:
Jelysej Pletenec'kyj (1550-1624)--the archimandrite (1599-) of the Caves Monastery who brings
the monastery to life, a Galician, brings together good people at the Lavra and restores its land
holdings, which had been ceded to Uniates
Zaxarija Kopystens'kyj--next archimandrite (between Pletenec'kyj and Mohyla, 1624-1627)
author of a number of works on Orthodoxy “On the One Faith,” “On the True Unity of Orthodox
Christians,” and “Palinodia, or a Book of Defence ...” (anti Uniate)
Pamvo Berynda(?-1632)--director of the Caves Monastery print shop, author of the first
Ukrainian dictionary Leksikon Slavenoroskij 1627
Meletij Smotryc'kyj (1577-1633)--a major figure, perhaps best known because he converted from
Orthodoxy to the Uniate Church. In addition to polemical works, he wrote the Grammatika
slovenskija pravilnoe syntagma, 1616 grammar of Ruthenian and Evangelie uytylnoe.
1.Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988) 93.
2.Cited by Taras Hunczak, "The Politics of Religion: The Union of Brest 1596," Ukrajins'kyj
istoryk 9 (1972), no. 3/4:100 following Sergei M. Soloviov, Istoriia Rossii z drevneishikh vremen
(St. Petersburg, 1849) 10:1425.
Slavic 218
Lecture Seven, Fall
The Xmel'nyc'kyj Revolt
How does the glorious Poland of the Renaissance come to an ignominious end? Weakness of
Polish Government.
The nobility enjoyed such preponderence in rights and power that the
Commonwealth was in fact a republic of the nobility.... The nobles treasured their
rights of liberty and equality. They extolled the liberty they enjoyed both as an
order and as individuals, and they contrasted the Commonwealth with other states
in which noble priviledges were circumscribed by royal power or by the influence
of other orders, or in which individual rights were limited.... Through determined
struggle, culminating in ... The mid-sixteenth century, the Polish nobility had won
the assurance that the masses of the nobility would remain legally equal to the
wealthy and powerful, and that neither provincial offices nor titles would become
hereditary. Equality and brotherhood among the nobility were therefore enshrined
as unquestioned tenets of the Commonwealth's laws and ideology. Of course,
"equality" had nothing to do with wealth or power. The thousands of nobles in the
Commonwealth included landless paupers along with owners of hundreds of
towns and villages....
The nobility controlled the Commonwealth through the Diet or, more
striclty speaking, the House of Delegates, which constituted, along with the
Senate and king, the three component "estates" of the realm. Every noble owning
land in a region had full rights to participate in the numerous provincial dietines,
whose duties were to send delegates to the national Diet, hear reports from it, send
delegates to judicial bodies, and decide tax matters. The king was required to call
a Diet at least every two years. At these Warsaw Diets, lasting from two to six
weeks, the delegates could lobby for the instructions they had received, speak out
on the issues of state that were introduced by the royal spokesmen, and make
decissions by unanimous assent....
The Diet's procedural rules contained one clause that eventually proved
fatal. The concept of each noble's freedom was carried to such great lengths that
the veto of one delegate, or refusal to prolong the Diet, could invalidate all the
measures enacted....
The Commonwealth's system left the king with much less power than he
would have possessed in other states, yet he was by no means an insignificant
force. After ... 1572 the monarchy became a fully elective office, with each
election accompanied by considerable disorder as numerous candidates vied for
the throne. The election process was lengthy, involving the entire nobility and
necessitating three Diets--Convocation, Election, and Coronation--each of which
had to be preceded and followed by dietines. The successful contender was
required to sign a pacta conventa, or agreement, with the nobility, but after the
election an energetic monarch could secure a party of loyal noble supporters and
through them exert considerable control and influence.1
SLA 218 – 107
2
2nd half 16th century, Cossacks growing as an important military force, free men, robbers,
mercenaries, defenders of Eastern Europe against Tartars and Turks, Official negotiations
with Western powers for military assistance (they're mercenaries) near end of century
Poland also gets the idea, Registered Cossacks, paid by the Polish state--this will control them,
but of course it doesn't work but does create classes of Cossacks, some settled others still in
south, constant trouble with Cossacks who will not be controlled and Cossacks leading various
revolts against Polish oppression throughout first half of 17th century, uprisings always put down
with extreme violence, teach them a lesson for the future--this makes heroes
1648 Revolution
An organized Cossack military campaign is augmented by a popular mass revolt.
Xmel'nyc'kyj is the son of a minor Ukrainian noble, the county bailiff of yhyryn
He himself serves in Cossack registered army, becomes captain of yhyryn regiment
1647 a new county bailiff, a Pole named Czaplinski, seizes Xmel'nyc'kyj's estates in Subotiv.
Xmel'nyc'kyj appeals for justice, can't get any, flees to the Si, where he gets support of
Cossacks, gets elected hetman.
Xmel'nyc'kyj then implements A PLAN for a revolt. Makes an alliance with the Crimean Khan,
an enemy of Poland. Agitates among masses for revolt. Military campaign VERY
successfull--destroys two Polish armies
1648 Poland has no army left and the King has just died.
Xmel'nyc'kyj waits out the winter and in 1649 is ready to destroy another large Polish army
coming at him but his Tartar ally pulls out and Xmel'nyc'kyj concludes an armistice.
Creation of a Ukrainian State--along military lines
1651 Xmel'nyc'kyj suffers a military defeat at Beresteko
Betrayal, again, by Crimean Khan and other setbacks eventually lead to a pact with one of the
two enemies of Poland, Sweeden and Russia
1654 Perejaslav Xmel'nyc'kyj puts Ukraine under the Russian Tsar (=Alexei Mixajlovi)
The Ukrainians' disappointment with their Russian alliance, which had turned out
so badly for them, went back to the Perejaslav Agreement itself. The first serious
misunderstanding occured on the day the Ukrainians swore an oath of allegiance
to the tsar and asked the tsar's ambassador to swear on behalf of his sovereign that
he would uphold the terms of the agreement. In response, the Russians said that
the tsar of Muscovy did not swear to keep promises to his subjects. The
Ukrainians realized they were dealing with a monarch quite unlike the one they
had known in Warsaw.2
The treaty included a very vague Russo-Ukrainian military campaign against Poland. But
Sweeden invades Poland too, so
1657 Andrusovo Russia signs treaty with Poland against their common enemy, Sweeden (recall
1709), ignoring the agreement made with Xmel'nyc'kyj at Perejaslav. The treaty divides Ukraine
between Poland and Russia along the Dnipro
1658 Hadja Vyhovs'kyj (Xmel'nyc'kyj died 1657 after trying to negotiate with Swedes) makes a
treaty with Poland but the masses of Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks wont accept it, stick to the
SLA 218 – 107
3
Orthodox Russians, the tsar's a good guy, our freind, polish exploitation of peasants, better now
under Russia, don't let Cossack officers become like Polish nobles
Difference between being part of Poland and being part of Russia. Culturally, this isn't Peter the
Great, yet.
But even then, the Mohyla Academy, an immitator by Polish standards, will be a leader by
Russian ones. Pritsak's three accusations against the Mohyla Academy:
1.) It did not use the vernacular. No attempt to turn Ukrainian into a literary language, as had
been done in Europe and Poland
2.) No realisation by the Academy circles of the significance of the Xmel'nyc'kyj revolt, or of the
Cossacks, of the historical direction that was developing, i.e. Ukrainian nation forming
3.) They had no allegiances nationallly or locally, they were religious intellectual mercenaries
The Ruin
1.Frank Sysyn, Between Poland and the Ukraine: The Dilemma of Adam Kysil 1600-1653
(Cambridge: HURI, 1985) 10-13.
2.Roman Szporluk, Ukraine: A Brief History (Detroit: Festival Committee, 1982) 28.
Slavic 218
Lecture Eight, Fall
Vyšens'kyj—Polemical Literature
The literature of the first half of the 17th century can be neatly divided into two groups:
Polemical literature and Other
Polemical Literature
We know of more literature written in Ukraine in the last quarter of the 16th and the first half of
the 17th centuries than in 500 years previous to that. This includes a number of genres of
literature but the most noteworthy, both because of its volume and because it is new and
necessarily original, is the Polemical Literature.
Polemical Literature is the broad heading under which is grouped a great deal of religious
writing. In general, these works are all tied together by a common subject: the dispute between
the Orthodox Church and the Uniate Church (and therefore the Catholic Church as a whole).
Some of these works are carefully argued political position papers, others are pompous and
self-righteous denunciations of the other side, others still are impassioned and inflamatory
appeals for a particula course of action. Some of these works are in Ruthenian (a kind of middle
Ukrainian), some are in Latin, and many are in Polish.
On the Polish side: Piotr Skarga, we'll talk about him
On the Uniate side: Ipatij Potij, Antirrhesis, Harmonia
Lev Krevza, whom we read. A Defense of Church Unity, in Polish
Terlec'kyj and Rohoza (3 bishops who accepted the Union)
Kasian Sakovy, Perspektyva, 1642 in Pol Catholic anti Orthodox and anti Uniate position
On the Orthodox side: Ivan Vyšens’kyj, more below
Meletij Smotryc'kyj, more below
Herasym Smotryc'kyj, rector of the Ostrih Academy, writes Klju carstva nebesnoho (The Key to
the Kingdom of Heaven) 1587. The Ostrih Academy is a product of Prince Ostroz'kyj's interests
and financial sponsorship. The fact that this Academy becomes the first source of Orthodox
polemics, defences and counter offensives is not accidental. Reflects the Prince's interests, views,
and maybe instructions.
Zaxarij Kopystens’kyj, Palinodia (The Book of Defence) 1627 but not published til 19th c.
written in Slavonic.
Anonymous or pseudonymous works, e.g. Perestoroha (Warning) or Apokrisis (pseudonymous)
Perestoroha is a history of the church as a battle between the church and the devil.
Piotr (Peter) Skarga, a jesuit, publishes O jednoÑci KoÑcio»a Boóego pod jednym Pasterzem i o
greckim od tej jednoÑci odstpieniu (Vilnius, 1577). The work includes a brief history of Poland
with special attention to the question of how Poland comes to rule Ruthenian lands, it is a
justification of it, an explanation of the Schism in the church with all the blame put squarely on
the Eastern church, and an elaboration of why the lowly Ruthenians who conduct their religion in
a non sacred language (Church Slavonic, not Latin or Greek) and therefore have no schools, no
learning, no theology or philosophy are constantly falling into religious error and heresy. The
obvious solution is for all the Orthodox to become Latin rite Catholics. Remember the Language
SLA 218 – 108
2
issue in Kievan Rus'.
Language Question in Polemical Literature as one aspect and example of the nature of the
polemic
Read: David Frick, Meletij Smotryc'kyj and the Ruthenian Language Question” HUS 9.1/2 (June
1985): 29
As part of his agitation for a church union of the Othodox Ruthenians with Rome,
Skarga published a pamphlet entitled On the Unity of the Church of God under One
Shepherd and on the Greek Apostasy from that Unity. In it he expressed opinions on
the use of both the Church Slavonic language and the Ruthenian vulgar tongue. In his
view, Church Slavonic lacked the dignitas to fulfill elevated cultural functions; without a
fixed grammatical and lexical norm, the language was unsuited for scholarly purposes.
According to Skarga, only Latin and, at least theoretically, Greek, with their wellestablished traditions and fixed norms, had the full dignitas of cultural languages:
Furthermore, the Greeks greatly cheated you, O Ruthenian nation, that in giving
you the holy faith, they did not give you their Greek language. Rather, they
ordered you to stay by this Slavonic language, so that you might never attain
true understanding and learning. For only these two, Greek and Latin, are
languages by means of which the holy faith has been propagated and
disseminated throughout the whole world, without which no one can attain
complete competence in any field of learning, least of all in the spiritual doctrine
of the holy faith. Not only because other languages change continuously and are
unable to be stable within their framework of human usage (for they do not have
their grammars and lexicons; only those two are always the same and never
change), but also because only in those two languages have learned disciplines
been established, and those disciplines cannot be translated adequately into
other languages. And there has not been in this world, nor will there ever be any
academy or college where theology, philosophy, and other liberal arts could be
studied and understood in any other language. No one can ever become learned
through the Slavonic tongue.
This and other similar works are the Polish impetus for the Union. Obviously they provoke an
Orthodox response. The most significant respondents are Meletij Smotryc'kyj and Ivan
Vyšens’kyj.
But first, yet another aspect, the legalistic one.
First, compare Krevza and Kopystens'kyi.
SLA 218 – 108
3
Focus on legality of Union. On the underlying causes.
Lavrentij Krevza Beida Revuskyi, 1569–1639, nobleman, studied in Rome, archimandrite of the
Trinity monastery in Vilnius, a Uniate, friend of Josafat Kuncevyc, the martyr, later archbishop
A Defense of Church Unity, in Polish, in 1617
1. An Introduction 'To the Reader', which sets forth the occasion of the
publication and introduces the four main theses: a) that our Lord did appoint St.
Peter chief pastor of His flock, b) that St. Peter's charge did pass on to the
Roman pontiffs, c) that Rus', baptized when the Church was whole, did not
willingly follow the Greeks into schism, and d) that the metropolitans over many
centuries did in fact recognize the authority of the Roman pontiff,
2. A development of these four theses in four 'Parts', each subdivided into
'Chapters', treating dicir separate aspects. The theses c) and d) are united in
'Part 3", while 'Part 4' directly addresses the decision of the Synod of Brest and
the questions c-fl whether this synod could rightly have taken place in the
absence of the patriarchs and the worldly power, g) whether the prelates did act
in (tie best interest of their flock, hj which benefits the Union would bring to the
flock, and finally i) which means were at hand to bring the contending parties to
conciliation.
The argument is legalistic, based on the authority of Rome and the notion that your own eastern
traditions don’t need to be treated as rules, what do they give you?
Read passages: What’s the benefit of sticking with Byzantium, which no longer exists: 114–5
Did the bishops need to consult with the laity? No, but they did with Ostrozkyj: 175–6 then letter
on 177
Zaxarija Kopystenskyj
Kopystensky, Zakhariia, b? in Peremyshl, d 21 March 1627 in Kyiv. He probably studied at the
Lviv Dormition Brotherhood School before traveling throughout the Balkans and moving to
Kyiv in 1616, where he joined the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood. Fluent in Greek and Latin. On
20 November 1624, he became the archimandrite of the Kyivan Cave Monastery. He published
several translations of Greek religious books. His major work is Palinodiia, ili kniga oborony ...
vskhodnei tserkvy ... (A Palinode, or a Book in Defense ... of the Eastern Church ..., 1621).
Although this work was only published in 1876, it was widely read in Orthodox circles in
manuscript. This work not only showed his skill as a polemicist, but also demonstrated his great
erudition and knowledge of church history and theology.
A Palinode, or a Book in Defense ... of the Eastern Church, never finished, last additions 1621,
published later, 1876, in Slavonic. A Palinode is a rhetorical term, a retraction, a re-statement, a
reiteration. A direct response to Krevza. Very long, 7 times longer than Krevza though
unfinished. Roughly 1000 pages. Erudition in Church history.
Passages to read: Who is an apostate? 794–5. This is just patriotism. Stick to us, to your own,
Ruthenian. But also read 177, we really aren’t all that learned. Tie this in to Vyshenskyj, later.
SLA 218 – 108
4
Smotryc'kyj. ca.1577-1633 studied at the Orthodox Academy in Ostrih, the Jesuit Academy in
Vilnius and in Protestant Academies in Germany. Son of Herasym Smotryc'kyj who had
published Klju carstva nebesnoho, one of the earliest Orthodox responses to Skarga
Threnos 1610 in polish Lament of Church that sons are leaving
Evangelye uitelnoe, Homiletic gospel 1616
Grammatyky Slaveskyja pravylnoe syntagma 1619
Kazan'e Ruth & Pol versions
Verificatia niewinnosci 1621
Oborona verificaciey 1621
Elenchus pism uszczypliwych 1622
Justificatia niewinnosci 1623
Apologia 1628
Protestatia 1628
Paraenesis 1629
Exaethesis 1629
Conversion presumed between 1624-27
Smotryc'kyj's response to Skarga's charge about Church Slavonic is mixed in with the rest of his
works. A few things stand out. The Grammar of Slavonic he produces is, in effect, a
demonstration that Slavonic IS as good as Latin and Greek
1985): 33-34)
Essential to the nation's spiritual well-being, in his view, were a flourishing noble class,
schools, monasteries, printing presses, teachers and preachers, as well as well-edited books for
use in the liturgy and in personal devotion.
[On the language question] Smotryc'kyj assigned to Slavonic a level of dignitas
equal to that of Greek or Latin by claiming (and then providing) for it the same
sort of fixed grammatical norm posessed by the classical languages:
It will depend on your dutiful zeal, diligent teachers, that the benefit of
grammar, which in the Greek and Latin languages has been shown through
experience itself to be clearly significant, be felt in the Slavonic language as well,
and in time, through a similar experience, be proved significant. For you who
have studied the art of Greek or Latin grammar know what it brings to an
understanding of the purity of the language, as well as of the correct and fine
spelling, writing, and understanding of written works according to the
characteristics of the languages. Every benefit that the grammars of the
above-mentioned languages commonly bring, the Slavonic grammar is surely
capable of bringing in its Slavonic language. [From the first page of the preface to
the Grammar.]
In the rest of the preface Smotryc'kyj sought to answer ... the notion that
Church Slavonic is unsuitable for scholarly pursuits. The grammar itself was
conceived as a school textbook and Smotryc'kyj addressed himself in the preface
to the “school teachers.” To justify the study of Church Slavonic, Smotryc'kyj
first placed it on a level with the two sacred and classical languages of humanistic
SLA 218 – 108
5
Europe. He then provided a curriculum for the young students of the Ruthenian
schools.
This involves a role for the Ruthenian vulgate comparable to the role protestants advanced for
vulgates in Western Europe. The sacred languages (for Smotryc'kyj including Slavonic)
are for scholarship in religious matters, the vulgate is for simplifying it and making it
accessible to the common man. Smotryc'kyj's argument also involves belittling Latin in
favor of Greek.
Ivan Vyšens’kyj 1550??-1620 most notable writer of the time--but only in retrospect. He was a
monk on Mount Athos in Greece he wrote 20 works but only one was published in his lifetime,
they were copied by hand but not printed. Some of his titles
Letter to all the people living in Polish Lands
Letter to the Bishops who have run away from Orthodoxy
Porada
The Unmasking of the Devil, Ruler of the World
Sermon About Lying
The Spiritual Theater
On the Language Question, Vyšens’kyj's response is typical of his outlook:
1985): 31-32
The characteristic of Vyšens’kyj's writings is that he is an ascetic and his interest is less in the
mundane details of a political debate but rather in the overriding issue of spiritual salvation for
each individual. He is a biblical prophet preaching salvation to the sinners from a cave in Greece.
Very flowery style, very simple message. Against anything new. Against anything western. He
not only rails against the Polish magnates and the Uniate bishops but he also argues that all
pagan leftovers in Ukrainian culture should be abandoned, things like village fairs, with dancing
and music, no carolls, folk songs etc. Sounds like Ayatolla Vyšens’kyj. He's against the xytroši
of dialectics, rhetorics, Logic. Study the church fathers rather than Plato and Aristotle.
Vyšens’kyj. To those who will read this writing in Solitude
In the first place, I caution you, dear reader, away from the fault of seeking here those sly
wordplays of hellenic learning, but rather seek the trace of the essence of truth, for there you will
find eternal life--you must feel this to understand it....
About myself I will testify that I have not studied the minutiae of grammar, I have not seen the
playthings of rhetoric, I have not heard anything of far-reaching philosophy. My teacher is a
simpleton, who is wiser than everyone, who can enlighten even the bookless; my teacher is a
simpleton who turns the hunters of fish into hunters of men; my teacher is the one who belittles
philosophy with simplicity; my teacher is the one who conquers pride with humility.. Therefore,
if you want to find the road to salvation, listen; and if you want to find the kingdom of heaven,
have faith. But if you are overwhelmed by the empty spirit of Latin learning and heed not my
simplicity, then know for certain that you will not attain eternal life.
SLA 218 – 108
6
Smotryc'kyj and Vyšens’kyj as two different directions.
After 1648 the polemic changes since the Orthodox now have a stronger position so they no
longer defend themselves
Also on Vyšens’kyj: Harvey Goldblatt, “On the Reception of Ivan Vyšens’kyj's Writings among
the Old Beleivers,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 15, 3/4 (December 1991): 354-82.
Other
Dumy
Historical subjects reflecting a folk ethos
Eucharisterion, 1632 a panegyric to Petro Mohyla by the students in Rhetoric a series of poems
Reflects some new ideas but most importantly development of verse poetry.
Pamvo Berynda(?-1632)--director of the Caves Monastery print shop, author of the first
Ukrainian dictionary Leksikon Slavenoroskij 1627
Lavrentij Zyzanij, Leksis, Hrammatika Slovenska
From Frick’s book. Skip this.
Yet, I too ask the fragmentary testimonies what they can tell me about the man who left them.
Within the figure of Smotryc'kyj (or within what they have created of him in their
investigations), most of my predecessors have been drawn to, and emphasized, that which has
“lasted”: his contributions to resolving the Ruthenian question, the connections between
Smotryc'kyj and those who continue to deal with the “same” questions. Again, I stress that these
are important and interesting issues. By defining themselves as heirs to Smotryc’kyj—either in
negative or positive terms—these scholars have established a direct connection, and this is the
nature of tradition and self-representation. One aspect of scholarship must always be to follow up
the links. But this type of scholarship may not necessarily tell us everything we can know about
Smotryc’kyj himself. In fact, it may sometimes tell us more about the would-be heirs than about
the putative ancestor.
I have been drawn in my investigation—in addition to these things— to the idiosyncratic, to the
“one-time” occurrences, to that in Smotryc’kyj' s life which, for whatever reason, failed and
perished (and to the fact that it failed and perished), to the moments of hesitation and deviation
on the overarching path that took him from Orthodoxy to the Uniate Church. The
contradictions—the disjunctions when Smotryc’kyj was supposedly firmly planted one one side
of the fence—have interested me, as have the continuities that linked his views and actions on
both sides of the fence. I have been intrigued by that which distanced Smotryc’kyj's life and
work from those who (students of the present among them) have chosen to see in him an
ancestor. This, too, is “who Meletij Smotryc’kyj was,” and it is an aspect of his life that has not
received much attention so far. This does not mean that new heirs to Smotryc’kyj will not
become apparent. But it does (if I have come to understand correctly the rules by which
Smotryc’kyj played the game) call into question the several sets of binary oppositions that his
SLA 218 – 108
7
would-be descendants and estranged progeny have used in assessing the life of their supposed
ancestor.
The rules of the game to which Smotryc’kyj adhered removed any exclusive opposition between
Greek-Slavonic and Latin-Polish culture, between Eastern and Western Churches, between
Ruthenian nation and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They required Smotryc’kyj (and all
Uniate and Orthodox players) to express their allegiance to Greek-Slavonic culture. But there is
no doubt that at the practical level, Smotryc’kyj's education in Vilnius and in Germany (and
probably also in Ostroh) served to make of him an Orthodox man of Western Latin learning. As
the Uniate Smotryc’kyj would point out, the Greek part of studies in his days had come through
an Italian intermediary, anyway.
The rules of the game required at the programmatic level a choice of Church: in Smotryc’kyj's
world, this meant either Uniate or Orthodox (although conversion to Roman Catholicism or the
various heterodoxies were among the ways to “exit” the game). But for most of his life (after the
mid 1610s) this choice did not necessarily imply an exclusive choice between East and West.
Smotryc’kyj offered a series of configurations on the question of confessional allegiance
throughout his life: first, the Orthodox Church is correct, and the Roman Catholic (and Uniate)
Church is wrong (see Threnos), second, the Orthodox Church is correct, and the Roman Catholic
(and perhaps the Uniate) Church is (perhaps) not incorrect (see the works of 1621-1623); or,
third, the Roman Catholic (and thus the Uniate) Church is not incorrect, therefore, “we” (that is,
“you”) must be incorrect (see the works of 1628-29). The game required here an exclusive choice
at the programmatic level, but this public stance could be used to further other more-or-less
inclusive views of a Universal Church.
No opposition was permitted (again at the programmatic level) that espoused the interests of a
Ruthenian nation to the detriment of (or separate from) those of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. Here Smotryc'kyj could argue as an Orthodox archbishop that what was good
for the Ruthenian nation was good for the Commonwealth, and as a Uniate that what was good
for the Commonwealth was good for the Ruthenian nation. But in public pronouncements there
could be no exclusive opposition between the two communities (except, of course, to the
detriment of the Ruthenian nation).
These were the rules to which Smotryc’kyj adhered. Within this general framework, what has
interested me the most have been those glimpses of the ways in which Smotryc’kyj played the
game in some “creative” fashion. My impression (and this is in disagreement with Orthodox
historiography—but not, therefore, necessarily in agreement with the Uniate) is that his goal
throughout his life was to create—within the constraints of these rules—a Ruthenian culture.
Church, and political community that maintained what set it apart from the Poles and
Lithuanians. Hence, my fascination with those grey areas, and the ways
Slavic 218
Lecture Nine, Fall
The Eighteenth Century
After 1648 there is a political and social decline.
Right bank Ukraine is in terrible shape. Constant wars and armed struggle for years after
Xmel'nyc'kyj. Large areas of the Right bank are totally depopulated. Former Orthodox nobles are
either gone or Catholic (not even Uniate). Orthodoxy has lost its powerful defenders and Uniate
church is forced on the people but it is not given equal rights with Roman Catholic Church.
Poland in terrible decline culminating in end of 18th century partitions.
Left bank after Xmel'nyc'kyj also in severe political decline. Poor leadership of the Hetmans,
struggles among contenders for the position, self interest of Cossack officer class. But very
substantial measure of autonomy. Ineptitude and greed of Cossack officers. They don't control
cities (Magdeburg law) and they don't control the Church. Enserfment of peasants. Taking of
lands, including those that were open. Cf. Kuliš, The Black Council.
Hetmanate. Slobids'ka Ukrajina. The Zaporozhian Si.
Continuous political struggle to maintain and re-establish Ukrainian rights of Cossack officer
class and also for example of religion. Religious leaders would be against Moscow because they
are wary of the Moscow patriarch. They are under the patriarch of Constantinople. But in 1684
the Kiev Metropolitan is forced to submit to Moscow Patriarch (Patriarch of Constantinople,
under pressure from Turks who are acting on Moscow's behalf, gives up his autority over
Ukrainian metropolitanate. No more separate Ukrainian Orthodox Church until 20th century.
Ivan Vyhovs'kyj, Juras' Xmel'nyc'kyj, Pavlo Teterja, Ivan Brjuxovec'kyj, Petro Dorošenko,
Dmytro Mnohohrišnyj, Ivan Samojlovy, Ivan Mazepa. All take various positions vis-á-vis
Moscow, Poland, and the Turks. Eventually Mazepa (hetman 1687-1709). A particularly good
period for Ukrainian culture.
Gradual political decline but a certain flowering in culture. The existence of the hetmanate state
creates the conditions necessary for cultural growth. Sponsorship by powerful and wealthy men.
Who are they, the new rich cossack officer class. Importance of understanding the civil
significance of the military ranks. These people are important for Ukrainian history, even if most
of them do get russified. A political interest group.
Architecture and painting, the large number of churches in Ukraine is to a considerable extent an
accomplishment of this period. A particular style, the Cossack Baroque, both in wooden and
masonry architecture. Best known: St. Andrew's in Kiev (1747-53), although it is built by an
Italian architect (Rastrelli) for Tsaritsa Catherine not by Cossack Staršyna. Much of the upper
portion of the Caves Monastery.
Chronicle writing. The Xmel'nyc'kyj revolt prompts interest and subsequent events require a
historical justification. So we get both kinds: chronicles that barely mention the revolt and talk
about Pereiaslav as reunification and also chronicles that see the history of Ukraine as a
continuous and separate stream. Mostly a mixture of both these views.
Hustyn chronicle
Eyewitness chronicle
Chronicle of Hrabjanka
SLA 218 – 109
2
Chronicle of Samijlo Velyko
Interest in their own history is significant. These chronicles will be important in the national
revival 100 years later.
Mohyla Academy is still the measure of cultural achievement. It produces people who will be the
leaders of the westernization that Peter the Great introduces in Russia. Many of the important
people of the time will be graduates of the academy. Much of the literature produced in this time
will be somehow associated with the academy. But in 18th c gradual decline.
In 1760 420 religious students and 575 lay students
In 1803 1015 religious students and 172 lay students
2nd half of 18th century 2 printing presses, Lavra in Kiev and the Poajiv Manastery
They produce 250-300 books in this 50 year period, that's not bad
But 1720 Peter prohibits printing anything other than Russian language religious books in
Ukraine
Significance of Peter and the course of the 18th century in Ukraine
Western ideas and a western efficiency in state organization
Punishing Ukraine after Mazepa
1764 Kyrylo Rozumovs'kyj forced to resign, last hetman
Forced with enormous financial reward.
1775 Zaporozhian Si destroyed by Catherine
Russo-Turkish Wars, solve the old problem, opening the south for colonization
Right bank
1768 Kolijivšyna, very bloody uprising, peasant with some old cossack support, put down with
Russian troops
1772, 1793, 1795 partitions of Poland
SLA 218 – 109
Russian Tsars:
Peter I 1689-1725
Catherine I
1725-1727
Peter II
1727-1730
Anne 1730-1740
Elizabeth
1741-1761
Peter III
1761-1762
Catherine II 1762-1796
Paul 1796-1801
Alexander I 1801-1825
Nicholas I
1825-1855
Alexander II 1855-1881
Alexander III 1881-1894
Nicholas II
1894-1917
3
Slavic 218
Lecture Ten, Fall
Prokopovy and Skovoroda
The genres of literature in the 18th century (according to yževs'kyj):
Verse poetry (mostly anonymous)
secular—historical, erotic, formal-panegyrical
religious—calendar, saints
satirical-religious
Drama mostly school dramas
Christmas and Easter
saints lives
morality plays
historical (Vladimir)
intermedia & inderludia comic for the masses
vertep
Prose
sermons
philosophical treatises, school textbooks
historical (chronicles)
Hrab'janka, Velyko, Samovydec' (Eyewitness)
Baroque literature
When? Mostly in the 2nd half of the 17th century and all of the 18th. But some earlier also.
Characteristics. (Students should be reading yževs'kyj on the Baroque, he's good on it.) Here is
yževs’kyj, pg 216–17:
3.
Although scholars agree in large measure on the characteristics of Baroque style, there
still exist many differences of opinion as to the source of the criteria which conditioned the
character of the Baroque style. Even today it is widely believed that Baroque culture was the
culture of the Catholic Anti-Reformation. This view completely ignores the fact that some
Protestant countries and nations developed a most brilliant Baroque culture. In Ukraine, as we
will see, Orthodox circles were far more active in the creation of a Baroque culture, especially in
literature, than were the Catholic ones. Closer to the truth are those who see in Baroque culture a
"synthesis," a coalescence of the cultures of the Middle Ages ("Gothic"), and of the Renaissance.
For, in fact, the culture of the Baroque, while not rejecting the accomplishments of the
Renaissance era, in many ways returned to the themes and forms of the Middle Ages. In place of
the clear harmony of the Renaissance we find the complex multiplicity of the Gothic; in place of
the anthropocentrism, the placing of man in the center of everything during the Renaissance, we
find in the Baroque a clear return to theocentrism, with God once again occupying the central
position, as in the Middle Ages; in place of the liberation of man from the bonds of social and
religious norms, we see in the Baroque once again a strengthening of the role of the Church and
the state. But, as we noted earlier, the Baroque likewise assumed many of the features of the
Renaissance. Especially important was its complete acceptance of the "rebirth" of ancient culture.
Admittedly, it interpreted this culture very differently than did the Renaissance and tried to
reconcile it with Christianity. The Baroque, like the Renaissance, afforded great attention to
nature, but the Baroque considered nature to be important primarily as a path to God. Neither did
the Baroque reject the cult of the "noble man"; however, it sought to educate this "strong man," to
SLA 218 – 110
2
bring him up to serve God. But what was peculiar to Baroque culture, and especially to its art,
what gives it its distinctly individual character is the movement, the "dynamism" of the Baroque.
In the plastic arts it appears in the preference for the complicated curved line over the straight line,
the sharp angle or the semi-circle of the Gothic or Renaissance. In literature and life it appears as
the longing for movement, change, travel, tragic emotions and catastrophes, a predilection for
bold combinations, for arguments. In nature the Baroque finds in place of staticism and harmony,
great stress, struggle and motion. Most importantly, the Baroque does not shy away from a
decisive "naturalism," the representation of the hardest, strictest and often most unaesthetic
aspects of nature. Side by side with the representation of a colorful life full of tension, we find in
the Baroque a certain predilection for the theme of death. The Baroque did not consider it the role
of art to awaken a calm religious or aesthetic feeling-the creation of a vivid impression,
excitement and turbulence were of greater importance. To this attempt to stir up, excite and
agitate the people are tied the main traits of the style of the Baroque which manifests itself in the
desire for strength, the use of exaggeration, hyperboles, the love of paradoxes and of monstrous
and unusual "grotesques," contrasts, and perhaps even the predilection for large forms, for the
universal, the comprehensive. These peculiar traits of the Baroque are also the source of those
very dangers which threatened Baroque culture and especially Baroque art-namely, the frequent
over-emphasis of form at the expense of the content, emphasis on pure ornamentation as a result
of which the meaning of a passage is either completely lost or forced into a secondary role. This
desire to exaggerate, to heighten every source of tension or contradiction, and all that is
impressive or peculiar, brought the Baroque to an excessive fondness for artistic games, poetic
sports, oddities, originality and even eccentricity. Baroque works are frequently overburdened,
overloaded and overcharged with formal elements. The Renaissance school of poetics contributed
to this, to some degree, since it had taught the Baroque the subtleties of the classic teachings about
poetic forms and poetic devices ("tropes and figures"). In some branches of literature (e.g.,
sermons) declamatory, theatrical style predominated.
We must not, however, forget that Baroque art, and especially Baroque poetry, was intended for
the "people of the Baroque." The style of Baroque poetry seems strange to us, although we can
objectively admire its subtlety. Consistency and sensuousness excited "Baroque Man"; it
enchanted him, spoke to his aesthetic senses and thereby to his mind and heart. Love of
naturalism, of the depiction of nature in its "low" elements as well, and of the concrete behind
which Baroque always saw the spiritual, the divine, the ideal, turned the attention of art and poetry
to the thus far neglected national poetry and folklore. In Baroque poetry we see the first step
towards "folk spirit" ("narodnist"'). The Baroque found a lively interest and following among the
people and it is not surprising that unusually strong influences of the Baroque can be felt in all
folk poetry and folk art in Europe even to the present.
1.) Baroque is a reformation style, a reaction to the renaissance, a return to the middle ages, but
now with some of the new ideas of the renaissance. You can't oppose renaissance ideas without
naming them.
2.) Not Man but God; not simple unity but complex variety; not the individual but social
institutions (church, state); movement, energy, bold contrasts, Nature as struggle (cf.
romanticism), Death as overwhelmingly important subject, interest in low details of life (what
would be called naturalism if this were the end of the 19th century), the grotesque, heightened
attention to form and style.
Poetry: many figures, let's look at one,
Stefan (Symeon) Javors'kyj (1658-1722
born in western Ukraine, parents move to Nižyn, studied at Kiev (Mohyla) Academy AND in
Jesuit schools in Poland. returned 1689 to Kiev and became a monk, took the name of Stefan,
SLA 218 – 110
and became a professor in the Academy, later became Metropolitan of Riazan and Murom (in
Russia) and then president of the Synod.
wrote a number of philosophical treatises, wrote poetry in Polish, Latin, and Church Slavonic.
Read his Emblemma 2 and 4. Emblem poems are poems that are texts to accompany a picture.
Emblemma 2
A blessing Death bestows on me, not strife,
by sundering my union brief with life;
For Death not me but chains round me doth tear
that held me down in dungeon of despair.
Thus, that Death giveth me which I willed well,
that I might be released in Christ to dwell.
Emblemma 4
Well knowing where all laid up treasures ought to lie,1
my spirit ever soared to dwelling place on high.
There rests my precious pearl, and there our gold is held,
there, too, eternally is where my heart hath dwelled.
How vain that Death my fleshly house doth cave in,
when safe and sound remains my home in heaven.
Lavrentij Horka 1671-1737
Chorus from the end of Act 1 of his play, Joseph the Patriarch
O man so favored, open your eyes and see
How the world proceeds in its inconstancy.
First it lifts you high and seats you on your throne;
But in a short while to fate's hands you are thrown.
Not long does the world let you live without woe.
But quickly it wants to entrap you and sow
Hatred about you, let jealousy ensue.
And the instruments of death prepare for you.
No outcry or wail can avert the world's way;
From every tribe it needs must take its prey.
Thus tribulation remains man's constant lot,
Mother and father are parted form their tot;
The poor are seated with princes in renown,
And lo! on this morn the world will cast you down!
For so does it want you to live in misery,
And chooses a death for you accordingly.
Teofan Prokopovy 1681 (1677?) - 1736
A very important figure and the most significant representative of the tendency of Moscow to
attract the educated Ukrainians from the Mohyla Academy
born in Kiev in the family of a small merchant
studied at Mohyla Academy, then in Polish schools, then in Rome (requires conversion on the
3
SLA 218 – 110
4
way there and returning)
1704 back in Kiev, teaching at Academy
1712 becomes rector of the Academy
1716 Peter calls him to St. Petersburg
1718 Bishop of Pskov
1705 Vladimir
Vladimir is a drama about Volodymyr the Great to whom Prokopovy compares Hetman Mazepa
as his political descendant and heir. The drama begins with the agitation of the pagan priests
Žeryvol, Kurojad, and Pyar who have received word from hell that Volodymyr is preparing to
Christianize Kiev. Žeryvol, with the help of the evil spirits, wants to prevent him by poisoning
him with the spirit of debauchery ( a theme from the chronicles). Volodymyr listens to the Greek
“philosopher” who tells him about the essence of the Christian faith and his controversy with
Žeryvol. He takes council with his sons, Borys and Hlib, and in a long monologue, after much
indecision, decides to accept Christianity. The idols are destroyed. Andrew, the Apostle, appears
on stage and reads the epilogue in which Prokopovy combines the prophecy about the future
fate of Kiev (the first saints, the Tartar attack, etc.) with panegyrics to Hetman Mazepa,
Jasyns'kyj (who was metropolitan at that time), and the Kiev Academy. The action of the drama
does not move quickly, and the strength of the play lies in its effective monologues and the witty
and satirical depiction of the pagan priests, in which contemporary audiences could easily pick
out members of the Orthodox priesthood. Dmytro yževs'kyj. A History of Ukrainian Literature.
324.
1709 Epinikion on Mazepa's betrayal
De Arte Poetica
De Arte Retorica, Mathematics Natural Philosophy
The Truth of the Ruler's Will (Pravda voli monaršej)
On Spiritual Rules (Duxovnyj regljament)
Culture high and low: High goes to Russia and is in Russian, low stays in Ukraine and in
Ukrainian
Hryhorij Skovoroda 1722 - 1794
born to a cossack family in Poltava region
1734-53 studied at Mohyla Academy
1741-44 sang in the palace choir in St. Petersburg
1745-50 in Hungary
1759-68 on and off teaching at Xarkiv Collegium, problems with his free-thinking, dismissed
Last 25 years wandering and teaching
SLA 218 – 110
from The Garden of Divine Songs (Sad Božestvennyx pisnej)
Song X
Each city has its customs and its laws,
Each head its own innate intelligence,
Each heart seeks loving for its own sweet cause,
Each palate savors through its own fine sense.
Within my mind reigns but a single thought
That never will depart or come to naught.
Peter, to rise in rank, haunts Caesar's door,
Fedko, the merchant, gives dishonest measure,
One builds in styles that were not known before,
And one makes usury a source of treasure.
One man makes buying land an endless race,
And one buys foreign bulls in avid quests,
Some homes train hunting dogs to suit the chase,
And some, like taverns, always swarm with guests.
The judge expounds the law as suits his quirk,
The student's head is split with argument,
The minds of some are racked by Venus' work,
And every brain with foolish thoughts is rent.
Within my mind a single thought intense
Seeks how to live, and die, in innocence.
One weaves a panegyric full of lies,
Physicians lay their corpses row on row,
One would with portly bigwigs fraternize,—
To lawsuits and to weddings he must go.
Within my mind a single thought intense
Seeks how to live, and die, in innocence.
O fearful Death! Thou Scythe that slits all life!
Even the heads of kings thou sparest not,
Alike to tsar and peasant comes thy knife,
Devouring all, like straw in blazes hot.
Only that man her sharp steel need not fear
5
SLA 218 – 110
6
Whose conscience, at his death, is crystal clear.1
Skovoroda wrote his works in the form of dialogues and made a profound anthropologism the
source of his philosophical contemplation. For him, man is the greatest riddle in life and
self-knowledge is the most important means for its solution. The philosophical system of
Skovoroda embraces three aspects: the ontological, the cognitive, the ethical. According to him,
man is a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm. In order to get to know the universe one must first
know man, that is, oneself. Self-knowledge, therefore, was for Skovoroda the first aim of
philosophy, which he approached with the Socratic maxim “Know thyself.” The universe had
two aspects for him: one visible and material, which was worthless, and the other invisible and
spiritual, which was of inestimable value and to which alone man's life should be dedicated.
However, the search for truth is not an end in itself but only a means which prompts us to
exercise our wills and to use our hearts. The greatest value of Skovoroda's philosophy lies not in
his theoretical speculations but in his practical quest for happiness. It is happiness, according to
Skovoroda, that is the aim of our lives; not however the happiness which results from material
satisfaction but that which comes to us when we fulfill our inner quest and through it God's will.
Self-knowledge and living one's life according to the natural order and thus in accord with God
are the major premises of Skovoroda's thought.2
The parables in his Socratic dialogues. In “A Conversation Among Five Travellers” there are a
number of such parables, e.g. The story of Iš and Mut', the old man and his wife who built a hut
for themselves but forgot to put in a window. They try to collect sunlight and take it back to the
hut in an animal skin. Then came a strange monk who chopped a hole in their wall (pp. 38-39).
Or the story of Seer Doer and Uranius from Mirgorod. Seer is quadriplegic, Doer is blind. The
two sides of wisdom (pp. 29-30).
How to achieve salvation:
ATHANASIUS . Where
then is happiness to be sought, if it is neither here nor there nor anywhere
else?
GREGORY . I
learned that while I was still a boy, as thou shalt see from this fable: An old man and
his wife built themselves a hut but left no window in it. The hut was not very cheerful. What
should they do? After long deliberation, the “family senate” decided that they should go to fetch
some light. They got an animal skin and spread it out in the midday sun to collect sunlight and
take it back to the hut.
They did this several times and then looked to see if there was light in the hut. But they saw
nothing. The old woman decided that the light must be leaking out, like wine from a wineskin;
therefore they should run faster with it. Running toward the hut, the two “senators” crashed
together at the door. The foot of one hit the head of the other. A noisy quarrel arose. “Thou hast
certainly lost thy mind,” said the old woman. “And thou wast born without one,” retorted the old
man.
1
The Ukrainian Poets, 1189-1962, Andrusyshen & Kirkconnel. pp. 33-34.
SLA 218 – 110
7
They were about to go to the distant mountains and valleys to fetch light; but a strange monk
stood in their way. Though only fifty years old, he was very clever at providing light. “Because
of your offer of bread and salt,”2 he said, “I must not hide this secret which will help you.”
Following his advice, the old man took a hatchet and began to hack through the wall of the hut,
uttering such words as these: “Universal light, living light, light called by all names, ubiquitous
light, light that favors no person—visit this dwelling, bring it light and enlightenment.” Suddenly
the wall broke open; pleasant light flooded the dwelling. And from that time to this men have
built lighted chambers in that land.
ATHANASIUS . There is no one in the world so foolish as thine old man and woman.
GREGORY . He is mine and thine, and belongs to all men.
Two sides of wisdom:
GREGORY . …
We cannot fail to be unhappy.
is that?
GREGORY . Because we cannot find happiness.
JAMES . For what reason?
GREGORY . Because we do not desire it and cannot desire it.
ATHANASIUS . But why?
GREGORY . Because we do not understand in what it consists. The chief thing is to discover the
source of desire. Desire seeks something and then receives it. This is well-being, that is, the
getting of what is good for thee.3 Now shouldst thou understand what wisdom means.
JAMES . I often hear the word “wisdom.”
4
GREGORY . It is the task of wisdom to explain what happiness consists in—this is its right wing,
and virtue labors to find it. For this reason, the Greeks and Romans called it “manliness” and
“strength” (D,J¯, virtus)—that is its left wing. Without these two wings you can never rise up
and fly away into well-being. Wisdom is like the sharp and far-seeing eye of the eagle; and virtue
is like manly arms joined to the nimble legs of a deer. This divine union is vividly depicted in the
following fable.
JAMES . Thou hast taken it out of my mouth. For surely thou meanest the story of the two
travelers—one legless, the other blind.
GREGORY . Indeed, thou hast grasped my very thought.
ATHANASIUS . Wilt thou set it forth more fully?
GREGORY . A traveler, in passing through many countries and kingdoms, lost his legs. He then
thought of returning to his father's house. Supporting himself with his arms and hands, he made
ATHANASIUS . Why
2
Traditional Russian symbols of welcome and hospitality.
3
There is an untranslatable play on the words “polucheniye” (“receiving” or “getting”) and
“blagopoluchiye” (“well-being” or “welfare”).
4
Probably a reference to the Owl of Minerva, traditional symbol of wisdom, frequently
alluded to by Skovoroda in other works.
SLA 218 – 110
8
his way back, but with enormous labor. Finally, when he had crawled to the top of a mountain
from which he could see his father's house, he lost his arms and hands as well. From that spot his
sharp eyes gazed with hungry joy across the rivers, fields, and cliffs, across the summits of the
pyramid-like mountains, to the castle, gleaming from afar, which was the house of his father and
of his whole peace-loving family—the end and crown of all his laborious journey ings. But the
misfortune was that our Seer, having neither arms nor legs, merely tormented himself, like the
rich man in the Gospel story as he looked upon Lazarus.
However, glancing back, he unexpectedly glimpsed a strange and pitiful sight. A blind man was
stumbling along the road, listening intently, groping now toward the right, now toward the left,
as though he were drunk. As he came closer he sighed: “Our days are spent in vanity. . . . Oh
Lord, tell me of Thy paths. . . . Alas, of my wanderings there is no end!” And he spoke other
words of this kind to himself, sighing as he repeatedly stumbled and fell.
“My friend, I fear that I may frighten thee, but who art thou?” asked the man of clear vision.
“This is the thirty-fourth year of my journey, and thou art the first to cross my path,” answered
the man whose eyes were darkened. “My journeying in many parts of the world has turned into
exile. The extraordinary heat of the Arabian sun deprived me of my sight, and I am returning
blind to my father.”
“And who is thy father?”
“He lives in the mountain castle which is called Mirgorod, or 'City of Peace.' His name is
Uranius, and I am called Doer.”
“Good heavens, what sayest thou?” cried the man of sight; “I am thy brother; I am Seer.”
Extraordinary happiness always finds expression in tears. After copious shedding of tears, the
blind man, his eyes streaming, spoke to his brother as follows:
“Dearest brother! I have heard rumors about thee, and now I see thee with the eye of my heart.
Take pity on me, put an end to my sorrows, be my teacher. In truth, labor gladdens me. But this
constant stumbling drains away all my strength.”
“Woe is me,” said the man of radiant eye, “that I cannot serve thee, my beloved brother. As a
traveler I have traversed the whole circuit of the earth on my own two legs. They carried me
everywhere without mishap, but the craggy mountains which I encountered on my path took
them from me, so that I had to continue my journey supporting myself upon my arms and hands.
At this place I have lost them as well. Now I can neither walk nor crawl upon the earth. Many
men have wished to make use of me, but since I am unable even to crawl, I could be of no use to
them.”
“That is not the end of the matter,” said the blind man, “thou art a light and precious burden to
me: I shall carry thee, who art my treasure, upon my back. Thy clear eyes shall be the eternal
masters of my body and a head to all my members. Put an end to the torment of this primordial
darkness which hounds me inhumanly along the empty byways of His path. I am thy steed;
mount upon my shoulders and guide me, dearest brother and master.”
“I shall mount up willingly, my brother, in order to show the truth of the word of God written in
the Gospel: 'Brother helped by brother is like a firm and tall city, strong like a well-founded
kingdom.' Now, look thou at God's wondrous work: two men are made one. One traveler is
created from two kindred souls, without any fusion of the two, but also without division into
servant and served. This unprecedented traveler follows the central path, turning neither to the
right nor to the left, readily crossing rivers, forests, cliffs, and crevasses, passing
SLA 218 – 110
9
over sheer mountains, and climbing with joy to the height of the City of Peace. There he will be
surrounded by radiant and fragrant air; an orderly crowd of inhabitants, breathing peace and love
and clapping their hands, will wait for him at the gate; and within the gates Uranius, the Ancient
of Days, will receive him into His holy embrace.”
Compare this to the Encyclopedistes in France, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot. Skovoroda is far
removed and opposed to all that.
1.Reference to Matthew 6: 19-21.
2.I. Mirchuk. Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, 1: 955-56.
Slavic 218
Lecture Eleven, Fall
Kotljarevs'kyj
Modern Ukrainian literature begins with the publication of Kotljarevs'kyj's Enejida in
1798.
Ivan Kotljarevs'kyj 1769-1838. born in Poltava to a minor official in the Poltava city
administration
primary education, probably from a cantor (djak)
1780 enters seminary (the only school in Poltava). In later years he will recall the
difficult dormitory life. But mostly we should note he receives an education in languages
(Latin, French, German)
1789 after his father's death Kotljarevs'kyj quits seminary
1789-93 works in chancellery
1793 becomes a teacher, tutor for children of landowners. Writes first threes parts of
Enejida.
1796-1808 Kotljarevs'kyj in the Army, Russo-Turkish Wars
1808 leaves army. Tries to find position in the civil service in St. Petersburg.
1810 Returns to Poltava. Supervisor of the school for children of the poor nobility.
1812 Napoleonic invasion of Russia. Kotljarevs'kyj organizes a Cossack regiment.
1818-21 becomes director of Poltava theater. Joins Masonic lodge, which should put him
in some connection with the southern society of the Decembrists. This isn't very clear.
1835 retired as an educator.
1798 first 3 books of Enejida published in St. Petersburg by Maksym Parpura, without
author's knowledge or consent.
1808 2nd edition of 3 books
1809 Kotljarevs'kyj publishes 4 books in Petersburg
1838 before his death Kotljarevs'kyj gives the full text (6 books) of Enejida to a
publisher.
1842 full work appears in Xarkiv
1819 Natalka Poltavka and Moskal' arivnyk
Enejida
a travesty, mock heroic (like Alexander Pope) Virgil's story is re-told in a comic and
Ukrainian mode
the characters, customs and objects in the story have been changed to familiar
Ukrainian types.
many of the specific features of the original characters and plot have been dropped.
Language:
language as hero of the work. Not only is this work written in Ukrainian, the language
that the people actually speak, it is written as a celebration of the language, for example
the various catalogs of verbs, of the names of foods, of ethnographic objects. It is a
veritable encyclopedia of language and ethnography.
SLA 218 – 111
Kotljarevs'kyj
2
They spent their time in eating cates,
Sweetmeats and all confections rare;
White wheaten dumplings filled their plates
And puffy rolls with caviar;
Garlic and borsch and sauerkraut,
Mushrooms and berries joined the rout,
Hard eggs with tasty kvass were here,
And a delicious omelet
By foreign chefs one's zest to whet,
And all this food they drowned in beer.1
The work itself may well have been an experiment in comedy. To see if you could do a
travesty in Ukrainian. This is the equivalent of bohunks reading Milton. Spencer done in
a Southern California, Spanish-American accent. John Donne recited in Black English.
Eddie Murphy reading Shakespeare. Note that this is a conscious use of folklore, but not
a work modelled on folklore.
The values reflected in the work:
Enlightenment
Human values. The warm feeling for humans. The souls being punished in
Hades, yževs'kyj says these are Christian values, more likely humanist values. Also
reflections of social tensions. Also evident in the
Comedy
broad hearty humor of the masses of humanity, a Rabelasian celebration of life.
However, this might be conceived as a caricature of the singing, drinking, happy go
lucky Ukrainians
National Consciousness.
This is perhaps the key question. A long history of debate on this point. Ivan Sverstjuk
"Ivan Kotljarevs'kyj is Laughing." But on the other hand, the revival of interest in the
cossacks. The cossack chronicles, as we mentioned, reflect their point of view. Istoria
Rusov is another important symptom of interest in the cossack past. Its chief ideas:
separateness of Ukrainians, starting from biblical pre-history
dignity and glory of Ukrainians
Ukrainians as loyal servants of the Tsar
the rights and privileges of the Cossack starshyna
Marko Pavlyshyn on Enejida:
The positive evaluation of the cossack past is a not unimportant aspect of the
consciousness of the culturally leading social group at the end of the eighteenth century
and at the beginning of the nineteenth. We are reasonably supplied with information
about the social profile of this elite. Many of its members were landowning nobles,
descendants of the Left-Bank cossack officers; declining income from land was in the
process of forcing this group into state-service occupations, both military and civilian.
Clusters of educated Ukrainians of this background were forming in administrative
SLA 218 – 111
Kotljarevs'kyj
3
centers, such as St. Petersburg; early in the nineteenth century Xarkiv University became
a focal point for them. From such documents as Istoriia Rusov we know that the
no-longer-existent Cossack state had meaning for this group as a guarantor of its old
rights and privileges. It was in their social interest to regard the cossack state as a polity
in which the cossacks had given their loyalty to the Russian tsar in exchange for relative
autonomy on their own territory.
For this elite group, the Hetman state and the Zaporozhian Sich are two distinct and
even opposite ideas. The Hetman state stands for order, hierarchy, legality, and faithful
service and is regarded as an unquestionably good thing. The Sich is not. Istoriia Rusov,
like the earlier Litopys samovydtsia, sees the Zaporozhian cossacks as unreliable,
disloyal to Muscovy, anarchic, given to reflecting the claims of the lower orders of
Ukrainian society, and therefore a threat to the "znachni liudy" of the Hetman state. The
Istoriia's assessment of the Zaporozhian otaman Sirko is an extreme, but nevertheless
revealing illustration of this attitude: "Sirko was a remarkable man and of rare qualities
as far as courage, discrimination, and military successes were concerned ... And yet he
was also a Zaporozhian, and therefore a species of clown or madman." Furthermore,
various aspects of the eccentric Zaporozhian lifestyle had long been regarded with a
measure of disapproval. The fabulous capacity of the Zaporozhians for alcohol, their
refusal to admit women to the Sich, and the fact that their economy apparently did not
require them to engage in productive labor had been noted as early as in Beauplan's
17th-century Description of Ukraine. This conception served as a basis for the
condemnation (on religious, moral, and economic grounds) of the Zaporozhians in the
late 18th-century ...exponents of Russian aristocratic ideology ... And in the manifesto of
Catherine II, which gave legal force to the destruction of the Sich in 1775.
In a word, in the upper echelons of society the Zaporozhians were getting a bad press.
Kotljarevs'kyj's Enejida not only rehabilitates the idea of the Zaporozhians; if fuses their
image with the reader's existing positive notion of the cossack state and amalgamates
both with a new vision of the non-cossack remainder of Ukrainian society.2
SLA 218 – 111
Kotljarevs'kyj
Aeneas was a lively fellow,
Lusty as any Cossack blade,
In every kind of miscief mellow,
The staunchest tramp to ply his trade.
But when the Greeks, with all their trouble,
Had burned down Troy and left it rubble,
Taking a knapsack, off he wheels,
Together with some reckless puffins—
Singed lads, who looked like ragamuffins—
And to old Troy he showed his heels.
He built in haste a few big dories
And launched them on the dark blue sea
Filled to the brim with Trojan tories,
And sailed off blind and hastily.
But wicked Juno, spiteful hussy,
Came cackling like a pullet fussy:
Dark hatred smouldered in her mind!
For some time now her wish most evil
Had been to send him to the devil
Till not a smell was left behind.
She loathed Aeneas like a leper,
He irked her like unpleasant flavours,
More bitter than a dose of pepper
Because he never sought her favours.
But most of all the man she hated
Because his birth from Troy he dated,
And claimed fair Venus as his ma,
And since his Uncle Paris, judging
Divinest beauty, gave ungrudging
The apple to fair Venus’ paw.
From heaven fair Juno looked in dudgeon
At Pan Aeneas and his crew—
From Hebe, whispering curmudgeon,
Had come the word, and fear she knew.
She hitched a peacock to her sleigh,
Under her kerchief hid away
The braids of her untidy hair;
Put on her skirts and corset straight;
Set bread and salt upon a plate;
And buzzed to Aeolus through the air.
“Hello, dear kinsman, God of Breezes!”—
She enters and disturbs his rest.—
“How are you doing, lad?” she wheezes.
“Are you expecting any guests?”
She sets the bread and salt before
Old Aeolus, so grim and hoar,
And seats herself upon a bench.
“Old friend of mine, do me a favour,”
She teases with a plaintive quaver,
“And make that dog, Aeneas, blench!”
4
SLA 218 – 111
Kotljarevs'kyj
1.Ivan Kotliarevs'kyj, Enejida. Bk. 3 The Ukrainian Poets, 1189-1962, Andrusyshen &
Kirkconnel. pp. 45
2.Marko Pavlyshyn. "The Rhetoric and Politics of Kotliarevsky's Eneida," Journal of
Ukrainian Studies 10.1 (Summer 1985):9-24. pp 12-13.
5
Slavic 218
Lecture Twelve, Fall
Classicism and the Kotljarevšyna
The aftermath of Kotljarevs'kyj's Enejida is not all positive. It spurs others to write in Ukrainian,
but it also produces a climate where Ukrainian is appropriate and useful only for low, ribald
comedy.
The blackest shadow on Kotljarevs'kyj was cast by his followers. Throughout the nineteenth
century Kotljarevs'kyj was treated with reserve because he was seen through the prism of
Kotljarevism--that widely spread imitation based on coarse language, gruff humor, and cheap
literary cliches--all designed to make fun of the Ukrainian language, acting the fool who amuses
not even the king but the mob of city folk. Tastelessness, graphomania, philistine primitivism,
and sneering found firm refuge and hopeful sustenance in this Little Russianism. Little
Russianism of the worst kind was never obstructed by the government; on the contrary, the most
diplomatic chauvinists willingly allowed the little Russian sneerers to kill the fledgling Ukrainian
literature.
That is why, throughout the entire second half of the nineteenth century the best Ukrainian poets,
playwrights, and artists uphold the idea of unceasing struggle against the profanation of
Ukrainian culture, against its representation by people of little culture whose only spiritual
resource was "three bags of laughter." Everything young, alive, healthy kept aloof from them and
during the punitive conditions of the development of Ukrainian culture turned away from
everything Ukrainian before recognizing in that culture manifestations of highest value and
unique national grandeur.1
But nevertheless, there are some interesting writers:
Petro Hulak Artemovs'kyj 1790-1865 son of a priest near Kiev. Studied at the Kiev Academy
(former Mohyla Academy)
1814 leaves academy, teaches in Volyn' in the homes of Polish landlords
1817 at Xarkiv University
1821 finishes masters degree
1829 professor at Xarkiv University, later dean and then
1841-49 rector of the University
after 1830 he doesn't write much
Fables (#"684) "Lord and His Dog"
Travestied odes "To Parxom"
translates romantic poems "Fisherman"
Jevhen Hrebinka 1812-48, from a small landowning family
educated at the Nižyn Gimnazija
Fables modelled on Krylov and La Fontaine
quality is good but still low genre passing for high genre
New conditions after 1800
1805 Xarkiv University is founded
SLA 218 – 112
Classicism
2
1817 Kiev Academy closes after long decline (reorganized as Seminary)
1834 Kiev University founded
1816 periodicals begin to appear in Xarkiv in Russian
Xarkovskie izvestia, a newspaper
Xarkovskij demokrit and Ukrainskij vestnik, literary journals. All were printed at the
University's print shop. That's where they get their intellectual energy as well.
1830s Ukrainian almanacs begin to appear
Ukrainian works are published from St. Petersburg
Theater: Kiev 1803, Odessa 1804, Poltava 1810, Xarkiv 1812
Schools: Odessa and Nižyn lyceums founded
Mixed results: persecutions and closings by tsarist government, especially around the universities
and the periodicals. But a rise of interest in Ukrainian history and especially folklore. Very slow
spread of industry and commerce.
1812 Napoleon
1813-35 Karmaljuk uprisings
1825 Decembrist uprising
1830-31 Polish uprising
Kvitka-Osnov'janenko
Hryhorij Kvitka 1778-1843. born in Osnova, a village owned by his former Cossack officer
family, not much of an eductation, studied at home and a monastery school
Kvitka spends his life in a variety of military and civilian bureaucratic positions. He is active in
social and particularly cultural causes. He's involved in the theater and helps organize the
Ukrainskij vestnik in Xarkiv.
Kvitka's early works are in Russian. articles, satiric sketches
Late 1820s Kvitka takes up literature as his chief interest
1833 Kvitka publishes 2 Ukrainian stories, "Marusja" and "Saldac'kyj partret" as well as his
suplika do pana izdatelja, a letter to the editor of Utrennaja zvezda, the publisher of Kvitka's
Ukrainian stories. From the suplika:
"Let the people know our writers. There are some who mock us and say that no one of our
writers will succeed in creating something which would be, as they say, both ordinary and tender,
clever and useful and that in our language it is impossible to write anything but invective and
mockery of the foolish."
"[Some Russian critics] do not understand our language and growl that there is no need to print
them when nobody understands them.... Wait gentlemen, don't be so contemptuous. There are
some orthodox Christians left in th world who know and like our language. Not everything is for
the Russians. Perhaps we deserve to have something too."2
Kvitka spends the rest of his life writing and promoting Ukrainian literature.
Language
Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism. Just about everyone wrote in both languages: Kvitka, Hrebinka,
SLA 218 – 112
Classicism
3
Hulak-Artemovs'kyj, Kotljarevs'kyj, the romantic poets, even Ševenko. Everyone wrote
correspondence and business was conducted in Russian. Relationship of the languages:
Russian - business, empire, city, aristocracy
Ukrainian - exotic, literary, village, peasant
Why write in Ukrainian?
1. Appropriate for low genres, experiment if Ukrainian appropriate for high genre.
2. To educate the peasants (who understand only Ukrainian, unlike today).
3. To preserve a tradition (e.g. Gaelic, & Hebrew—now Yiddish since Hebrew is language of
Israel).
4. To succeed as a writer because lack of success in Russian, only Gogol was a big success.
5. Freedom from literary restraints, the rules of classical aesthetics didn't matter in Ukrainian.
6. Slowly growing interest, Kvitka's suplika shows that people are asking for Ukrainian
literature.
7. Writers know each other and feed each other's interest, but still a small group. Significance of
Hrebinka's group in Petersburg.
8. Mostly, still a deliberate choice, a feeling of separateness: Kvitka--we saw this in the suplika,
above; Hulak's Goracij vs. Haras'ko (read Grabowicz p. 55); Hrebinka--from the preface to his
almanac, Lastivka, "G"8 F@$z *@ 2,<:b8z&:"
"You give the Russian five rubles, two measuers of oats, wheat bread, butter and honey and such
things and he will leave you half-a-dozen books. When evening draws nearer and you are bored
you take a book, read one page--no good, read another page--even worse, read a third and you get
a proper headache: you can't understand a thing.... Nothing doing. You put down the new books
... [and] you pick up for the hundredth time Kotljarevs'kyj's Aeneas or Osnovjanenko's tales and
you go on reading and laughing and crying."3
Kvitka's stories. Basically two groups: satiric and sentimental.
Most of the satiric stories are moralizing, like "Saldac'kyj partret" and "Stretching the lie"
(Az*$D,N"R).
Didactic and moralizing--Kvitka is a very conservative and deeply religious man.
Sentimentalism is popular in Russian literature at this time. The emphasis is on human feelings,
psychology (in a primitive sense) of characters, maudlin tear-jerkers.
Marusja, plot:
It is a story of unhappy love. Marusja and Vasyl' meet, fall in love but cannot be married because
of the objections of Marusja's father, Naum Drot, a rich peasant who does not want a poor
son-in-law. Vasyl' tries to improve his social status and is on the point of persuading Drot to
accept him. However, fate has decreed otherwise. While Vasyl' is on a journey Marusja suddenly
dies and he comes back to her funeral after which he enters a monastery. The plot offers ample
opportunity to moralize on the need for accepting one's fate with humility and extracting the
maximum sympathy from the reader for the unhappiness of the luckless.4
Note how this is again moralizing. Also note the importance of folk motifs and themes (as in
satiric stories also).
SLA 218 – 112
Classicism
The influence of this view of the village well into the twentieth century.
Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko
STRETCHING TflE LIE
A very evil thing it is to lie! "You can travel around the world on a lie," goes the saying,
"but you can never come back." A liar is his osvn worst enemy and an enemy to other, people
too. Everyone recognises the truth, but everyone also lies. Not equally: one lies constantly,
without a qualm, another lies less, and cautiously—but both are equally bad. Even though you
may tell only half a lie, you can create enough misery to last a lifetime. Look around you and see
who is in difficulties. That one, when courting, bragged that he owned two villages and closets
full of money; lied to the girl and she married him to weep: for not,only was there nothing for
them and their children to live on, there was also barely anything to bite on! Another, borrowing
money, swears: "I'll repay you within a year", and a year passes, and you've kissed the money
good-bye! And still another says: "Give me the money in advance, and I'll write some clever
books for you." He spends the money, and there's no use even looking for the books. "The devil
takes such fools," he says, "so I fooled you, that's what I did, what a comedy..." If one wanted to
tell it all, how and when, and who lied, one would never get to the end of it. What we must
remember is that it's an evil thing to lie-bad for you, and what it can do for another may never be
repaired. Listen to this!
Parkhim begged Ostap to act as matchmaker for him to Khivra, a fine girl, thrifty and hardworking. She even had a cow in her dowry. Parkhim was also a fine lad—none better. Ostap,
unable to refuse, agreed, saying: "Very well, I'll go, but 1 must find someone to accompany me."
Meeting Samiylo, he begged: "Do me a favour, Petro-vich Samiylo, be my second as
matchmaker to Khivra for Parkhim."
"But will I be able to do it?" questioned Samiylo, "never in my life have I done anything
like it."
"It's not hard at all," assured Ostap. "I'll start the lying and you back me up by adding to it.
It is understood that matchmakers stretch the truth a little about the lad they are sponsoring in
courtship, and it is accepted. So I'll tell a little lie, and you just stretch it a bit, then we'll seal the
bargain with a drink and leave the young people to live on as best they know how."
"Fine, Ostap, I'll give it a try. I'll go and get my cane and stop in for you," agreed Samiylo,
and continued on his way home.
The matchmakers, after preparing themselves as was the custom, with holy bread under the
arm and canes in their hands, showed up at Khivra's.
Entering the house, they .crossed themselves, bowed low to the master of the household and
went into the established routine about snow, the prince, the hunt for the marten, and ended up
with the beautiful maiden.
Everything went well. The parents listened, than finally began to ask questions about the
young man and his assets.
"Oh, he is really quite well off," assured the first matchmaker.
"What do you mean, quite well off?" said the second. "He" is very well off indeed!
"He has oxen."
"And what oxen! The biggest you can find! "
4
SLA 218 – 112
Classicism
5
"There are also lambs," continued the first matchmaker.
"What do you mean, lambs? They're full-grown sheep! " stretched his companion.
"There is a house."
"And what a house! A real house, new and roomy."
"And as a husbandman he is second to none."
"Absolutely none! He manages everything himself and answers to no one."
Khivra's parents, practically smacking their lips at their daughter's good fortune, asked who
the young man was.
"Why, you know him, to be sure-it's Parkhim," said Ostap.
"Tereshkovich, Ponura," added Samiylo. "Oh, you mean the one with the limp?" asked
Khivra's mother.
"Well, yes, he does limp a fittle on one leg," answered the first matchmaker.
"What do you mean, limp a little? Not only does he limp on one leg, he barely gets around
on both feet! " corrected the second.
"And isn't he a little squint-eyed?" asked Khivra's father.
"Well, yes, just a little, in one eye," said the matchmaker.
"What do you mean, in one eye? They both squint, and he can barely see at all! " filled in
his friend.
"And haven't I heard that he is fond of his drink?" asked the father.
"Yes, he drinks a bit now and then," conceded Ostap.
"Now and then! Why he drinks every day, and not just a bit, he keeps at it till he's knocked
off his feet! "
"Uh, the talk is that he has gotten into some trouble lately. Won't that create some
difficulties for him?" pursued the father.
"No difficulties at all! Just enough to teach him a lesson," assured the matchmaker.
"A lesson he'll surely get! Just wait till he feels the knout on his back! And it will be Siberia
for him, for sure! i" wound up his friend.
After such a conversation what could Khivra's father and mother do but conduct the
dishonest matchmakers to the door, stopping short of threatening them witn a lawsuit and
disgrace for even agreeing to represent such a suitor for their daughter. As for the lad, he gained
a reputation that stayed with him his entire lifetime!
A very evil thing, it is, to lie!
1.Ievhen Sverstiuk, "Ivan Kotliarevs'kyi is Laughing," in his Clandestine Essays (Littleton CO.:
Ukrainian Academic Press, 1976, pp. 85-86.
2.George Luckyj, Between Gogol and Ševenko (Munich: Vilhelm Fink Verlag, 1971) 46.
Slavic 218
Lecture Thirteen
Pre-romantic poets
Romanticism
Romanticism is not just a literary style, it is an intellectual mood, a way of looking at the world,
a reaction to the Enlightenment.
Enlightenment had emphasized reason, harmony, order
Romanticism emphasizes subjectivity, spirituality, naturalness
Enlightenment. The World is knowable through observation.
Romanticism. Our knowledge of the World is limited by our senses.
Enlightenment. Man => World => Art
Man directly observes the World and produces art which is a reflection of the World
Romanticism. World => Man => Art
The World is perceived by Man who produces Art which is a reflections of Man's view of the
World
Immanuel Kant, subjectivity, as a cornerstone of Romanticism
Romantic literature. Some specific characteristics.
1. The human perspective is at the center of the Romantic World view. This is reflected in the
focus on subjectivity, on emotions, on psychology (as opposed to objectivity, reason, logic, the
way things REALLY are)
2. Importance of the Romantic Hero. Focus on individual. Exceptional, solitary individual, in a
struggle with colossal forces, with the big, powerful, unknowable WORLD
3. Reality as perception. Wordsworth in the Prelude, (Book 1, lines 357-390) rowing from shore,
the mountain seems to grow up beyond the horizon, sternly rebuking him for stealing the boat.
The real vs. the ideal. What is actually true? Romantic irony. The supernatural, Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein.
4. Nature, unspoiled. Natural man. Rousseau's Indians. James Fenimore Cooper. Balzac's Les
Chouans. The folk. Interest in the past, in history. Sir Walter Scott.
In Ukraine Romanticism, or early Romanticism, pre-romanticism, begins with an interest in
folklore, the folk, natural man.
1. The Romantic mythology of "the folk" is reflected and stimulated by the work of the German
philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder, 1744-1803. For him, language and poetry are
spontaneous necessities of human nature, as opposed to being the product of civilization as it
moves away from primitive natural man. Natural poetry is, of course, folklore. Herder's ideas are
especially popular in eastern Europe, including Ukraine. Folklore is the spontaneous expression
of natural man and national character.
2 Interest in Ukrainian, especially Cossack past. This is Romantic interest in the past, á la Sir
Walter Scott, and also political interest in Cossack officer class for self advancement. Folklore,
dumy and folksongs are a repository of the history of the Cossacks.
3. Tsarist official policy of fostering patriotism, number of reasons including defending the
motherland from Napoleon. Official Russian patriotism, of course, but this rubs off both directly
and indirectly onto an interest in the local past, the Cossacks, and local folklore.
SLA 218 – 113
Pre-romanticism
2
Collectors of Folklore
1. Prince Nikolaj Certelev, 1790-1869
Russified Georgian, born and lived in Ukraine
1819 publ. Opyt sobranija starinnyx malorossijskix pesnej
Attempt at a Collection of Little Russian Songs, in St. Petersburg.
notice he isn't Ukrainian, this is a fashion, a piece of research, not a patriotic gesture. equivalent
to a professor of Art History from U of T going up north to study the drawings and carvings of
native Innuit artists.
2. Myxajlo Oleksandrovy Maksymovy, 1804-1873
born to impoverished Cossack starshyna family near Poltava
studies at Moscow University, distinguishes himself in sciences. This is a professional scholar
who changes fields from science to humanities and takes up folklore, among other pursuits, he's a
scientist, philosopher, historian, and folklorist.
1826 becomes lecturer, later (1833) professor of Botany at Moscow University
1834 professor of Russian language and literature at Xarkiv University. later becomes rector of
University
1827 Malorossijskije pesni izdannye M. Maksimovyem
Little Russian Songs published by M. Maksymovy
1834 Ukrainskie narodnye pesni
Ukrainian Folk Songs
1849 Sbornik narodnyx ukrainskix pesen
Collection of Ukrainian Folk Songs
pessimistic about future of Ukrainian literature and language
3. Izmail Sreznevs'kyj, 1812-1880
a Russian, studied at and later became professor at Xarkiv University. He is the central person in
the Xarkiv group of writers around the University
1833-80 a collection of various materials from the past under the title Zaporožskaja starina
Zaporožian antiquity, six books came out over forty years, Sreznevs'kyj is editor. He makes up
some dumy and historical songs
Later Sreznevs'kyj becomes an eminent philologist, professor at University in St. Petersburg but
he changes his views and denies Ukrainian is a separate language.
The Poets
Levko Borovykovs'kyj, 1806-89
born to a small landowning Cossack family, near Poltava
after finishing Poltava gimnazija he is from 1826-1830 a student at Xarkiv University. Later he
was a high school teacher in Poltava.His writing dates from his student years at Xarkiv. He
comes to write original literature from his interest in folklore. In a letter to Sreznevs'kyj he
SLA 218 – 113
Pre-romanticism
3
writes:
The poetry of folksongs, the superstitious life of my countrymen--the lazy children of the fertile
and blueskied Ukraine--represent a rich repository for ballads, legends, dumy; it is an untouched
mine. Studying from the cradle this coarse but vigorous dialect--the offspring of the Slavic
tongue--I used the said treasury and wrote over 70 pieces.... The present activity of my
countrymen in the field of Ukrainian literature compels me to publish ... my own attempts. I hope
that in them the public will notice one novelty which, it seems, was inaccessible to Little Russian
poets--the serious belief contrary to unjust opinion, that it is impossible to write in Little Russian
anything other than the comic or the jocular.1
In addition to his poetry modelled on folk poetry, Borovykovs'kyj also wrote fables and did some
translating.
Amvrozij Metlyns'kyj, 1814-1870
Born to a family of small landowners near Poltava, finishes Xarkiv gimnazija, then enter Xarkiv
University, receives a Masters degree
1843 Professor of Russian language and literature, Xarkiv
1849-53 Professor at Kiev University
He is a professional literary scholar. He writes works on the true meaning of poetry or on the
historical development of the theory of poetry and prose.
1854 publ. A collection of folk songs
All along he has been writing his own poetry reflecting both Ukrainian folklore and general
romantic trends. But in an essay on the Ukrainian language he writes:
The South Russian language ... which probably was used in the speech of the Kievan princes, the
forefathers of our orthodox tsars, the words and phrases of which are preserved even today in the
Holy Bible ... the South Russian language is from day to day being forgotten and there will come
a day when it will be forgotten and silenced.... It is possible that during the period of neglect of
the South Russian language the love for it will awaken. Who, then, will collect as a good son
collects the remains of his fathers, the disappearing remnants of the South Russian word?2
Among the characteristics of Metlyns'kyj's poetry are an atmosphere of gloom, doom, and
foreboding (cf. Graveyard school of poetry in English lit.) and the use of the bandura player as an
image. The bandura player is a great symbol because it ties together so many things: he IS the
folk, the vehicle of folk poetry, he is a solitary romantic hero, he is the carrier of the past, living
history, he is a poet, a creator and therefore an alter-ego for the poet himself
Mykola Kostomarov, 1817-1885
An important figure and a man whose name we will hear again
1
George S. N. Luckyj, Between Gogol’ and Ševenko (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag,
1971) 56.
2
Luckyj, ibid. 64.
SLA 218 – 113
Pre-romanticism
4
Born to a noble Russian father and a Ukrainian serf mother a year before the two were married,
near Voronež
Father killed by peasants when Mykola was 11
1833-37 attends Xarkiv University, studies history
How does the son of a nobleman get interested in the culture of Ukrainian serfs? It's like Rob Rae
the NDP leader, socialist son of the rich
In his autobiography, written much later, he writes about himself (in the third person)
History fascinated Kostomarov to the point of questioning the traditional approach to it. He was
puzzled as to why in all history texts they talk a great deal about prominent government leaders,
sometimes about the laws and institutions, but neglect the life of the people. The poor peasant
seems not to exist for history. Why does not history tell us anything about his life, his spiritual
life, his feelings, joys, and sorrows. I soon arrived at the conclusion that history must be studied
not from dead chronicles and records but also from the live people. It is impossible that a past
century should not be reflected in the life and memory of its descendants. It is only necessary to
search and one would find a lot that was ignored by scholars. Where should one begin? Of
course, from an enquiry into one's own Russian people. But because I lived in Ukraine it was
necessary to begin exploring its Ukrainian branch. This prompted me to start reading folklore
material.
I was struck and enchanted by the genuine charm of Little Russian folk poetry and I never
suspected that such refinement, such depth and freshness of feeling were in the works of a people
so near to me, about whom, as I realized, I knew nothing.... I read everything that was printed ...
but this did not seem enough to me; I wanted to become more closely acquainted with the people
themselves.... With this purpose I began to undertake ethnographic trips ... to the neighboring
villages and to the taverns which at that time were real people's clubs.3
Narodnost as a fashion and ideology is growing
1844 Kostomarov writes a Masters thesis on the historical significance of Russian folk poetry
He will be a friend of Ševenko and get arrested and later back off on his Ukrainian views.
Some general remarks about Ukrainian early romantic poetry
Moody descriptions of nature, especially conflict in nature, storms etc.
The forgotten and fading cossack past, seen as glorious past
The solitary hero, whether cossack or bandurist
The cossack off to far away places, leaving sweetheart--a motif from folklore
Some translations of German romantic poetry, with some gothic supernatural influences into the
original poetry too.
Look at The Ukr. Poets Poety Romantyky
end of Parting pg 65 Rozstavannja 99
The Goblet 67 arka 139 Metlyns'kyi
3
Luckyj, ibid. 163-64.
SLA 218 – 113
Pre-romanticism
Storm = Smert' Bandurysta 152 cf Ševenko
Beggar Starec' 147 (amphibrachs) -'- ;etlynsky
A GOBLET Amvrosii Metlyns'kyi
My friends, upon our shelf a goblet stands.
An antiquated, silver drinking-cup.
Of old our grandsires held it in their hands
And from it urged the Cossack troops to sup.
The well-filled goblet Cossack lips would drain
And choose our sires as hetmans of their train.
Their voices rose, in volume grew indeed,
Then each man mounted on his coal-black steed ,
And galloped with a fateful frown
To beat the hordes of foemen down!
The goblet at the table made its rounds
And as it passed there rose exultant sounds.
But now the house is of those guests bereft
And only the old-fashioned cup is left.
Even the drawing-room is past and gone;
Only the silver goblet still shines on!
In all that place oppressive silence reigns;
Only the heady liquor still remains.
Only one Cossack's left; his heart grows faint
As if a heavy mist brought raw restraint!
When messmates old his memories limn,
He fills the goblet to the brim
And for the whole host drinks with vim.
He dreams, and drinks, as thought proposes;
Again he drinks; again he dozes;
And thus his long life slowly closes.
5
Slavic 218
Lecture Fourteen, Fall
Gogol
Gogol, Nikolai or Mykola Hohol' 1809-1852
born near Poltava in Velyki Soroynci, parents actually lived in Vasylivka
Grandmother was Lyzohub, an important Cossack family.
Mykola's parents were small landowners, nothing much
uneventful childhood, heavily influenced by his mother, a simple (not too bright) Ukrainian
peasant woman.
father, among other things, was an amateur Ukrainian playwright
Mykola finishes the Nižyn gimnazija, he's very ambitious
to St. Petersburg, 1828
complete disenchantment with Ukrainian provincialism:
How difficult it is to be buried together with creatures of low obscurity in a dead
silence: You know all our existers (FJV,FH&@&"H,:z), all those inhabitants of
Nižyn. They have smothered the high destiny of man with their earthly crust, their
contemptible self-satisfaction. And I must cringe among these existers. June 26,
1827, letter to Vysoc’kyj. cited in Luckyj, Between Gogol and Ševenko p. 97-98
after a bad start in Russian poetry with Hans Kuchelgarten Hohol' sees Ukraine as a popular
subject
Now I ask you, my most esteemed mother, my good guardian angel, to do for me,
in turn, the greatest favour. You have a subtle, observant mind, you know many
customs and manners of our Little Russians and therefore I know you will not
refuse to communicate with me about them in our letters. I need it very badly. In
your next letter I expect from you a description of the complete set of proper
names, as all of them were called by the most inveterate, the most ancient, the
least altered Little Russians; also the names of clothes, to the last ribbon, worn by
our peasant girls, also by married women and the peasants. Secondly, exact and
accurate names of clothing worn during the times of the Hetmans … Further, a
thorough description of a wedding without leaving out the slightest details …
Also a few words about the carols, about Ivan Kupalo and the mermaids. If there
are, apart from that, some spirits or house demons, then describe them in detail,
their names and their goings-on; there are, among the simple people, many
superstitions, horror tales, ancient legends, various anecdotes, etc., etc., etc. All
this will be of the greatest interest to me. letter to his mother, May 1829, cited in
Luckyj, 101.
List of Works:
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka 1831, 2nd. vol. 1832
1. "Preface," "The Fair at Sorochintsy," "St. John's Eve," "A May NIght, or the Drowned
Maiden," "The Lost Letter."
SLA 218
Gogol
Lecture 14
2. "Preface," "Christmas Eve," "A Terrible Vengeance," "Ivan Fiodorovich Shponka and
his Aunt," "A Bewitched Place."
Mirgorod 1835, 2 vols
1. "Old World Landowners," "Taras Bulba."
2. "Vij," "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich."
Arabesques 1835
"The Portrait," "Nevsky Prospect," "Diary of a Madman."
"The Nose," "The Coach" 1836
"The Overcoat" 1842
The Inspector General 1836 and other weaker plays
Dead Souls 1842
1836-1848 Away from Russia, Europe, Holy Land
famous writer but an eccentric
religious fanatic before his death
The Ukrainian Gogol
Gogol is considered in this course not only because he is a Ukrainian but also because:
1. Some of his stories are on Ukrainian subjects
2. Some of his work can be seen as an outgrowth of certain traditions in Ukrainian literature.
3. There is a Gogolian influence in later Ukrainian literature.
4. In Gogol's early works, Ukraine is not just a setting but also the theme of some of these works.
He addresses the question of what it is that specifically characterizes Ukraine.
5. Gogol represents the road not taken, the other possibility for the development of Ukrainian
culture, the other possibility facing all Ukrainian writers in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Ukrainian literature could have been entirely like Gogol in its national aspect.
The negative side of considering Gogol in this course:
1. We deal with only a part of his output. Writers should be dealth with as a whole.
We look at Dikanka, Mirgorod, Taras Bulba. We ignore Diary of a Madman, Petersburg
Tales, Dead Souls, Inspector General
2. The part we deal with is not necessarily the best of his work. Gogol's best work is probably his
later work. A Terrible Vengeance, for example, is not a very well structured story.
3. Gogol made a deliberate choice for Russian "high" culture against Ukrainian provincialism.
Some of this is just his overwhelming ambition. But it's also quality vs. second rate writing. By
looking at him from a Ukrainian perspective we risk undoing his own choice and reducing him to
a second rate provincial status, or what's even worse, seeing him through patriotic eyes. Still
other absurdities, as for example, Gogol as realistic depictor of Ukrainian village.
Gogol is often seen as the beginning of a new era in Russian prose. In Ukrainian literature, his
early works are, to a certain extent, the end of a period of comic approaches to folk customs.
What is Ukrainian in the Dikanka stories? particularly the two we are looking at.
1. Humor of Sorochinskaja jarmarka is similar to the tradition of low comedy that dominated
SLA 218
Gogol
Lecture 14
early part of century. Heavy on sex and drinking (Who's on top?) Bahktin's carnival.
2. Epigraphs from Kotljarevs'kyj, Hulak-Artemovs'kyj, Gogol Sr.
3. frequent allusion or quotation from folk material, songs etc. situations often come out of folk
material, language too
4. Vertep as model and structure of Gogolian world. (Luckyj footnote #40 p. 105)
2 levels of vertep: nativity (serious) on top; lower level is comic.
stereotypical figures on comic level: devil, brave cossack, boastful Polish landlord, Moskal', sly
gypsy, jew, simple minded peasant, etc. We can see many of these in Gogol's stories.
particual Ukrainian elements in "A Terrible Vengeance"
1. Cossack history and characters
2. bandura player (cf. Ševenko)
Slavic 218
Lecture Fifteen, Fall
Gogol: The Myth of Ukraine
Gogol's Myth of Ukraine (according to George Grabowicz)
The idea of myth.1
What is “The Fair at Soroynci” actually about?
What is “A Terrible Vengeance” actually about?
1. A closed world. Rudy Panko lets us in. A mix of comedy, the supernatural and the frightening
First two paragraphs of Fair:
p. 8-9
HOW intoxicating, how magnificent is a summer day in Little Russia! How luxuriously warm
the hours when midday glitters in stillness and sultry heat and the blue fathomless ocean
covering the plain like a dome seems to be slumbering, bathed in languor, clasping the fair earth
and holding it close in its ethereal embrace! Upon it, not a cloud; in the plain, not a sound.
Everything might be dead; only above in the heavenly depths a lark is trilling, and from the airy
heights the silvery notes drop down upon adoring earth, and from time to time the cry of a gull or
the ringing note of a quail sounds in the steppe. The towering oaks stand, idle and apathetic, like
aimless wayfarers, and the dazzling gleams of sunshine light up picturesque masses of leaves,
casting onto others a shadow black as night, only flecked with gold when the wind blows The
insects of the air flit like sparks of emerald, topaz, and ruby about the gay vegetable gardens,
topped by stately sunflowers. Gray haystacks and golden, sheaves of wheat, like tents, stray over
the plain. The broad branches of cherries, of plums, apples, and pears bent under their load of
fruit, the sky with its pure mirror, the river in its green, proudly erect frame—how full of delight
is the Little Russian summer.
Such was the splendor of a day in the hot August of eighteen hundred . . . eighteen
hundred . . . yes, it will be about thirty years ago, when the road eight miles beyond the village of
Sorochintsy bustled with people hurrying to the fair from all the farms, far and near. From early
morning, wagons full of fish and salt had trailed in an endless chain along the road. Mountains of
pots wrapped in hay moved along slowly, as though weary of being shut up in the dark; only here
and there a brightly painted tureen or crock boastfully peeped out from behind the hurdle that
held the high pile on the wagon, and attracted wishful glances from the devotees of such luxury.
Many of the passers-by looked enviously at the tall potter, the owner of these treasures, who
walked slowly behind his goods, carefully wrapping his proud crocks in the alien hay that would
engulf them. (Pp. 8–9)
Nature—the earth and sex
story about the relations between men and women
this looks like innocent hijinks but what about the ending? p. 32-33.
The sounds of laughter, song, and uproar grew fainter and fainter. The strains of the fiddle were
lost in vague and feeble notes and died away in the wind. In the distance there was still the sound
of dancing feet, something like the faraway murmur of the sea, and soon all was stillness and
SLA 218
Gogol. The Myth of Ukraine
Lecture 15
emptiness again.
Is it not thus that, joy, lovely and fleeting guest, flies from us? In vain the last solitary note tries
to express gaiety. In its own echo it hears melancholy and emptiness and listens to it, bewildered.
Is it not thus that those who have been playful friends in free and stormyh youth, one by one
stray, lost, about the world and leave their old comrade lonely and forlorn at last? Sad is the lost
of one left behind! Heavy and sorrowful is his heart and nothing can help him!
What about Paraska and Grytsko? p. 30 Is Paraska any different from Xivrja? Grytsko from
erevik?
What is the role of evil in the story?
Gypsy agrees to help Grytsko get Paraska if Grytsko sells him the oxen for fifteen rubles. read p.
17-18
"Well, will you let the oxen go for twenty, if we make Cherevik give you Paraska?"
Grytsko stared at him in surprise. There was a look spiteful, malicious, ignoble, and at the
same.time haughty in the gypsy's swarthy face: any man looking at him would have recognized
that there were great qualities in that strange soul, though their only reward on earth would be the
gallows. The mouth, completely sunken between the nose and the pointed chin and forever
curved in a mocking smile, the little eyes that gleamed like fire, and the lightning flashes of
intrigue and enterprise forever flitting over his face—all this seemed in keeping with the strange
costume he wore. The dark brown full coat which looked as though it would drop into dust at a
touch; the long black hair that fell in tangled tresses on his shoulders; the shoes on his bare
sunburnt feet, all seemed to be in character and part of him.
"I'll let you have them for fifteen, not twenty, if only you don't deceive me!" the young man
answered, keeping his searching gaze fixed on the gypsy.
"Fifteen? Done! Mind you don't forget; fifteen! Here is a blue note (five rubles) as a pledge!"
In mythical terms, it is an evil force mediating between men and women.
All of this because of a quality of the place itself--the fairground is cursed because of the devil's
jacket. read p. 14-15
“The assessor, may he never wipe his his lips again after the gentry's plum brandy, has set aside
an evil spot for the fair, where you may burst before you get rid of a single grain. Do you see that
old dilapidated barn which stands there, see, under the hill?” (At this point the inquisitive peasant
went closer and was all attention.) “All manner of devilish tricks go on in that barn, and not a
single fair has taken place in this spot without trouble. The district clerk passed it late last night
and all of a sudden a pig's snout looked out from the window of the loft, and grunted so that it
sent a shiver down his back. You may be sure that the red jacket will be seen again!”
Luckyj sees four elements here: 1. Evil as an actual presence. 2. vulnerability of man to woman.
3. impotence of man before woman. 4. vanity and stupidity.
SLA 218
Lecture 15
The Myth of the curse of Ukraine. Ukrainian history as somehow cursed is a common view, up
to our time. Gogol would be articualting a cultural perception.
Male vs. Female
Kozak vs. Zaporožec'. Settled vs. cossack, cowboy vs. civilization, peasants vs. staršyna, both
social and national perspectives are involved.
“A Terrible Vengeance”
Begins with a wedding!
Danilo Burulbaš a married kozak with a son and wife, Katerina.
Her father is an evil sorcerer, not fully comprehensible until chapter 16. Up to there it is a Gothic
horror story
The bandura player (chap 16-; p. 170) helps signal the mythical structure. The story he tells helps
explain, motivate the action of the story, particularly the sorcerer.
The idea of the dead rising at the final hour is a biblical notion but it has specific Ukrainian
variants, e.g. Ševenko and Dovženko.
Petro and Ivan story
Ivan has a son, i.e. he is settled
Petro, kozak, no children, but takes over Ivan's land and is fruitful. Punishment is on his
descendants, but he had no wife or children!
Synchrony of time and place, p. 167 Unity of Ukrainian lands.
Talk about Taras Bulba as another Ukrainian aspect of Gogol.
Catalog of Ukrainian cultural elements in his works.
SLA 218
Lecture 15
THE FAIR
AT
SOROCHINTSY
I am weary of the hut, Ate, take me from my home, To where there's noise and bustle, To where
the girls are dancing gaily, Where the boys are making merry I
From an old ballad
How intoxicating, how magnificent is a summer day in Little Russia! 1 How luxuriously warm
the hours when midday glitters in stillness and sultry heat and the blue fathomless ocean
covering the plain like a dome seems to be slumbering, bathed in languor, clasping the fair earth
and holding it close in its ethereal embrace! Upon it, not a cloud; in the plain, not a sound.
Everything might be dead; only above in the heavenly depths a lark is trilling, and from the airy
heights the silvery notes drop down upon adoring earth, and from time to time the cry of a gull or
the ringing note of a quail sounds in the steppe. The towering oaks stand, idle and apathetic, like
aimless wayfarers, and the dazzling gleams of sunshine light up picturesque masses of leaves,
casting onto others a shadow
1 The name of the Ukraine before 1917. (ed.)
black as night, only necked with gold when the wind blows. The insects of the air flit like sparks
of emerald, topaz, and ruby about the gay vegetable gardens, topped by stately sunflowers. Gray
haystacks and golden sheaves of wheat, like tents, stray over the plain. The broad branches of
cherries, of plums, apples, and pears bent under their load of fruit, the sky with its pure mirror,
the river in its green, proudly erect frame—how full of delight is the Little Russian summer!
Such was the splendor of a day in the hot August of eighteen hundred . . . eighteen hundred . . .
yes, it will be about thirty years ago, when the road eight miles beyond the village of Sorochintsy bustled with people hurrying to the fair from all the farms, far and near. From early
morning, wagons full of fish and salt had trailed in an endless chain along the road. Mountains of
pots wrapped in hay moved along slowly, as though weary of being shut up in the dark; only here
and there a brightly painted tureen or crock boastfully peeped out from behind the hurdle that
held the high pDe on the wagon, and attracted wishful glances from the devotees of such luxury.
Many of the passers-by looked enviously at the tall potter, the owner of these treasures, who
walked slowly behind his goods, carefully wrapping his proud crocks in the alien hay that would
engulf them.
On one side of the road, apart from all the rest, a team of weary oxen dragged a wagon piled up
with sacks, hemp, linen, and various household goods and followed by their owner, in a clean
linen shirt and dirty linen trousers.2 With a lazy hand he wiped from his swarthy face the
streaming perspiration that even trickled from his long mustaches, powdered by the relentless
barber who, uninvited, visits fair and foul alike and has for countless years forcibly sprinkled all
mankind with dust. Beside him, tied to the wagon, walked a mare, whose meek air betrayed her
advancing years.
Many of the passers-by, especially the young men, took off their caps as they met our peasant.
But it was not his gray mustaches or his dignified step that led them to do so; one had but to raise
one's eyes a little to discover the reason for this deference: on the wagon was sitting his pretty
SLA 218
Lecture 15
daughter, with a round face, black eyebrows3 arching evenly above her clear brown eyes,
carelessly
* Sharovary, very full trousers which are held below the knees by high boots.
(ed.)
8 A very common image in Gogol. Many Ukrainian women are blonde and
"Well, will you let the oxen go for twenty, if we make Cherevik give you Paraska?"
Grytsko stared at him in surprise. There was a look spiteful, malicious, ignoble, and at the
same.time haughty in the gypsy's swarthy face: any man looking at him would have recognized
that there were great qualities in that strange soul, though their only reward on earth would be the
gallows. The mouth, completely sunken between the nose and the pointed chin and forever
curved in a mocking smile, the little eyes that gleamed like fire, and the lightning flashes of
intrigue and enterprise forever flitting over his face—all this seemed in keeping with the strange
costume he wore. The dark brown full coat which looked as though it would drop into dust at a
touch; the long black hair that fell in tangled tresses on his shoulders; the shoes on his bare
sunburnt feet, all seemed to be in character and part of him.
"I'll let you have them for fifteen, not twenty, if only you don't deceive me!" the young man
answered, keeping his searching gaze fixed on the gypsy.
"Fifteen? Done! Mind you don't forget; fifteen! Here is a blue note9 as a pledge!"
The Fair at Sorochintsy 19
VI
What a misfortune! Roman is coming; here he is, he'll give me a drubbing in a minute; and you,
too, master Khomo, will not get off
without trouble.
From a Little Russiaft comedy
"This way, Afanasy Ivanovich! The fence is lower here, put your foot up and don't be afraid: my
idiot has gone off for the night with his crony to the wagons to see that the Muscovites don't steal
anything but ill-luck."
So Cherevik's menacing spouse fondly encouraged the priest's son, who was faintheartedly
clinging to the fence. He soon climbed onto the top and stood there for some time in hesitation,
like a long terrible phantom, looking where he could best jump and at last coming down with a
crash among the rank weeds.
"How dreadful! I hope you have not hurt yourself? Please God, you've not broken your neck!"
Khivrya faltered anxiously.
"Sh! It's all right, it's all right, dear Khavronya Nikiforovna," the priest's son brought out in a
painful whisper, getting onto his feet, "except for being afflicted by the nettles, that serpentlilce
weed, to use the words of our late head priest."
"Let us go into the house; there is nobody there. I was beginning to think you were ill or asleep,
Af anasy Ivanovich: you did not come and did not come. How are you? I hear that your honored
father has had a run of good luck!"
"Nothing to speak of, Khavronya Nikiforovna: during the whole fast Father has received nothing
but fifteen sacks of spring wheat, four sacks of millet, a hundred buns; and as for fowls they don't
amount to fifty, and the eggs were mostly rotten. But the truly sweet offerings, so to say, can
SLA 218
Lecture 15
only come from you, Khavronya Nikiforovna!" the priest's son continued, with a tender glance at
her as he edged nearer.
"Here is an offering for you, Af anasy Ivanovich!" she said, setting some bowls on the table and
coyly fastening the buttons of her jacket as though they had not been undone on purpose, "curd
doughnuts, wheaten dumplings, buns, and cakes!"
"I bet they have been made by the cleverest hands of any daughter of Eve!" said the priest's son,
setting to work upon the cakes and with the other hand drawing the curd doughnuts toward him.
134 TALES
/ DIKANKA, II
your heart may desire. I give myself up, I repent of everything' Beat, but only be not angry. You
were once a comrade of my father's, you ate bread and salt together and drank the cup of
goodwill."
It was not without secret satisfaction that Chub saw the blacksmith, who had never bowed to
anyone in the village and who could twist five-kopek pieces and horseshoes in his hands like
pancakes, lying now at his feet. In order to maintain his dignity still further, Chub took the whip
and gave him three strokes on the back. "Well, that's enough; get up! Always obey the old! Let
us forget everything that has passed between us. Come, tell me now what is it that you want5"
"Give me Oksana for my wife, father!"
Chub thought a little, looked at the cap and the girdle. The cap was delightful and the girdle, too,
was not inferior to it; he thought of the treacherous Solokha and said resolutely: "Good! send the
matchmakers!"
"Aie!" shrieked Oksana, as she crossed the threshold and saw the blacksmith, and she gazed at
him with astonishment and delight.
"Look, what slippers I have brought you!" said Vakula, "they are the same as the Czarina wears!"
"No, no! I don't want slippers!" she said, waving her arms and keeping her eyes fixed upon him.
"I am ready without slippers . . ." She blushed and could say no more.
The blacksmith went up to her and took her by the hand; the beauty looked down. Never before
had she looked so exquisitely lovely. The enchanted blacksmith gently kissed her; her face
flushed crimson and she was even lovelier.
The bishop of blessed memory was driving through Dikanka. He admired the site on which the
village stands, and as he drove down the street stopped before a new hut.
"And whose is this hut so gaily painted?" asked his Reverence of a beautiful woman, who was
standing near the door with a baby in her arms.
"The blacksmith Vakula's!" Oksana, for it was she, told him, bowing.
"Splendid! splendid work!" said his Reverence, examining the doors and windows. The windows
were all outlined with a ring of
A TERRIBLE VENGEANCE
I
There was a bustle and an uproar in a quarter of Kiev: Gorobets, Captain of the Cossacks, was
celebrating his son's wedding. A great many people had come as guests to the wedding. In the
old days they liked good food, better still liked drinking, and best of all they liked merrymaking.
SLA 218
Lecture 15
Among others the Dnieper Cossack Mikitka came on his sorrel horse straight from a riotous orgy
at the Pereshlay Plain, where for seven days and seven nights he had been entertaining the Polish
king's soldiers with red wine. The Captain's adopted brother, Danilo Burulbash, came too, with
his young wife Katerina and his year-old son, from beyond the Dnieper where his farmstead lay
between two mountains. The guests marveled at the fair face of the young wife Katerina, her
eyebrows as black as German velvet, her beautiful cloth dress and underskirt of blue silk, and her
boots with silver heels; but they marveled still more that her old father had not come with her. He
had been living in that region for scarcely a year, and for twenty-one years before nothing had
been heard of him and he had only come back to his daughter when she was married and had
borne a son. No doubt he would have many strange stories to tell. How could he fail to have
them, after being so long in foreign parts! Everything there is different: the people are not the
same and there are no Christian churches. . . . But he had not,come.
They brought the guests spiced vodka with raisins and plums in it and wedding bread on a big
dish. The musicians began on the bottom crust, in which coins had been baked, and put their
fiddles, cymbals, and tambourines down for a brief rest. Meanwhile the girls and young women,
after wiping their mouths with embroidered handkerchiefs, stepped out again to the center of the
room, and the young men, putting their arms akimbo and looking haughtily about them, were on
the point of going to meet them, when the old Captain brought out two icons to bless the young
couple. These icons had come to him from the venerable hermit, Father Varfolomey. They had
no rich setting, there was no gleam of gold or silver on them, but no evil power dare approach the
man in whose house they stand. Raising the icons on high the Captain was about to deliver a
brief prayer . . . when all at once the children playing on the ground cried out in terror, and the
people drew back, and everyone pointed with their fingers in alarm at a Cossack who was
standing in their midst. Who he was nobody knew. But he had already danced splendidly and had
diverted the people standing around him. But when the Captain lifted up the icons, at once the
Cossack's face completely changed: his nose grew longer and twisted to one side, his rolling eyes
turned from brown to green, his lips turned blue, his chin quivered and grew pointed like a spear,
a tusk peeped out of his mouth, a hump appeared behind his head, and the Cossack turned into an
old man.
"It is he! It is he!" shouted the crowd, huddling close together.
"The sorcerer has appeared again!" cried the mothers, snatching up their children.
Majestically and with dignity the Captain stepped forward and, turning the icons toward him,
said in a loud voice: "Away, image of Satan! This is no place for you!" And, hissing and clacking
his teeth like a wolf, the strange old man vanished.
Talk and conjecture arose among the people and the hubbub was like the roar of the sea in bad
weather.
"What is this sorcerer?" asked the young people, who knew nothing about him.
"There will be trouble!" muttered their elders, shaking their heads. And everywhere about the
spacious courtyard folks gathered in groups listening to the story of the dreadful sorcerer. But
almost everyone told it differently and no one could tell anything certain about him.
A barrel of mead was rolled out and many gallons of Greek wine were brought into the yard. The
guests regained their lighthearted-ness. The orchestra struck up—the girls, the young women, the
SLA 218
Lecture 15
gallant Cossacks in their gay-colored coats flew around in the dance. After a glass, old folks of
ninety, of a hundred, began dancing too, remembering the years that had passed. They feasted till
late into the night and feasted as none feast nowadays. The guests began to disperse, but only a
few made their way home; many of them stayed to spend the night in the Captain's wide
courtyard; and even more Cossacks dropped to sleep uninvited under the benches, on the floor,
by their horses, by the stables; wherever the tipplers stumbled, there they lay, snoring for the
whole town to hear.
... much later in the story ...
In the early morning a visitor arrived, a man of handsome appearance in a scarlet coat, and
inquired for the lord Danilo; he heard all the story, wiped his tear-stained eyes with his sleeves,
and shrugged his shoulders. He said that he had fought side by side with Burulbash; side by side
they had done battle with the Turks and the Crimeans; never had he thought that the lord Danilo
would meet with such an end.'The visitor told them many other things and wanted to see the lady
Katerina.
At first Katerina heard nothing of what the guest said; but afterward she began to listen to his
words as though understanding. He told her how Danilo and he had lived together like brothers;
how once they had hidden under a dam from the Crimeans . . . Katerina listened and kept her
eyes fixed upon him.
"She will recover," the Cossacks thought, looking at her, "this guest will heal her! She is
listening like one who understands!"
The visitor began meanwhile describing how Danilo had once, in a confidential conversation,
said to him: "Listen, brother Kopryan, when it is God's will that I am gone, you take Katerina,
take her for your wife . . ."
Katerina looked piercingly at him. "Aie!" she shrieked, "it is he, it is my father!" and she flew at
him with her knife.
For a long time he struggled, trying to snatch the knife from her; at last he snatched it away,
raised it to strike—and a terrible deed was done: the father killed his crazed daughter.
The astounded Cossacks rushed at him, but the sorcerer had already leaped upon his horse and
was gone.
XIV
An extraordinary marvel appeared outside Kiev. All the nobles and the hetmans assembled to see
the miracle: in all directions even the ends of the earth had become visible. Far off was the dark
blue of the mouth of the Dnieper and beyond that the Black Sea. Men who had traveled
recognized the Crimea jutting like a mountain out of the sea and the marshy Sivash. On the right
could be seen the Galician land.
"And what is that?" people asked the old men, pointing to white and gray crests looming far
away in the sky, looking more like clouds than anything else.
"Those are the Carpathian Mountains!" said the old men. "Among them are some that are forever
covered with snow, and the clouds cling to them and hover there at night."
SLA 218
Lecture 15
Then a new miracle happened: the clouds vanished from the highest peak and on the top of it
appeared a horseman, in full knightly armor, with his eyes closed, and he could be distinctly seen
as though he were standing close to them.
Then among the marveling and fearful people, one leaped on a horse, and looking wildly about
him as though to see whether he were pursued, hurriedly set his horse galloping at its utmost
speed. It was the sorcerer. Why was he so panic-stricken? Looking in terror at the marvelous
knight, he had recognized the face which had appeared to him when he was working his spells.
He could not have said why his whole soul was thrown into confusion at this sight, and looking
fearfully about him, he raced till he was overtaken by night and the stars began to come out.
Then he turned homeward, perhaps to ask the Evil One what was meant by this marvel. He was
just about to leap with his horse over a stream which lay across his path when his horse suddenly
stopped in full gallop, looked around at him—and, marvelous to relate, laughed aloud! Two rows
of white teeth gleamed horribly in the darkness. The sorcerer's hair stood up on his head. He
uttered a wild scream, wept like one frantic, and turned his horse straight for Kiev. He felt as
though he were being pursued on all sides: the trees that surrounded him in the dark forest strove
to strangle him, nodding their black beards and stretching out their long branches; the stars
seemed to be racing ahead of him and pointing to the sinner; the very road seemed to be flying
after him.
SLA 218
Lecture 15
A Terrible Vengeance (Russian: ???????? ?????) is a Gothic horror story by Nikolai Gogol. It
was published in the second volume of his first short story collection, Evenings on a Farm Near
Dikanka, in 1832.
The short story is written in the "ornate and agitated style" characteristic to Gogol, sometimes
skirting purple prose, and was a great influence on the rhythmic prose of the modernist novelist
Andrei Bely.
The tale opens with an evening party at a suburb of Kiev. Two of the guests are the Cossack
Danilo Burulbash and his wife, Katerina. During the party, a Cossack who has been dancing well
and caught everyone’s attention turns into a sorcerer at the sight of the exorcising icons.
After this, Danilo, his wife, and a few fellow Cossacks are on a small boat on the Dnieper
discussing the sorcerer. As they pass a graveyard, corpses come out of the ground, each more
terrifying than the previous, each screaming "I am stifling".
In the next scene, Danilo's wife is having dreams that the sorcerer at the party wants to marry her.
His wife’s father, who had just returned from abroad after 21 years of absence, does not seem to
her husband a true Cossack, lying about drinking mead, not eating pork and otherwise not acting
properly. They engage in a sword battle in his home, eventually going to guns. Danilo misses her
father, but her father strikes him in the arm and he takes a pistol he has shot well almost his
entire life to fire back. Katerina stops the fight and asks them to forgive one another, which her
father only agrees to for her sake.
The following night Danilo and his friend come across a castle nearby, and creep up to one of the
windows that a strange light is issuing from. Through the window, he sees Katerina’s father
calling up spells and her soul appears in a blue haze. The sorcerer seems to be commanding her
to marry him as she sleeps and Danilo is horrified at discovering that Katerina's father is a
wizard. Back home, his wife recounts to him a strange incestous dream, which coincides with the
events Danilo witnessed in the castle. She begins to realize who her father really is, calling him
the Antichrist.
The Cossacks capture the wizard and chain him in the cellar, and he tries to get his daughter to
free him, out of pity, for the chains don’t bind him but the walls do, as they were built by a
starets (Orthodox monk) (though Danilo is unaware of the fact). She lets him out and then curses
herself for doing so.
In the next scene, a group of Poles, organized by the wizard, come to take Danilo’s land but they
are struck down by him and his fellow Cossacks one by one. However, at the end of the battle he
is shot by the sorcerer from behind a tree and dies, leaving only his child with Katerina, but the
child is murdered by the sorcerer.
SLA 218
Lecture 15
Katerina grows mad due to her having set the sorcerer free and her husband’s consequent death,
and then one day a traveler comes to her house that seems to rouse her back to sanity. However,
when he states that Danilo once said to him that he should marry her should he die, Katerina
recognizes it is the sorcerer and tries to stab him, but he kills her instead when he gets hold of the
knife, fleeing afterwards on horseback.
After the famous impressionist description of the Dnieper (one of the most celebrated pages in
Russian literature), a great miracle happens: both the Crimea and the Carpathians become visible
from Kiev. In the Carpathians, the wizard sees a great knight (bogatyr) and grows mad from
seeing him everywhere. He pleads to a starets at the Kiev Monastery of the Caves to help him,
but he will not for the sorcerer is already damned. The latter kills the monk.
Eventually, the giant knight catches up with the sorcerer and casts him into an abyss where
corpses await to eternally gnaw on his body. The largest of the corpses is a man named Petro, he
murdered his brother out of jealousy and was thrown into the abyss for punishment, given by his
brother and agreed to by God. The knight appears to be the spirit of Petro's brother.
1.1. Myth is a form of cultural expression that articulates the deep structure, the universal truths
of a particular culture.
2. Myth uses a particular set of devices, techniques including ritual, symbols, and synchrony of
time and place.
3. Personal myth can resonate with cultural myths in a conscious or an unconscious way.
Slavic 218
Lecture Sixteen, Fall
The Brotherhood of Sts. Cyril and Methodius
The Brotherhood of Sts. Cyril and Methodius is the first political organization we know of in
Ukraine. It was founded in Kyiv sometime in Dec. 1845 – Jan. 1846. It existed for 15 months. It
was closed down by the police after a denunciation by a student in March – April 1846. The
investigation lasted until the end of May. At that time, by imperial decree and without trial, the
members wer punished by exile to various places in Russia. Shevchenko was punished most
harshly with penal conscription and an interdiction on writing and painting.
There were eleven people who actually participated. There were probably 100 people who in one
way or another shared these ideas. The most important among the core group were Pantelejmon
Kuliš, Mykola Kostomarov, Vasyl' Bilozers'kyj, Mykola Hulak, Taras Ševenko. All except
Ševenko were teachers or students at Kiev University. It was a secret society but it was not a
revolutionary group. Their ideas were to be spread through teaching and writing. They had plans
for the establishment of schools, but no actual steps had yet been taken for the founding of any
schools. Their program is outlined in a statement written by Kostomarov and called the Divine
Law or the Books of Genesis of the Ukrainian People.
read 73-83 and 100-109
1. Slavic unity. This compares with the thinking of the Decembrists, Polish nationalists (like
Mickiewicz) Czech romantics, cf. also Ševenko's poem about Hus
2. Social problem. Equality and freedom.
3. Political structure: republics.
4. Founded on Christian ethics.
This is not really a political program. It is a messianic vision of Ukraine.
Society is denounced, investigation follows. Members are punished.
Ševenko's punishment is the worst because of the poetry that is found among his belongings and
because he is a former serf whose freedom was bought with the assistance of the tsar's family.
§ (73). And the Great Russian people lost their senses and fell into idolatry because they called
the tsar the earthly god and everything the tsar said they considered to be good, so that when tsar
Ivan in Novgorod strangled and drowned tens of thousands of people a day, the chroniclers
relating this called him Christ-loving.
§ (74). And Lithuanian united with Poland, and in Lithuania there were Lithuanians and Ukraine
belonged to Lithuania.
§ (75). And Ukraine united with Poland as a sister with a sister, as one Slavic people with
another Slavic people, indivisible and separate in the image of the Trinity, divine, indivisible, and
separate as in the future all Slavic people will be united amongst themselves.
§ (76). Ukraine loved neither the tsar nor the Polish lord and established a Cossack Host amongst
themselves, i.e., a brotherhood in which each upon entering was brother of the others—whether
he had before been a master or a slave, provided that he was a Christian; and the Cossacks were
all equal amongst themselves, and officials were elected at the assembly and they had to serve all
SLA 218 — 116
2
according to the word of Christ, because they accepted the duty as compulsory, as an obligation,
and there was no sort of seigniorial, majesty and title among the Cossacks.
§ (77). And they resolved to preserve their purity, therefore the old chroniclers say of the
Cossacks: thievery and fornication are never named among them.
§ (78). And the Cossack Host decided to guard the holy faith and free their neighbors from
captivity. The Hetman Svyrgovs'kyi1 moved to defend Voloschina and the Cossacks did not take
the platter with the gold pieces which were offered to them in thankfulness for their services,
they did not take them because they had shed their blood for the faith and for their neighbors,
they served God and not the golden calf. And Sahaidachnyi2 ravaged Kaffa and liberated there
several thousand slaves from the underground prisons.
§ (79). And there were many knights who acted thus; their exploits are not inscribed in the books
of this world but are written in heaven, because the prayers of those whom they had freed from
captivity interceded for them before God.
§ (80). And day after day the Cossack Host grew and multiplied and soon all people in Ukraine
would have become Cossacks, i.e., free and equal, and there would have been neither a tsar nor a
Polish lord over Ukraine, but God alone, and as it would be in Ukraine, so it would also be in
Poland and then also in the other Slavic lands.
§ (81). For Ukraine did not wish to follow in the path of the nations, but held to the law of God,
and each foreigner coming to Ukraine was amazed because in no (other) country of the world did
they so sincerely pray to God, nowhere (else) did man so love his wife and the children so respect
their parents.
§ (82). And when the popes and Jesuits wished to subordinate Ukraine forcibly to their authority
in order that the Ukrainian Christians might believe that all that the pope says is true and
equitable, then in Ukraine there appeared brotherhoods such as there were among the first
Christians; and each person on enrolling in the brotherhood, whether he had been a master or a
slave was called a brother. And this was so that all might see that in Ukraine the ancient, true
faith remained and that in Ukraine there were no idols and for this reason no types of heresies
had appeared there.
§ (83). But the masters perceived that the Cossack Host was growing and that soon all people
would become Cossacks, i.e., free, and they forbade their slaves to join the Cossack Host and
they wished to beat the simple people down as cattle, so that there should be no feeling in them,
no sense, and the masters began to strip their slaves, they handed them to the Jews, to such
torture the likes of which they had inflicted only on the first Christians; they flayed the skin from
living people, boiled children in cauldrons, forced mothers to suckle dogs.
§ (100). Ukraine lies in the grave but did not die.
§ (101). For her voice which called all the Slavic peoples to freedom and brotherhood was heard
1. Ivan Svyrgovs'kyi was a Cossack hetman of the 16th century.
2. P. Sahaidachnyi, a Cossack hetman, captured the city of Kaffa in 1616 and freed the Christian slaves there.
SLA 218 — 116
3
throughout the Slavic world.
And this voice of Ukraine resounded in Poland, when on the third of May3 the Poles decided that
there should be no masters among them, that all were equal in the Republic, and this the Ukraine
had desired already one hundred and twenty years earlier.
§ (102). And they did not allow Poland to do this; they ravaged Poland as before they had
ravaged Ukraine.
§ (103). And Poland deserved this because she had not heeded Ukraine and had destroyed her
own sister.
§ (104). But Poland will not perish because she will be awakened by Ukraine, who does not
remember evil and loves her own sister as though nothing had occurred between them.
§ (105). And the voice of Ukraine resounded in Muscovy when after the death of tsar Alexander
(I) the Russians wanted to banish the tsar and destroy the nobility, to found a republic and unite
all the Slavs with it in the image of the Trinity, indivisible and separate4; and this Ukraine had
desired and striven for, for almost two hundred years before this.
§ (106). And the despot did not allow this; some ended their lives on the gallows, others were
tortured in mines, and (still) others were handed over to be slaughered by the Circassians.
§ (107). And the despot rules over three Slavic peoples; he rules them by using Germans, he
poisons, cripples, destroys the good Slavic nature, but it will avail him nought.
§ (108). Because the voice of Ukraine was not stilled.
Ukraine will rise from her grave and again will call to her brother Slavs, and they will hear her
call and the Slavic peoples will rise and there will remain neither tsar, nor tsarevich, nor tsarevna,
nor prince, nor count, nor duke, nor Excellency, nor Highness, nor lord, nor boyar, nor peasant,
nor serf, neither in Great Russia, nor in Poland, nor in Ukraine, nor in Czechia, nor among the
Khorutans5, nor among the Serbs, nor among the Bulgars.
§ 109. And Ukraine wil be an independent Republic in the Slavic Union.
Then all the peoples, pointing to the place on the map where Ukraine will be delineated will say:
behold, the stone which the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone.
Encyclopedia of Ukraine:
Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood (Kyrylo-metodiivske bratstvo). Secret society established
in December 1845-January 1846 in Kiev at the initiative of M. *Kostomarov. The aim of the
society was to transform the social order according to the Christian principles of justice, freedom,
equality, and brotherhood. It proposed a series of reforms: (1) abolition of serfdom and equality
of rights for all estates, (2) equal opportunity for all Slavic nations to develop their national
language and culture, (3) education for the broad masses of the people, and (4) unification of all
3. On May 3, 1791 the Polish "Sejm" or national assembly accepted a new constitution under which the monarchy
became hereditary, the "liberum veto" was abolished, the king's acts were to have the approval of his council, and
his ministers were to be responsible to the "Sejm."
4. The references is to the Decembrists uprising of 1825.
5. Croats.
SLA 218 — 116
4
Slavs in the spirit of the Slavophilism of the time in a federated state in which Ukraine would
play a leading role. Kiev was to be the capital of the federation and the seat of the all-Slavic diet.
Among others, the following individuals belonged to the brotherhood: M. Kostomarov, M.
Hulak, V. Bilozersky, O. Navrotsky, D. Pylchykiv, O. Petrov, P. Kulish, O. Markovych, Yu.
Andruzky, I. Posiada, M. Savych, and T. Shevchenko. Since the brotherhood never reached an
organizational stage requiring a clear criterion of membership, its composition cannot be
determined exactly. For a long time the membership in the society of Shevchenko and Kulish
was questioned, but research finally confirmed that they were members. There is but one
testimony on the general size of the society - D. Pylchykiv's as noted down by O. Konysky - and
it gives the figure of about 100 members.
The basic documents in which the ideas and program of the society are formulated are Knyhy
bytiia ukraïns'koho narodu (Books of the Genesis of the Ukrainian People) and Ustav
Slov'ians'koho Tovarystva sv Kyryla i Metodiia. Holovni ideï (The Statute of the Slavic Society
of ss Cyril and Methodius: Its Main Ideas), both written by M. Kostomarov, and an explanatory
memorandum to the statute written by V. Bilozersky. These documents and the society's
activities were deeply influenced not only by the ideas of the Ukrainian renaissance of the first
half of the 19th century, particularly by *Istoriia Rusov (History of the Rus' People), but also by
European romanticism, especially the ideas of P. Šafarík and J. Kollar and A. Mickiewicz's
KsiÃegi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego (Books of the Polish People and the Polish
Pilgrimage). The *Decembrist movement and contemporary Pan-Slavism also had some
influence on the society's outlook.
The organizational looseness of the society permitted members who shared the same aims to
differ markedly on the means of realizing them. M. Kostomarov, V. Bilozersky, and others stood
for liberal moderate reform, while Shevchenko came out with revolutionary slogans. Somewhere
between these two poles stood M. Hulak and O. Navrotsky. Before the society could become
fully active, it was denounced by O. Petrov, and its members were arrested in March 1847. After
a police investigation held in St Petersburg, the arrested members were punished without trial by
exile or imprisonment. The relatively mild punishment meted out to the society's members
(Shevchenko and Kulish were punished for crimes other than membership in the society),
considering the antidespotic character of the society, can be explained, on the one hand, by the
government's desire to conceal from the public any antigovernment tendencies and, on the other,
by its reluctance to antagonize the Slavic movement in the West, which had ties through some of
its representatives with members of the brotherhood. In spite of its brief existence the society
made some impact on its contemporaries, as is evident from the propagation of anti-Russian
proclamations during the detention of its members, and had an even more important influence on
the development of the Ukrainian movement later on. Hence, Soviet historians (H. Serhiienko, F.
Yastrebov, P. Zaionchkovsky) partly acknowledge the `progressive nature' (the struggle against
despotism and national subjugation) of the society, but also underline its `bourgeois' character
(the absence of class conflict and its nationalist tendencies). The ss Cyril and Methodius
Brotherhood received much attention in the later publications of its members and then in the
works of O. Konysky, S. Yefremov, D. Bahalii, M. Hrushevsky, M. Vozniak, P. Zaitsev, and
many others.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SLA 218 — 116
5
Konyskii, A. Zhizn' ukrainskogo poeta T.G. Shevchenko (Odessa 1898)
Hrushevs'kyi, M. `Materiialy do istoriï Kyrylo-metodiïvs'koho bratstva, in Zbirnyk pam'iaty Tarasa
Shevchenka, 1814-1914 (Kiev 1915)
Semevskii, V. `Kirillo-mefodievskoe obshchestvo,' Golos minuvshego, nos 10-12 (1918)
Vozniak, M. Kyrylo-metodiïvs'ke bratstvo (Lviv 1921)
Iefremov, S. `Bilia pochatkiv ukraïnstva. Henezys ideï Kyrylo- metodiivs'koho bratstva,' Ukraïna,
1-2 (Kiev 1924)
Bahalii, D. T.H. Shevchenko i kyrylo-metodiïvtsi (Kharkiv 1925)
Miiakovs'kyi, V. `Liudy sorokovykh rokiv (Kyrylo-metodiïvtsi v ïkh lystuvanni),' Za sto lit, 2 (Kiev
1928)
Go1l¿abek, J. Bractwo sw. Cyryla i Metodego w Kijowie (Warsaw 1935)
Luciani, G. Le Livre de la genàese du peuple ukrainien (Paris 1956)
Zaionchkovskii, P. Kirillo-mefodievskoe obshchestvo (Moscow 1959)
Luckyj, G.S.N. Between Gogol' and Ševenko: Polarity in the Literary Ukraine, 1798-1847 (Munich
1971)
Serhiienko, H. Iaskrava storinka vyzvol'noho rukhu (Do 125-richchia Kyrylo-metodiïvs'koho
tovarystva) (Kiev 1971)
I. Koshelivets
Slavic 218
Lecture Seventeen, Fall
Taras Ševenko. Biography
Ševenko's importance in the history of Ukrainian literature, history, and the national revival
cannot be overstated.
Taras as icon
Kobzar as Bible
a S,&R,>8z&F\8" "8"*,<zb as a national celebration
born March 9, 1814 in Morynci
father - Hryhorij, a literate serf (from Kyrylivka, where family returned in 1815)
mother - Kateryna Bojko
2 brothers, 4 sisters,
grandfather Ivan former participant in Kolijivšyna, 1786
Vasilij Engel’hardt, Russian magnate, retired general.
Schooling with a deacon, learns to read and write.
Mother dies when he's 9, father when he's 11
Bright, independent boy, wants to paint, asks to be apprenticed to a painter.
When he asks for permission, taken into the manor, becomes a kozaok to Pavlo Engel’hardt.
Sees some of the world through manor house (books, paintings, people)
1829 to Vilno where Pavlo Engel’hardt serves in military.
1830 Polish uprising (was he in Warsaw too?) Engel’hardt flees to Petersburg
at 16 years old, Ševenko is now in the capital. Apprenticed to a painter. Soon discovered by
Ukrainian community and community of artists. Near-legendary (actually in Ševenko's story,
Xudožnyk) story of his discovery by Ivan Sošenko, a Ukrainian student at the Academy of Art in
the Summer palace gardens in 1835. Hrebinka and other Ukrainians in Petersburg. But he is a
serf. Karl Pavlovyè Brjullov (1799–1852), one of the leading painters in Russia, paints a portrait
of Vasyl’ Andrijovyè Žukovs’kyj, a leading Russian romantic poet. Auctioned off in the family
of the tsar. Money buys Ševèenko's freedom, April 22, 1838.
Ševèenko enrolls as a student in the Academ of Art. He gets a good basic liberal arts education.
In other words, this former serf gets a better education than the majority of Russian noblemen.
Entry into the best cultural circles, and some of the highest social circles, too.
Ševèenko starts writing around this time.
Read “Pryèynna” “Bewitched” 1837
girl waits for Cossack lover, has spell cast to make it easier. Water nymphs get her. Cossack
returns, finds her dead, kills himself. Parallels to Metlyns’kyj.
Poem celebrating Kotliarevs’kyj as beginner of Ukrainian literature.
Poems on historical subjects (from the still unpublished Istoria Rusov?)
1840 Kobzar published. Financed by Petro Ivanovyè Martos, a gentry friend of Hrebinka.
Small volume 8 poems, 114 pgs. But a revolution in Ukrainian poetry.
SLA 218
Ševèenko. Biography
Lecture 17
Most elements are not new, but Ševèenko puts them together in a new way and with a clear
voice. Very efective use of Kobzar motif and first person pronoun.
1840-43 Kobzar is making Ševèenko's reputation. He's still a student. Russian critics (some)
react negatively to Ukrainian langauge, even while praising Ševèenko's skill.
ševèenko contributes a few pieces to Hrebinka's almanac, Lastivka, 1841.
1841 Ševèenko publishes his Hajdamaky, his longest work. It is about the Kolijivšèyna uprising
of 1786 that his grandfather had participated in. Very bloody tale. Gonta kills his own children
because they're Catholic. Introduction to this poem talks about the Russian critics who had
spoken ill of his work. pgs. 60–2.
1843 trip to Ukraine for 8 months
first time back since 1829. Sees a very different country than what he left (he was a serf then).
Now he visits wealthy patrons and admirers. Among them: Hryhorij Tarnovs’kyj, patron of the
arts; and Prince Mykola Hryhorovyè Repnin-Volkons'kyj, Little Russian Military governor 181634, a brother of one of the decembrists, and the father of Varvara Repnina, who fell in love with
Ševèenko, who lived on their estate from Oct 1843 to Jan 1844. Visits Kyiv, meets Pantelejmon
Kuliš, visits site of Zaporožian Siè, visits his family.
Effects of this trip: he begins to focus on social injustice (former serf!) and anger at the Ukrainian
magnates for selling out their country. Growing anti Russian stand.
1843-1845. The three years. Very productive years for Ševèenko. Finishes Academy. Writes
some of his best poetry. Formulates views.
Friendly Epistle, p. 75 lines 1–32
Dusk is falling, dawn is breaking,
And God's day is ending,
Once again a weary people
And all things are resting.
Only I, like one accursed,
Night and day stand weeping
At the many-peopled crossroads,
And yet no one sees me.
Deaf, they do not hearken,
They are trading with their fetters,
Using truth to bargain,
And they all neglect the Lord,-In heavy yokes they harness
People; thus they plow disaster . . .
And they sow disaster . . .
But what shoots spring up? You'll see
What the harvest yields them!
Shake your wits awake, you brutes,
You demented children!
Look upon your native country,
On this peaceful Eden;
Love with overflowing heart
This expanse of ruin!
Break your chains, and live as brothers!
Do not try to seek,
Do not ask in foreign lands
For what can never be
Even in heaven, let alone
In a foreign region . . .
In one's own house,--one's own truth,
One's own might and freedom.
“The Great Vault” damning the girls who: crossed the road in front of Xmel’nyc’kyj's horse with
pails of water, watered Peter the Great's horse in Baturyn after the battle of Poltava, and smiled at
2
SLA 218
Ševèenko. Biography
Lecture 17
Catherine when she sailed down the Dnipro.
1845 he returns to Ukraine with commissions as a painter.
Brotherhood of Sts. Cyril and Methodius founded in Kyiv sometime 1845-6
eleven members, of which Kuliš and Kostomarov are the most important.
Except for Ševèenko, they are all teachers and students at Kyiv University (founded 1834).
This is a secret society, but it is far from revolutionary.
The Divine Law, or the Books of Genesis of the Ukrainian Nation. Read 78-83; 100-9.
1. Slavic unity.
cf, Decembrists, Poles (Mickiewicz's books of genesis of Poles), Czech
Romantics (Ševèenko's poem about Hus)
2. Social problem. Equality and freedom
3. Political solution—republics
4. All of this is founded on Christian ethics
This is messianism in a christian tradition, it isn't politics, and certainly not revolution.
1847-8 Society is denounced. Investigation by the third division. Punishment.
All members are punished, Ševèenko worse than the others, because he is a former serf, because
he makes fun of the tsar and his wife despite the fact that these wonderful people bought the
painting that paid for his freedom. (Darkness, p. 33, line 312)
Most of the members are exiled from Ukraine. Ševèenko is sentenced to military service. The
tsar personally forbids writing and painting.
Fortress of Orsk
Aral Sea expedition, for which punished further and sent to Novopetrovs’k fortress on the
southern end of the Caspian Sea. Here he wrote no Ukr. lit, only Russian prose & diary.
Ševèenko's punishment lasts until tsar Nicholas I dies in 1855. Two more years before released.
1857, April, released. Cannot return to Ukraine.
Returns to Petersburg. High life, carousing. But the poetry of 57-60 is fire and brimstone, biblical
themes and prophesizing. Collected Works published in 1860 as Kobzar.
Last year of life 1860 - March 10, 1861, poetry is more self-referential, more spiritual, less
political.
3
Slavic 218
Lecture Eighteen Fall
Taras Ševenko. The Poems. Themes and Techniques
Selected poems by Taras Ševenko. From: Shevchenko, Taras. Song Out of Darkness. Tr. Vera
Rich. London: Mitre Press, 1961.
“Bewitched.”
AD4R4>>"
“Song [The waters flow].”
G,R, &@*"
“The Dream: A Comedy.”
E@>. 7@<,*zb
“Why weighs the heart heavy?.” 40
Q@(@ <,>z Hb08@
“Have no envy for the rich man.” 40
=, 2"&4*J6 $"("H@<J
“The Great Vault.” 41
%,:4846 :\@N
“My Freinly Epistle.”
Three categories by length:
1. Long Romantic Poem. Usually tells a story, narrative, and dramatic.
“Bewitched”
Hajdamaky
“The Servant Girl” (="6<4R8")
“Neophytes”
“The Dream” and “The Great Vault” are a little different than the others.
2. Meditations and proclamations. Philosophical poems, usually ironic, political statements
“My Thoughts, My Heartfelt Thoughts”
“Cold Ravine’
“Friendly Epistle”
“The Caucauses”
3. Short Lyrics. Expressions of momentary feelings, static images.
Thematic categories:
Not clear divisions, but types:
1. Thematic focus on the poet.
a. lyrical expression of the poet's “I”
Many of the late poems, e.g. “a8@F\ H@ 6*JR4 J>@Rz” (112)
SLA 218
Taras Ševenko. The Poems. Themes and Techniques
b. programmatic focus on the idea of the poet as an individual
“)J<4 <@|, *J<4 <@|” (8–10) ANALYZE IN CLASS
2. Thematic focus on political statement
“The Dream”, E@>
“Friendly Epistle”
3. Focus on History
Ukrainian history (“Night of Taras” 1630 revolt), Bible stories
3.a Psalms of David
4. Suffering of an individual
Lecture 18
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty, Fall
Taras Ševenko. The Myth
!djusted and unadjusted self.
His life is absent from his poetry. Dualities, Poetry-Prose, Ukr-Rus.
Pp. 8–10
The conjunction of the actual biographical context with the massive data of the texts themselves
reveals the outlines of a fundamental duality in Sevcenko's creativity. It is a duality or an
opposition that rests on two very different creative stances, different self-perceptions and selfdefinitions, and on entirely different intellectual and emotional modes of expression. In fact, one
can speak here not so much of different stances or styles, but of different personalities. This
duality, of course, should not be confined to the psychological level, or reduced to an ego-split or
to dissociation. There is considerable interplay or "leakage" between the two modes by way of
common themes, experiences, and values—... non-psychological elements are also involved. In
general, the two modes are not hermetic—but they are radically different.
What, then, are these two personalities? One, which is represented by the Russian prose, the
Diary, the letters, and so on, is what I would call the "adjusted." Even while speaking out most
forcefully against the iniquities of the social order, above all the unspeakable outrage of serfdom,
Sevcenko manifestly sees himself here as part of the imperial reality, and shares many of the
civilized, progressive values of this society. The basic defining features of this mode are a sense
of intellectual distance (for example, with regard to Ukrainian history), a rational perspective on
the role of the Ukraine vis-a-vis the Russian Empire and on the role and efficacy of the artist (for
example, in the novella Xudoznik or Muzykant [The Musician]), a rational and basically
measured perception of human behavior, and, not least of all, the point of view of the mature
self.
The other, represented primarily by the poetry, is what I would call, for want of a better term, the
"non-adjusted" self. (Though Sevcenko himself never attempted to provide a dispassionate
analysis, he felt full well the power of this side of his ego, which in his Diary he portrayed as
driven by a "strange and restless calling.") It is a personality marked above all by an intense
emotionality, an absolutization of emotion and of the emotional perception of surrounding
reality, which in consequence becomes totally, or almost totally, polarized—into the sacred and
the profane. In its sharpest form the world, mankind, is divided into the absolute Good and the
absolute Evil. The poet himself is so polarized: he, or his poetic persona, is either the victim, one
of the lowly and despised—the bastard, the blind, vagabond minstrel, the fallen woman (the
pokrytka)—or even a moral reprobate ..., or he is the martyr and the Prophet, the last hope of his
nation. Significantly, there is virtually no middle ground; there is, rather, apotheosis, again of the
sacred and the profane. In contrast to the adjusted and the rational, this mode and personality
refuses to accept and abide by the verities and wisdoms of this world.
Grabowicz, pgs 8–10
Grabowicz. Poet as Mythmaker. p. 57
Ševenko sees at the heart of the world he depicts a deep and pervasive harmony and conflict. By
Taras Ševenko. The Myth
“conflict,” however, I do not simply mean an actual, dynamic struggle between two forces or
entities (although it may be that), but more generally an opposition, a clash that determines an
abnormal state of existence. More generally still, this is the sense of a “curse” that so many
Romantics perceived in the Ukraine and its past. This, too, is the initial set in Ševenko's
myth—but ... Ševenko's ... depiction of conflict, of society's abnormality, is remarkably
elaborate and subtle, appearing as it does on three paradigmatic levels: on the level of the
individual protagonist and his or her fate, on the level of the family, the basic unit of social
organization, and finally in the social macrocosm, with a focus on the dynamics and tensions of
the collective as such. Though it is many-leveled and many-faceted, the conflict that Ševenko
perceives in the Ukrainian world issues from one basic source—the violation of an original ideal
state whose existence he posits both explicitly and implicitly. This state or mode of existence is
defined by his vision of ideal equality, of communitas, and this serves as the very touchstone of
Ševenko's mythical perception of Ukraine. In turn, both communitas and its antipode flow from
the emotionally absolutized, manichean division of the world into good and evil that typifies the
creative mode and perspective of his “unadjusted” self.
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty One, Fall
Western Ukraine Before 1850
Galicia under Austria-Hungary
After partitions of Poland 1772, 1793, 1795
At the beginning of the 19th century, Galicia is more backward, culturally, than Left Bank
Ukraine
No tradition of Ukrainian Cossack State
General decline of Poland in 18th century
Economic backwardness of Galicia
Polish province of Austrian Empire = Polish landlords, Ukrainian (Ruthenian) peasants but now
Austrian rule
Under the Habsburgs, Austria, unlike Russia is a semi-liberal country
1. Limits on serfdom, although not abolished until 1848
2. Some education for peasants encouraged, esp. later
3. Recognition of Ukrainian Catholicism
Austria is a Catholic country
Leading role of clergy in intellectual life in the first three quarters of the century, education.
1837 Rusalka dnistrova, almanac published by the Rus'ka trijcja:
Jakiv Holovac'kyj
Ivan Vahylevy
Markijan Šaškevy
Original romantic poetry, collection of folk poetry
influence of Czech romanticism
1848 Spring of Nations
Abolition of serfdom, constitution (short lived but restored 1860)
National and Political awakenings
Šaškevy "On The Banks of the Buh," Ukrainian Poets, 79
Markian Shashkevich
Rusalka Dnistrovaia (The Dniester Nymph), subtitled Ruthenische Volks-Lieder. The first
Ukrainian literary and folkloric miscellany published in Galicia. It was compiled by the
*Ruthenian Triad (M. Shashkevych, Ya. Holovatsky, and I. Vahylevych) and printed through
their efforts in the *hrazhdanka script in Buda, Hungary, in December 1836. The miscellany
consisted of folk songs recorded in various places in Galicia, with an introduction by
Vahylevych; poetry and prose by the Triad's members and their translations of Serbian folk
poetry and excerpts from V. Hanka's `Kréalové Dvåur Manuscript'; texts of lyrical and heroic
poetry from a 15th-century manuscript, with an introduction by Shashkevych; Holovatsky's note
on Slavonic manuscripts in the library of St Basil's Monastery in Lviv; and Shashkevych's review
of Y. Lozynsky's 1835 book of Ukrainian wedding rituals. In the manifestolike preface
Shashkevych stressed the beauty of the Ukrainian vernacular and oral folklore and provided a list
of the most important contemporary publications of literature and folklore in Russian-ruled
SLA 218
Western Ukraine to 1850
Lecture 21
Ukraine. Of the original 1,000 copies 800 were confiscated in Lviv by the police after its sale,
and distribution in Galicia was banned by Venedykt *Levytsky, the provincial censor, who did
not approve of the language and orthography or of some of the contents. (The ban, which was not
in effect in other provinces in the Austrian Empire, was rescinded in 1848.) Nonetheless, because
of the compilers' radical Romantic orientation toward a pan-Ukrainian folk culture, literature, and
history, their promotion of the vernacular as the literary language, and their pioneering use of a
phonetic orthography based on the vernacular, Rusalka Dnistrovaia had a seminal impact on
national consciousness and literature in Western Ukraine. It was republished in Ternopil in 1910,
and facsimile editions of the original appeared in Kiev in 1950 and 1972 and in Philadelphia in
1961.
On the banks of the Buh
Oh, thou bright and rushing streamlet,
Prithee pause and see
How I weep in all my sorrow !
Share my grief with me !
In thy gaily flowing waters
Pretty fishes sport ;
While my heart in grief is shipwrecked,
Far from any port.
Grass, upon thy banks inclining,
Kisses thee anon ;
See the wave returns its kisses,
Then is swiftly gone.
But my heart in destitution
Far from gladness steers ;
Only loneliness it suffers,
Knows but bitter tears.
Every morn I rise up weeping,
Sorrow every night ;
Will some happier lot hereafter
Dawn upon my sight ?
Sorrow, thou supreme disrupter,
Vanish from my skies !
Hopeful star of bright and rushing streamlet,
Prithee pause and see
SLA 218
Western Ukraine to 1850
How I weep in all my sorrow !
Share my grief with me !
Translated by C.H. Andrusyshen and Watson Kirkconnell
Lecture 21
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Three, Fall
Pantelejmon Kuliš. The Black Council
Pantelejmon Kuliš 1819-1897, from the family of an impoverished Cossack officer who lived on
a homestead in Voroniž (near ernihiv).
Kiev University, studies history
1843-46 writes The Black Council, Russian and Ukrainian versions.
1847 arrested with Cyrillo-Methodians, relatively light sentence, 4 months imprisonment and
exile to Vologda
he was arrested while setting of on his honeymoon with Oleksandra Bilozers'ka, sister of Vasyl'
Bilozers'kyj.
While in exile he studies some more. He now knows Polish, French, German, Italian, Spanish,
Arabic, English
1850, after 3 years he is freed from exile.
He tries to homestead, it doesn't work financially, he spends his time between Ukraine and St.
Petersburg.
Works with Ševenko when Ševenko is released (1857). Tries to help him, urges him to write
with more care. Thinks like an editor and publisher.
Xutorjanstvo. For Kuliš, this is the ideal social and economic lifestyle for Ukrainians. It's free,
equal, tranquil, introspective, natural.
1863-67 Warsaw, holds public office, studies Ukrainian history from the Polish perspective. Sees
positive role of Russia in Ukraine, culture, progress.
1868-71 travels in Europe
1871-76 St. Petersburg
1876-97 Motronivka, his homestead
Translation. Kuliš wants to bring the highest culture of Western Europe to Ukraine. He is always
interested in high culture, in civilization, in achievements. Why not the best? Compare this to
Gogol.
Differences with Ševenko: emotion vs. reason, Cossack past vs. princely past, oppressed masses
vs. the cultured individual
The Black Council
Sir Walter Scott: historicity, research, but not a realistic, veristic approach, a romance, history
seen as a pattern of moral ideals. But nevertheless this is history, unlike Ševenko, who has a
hodge podge of history, myth, legend.
The Black Council reflects two of Kuliš's deeply held convictions:
1. De-bunking the Cossack past, particularly the Zaporožians.
2. Depicting the positive force of the sober settled individual.
Compare Kuliš's version of Cossack past with Ševenko's
similarities: anarchic uprisings, relations between men and women, greedy officer class,
etc. but there is not myth in Kulish, these are just the elements of the general, cultural perception.
Kuliš is eminently RATIONAL.
SLA 218
Lecture 23
Social novel and Scottian historical romance. The various social forces are very carefully
developed, described and analyzed.
The Black Council as political thriller, e.g. the scene where Šram and company enter Kiev. A
Zaporožian is present at the townsman's christening party. Šram knows this Zaporožian has
instigated and incited the city folk against the officer class.
First chapter gives a general historical background.
Two levels of analysis to pursue:
1. Political forces.
2. Poetic justice, how things are presented, how the author feels.
After the Hadia and the Perejaslav treaties there are two Ukraines, two Hetmans, two alliances:
Teterja. Right Bank. He is seen as a Polish ally and puppet. Šram is from Pavolo, on the Right
Bank. Šram has a general plan for re-uniting the whole country that involves defeating Teterja.
Somko. Left Bank, duly elected hetman. But he was elected by a council of the staršyna, the
officers.
Vasjuta. A rival for Left Bank hetmancy.
Brjuxovec'kyj (aka Ivanec', Ivan Martynovy) elected by the Zaporožians
Political interest groups: Zaporožians (sub group--elders), city Cossacks (rank & file), red jackets
(officer class), townsfolk (merchants and tradesmen), peasants. Some marginal types: Holy man.
Disgruntled peasants: the peasant reapers. With Šram - p. 61. Hvyntovka and Puha - p. 70.
Disgruntled merchants and artisans - p. 21-22. Christening.
Zaporožians. Šram's description p. 28.
Red Jackets. Variety of individuals. Šram and son, erevan', Hvyntovka, Vujaxevy, Somko.
Russia. The prince and boyars at the council.
Two heroes.
1. Petro Šram. Passive, our eyes into the story, but still a hero. His positive qualities: obedience
to father and to the social order that gives Lesja to Somko. Physically an equal to the Zaporožian
(the duel is a draw). He has some wild ideas about joining the Zaporožians, but he settles and
marries. Sowing wild oats but then a respectable member of the community.
2. Kyrylo Tur. Epitome of a Zaporožian, wild, anarchic, likes to drink and party. He is dark
skinned, he is a wizard. But he is honest to a fault, always direct in his dealings with people.
Doesn't participate in intrigue (unlike some "new" Zaporožians.
Stealing Lesja shows he is a free spirit. He is even breaking Zaporožian rules. Puha, the
elder Zaporožian, says that he too was beaten, making this a respectable past to have.
Perhaps Tur is above both structured society and Zaporožians?
Šram. Connection to the Past. The Wise Man, and a priest. p. 3-5.
Connection to the Holy Man (bandura player). The best of the old staršyna. His virtues:
patriotism, wisdom, loyalty. He upholds law and order and morality, but in the
end--ineffectually. He is killed by Teterja. His interest in what he supports is not motivated by
personal gain.
Somko. Good but ineffectual. Taken with the trappings of office. His neglect of Lesja is typical
cossack behavior but it points to a weakness. He fails to observe. A statesman should be sensitive
and kind all around.
SLA 218
Lecture 23
Vujaxevy (Somko's general secretary) p. 92-93. schemer, intrigue, self-interest. Shows how
Somko is not observant.
erevan'. p. 1, 24. Slow-witted, fat-bellied, but his heart is in the right place. Yet he has to be
prodded by Šram to do what is right. Also governed by his wife. He does want his daughter to
marry a hetman. He got his money as booty but he uses it well, e.g. buys Nevolnyk's freedom.
Hvyntovka. p. 65, 70-71. Portrait of a tyrannical Red Jacket. The scene where Puha speaks for
the peasants. His wife is a Polish aristocrat, Hvyntovka married her to raise his own social status.
Terrorizes her. Opportunism and greed.
The idea that the state must be organized on a broad base, not on greed of officer class. Yet not
rule of mod either. Law and order.
p. 22. Šram's speech how everyone has a station in life. Is this Kuliš?
But the protests of the peasants and the merchants and artisans are never answered. Does Kuliš
support their interests? The democratic platform of Brjuxovec'kyj turns out to be a sham and a
deception for the sake of self-aggrandizement. Is this Kuliš's view of all democracy?
%4*">>b: A">H,:,6<@> 7J:zT. G&@D4 & *&@N H@<"N. 74|&: )>zBD@, 1989. G@< 2.
1. (6–11)
)&" |2*Pz >" 8@>bN >"$:40"`H\Fb *@ 74p&". )@ NJH@D" (;4N"6:") Q,D,&">b, M<"D4V,.
Q,D,&">\ – *@D@$4&Fb (>"8D"&) (D@T,6 2" B@&FH">>b M<,:\>4P\8@(@. {2*Pz: EH"D46
SD"< (8–9), 2 *@<J y&"> Q,BJD>46, B@:8@&>48 z @H,P\. A,HD@ SD"<, SD"<,>8@, 6@(@
F4>. % Q,D,&">b: %"F4:\ =,&@:\>48, $":"8JR46 8@:4T>z6 GJD,P\846 &'b2,>\,
&42&@:,>46 #@04< Q@:@&z8@< 2" (D@Tz Q,D,&">b, b8@<J &z> H,B,D &z*F:J(@&Jp
&*bR>zFH\.
2. (11–17)
#@046 R@:@&z8 J Q,D,&">b H"8@0. C@2<@&" BD@ B@:zH4R>46 FH"> >" I8D"|>z (14-16).
G,H,Db, :z&@$,D,0>46 (,H\<">, >" B@F:J("N A@:\Vz. E@<8@ B@&4>,> (,H\<">J&"H4 >"
BD"&@<J $,D,2z, ":, 6@<J BD@H4FH"&:bH\Fb B@:8@&>48 =z04>F\846, %"F`H", b8@(@
Bz*HD4<J`H\ <@F8@&F\8z $@bD4 (P"D) z y&"> ;"DH4>@&4R #D`N@&,P\846 b8@(@
Bz*HD4<J`H\ 2"B@D@0Pz.
3. (17–26)
A,HD@ SD"<,>8@ & „B,8"D>z” 2 Q,D,&">4N@` (;,:"Fb) z *@R8@` 9,F,`. SD"< F&"H"p
A,HD" 2" 9,F`. Q,D,&">\ (@*4H\Fb, ":, Q,D,&">4N" 2JB4>bp. =" *DJ(46 *,>\ |*JH\ &Fz
(H"8 D"*4:" Q,D,&">4N") >" BD@VJ *@ 74p&". A@ *@D@2z, A,HD@ &4B4HJp Q,D,&">4NJ.
%@>" 6@<J F@>, BD@ (,H\<">" >"D,R,>@(@.
4. (26–33)
EH"D46 >"T *z*J, 74p&,. 7J:zT B@8"2Jp F&@` F4<B"Hz` *@ >\@(@. a8 NH@ Bz*B,D,2">46
R4 &$D">46 (27) B@8"2Jp 6@(@ FH">. MD,FH4>4 >" &J:4Pz. SD"< z H@&"D4FH&@ BD@FbH\
B,D,BJFH4H4. 7@>LD@>H"Pzb z2 ">H4-8@2"P\84<4 H,Rzb<4, BD@&@8"Pz6>z *z|
SLA 218
Lecture 23
#D`N@&,P\8@(@. Q,D,&">\ 8"0,, V@ <,>z b8"F\ I8D"|>", N"6 >"< |FH4 6 B4H4. SD"<
BD@24&"p 6@(@ #"D"$"T@< (H@6 @F"J: D,pFHD@&">@(@ 8@2"PH&" b8@(@ 8@2"84 B@8"D":4,
V@ >, N@Hz& D4248J&"H4 8@:4 D,pFHD@&z 8@2"84 Bz*HD4<":4 B,D,* /@&H4<4 &@*"<4 J
1648), P, BD@<@&:bp *@ Q,D,&">b z &z> (@*4H\Fb |N"H4 2 SD"<@< & 9z&@$,D,0>J I8D"|>J.
5. (33—39)
#D"HF\8" T8@:" >" B@*@:z (74p&@-;@(4:b>F\8" "8"*,<zb). C@2<":\@&">". 1"B@D@0Pz &
74p&z, @B4F *4&>4N |N 2&4R"|&. 74D4:@ GJD z #@(*"> Q@D>@(@D B@$"R4:4 9,F`
Q,D,&">z&>J z 74D4:@ (@&@D4H\, V@ N@R, ||.
6. (39—46)
% B,R,F\8z<. 1>@& @B4F z2 FH"D@&4>4. GJH 2JFHDzR"`H\ E@<8". %z> (@&@D4H\ BD@ F&@|
B:b>4, SD"< HzT4H\Fb. C@2<@&" BD@ 2"B@D@0Pz&. 74D4:@ GJD, &N@*4H\. %4b&:b,H\Fb,
V@ &z> D"2 &DbHJ&"& SD"<".
7. (46—56)
74D4:@ GJD BD4 @$z*z (@&@D4H\, b8 &z> *J<"p &H,8H4 z2 9,F,`. 5@<J >, &zDbH\. E@<8@ z2
SD"<@< BD@ ;@F8@&F\84N $@bD. A:b>: (FH 51) !8$4 2:@0JHJ *&" $,D,(4, ... B@2"&@*4<@
JF`*4 BD"&>z| FJL4, T8@:4, "8"*,<z|, *DJ8"D>z, Bz*>z<,<@ %8D"|>J &(@DJ z &@F&,F,:4<
*JTz H4N &,:484N 84|&F\84N aD@F:"&z& z ;@>@<"Nz&. 9,Fb B,D,:b8">". {| :`$@& *@
E@<8" z2 *4H4>FH&". %,R,Db. 1>@& GJD, H,B,D BD@ F&@(@ $"H\8", b846 H"8@0 &2b& 0z>8J,
":, B@Hz< &,D>J&Fb >" 2"B@Dz00b. %Fz 6@(@ N&":bH\, &,F,:z`H\. =, &zDbH\ 6@<J.
8. (56—65)
=zR. A,HD@ N@*4H\ z RJp 2&J84, ":, B@V@ b <"` N@D@>4H4 R4`F\ >,D,R,>J. ! H@*z $"R4H\
9,F` >" 8@>z z RJp || 8D48. =" 8@>b z 2" >4<4. AD@&"::b. 7z>\ >, N@R, B,D,F8@R4H4.
A,HD@ F"< F8"R,. GJD 6@(@ DbHJp. G@*z $'`H\Fb, B,DT, T"$:b<4, H@*z &0, >@0"<4. ?$"
B"*"`H\.
9. (65—76)
E@<8@ 0JD4H\Fb >, 9,F,`, " 74D4:@<. A,HD" &2b:4 *@ Q,D,&">z& &4*J0J&"H4. 9,Fb &0,
>,2:`$4:" E@<8". A,HD@ &42*@D@&z&. %zFH8", V@ ;@F8@&F\8z &@p&@*4 |*JH\
*@
E@<8" *@ A,D,bF:"&". %z> HJ*4, " 2&z*H"< &zFH8", V@ *@ y&">Pb BD4:JR4:4Fb HD4
B@:8@&>484 z2 Bz*HD4<8@` ;@F8@&F\8@(@ 8>b2b C@<@*">@&F\8@(@. SD"< D"*4H\
E@<8@&z B4F"H4 *@ B@:8@&>48z& " F"< |*, *@ %"F`H4. A@ *@D@2z 2JFHDzR"`H\ F,:b>, V@
*4T"H\ >,>"&4FH` *@ FH"DT4>4.
10. (76–86)
SD"< & *@D@2z *@ '&4>H@&84. 7@&":\ z 6@(@ <@:@*" >,&zD>" 0z>8" (76). I '&4>H@&84.
/z>8" 6@(@, $"R4H\ D4*&"> z <:zp. '&4>H@&8" >"*J04&"p 0z>8J z z>T4<4 FB@F@$"<4
N@R, B@8"2"H4, V@ &z> <@& $4 &zD>46 FH"DT4>", 2 2"B@D@0Pb<4 >, $D"H"pH\Fb.
AD4N@*4H\ 2"B@D@0,P\ AJ("R, @$FH@`pH\Fb 2" <zV">.
SLA 218
Lecture 23
11. (86—94)
SD"< >" *DJ(46 *,>\ &0, B@|N"& TJ8"H4 %"F`HJ. A,HD@ z 74D4:@ GJD, b846 J F&@p|
"<"<4, $z:b '&4>H@&84. %z*>@F4>4 GJD" *@ <"H,Dz z F,FHD4. AJ("R $,D, GJD" >"
8@2"P\846 FJ*.
12. (94–108)
EJ* >"* 74D4:@< GJD@<. 1"B@D@0Pz, #D`N@&,P\846. )z*4 FzR@&z.
13. (108–16)
SD"< & *@D@2z. 7@:@ =z0,>", >" *@D@2z F&"D8" BD@ F&"H\$J *@>\84 )@<@>H@&4R" 2
%z6H,>8@<. A"> >, N@R, <zV">4>" >" 2bHb. SD"< J F@H>48" #z:@2,DPb. )":z E@<8@ z
%"F`H" &0, D"2@<. E@<8" B4F"D: %JbN,&4R. ="&<4F>, @$D"2:J&@ B@&@*4H\Fb, V@$ *@
E@<8" >, N@Hz:4 BD4FH"H4 8@2"84. E@<8@ Bz2>@ 6@(@ BD@(">bp.
14. (116–29)
C@28"0,<@ H,B,D ... J '&4>H@&84. %Fz $"R"H\, V@ (&4>H@&8" >, 2" E@<8@< 0JD4H\Fb.
E4>z FHb084. A@:84 B@84*"`H\ E@<8". E"<" D"*".
15. (129–35)
Q,D,&">\ BzF:b D"*4 BD@$Jp &H,8H4. 'D"$z0, N"@F. 74D4:@ GJD (133) a846 b GJD.
16. (135–41)
#D`N@&,P\84. EJ* >"* ?:,8F@` E,>R4:@<, V@ F8"8"& J (D,R8J. y&">,P\ 6@<J BD@V"p.
)z*4 FzR@&z B@84*"`H\ #D`N@&,P\8@(@. #D`N@&,P\846 $"0"p F<,DH4 E@<8". '@&@D4H\
P, A,HD@&z E,D*`8@&z.
17. (141–49)
74D4:@ GJD *@ #D`N@&,P\8@(@. a &$'` E@<8". #,D, B,DFH,>\. y*, *@ E@<8" DbHJ&"H4
6@(@, ":, O@<8@ >, 2(z*>46 @$<z>bH4Fb <zFPb<4.
18. (149–53)
G,B,D $4 H@ @HF, HD,$" >"< |N"H4 ... SD"< DbHJp A"&@:@R">, 8"0, G,H,D|, V@ &z> F"<
&4>,>. G,H,Db 6@(@ 8"D"p F<,DH`. #D`N@&,P\846 B@*z$>@ FHD"RJp E@<8" z %"F`HJ. GJD
&DbHJ&"& &z* '&4>H@&84, V@ F&"H"& Q,D,&">z&>J 2" %JbN,&4R", Fz<'` Q,D,&">b, " F"< >"
Q@D>J '@DJ. A,HD@ z 9,Fb @*DJ0,>z z >" M<"D4Vz.
SLA 218
Lecture 23
Kulish, Panteleimon, b 8 August 1819 in Voronizh, Chernihiv gubernia, d 14 February 1897 in
Motronivka, Chernihiv gubernia. Prominent writer, historian, ethnographer, and translator. He
was born into an impoverished Cossack-gentry family. After completing only five years at the
Novhorod-Siverskyi gymnasium he enrolled at Kiev University in 1837 but was not allowed to
finish his studies because he was not a noble. He obtained a teaching position in Lutske in 1840.
There he wrote his first historical novel in Russian, Mikhail Charnyshenko, ili Malorossiia
vosem'desiat let nazad (Mykhailo Charnyshenko, or Little Russia Eighty Years Ago, 2 vols,
1843). M. *Maksymovych promoted Kulish's literary efforts and published several of his early
stories. His first longer work written in Ukrainian was the epic poem 'Ukraïna' (Ukraine, 1843).
In 1843–5 Kulish taught in Kiev and studied Ukrainian history and ethnography. There he
befriended T. Shevchenko, M. Kostomarov, and V. Bilozersky; their circle later became the
nucleus of the secret *Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. Another new friend, the Polish writer
M. Grabowski, also had a great influence on him.
In 1845 P. Pletnev, the rector of St Petersburg University, invited Kulish to teach at the
university. In St Petersburg Kulish finished in Ukrainian his major historical novel, Chorna rada,
khronika 1663 roku (The Black Council, a Chronicle of the Year 1663), of which excerpts were
published in Russian translation in Muscovite journals in 1845–6. To prepare him for a
professorial career, the Imperial Academy of Sciences granted him a scholarship to do research
abroad. In 1847 he married O. Bilozerska (the future writer Hanna *Barvinok) and set out with
her for Prague. En route he was arrested by the tsarist police in Warsaw for belonging to the
Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, which had been uncovered at the time. After two months in
prison he was exiled for three years to Tula. Because his main offence had been writing a 'Tale of
the Ukrainian People,' Kulish was forbidden to write. He maintained his innocence, but his
interrogation and closed trial and subsequent loss of freedom were for him a deep trauma.
In 1850 he was allowed to return to St Petersburg. While working as an editor there, he tried,
unsuccessfully, to establish himself as a Russian littérateur, publishing in the journal
Sovremennik the autobiographical novella 'Istoriia Uliany Terent'evny' (The History of Uliana
Terentevna, 1852), the historical novel 'Aleksei Odnorog' (1852–3), and the novella 'Iakov
Iakovlevich.' He worked on a long biography of N. Gogol, finishing it in 1856 while visiting S.
Aksakov.
Soon his Ukrainian interests took the upper hand. After living for a while on a khutir in Ukraine
and in Kiev, Kulish returned to St Petersburg. There he established a Ukrainian printing press
and, after being allowed to publish under his own name, issued two splendid volumes of *Zapiski
o Iuzhnoi Rusi (Notes on Southern Rus', 1856–7), a rich collection of Ukrainian folklore,
ethnography, and literature in which he introduced a new orthography (*Kulishivka). In 1857 he
finally published Chorna rada in its entirety, in both Ukrainian and Russian. In the epilogue to
the Russian edition he pleaded for the first time for the political unity of Ukraine and Russia
while stressing their cultural separateness. He also published a primer (Hramatka, 1857) for use
in Sunday schools, a volume of Marko Vovchok's folk tales (1858), and the Ukrainian almanac
*Khata (Home, 1860). 'Maior' (Major), his Russian novella about his life in Ukraine, appeared in
Russkii vestnik in 1859. In 1860–2 he was actively involved in *Osnova, the Ukrainian journal
published in St Petersburg. In 1862 he published a separate collection of his own poems,
SLA 218
Lecture 23
Dosvitky (Glimmers of Dawn).
In 1864 Kulish accepted a high Russian official post in Warsaw. From there he developed further
the contacts he had made earlier with Galician intellectuals and contributed to several Lviv
periodicals. When he was asked to end these contacts he refused and resigned in 1867. After
traveling abroad he returned to St Petersburg. For a while he edited a Russian government
publication. Most of his time he devoted to the study of Ukrainian history, particularly of the
Cossack period. His earlier romantic view of the Cossacks gave way to a new and very critical
appraisal of them, which had already been evident in Chorna rada. He published several long
articles on the Cossacks entitled 'Mal'ovana haidamachchyna' (The Painted Haidamaka Era,
1876) and a major study in three volumes, Istoriia vossoedineniia Rusi (The History of the
Reunification of Rus', 1874–7). In the latter he expressed admiration for Peter i and Catherine ii
and made some uncomplimentary remarks about T. Shevchenko, thereby alienating most of the
Ukrainian reading public. At about the same time, Kulish began translating the *Bible, a work
that, with the help of I. Puliui and I. Nechui-Levytsky, was finally completed only after his death.
His translation of the Psalter was published in Galicia in 1871.
After the 1876 *Ems Ukase forbade Ukrainian publications in the Russian Empire, Kulish
strengthened his ties with Galicia. In 1881 he went to Lviv, and in 1882 his collection of poems
and essays, Khutorna poeziia (Khutir Poetry), his Ukrainian translations of Shakespeare's
Othello, Troilus and Cressida, and Comedy of Errors, and an appeal for Ukrainian-Polish
understanding, Krashanka rusynam i poliakam na Velykden' 1882 roku (A Painted Egg for the
Ruthenians and the Poles at Easter 1882), were published there. In 1883 he published his long
poem 'Mahomet i Khadyza' (Muhammad and Khadijah), showing his deep interest in Islam. He
seriously considered renouncing his Russian citizenship and remaining in Austria-Hungary, but
government policies there changed his mind. Disheartened but not dejected, Kulish returned to
Russian-ruled Ukraine, settled on his khutir Motronivka, and remained there with his wife until
his death. Cut off from most Ukrainian activists, he conducted a wide correspondence and
worked on translations of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Byron. He wrote
two more collections of poetry, Dzvin (The Bell, 1893) and Pozychena kobza (The Borrowed
Kobza, 1897), which were published in Geneva. A major historical study, 'Otpadenie Malorossii
ot Pol'shi' (The Separation of Little Russia from Poland, 1888–9), was also completed on his
khutir.
Both during his life and after his death Kulish was a controversial figure. His emphasis on the
development of a separate, indigenous Ukrainian high culture while advocating political union
with Russia found little sympathy among Ukrainian populists. After 1850, during his intense
writing and publishing activity, he remained aloof from organized Ukrainian community life. His
attempts at influencing Ukrainian cultural activities in Austrian-ruled Galicia were often
misunderstood. Kulish's uncompromising attitude and his egocentrism were often stumbling
blocks in his relations with others. Yet even his opponents granted him his achievements. During
the modernist period of Ukrainian literature interest in Kulish was revived by M. Sribliansky and
M. Yevshan. Dubove lystia (Oak Leaves), an almanac in his memory, appeared in Kiev in 1903,
and editions of his works were published in Kiev (5 vols) and Lviv (6 vols) in 1908–10. In Soviet
Ukraine some of his works were republished, new research about him (by V. Petrov, O.
SLA 218
Lecture 23
Doroshkevych, M. Mohyliansky, Ye. Kyryliuk, M. Zerov, M. Vozniak, and others) appeared,
and the publication of a complete edition of his works was begun (2 vols, 1930, 1934) in Kiev
but not completed. During the *Literary Discussion of 1925, M. Khvylovy defended Kulish as a
'truly European intellectual.' From 1933 on, however, Kulish's works were virtually proscribed in
the USSR until a volume of his selected writings appeared in Kiev in 1969, followed by a small
volume of his poetry in 1970. Soviet literary critics have wrongly accused Kulish of 'bourgeois
nationalism.' In the West, interest in Kulish has existed mainly among academics. An abridged
English translation of his Chorna rada was published in Littleton, Colorado, in 1973, and a
Ukrainian volume of his selected letters appeared in New York in 1984.
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Four, Fall
Marko Vovok
Marko Vovok. Marija Oleksandrivna Vilins’ka - Markovy 1833-1907.
Village in Orel gubernia of Russia. Her father may have been Belorussian but otherwise she is
Russian by natonality and culture.
1845-46 Attends a private "pension" in Xarkiv.
Lives with her aunt in Orel, half way between Kiev and Moscow. The provinces, the boonies.
1851 in Orel she meets and marries at age 17 Opanas Markovy, a Cyrillo-Methodian who was
exiled to Orel (tells you something about the place if they send your there for punishment).
1851-58 Travelling in Ukraine, ernihiv, Kiev, Nemyriv etc.
1857 Narodni opovidannja.
1859 St. Petersburg. An affair with her publisher, Pantelejmon Kuliš and then she moves on to
bigger game, Turgenev. She soon separates from her husband, leaves for western Europe with
Turgenev, and after another volume of Ukrainian stories she writes nothing more in Ukrainian.
Later marries again and lives in the Caucuses.
Most of her Ukrainian stories are abolitionist.
1. Abolitionist stories - life in the village.
2. Psychology of individual stories - life in the village.
3. Stories based on folklore.
She is THE most successful Ukrainian writer in the first 3 quarters of 19th century, perhaps in
the whole century.
Her stories read like a stenographic transcript of folk narrative. There is no characterization,
psychology of types, no landscapes, no portraits etc.
Lexically, she is culling colorful language from the folk.
When Kuliš first hastily looked at her submitted manuscript he thought it was another collection
of authentic folk material and wasn't interested until he actually read some.
This is not REALISM.
p. 15, 19, 26
Turgenev's Village Sketches.
The importance of serfdom as a theme.
Abolitionist propaganda. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
All this makes it timely and popular, Russian, French translation.
Ukrainian lit expanding its genres. Kvitka had moralizing tales. These are stories with a direct
political message.
Readership. Largely female. The melodramatic sentimentality no longer appeals to us today, but
our soap operas are different only in that they have more explicit sex. This is popular stuff.
Plot construction is simple. Pre-determined outcome.
Pitifully helpless characters. This is what annoys us, not the quality of the writing. Smooth style.
Dranatization of conflict. Dialogue. Fundamentally we don't respond because we are callous
about this issue, because it is no longer very real. But if this were a holocaust story, or South
Africa, it might be different.
Poetization of the village.
SLA 218 – 124
Marko Vovok
2
Influence in later Ukrainian literature.
Pg 15
There lived in our village a Cossack Khmara; a wealthy man! The land he had, the cattle—not to
speak of other properties. He was not rich in children, however, the Lord gave him but one
daughter—one alone—like that sun in the sky. They cherished and brought her up, beautiful and
good, and intelligent too. Olesya's sixteenth birthday had barely passed when suitors were
beginning to turn up in the house... The old folks thanked for the honour, they entertained their
guests, but would not give their daughter away. "Let her dance a little, then she'll have something
to remember her girlhood by. It's still.too early for a young head to be troubled by housewifery;
let her play a little longer," they said.
And what a number of suitors she had, dear God! Wherever she went, she was surrounded, like
that queen bee! And what a girl she was! Dignified, beautiful, friendly and affectionate, passed
no one without a friendly word, a smile or a joke; yet whenever she saw something she
disapproved of she would give a look that was a douche of cold water and turn away.
pg 19
But here Ivan Zolotarenko sent matchmakers. Olesya honoured the pleasant guests and presented
them with towels.
But Ivan Zolotarenko was a serf. So handsome, so lively, so alert was he, that one would never
guess that he had grown up in the bitterness of serfdom.
Everyone then realised, of course, who Olesya had awaited, and the whole village erupted in talk,
bubbling as though from a well-spring: "How can she do that ? Where docs such a thing start?
Whoever heard of a free Cossack girl marrying a serf?"
The talk finally reached the cars of the old auntie and slapping her hands against her thighs, she
told Olesya:
"That I should live to hear such things! My dear child, Olesya! Come to your senses! If your
father and mother were alive, they would rather have drowned you in a deep well! They're
probably turning over in their graves from the shock and sorrow as it is! What are you thinking
of? Somebody must have bewitched you! "
So the auntie carried on with Olesya, alternately begging and crying.
"Enough, dear Auntie, enough! " said Olesya finally. "Nothing you say will change my mind. I
will marry Ivan! "
The aunt went to Petro Shostozub. But he had gone to the market. Disaster! For Petro Shostozub
was an elder in the community-and so old, Lord! His hair was white as milk.
Then to Andriy Honta-not at home. To Mikhailo Didych-out also: all had gone to the market.
"Oh what an evil hour and what misfortune! I'll dash over and try Opanas Bobryk! "
Pg 26
So Olcsya lived, working without respite, without rest. A whole year passed like one hour,
always in service, always at work. The mistress was such that she gave her no rest-just work and
SLA 218 – 124
Marko Vovok
3
continue working! Wherever they were working, she would show up and a table would be
fetched for her. There she would sit playing cards, this was her main pastime. But her eyes would
move sharply over her serfs and she would shout out from time to time: "Keep working, now, no
loitering! I won't have any laziness! "
One day Olesya managed to get away and visit her auntie who was ill. It was the day of the
village market, Olcsya saw some of her friends; what handsome young women they had turned
out to be! Dressed well and proud as full-blown roses, they were with their husbands and
children, some of whom were playing, some eating nuts, while the older ones in squeaky new
boots, gazed bright-eyed at passers-by. Olesya stood in her old jacket, all alone, separated from
her husband, her children a cause for weariness and anxiety, catering to a feudal gentry like to a
miserable boil. Her children had no playthings, no toys, not even clothes for sacred holidays;
their mother would return with nothing to bring them cheer, to bring them a little joy! Such were
the thoughts that gripped Olesya while Hannah, then Motrya, then Yavdokha, came up to speak
with her, all old and familiar friends, her girlhood companions. They spoke pleasantly, asked
about her children, one passing on some buns, another a honey cake.
"Thank you, thank you," responded Olesya, bursting into tears, "may God remember you as you
haven't forgotten me! "
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Five, Fall
Liubov Ianovs'ka
Liubov Oleksandrivna Ianovs'ka 1861 – 1933
village in Chernihiv province to the family of Hanna Barvinok’s sister. Father, a Russian,
Oleksander Šerbaov, a military man
Childhood in Warsaw, where father was stationed after Polish 1863 uprising. Mother was a
disciple of P. Kulish (in Warsaw at that time). Conflict between father and mother over language
and culture. Family splits, mother dies insane in Petersburg.
Ianovska, Liubov, b 30 July 1861 in Mykolaivka, Borzna county, Chernihiv gubernia, d 1933 in
Kiev. Writer and community activist. She worked as a teacher in Lubni county, Poltava gubernia,
and founded Sunday schools. From 1905 she lived in Kiev. She initially wrote in Russian and
then changed to Ukrainian. Her first short story in Ukrainian was `Zlodiika Oksana' (Oksana the
Thief, 1897). Yanovska wrote over 100 short stories, novelettes, and novels, most of which were
not published during her lifetime, and some of which were never finished. Her works deal with
the life of the peasants and the intelligentsia, are written in a realist style, and reflect a populist
philosophy. The publication of her first short story was followed by the drama Povernuvsia z
Sybiru (He Returned from Siberia, 1897), the novelette Horodianka (The Townswoman, 1900),
and the comedy Na zelenyi klyn (To the Far East, 1900). Many of her works were reprinted or
first published during the period of Ukrainian statehood in 1918 and in the early years of the
Soviet regime, in particular the plays Lisova kvitka (Forest Flower, 1918), Zhertvy (Sacrifices,
1918), Liuds*ke shchastia (Human Happiness, 1918), Na sinozhati (At the Haying Meadow,
1918), and Dzvin, shcho do tserkvy sklykaie, ta sam u nii nikoly ne buvaie (The Bell That Calls
People to Church but Never Goes There Itself, 1918). Yanovska ceased writing after 1916, but
her works, greatly influenced by I. Nechui-Levytsky, P. Myrny, and to a lesser degree, M.
Kotsiubynsky, remained popular for many years. The collected works of Yanovska were
published 1930, 1959 and 1991.
Fate (Dolia)
Personification of Fate as the evil instinct in man to get ahead by any means.
Story told in first person.
Behind the high wattle fenceZa vysokym tynom, 1902
Story of Mykyta, orphan cheated by step-father, then by his wife, then by his son-in-law.
Eventually, angered at all humanity, the recluse saves his granddaughter from his son-in-law but
when he is close to death he goes out to drown himself and her, but is himself saved by a
neighbor.
How Lepestyna got some Kerosene, Iak Lepestyna karasiru dobuvala (1897, publ 1903)
Got everyone angry at each other.
SLA 218 – 125
Liubov Ianovs'ka
Horpyna’s oath Zarik Horpyny 1905
Now that her son is married, Horpyna takes an oath to care only for her soul. Everyone else has
to work, though. Jealous of her husband, whom she takes to be chasing daughter-in-law.
Eventually takes her husband to court, where the judge punishes her.
Important elements of her work:
populism in culture, helping the poor benighted peasants.
focus on morality
influence of peasant ethos
2
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Six, Fall
Literature After Shevchenko
Polish Uprising, January 1863
Valuev Circular In the wake of the Polish Insurrection of 1863–4 in Right-Bank Ukraine and in
response to official fear of `separatist' Ukrainophiles, Petr Valuev, minister of internal affairs,
reacted to the application to print P. Morachevsky's Ukrainian translation of the New Testament
by banning it and all other publications in Ukrainian except belles lettres. In his 30 July 1863
secret instruction informing the minister of education of the ban, he gave the motive for his
decision: `No separate Little Russian language has [ever] existed, does exist [now], and can
[ever] exist, and the dialect used by the common folk is the very same Russian language, only
adulterated by the influence on it of the Polish language ... The all-Russian language is just as
understandable for Little Russians as it is for Great Russians, and even more understandable than
the so-called Ukrainian language, presently fabricated for them by certain Little Russians, and in
particular the Poles.' Valuev's instruction was echoed by that of the Holy Synod to its censors
and was followed by a vicious campaign in the Russian press (including Vestnik Iugo-zapadnoi
Rossii, Kievlianin, and Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi akademii) against the Ukrainophile movement
as a Polish intrigue.
Ems Ukase. A secret decree issued on 30 May 1876 by tsar Alexander II in the town of Ems,
Germany, aimed at stopping the printing and distribution of Ukrainian-language publications
within the Russian Empire. The Ems Ukase prohibited the printing in the Ukrainian language of
any original works or translations. Historical documents could be printed in the original
orthography, but belles-lettres could appear only in Russian orthography. It also forbade the
importation from abroad of Ukrainian-language publications, the staging of plays and public
readings in Ukrainian, and the printing of Ukrainian lyrics to musical works. All manuscripts
permissible under the new act were subject to approval by the censors before publication. It dealt
a crushing blow to Ukrainian culture and coincided with the closing down of the *Southwestern
Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society and the newspaper *Kievskii telegraf
(unofficial organ of the Kiev Hromada), and the expulsion of a number of professors from Kiev
University (M. Drahomanov, M. Ziber, and others). As a result of the decree not one Ukrainian
book appeared in print in 1877.
General cultural upswing, characterized by Hromada movement.
The scheme of development in the 19th century is from cultural to political. This too is
characterized by the Hromada movement.
Drahomanov, Mykhailo. 1841–1895
lecturer at Kyiv university. Member of Hromada. Participant in transforming the Southwestern
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
2
Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society into a center of Ukrainian studies. Kicked
out of Kyiv University in 1875. Sent to Western Europe by Hromada, publishes journal Hromada
in Geneva (5 vols, 1878–82). Moves left into socialism, eventually splits with the more
conservative Hromada. 1889 – professorship at Sofia University
Hromadas, Kyiv Odessa and elsewhere
Southwest Branch Imp. Geographical Society
Kyivskaia starina (1882–1906)
Antonovych, Chykalenko, Symyrenko
Young Hromada
Political parties.
Hromada of Kiev. The most active and enduring hromada in Russian-ruled Ukraine (see
*Hromadas). It was not only the chief cultural, and to some extent political, society of Ukrainian
intelligentsia in Kiev but also, through its contacts with similar societies in other cities, the most
important catalyst of the Ukrainian national revival of the second half of the 19th century.
Although accounts vary, it was founded probably in 1859 mostly by students who felt morally
obligated to improve the condition of the people through education. The first period of the
hromada's history (1859–63) was devoted primarily to *Sunday-school teaching. The students
who taught at the Novoe Stroenie School—O. Stoianov, P. Chubynsky, V. Torsky, and the
Syniehub brothers—were among the hromada's founders. At the end of 1860 or the beginning of
1861 a *khlopoman group consisting of V. Antonovych, T. Rylsky, K. Mykhalchuk, B.
Poznansky, F. Panchenko, and others joined the hromada. The society did not have a clearly
defined program or structure. As stated in its public declaration, 'Otzyv iz Kieva' (A Reply from
Kiev, published in Russkii vestnik [1862]) signed by 21 members, the hromada rejected
revolutionary activity and supported education of the peasants, the development of the Ukrainian
language and literature, and separatism. In 1862, at the height of its activity, the hromada's
membership reached 200, and included representatives from various social strata—the peasantry,
Cossack, clergy, civil servants, burghers, and landowners—and from different
nationalities—Jews and Poles as well as Ukrainians. After closing down the Sunday schools in
August 1862, the authorities officially banned the hromada at the beginning of 1863.
Nevertheless for a whole year it continued some of its activities, such as studying ethnography,
customary law, and geography and preparing books for the masses. At the end of 1863 and the
beginning of 1864 its members published a handwritten satirical magazine Pomyinytsia that
contained information about the hromada's membership and activities. When the use of
Ukrainian in print became severely restricted by P. *Valuev's circular, the hromada's level of
activity declined.
The hromada renewed its activity in 1869. Its ranks were strengthened by the influx of new
members, and included such cultural activists as V. Antonovych, P. Zhytetsky, M. Drahomanov,
M. Lysenko, V. Berenshtam, M. Starytsky, F. Vovk, M. Ziber, P. Chubynsky, P. Kosach, V.
Rubinstein, I. Rudchenko, Yu. Tsvitkovsky, and O. Rusov. The hromada met on Saturdays at the
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
3
apartments of its members. It helped young peasants to get a secondary education, and then
encouraged them to work as educators in the villages. Its greatest achievement was to establish
the *Southwestern Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society, which between 1873 and
1876 completed an astonishing amount of research in the geography, ethnography, economy, and
statistics of Ukraine. Most of the hromada's members worked in the branch, among whose nearly
200 associates the most active were V. Antonovych, P. Chubynsky, and M. Drahomanov.
Besides scholarly work, the hromada turned its attention to public affairs. It took over the
newspaper *Kievskii telegraf, which under the editorship of its members Yu. Tsvitkovsky and M.
Drahomanov (1875–6) became the hromada's unofficial organ. In 1876 the secret *Ems Ukase
led to new repressions against the Kiev hromada: the Southwestern Branch and the Kievskii
telegraf were closed down, some hromada members (M. Drahomanov and M. Ziber) were
dismissed from their leading posts at Kiev University, and others (F. Vovk and S. Podolynsky)
were forced to emigrate. Under the close surveillance of the authorities, the hromada reduced its
activities and limited itself to strictly cultural, apolitical goals. As a result it failed to attract
members from the younger generation, which began to form its own hromadas in the second half
of the 1870s. To distinguish it from the new societies, the Hromada of Kiev began to be called
the Old Hromada.
In the 1880s the hromada, led by V. Antonovych, again became more active in the cultural
sphere. Its energies were focused on publishing a journal, *Kievskaia starina (1882–1906),
devoted to Ukrainian studies. This unofficial organ of the Old Hromada was financed by V.
Symyrenko, V. Tarnovsky, and Ye. Chykalenko. At the same time the Old Hromada built a new
monument on T. Shevchenko's grave in Kaniv and republished his Kobzar (The Minstrel, 1884).
To dissociate itself from M. Drahomanov's political ideas and activities in Geneva, the hromada,
which 10 years before had entrusted him with the task of informing Western Europe about
Ukraine and had provided the financial support for his publications, broke off relations with him
in 1886.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries the Old Hromada admitted some
younger members, such as Ye. Chykalenko, O. Cherniakhivsky, I. Steshenko, S. Yefremov, L.
Zhebunov, Ye. Tymchenko, and M. Levytsky, and intensified its activities. It completed the
compilation of a Ukrainian dictionary that had been carried on for many years under V.
Naumenko's direction, and published it under the editorship of B. Hrinchenko in 1907–9. Thanks
to the hromada's initiative the *General Ukrainian Non-Party Democratic Organization was
founded in 1897. Until 1917 it played an active role in organizing *Prosvita societies and some
Ukrainian organizations of a national scope such as the *Society of Ukrainian Progressives.
Hromadas. Clandestine societies of Ukrainian intelligentsia that in the second half of the 19th
century were the principal agents for the growth of Ukrainian national consciousness within the
Russian Empire. They began to appear after the Crimean War, in the late 1850s, as part of the broad
reform movement. Being illegal associations they lacked a definite organizational form, a welldefined structure and program, and a clearly delimited membership. Because of police persecution
and the mobility of their members, most hromadas existed for only a few years. Even in the longerlived ones the level of activity fluctuated considerably. Members differed in political conviction;
what united them was a love for the Ukrainian language and traditions and the desire to serve the
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
4
people. The general aims of the hromadas were to instill through self-education a sense of national
identity in their members and to improve through popular education the living standard of the
peasant masses. Members were encouraged to use Ukrainian and to study Ukrainian history,
folklore, and language. They read T. Shevchenko's works and observed the anniversary of his death.
Each hromada maintained a small library of illegal books and journals from abroad for the use of
its members. The larger hromadas organized drama groups and choirs, and staged Ukrainian plays
and concerts for the public. The hromadas were active in the *Sunday-school movement: they
financed and staffed schools and prepared textbooks. They also printed educational booklets for the
peasants and distributed them in the villages. Avoiding contacts with revolutionary circles, the
hromadas regarded their own activities as strictly cultural and educational. It was only at the turn of
the century that they began to raise political issues and to become involved in political action. With
time a generational difference emerged among the hromadas: societies consisting of young people
(secondary-school and university students) became known as young (molodi) hromadas, and those
with older members became known as old (stari) hromadas.
Since most of the information about the hromadas is derived from personal recollections and police
records, it is spotty and often contradictory. Some hromadas have left no trace behind. The first
hromada, established in St Petersburg, was already active by the fall of 1858. It consisted of some
former members of the *Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, M. Kostomarov, P. Kulish, T.
Shevchenko, and V. Bilozersky, V. Kokhovsky, O. Kistiakovsky, D. Kamenetsky, M. Storozhenko,
M., F. and O. Lazarevsky, H. Chestakhivsky, V. Menchyts, and Ya. Kukharenko. With financial
support from the landowners V. Tarnovsky and H. Galagan, works of Ukrainian writers began to be
published and the journal *Osnova appeared. St Petersburg became the center of the Ukrainian
national movement at the time. Another hromada outside Ukraine sprang up at the University of
Moscow in 1858–9. It maintained close ties with former members of the Cyril and Methodius
Brotherhood. By the mid-1860s its membership, which included P. Kapnist and M. Rohovych,
reached 60. It was uncovered by the police in 1866.
In Ukraine the most important hromada, the *Hromada of Kiev, was organized in 1859 by students
who were active in the Sunday-school movement. It maintained close contact with the St Petersburg
hromada. In Kharkiv a student circle that collected ethnographic material formed around O. Potebnia
at the end of the 1850s, but the first hromada arose probably in 1861–2. In Poltava a hromada arose
in 1858. Among its members were D. Pylchykiv, O. Konysky, M. Zhuchenko, Ye. Myloradovych,
and V. Kulyk. Another hromada sprang up in Chernihiv probably at the end of 1858. Its most active
members were O. Tyshchynsky, O. Markovych, L. Hlibov, and S. Nis, and its most important
contribution to the development of national consciousness was the publication of *Chernigovskii
listok. The Polish Insurrection of 1863–4 led to a strong anti-Ukrainian campaign in the Russian
press and to repressive measures by the government. P. *Valuev's secret circular prohibited the
publication of Ukrainian books for the peasants. Ukrainian Sunday schools were closed down, and
leading hromada activists such as P. Chubynsky, O. Konysky, and S. Nis were subjected to
administrative banishment. These measures disrupted the activities of the hromadas for a number
of years.
At the beginning of the 1870s the Hromada of Kiev with about 70 members resumed its leading role
in the Ukrainian cultural revival. Its activities were disrupted again by the authorities in 1875–6. By
this time a strong hromada had emerged in Odessa. Among its founding members were L.
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
5
Smolensky, M. Klymovych, M. Kovalevsky, V. Malovany, and O. Andriievsky. Most of its
members shared M. *Drahomanov's ideas, and some of them (Ye. Borysov, Ya. Shulhyn, D.
Ovsianyko-Kulykovsky) even contributed articles to his journal *Hromada. The society aided
Drahomanov and other Ukrainian activists financially, supported Ukrainian publications in Galicia,
financially helped talented individuals to gain an education, and distributed illegal literature. By the
time it was crippled with a wave of arrests in 1879, the hromada in Odessa had over 100 members.
Besides the Hromada of Kiev this was the only hromada that lasted for several generations.
In the 1880s those members of the Odessa hromada who had avoided exile turned to purely cultural
activities. They supported the development of Ukrainian theater in southern Ukraine, published
collections of the best current works by Ukrainian writers, helped M. Komarov compile Slovar'
rosiis'ko-ukraïns'kyi (The Russian-Ukrainian Dictionary, 4 vols, 1893–8), and made an unsuccessful
attempt to publish a journal. Thanks to a more tolerant governor in the Kherson gubernia, the Odessa
hromada was more active at the time than the Hromada of Kiev. In the 1890s a student hromada
emerged in Odessa but it did not survive long. The old hromada, under pressure from younger
members, gradually became involved in some political activity. In Kiev several student hromadas
sprang up in the 1880s: a study circle inspired by Drahomanov's ideas was organized by O.
Dobrohraieva at the Higher Courses for Women; a political group guided by M. Kovalevsky
advocated a constitutional federation and spread propaganda among students; and several smaller
circles were formed at particular schools. In the 1890s L. Skachkovsky organized a hromada of
theology students, which consisted of about 30 members including O. Lototsky and P. Sikorsky. In
1895 a student hromada, which included H. Lazarevsky, D. Antonovych, V. Domanytsky, and P.
Kholodny, arose at Kiev University. A number of other higher schools in Kiev had their own secret
hromadas. There was little contact between the old hromada, which shied away from political
involvement, and the young hromadas.
In Kharkiv there was a loosely organized, informal old hromada consisting of such scholars and
writers as O. Potebnia, D. Pylchykov, V. Aleksandrov, P. Yefymenko, and his wife O. Yefymenko.
A student hromada headed by O. Korchak-Chepurkivsky and including members such as M.
Levytsky and Ye. Chykalenko took shape in 1882. Two years later a political hromada that embraced
the principles of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood and of M. Drahomanov was organized by V.
Malovany, M. Levytsky, I. Telychenko, and N. Sokolov. Another politically oriented student
hromada was founded in 1897 by D. Antonovych, Yu. Kollard, M. Rusov, B. Martos, O. Kovalenko,
B. Kaminsky, L. Matsiievych, and others. By 1899 it had over 100 members, and in 1904 it merged
with the illegal *Revolutionary Ukrainian party (rup), which previously had been founded by the
hromada. In Chernihiv a hromada with members such as I. Shrah, M. Kotsiubynsky, I. Konoval, and
B. Hrinchenko was active at the end of the 1890s, and in Poltava a hromada was headed by M.
Dmytriiev.
Outside of Ukraine a large and active student hromada existed in the 1880s in St Petersburg, whose
higher schools attracted many students from Ukraine. Hromada members smuggled illegal literature
into Russia, studied Drahomanov's works, organized a choir, and celebrated Shevchenko's
anniversary each year. In 1886 some of its members composed a political program and formed the
Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries. Towards the end of the 1890s an old hromada was formed in St
Petersburg by Ye. Chykalenko, V. Leontovych, O. Borodai, P. Stebnytsky, and others.
At the beginning of the 20th century as students became more nationally conscious and politically
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
6
engaged, hromadas proliferated in gymnasiums, higher schools, and universities. The Revolution
of 1905 drew attention to political issues and loosened restrictions on political activity. The student
hromada in Kiev had evolved into a branch of the rup by 1904 and in 1905 was decimated by arrests.
It reorganized itself in the following year and fell under the influence of the Ukrainian Social
Democratic party. In 1906 new hromadas arose at Kiev University, the Higher Courses for Women,
and the Kiev Polytechnic. In order to gain official recognition these societies avoided political
action. The student hromada of Kharkiv (est 1907), with a membership of about 150, was a legal,
chartered society. In Odessa there was a short-lived (1903–6), illegal student hromada. Outside of
Ukraine the St Petersburg student hromada in 1903 united over 300 Ukrainian students belonging
to various school hromadas into one organization. Almost all members (about 60) of this hromada,
which was headed by V. Pavlenko, H. Bokii, and then D. Doroshenko, were members of rup. A
small student hromada in Dorpat (Tartu) (est 1898) was headed by F. Matushevsky. In Moscow the
Ukrainian student hromada (est 1898) staged concerts and plays and avoided political activities. A
small student hromada was organized in Warsaw by V. Lashchenko in 1901.
At the end of the 19th century efforts were made to co-ordinate the activities of the widely dispersed
old and young hromadas. At the initiative of V. Antonovych and O. Konysky, a conference of
members of various hromadas was held in Kiev in 1897, and the *General Ukrainian Non-Party
Democratic Organization was established. In August 1898 the first Ukrainian student conference was
held in Kiev and was attended by representatives of young hromadas. A year later the second
conference was held. The purpose of the third conference, held in Poltava in June 1901, was to draw
the student hromadas into revolutionary activity under the leadership of rup. A fourth student
conference was called in St Petersburg in 1904.
As reaction set in and restrictions on political activity were tightened, hromada members continued
to be active in various cultural societies, Prosvitas, and other organizations until the Revolution of
1917. The traditional name hromada was later used by Ukrainian émigrés, particularly students, for
their organizations.
Drahomanov, Mykhailo,
b 6 September 1841 in Hadiache, Poltava gubernia, d 20 July 1895
in Sofia, Bulgaria. Scholar, civic leader, publicist, political thinker. Born into a gentry family of
Cossack origin, Drahomanov studied at Kiev University, where in 1864 he became privat docent,
and in 1873, docent, lecturing on ancient history. While pursuing an academic career, Drahomanov
rose to a position of leadership in the Ukrainian secret society the Kiev Hromada (later known as the
Old Hromada) and took part in its various activities, such as the transformation of the Southwestern
Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society into a center of Ukrainian studies and the editing
of the daily Kievskii telegraf. During his trips abroad Drahomanov established contacts with Galician
Ukrainians; under his influence the Russophile student circle in Lviv associated with the journal
*Druh adopted a Ukrainian democratic platform in 1875–6. Among the Russian educated public
Drahomanov attracted attention with his articles (in Vestnik Evropy and elsewhere), in which he
critically discussed Russia's internal and foreign policies.
Drahomanov became an early victim of anti-Ukrainian repressive measures by the Russian
government and was dismissed in 1875 from the university. Entrusted by the Hromada with the
mission to become its spokesman in Western Europe, he settled in Geneva in 1876. Aided by A.
Liakhotsky (Kuzma), he published the journal *Hromada (5 vols, 1878–82), the first
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
7
modernUkrainian political journal, and a number of pamphlets, mostly in Russian. With S.
Podolynsky and M. Pavlyk, who for some time joined him in Switzerland, Drahomanov formed the
Geneva Circle, an embryo of Ukrainian socialism. He strove to alert European opinion to the plight
of the Ukrainian people under tsarism by pamphlets (La littérature oukrainienne proscrite par le
gouvernement russe, 1878) and articles in the French, Italian, and Swiss press. Drahomanov also
played a prominent role in the Russian émigré community; he edited Vol'noe slovo, the organ of the
zemstvo liberals. His contacts extended to Polish, Jewish, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Rumanian radicals
and groups.
In 1886 a rift occurred between Drahomanov and the Kiev Hromada; the latter felt that political
activity abroad might provoke increased anti-Ukrainian repression. The socialist stance adopted by
Drahomanov in exile was often at variance with the moderate views of the Hromada members.
Drahomanov also antagonized Russian émigré factions by his constitutionalism and sharp criticism
of the Russian revolutionaries' dictatorial proclivities and covert chauvinism. In Galicia, too,
Drahomanov's followers (I. Franko, M. Pavlyk, O. Terletsky) suffered persecution from the AustroPolish administration and ostracism from the local clerical-conservative Ukrainian society. By the
mid-1880s Drahomanov found himself in isolation and deprived of Hromada's financial support.
In 1889 Drahomanov accepted a professorship at Sofia University. During his last years he saw the
rise of the Ruthenian-*Ukrainian Radical party, founded in 1890 by his Galician followers.
Drahomanov was their mentor through his intensive correspondence and programmatic articles in
the party's organ, *Narod. He also contributed to the London monthly Free Russia, edited by S.
Kravchinsky (Stepniak). Soon after his move to Bulgaria, Drahomanov developed a heart ailment.
He died and was buried in Sofia.
Drahomanov began his scholarly work as an ancient historian and wrote Vopros ob istoricheskom
znachenii Rimskoi imperii i Tatsit (The Problem of the Historical Significance of the Roman Empire
and Tacitus, 1869). Later he worked in Slavic, especially Ukrainian, ethnography and folklore, using
the historical-comparative method. Drahomanov applied oral literature to his study of the history of
social ideas in Ukraine. His principal works are Istoricheskie pesni malorusskogo naroda (Historical
Songs of the Little Russian People, with V. Antonovych, 2 vols, 1874–5); Malorusskie narodnye
predaniia i rasskazy (Little Russian Folk Legends and Tales, 1876); Novi ukraïns'ki pisni pro
hromads'ki spravy (Recent Ukrainian Songs on Social Topics, 1881); and Politychni pisni
ukraïns'koho narodu 18–19 st. (Political Songs of the Ukrainian People in the 18th and 19th
Centuries, 2 vols, 1883–5). Drahomanov's articles appeared in foreign journals (Mélusine and
others). Notes on the Slavic Religio-Ethical Legends: The Dualistic Creation of the World
(Bloomington, Ind 1961) is an English translation of one of his works that was originally published
in Bulgarian.
Drahomanov was an outstanding Ukrainian political thinker. He dealt extensively with
constitutional, ethnic, international, cultural, and educational issues; he also engaged in literary
criticism. Drahomanov's ideas represent a blend of liberal-democratic, socialist, and Ukrainian
patriotic elements, with a positivist philosophical background. Influenced by P.-J. Proudhon,
Drahomanov envisaged the final goal of humanity's progress as a future condition of anarchy: a
voluntary association of free and equal individuals, with the elimination of authoritarian features in
social life. He assumed that this ideal could be achieved through federalism and the self-government
of communities and regions. Drahomanov insisted on the priority of civil rights and free political
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
8
institutions over economic class interests and of universal human values over exclusive national
concerns. However, he believed that nationality was a necessary building stone of all mankind, and
he coined the slogan `Cosmopolitanism in the ideas and the ends, nationality in the ground and the
forms.'
Drahomanov declared himself a socialist, without subscribing to any school of contemporary
socialist thought. The motivation for his socialism was ethical: concern for social justice and the
underprivileged and exploited. He advanced a program of concrete socioeconomic reforms (eg,
protective labor legislation, progressive income tax). Drahomanov was convinced that in agrarian
Ukraine socialism must be oriented towards the peasantry. Therefore, he may be classified as a
populist in the broad sense of the term, although he objected to some features of Russian populism
(eg, the glorification of peasant revolts and disregard for Western-type liberal institutions).
Drahomanov rejected Marxism, especially the materialist interpretation of history.
Drahomanov continued the democratic-federalist tradition as represented by the Ukrainian
*Decembrist movement of the 1820s (the *Society of United Slavs, of which an uncle, Ya.
Drahomanov, had been a member), and the *Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. He wished to link
the Ukrainian movement with progressive trends in the contemporary Western world. Drahomanov
regretted that the Ukrainian people had not preserved an independent state in the past. However, he
thought that a policy of separatism was unrealistic, and his philosophical anarchism did not allow
him to envisage national statehood as an objective. He admonished his compatriots to concentrate
on the democratization and federalization of the existing states of Russia and Austria-Hungary,
which he thought would provide sufficient scope for the free development of the Ukrainian nation.
He postulated collaboration with all peoples of Eastern Europe, including Russians. Yet,
Drahomanov insisted on the organizational independence of the Ukrainian movement. He combated
both the concept of `non-political cultural work' (Kiev Hromada's preference in the 1880s) and the
Ukrainians' participation in Russian revolutionary organizations, which alienated them from their
own people.
Drahomanov's vision embraced all ethnic Ukrainian lands. He was the first national leader to visit
Transcarpathia, and he developed a lasting commitment to `the wounded brother.' Drahomanov
envisaged a systematic co-operation among various Ukrainian lands, cutting across state boundaries.
He proposed that until the overthrow of Russian autocracy the center of the national movement
should be located in Galicia, where the constitutional regime offered some opportunities. It was
imperative for Galician Ukrainians, however, to rid themselves of their provincial and clerical
outlook. Drahomanov pleaded for secularization of Ukrainian civic and cultural life, and church-state
separation. Considering Protestantism more amenable to progress than either Orthodoxy or
Catholicism, Drahomanov showed interest in the emergence of evangelical sects in Ukraine. He
wrote a series of tracts to encourage religious non-conformity and anticlericalism. Drahomanov
consistently opposed expressions of a xenophobic Ukrainian nationalism and defended the
usefulness of progressive Russian literature for Ukrainians. He maintained that national liberation
was inseparable from social emancipation. He called on the intelligentsia to work for the uplifting
of the masses through education, economic improvement, political participation, and the building
of popular associations.
Viewing the Ukrainian problem in a broad context, Drahomanov devoted attention to Ukraine's
neighbors. Concerning Russia, he advocated a common front of moderate liberals and revolutionary
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
9
socialists against autocracy, but condemned terrorist methods. Drahomanov drafted a proposal for
a constitutional reorganization of Russia (Vol'nyi soiuz/Vil'na spilka [A Free Union], 1884) with rule
of law, guarantees of civil rights, regional and local self-government, and equality of nationalities.
(M. Weber praised Drahomanov's constitutional plan for its treatment of the nationality problem.)
Drahomanov endorsed the right of minorities in Ukraine, particularly the Jews, to a corporate
national-cultural autonomy. He welcomed the liberation of the southern Slavs from the Turks but
cautioned against tsarist imperialism in the Balkans. He criticized equally the Russian oppression
of Poland and Polish claims to lands where the majority of the population was ethnically non-Polish.
He saw threats to Eastern Europe in Prusso-German militarism, in the inflated territorial aspirations
of the Polish `historical' patriots, and in the `Jacobinism' of Russian revolutionary groups.
Drahomanov's principal political works are `Perednie slovo do "Hromady"' (Introduction to
Hromada, 1878), `Propashchyi chas—ukraïntsi pid Moskovs'kym tsarstvom, 1654–1876' (The Lost
Epoch: Ukrainians under the Muscovite Tsardom, 1654–1876, written in about 1878, publ 1909),
`Shevchenko, ukraïnofily i sotsiializm' (Shevchenko, the Ukrainophiles, and Socialism, 1879),
Istoricheskaia Pol'sha i velikorusskaia demokratiia (Historical Poland and Great Russian
Democracy, 1881–2), Vol'nyi soiuz/ Vil'na spilka (A Free Union, 1884), Liberalizm i zemstvo v
Rossii (Liberalism and Zemstvo in Russia, 1889), Chudats'ki dumky pro ukraïns'ku natsional'nu
spravu (Eccentric Thoughts on the Ukrainian National Problem, 1891), Lysty na Naddniprians'ku
Ukraïnu(Letters to Dnieper Ukraine, 1893). Drahomanov's contributions to the study of Russian
social thought include his editions, with introductory essays, of Pis'ma K.D. Kavelina i I.S.
Turgeneva k A.I. Gertsenu (Letters of K.D. Kavelin and I.S. Turgenev to A.I. Herzen, 1892) and
Pis'ma M.A. Bakunina k A.I. Gertsenu i N.P. Ogarevu (Letters of M.A. Bakunin to A.I. Herzen and
N.P. Ogarev, 1896).
A notable part of Drahomanov's works are his memoiristic and epistolary writings:
Àvtobiograficheskaia zametka' (Autobiographical Note, 1883) with a `Dobavlenie' (Supplement,
1889) and Avstrorus'ki spomyny, 1867–1877 (Austro-Ruthenian Reminiscences, 1867–1877,
1889–92). He corresponded with M. Pavlyk (7 vols), I. Franko (2 vols), and M. Buchynsky,
Volodymyr Navrotsky, T. Okunevsky, and N. Kobrynska (1 vol each), among others. Of particular
historical importance is Arkhiv M. Drahomanova: Lystuvannia Kyïvs'koï Staroï Hromady z M.
Drahomanovym 1870–1895 (The Archives of M. Drahomanov: Correspondence of the Kiev Old
Hromada with M. Drahomanov in 1870–1895, 1937).
There exists no complete edition of Drahomanov's works. His folkloristic papers have been collected
in Rozvidky Mykhaila Drahomanova pro ukraïns'ku narodniu slovesnist' i pys'menstvo (Studies of
Mykhailo Drahomanov on Ukrainian Folk Poetry and Literature, 4 vols, 1899–1907). The following
are partial editions of his political writings: Sobranie politicheskikh sochinenii M.P. Dragomanova
(Collected Political Works of M.P. Drahomanov, ed B. Kistiakovsky, 2 vols, 1905–6; Russianlanguage writings of the emigration period); Politicheskie sochineniia (Political Works, ed I. Grevs
and B. Kistiakovsky, 1908; pre-exile Russian-language writings); Vybrani tvory (Selected Works,
ed B. Bohatsky, 1937); and Literaturno-publitsystychni pratsi (Literary and Publicist Works, 2 vols,
1970). The only edition in a Western language is Mykhaylo Drahomanov: A Symposium and Selected
Writings, edited by I.L. Rudnytsky (1952).
Drahomanov's impact was strongest in Galicia, where it extended not only to the Radicals, but also
to segments of the National Populists (narodovtsi; see *Populism, Galician). In Russian-ruled
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
10
Ukraine his influence was checked by the conflict with the Old Hromada. However, some activists
continued to support him: M. Kovalevsky, Ia. Shulhyn, V. Malovany, Ye. Chykalenko, and B.
Kistiakovsky. Scattered `Drahomanovian circles' also existed. Drahomanov's ideological legacy is
partially reflected in the basic political orientation of the Central Rada in 1917 (the concept of an
autonomous Ukraine within a federated Russian republic) and in the Rada's specific policy measures,
such as the Congress of Peoples of Russia in Kiev and the national-cultural autonomy of minorities.
Of the political parties of 1917–21, the one closest to the Drahomanov tradition was the Ukrainian
Party of Socialists-Federalists; certain prominent Socialist Revolutionaries (M. Shapoval, N.
Hryhoriiv) `rediscovered' Drahomanov only in exile. During the interwar era reaction against him
took place among Ukrainians outside the ussr—a symptom of the general `turn to the right' in
Ukrainian politics. Representative publicists of the integral nationalist movement (D. Dontsov, M.
Mukhyn) attacked Drahomanov, charging him with the moral responsibility for the failure of the
Ukrainian struggle for independence. In Soviet Ukraine some objective scholarly research on
Drahomanov was undertaken in the 1920s (D. Zaslavsky and others). With the advent of Stalinism
Drahomanov was condemned as a `petit bourgeois liberal' and Ùkrainian nationalist.' After a lapse
of more than 30 years, a new interest in Drahomanov surfaced among Soviet Ukrainian intellectuals
in the post-Stalin period, culminating in the 1970 edition of his selected works. The authors who
wrote on Drahomanov during the comparatively liberal 1960s (R. Ivanova, I. Romanchenko, V.
Sokurenko, and others) took care to play down the features of his thought that were incompatible
with Soviet ideological orthodoxy. Despite this, the revival of Drahomanov studies was censured
in the early 1970s (Komunist Ukraïny, 1972, no. 11). In the countries of the socialist bloc research
on Drahomanov has been carried on by P. Atanasov (Bulgaria) and E. Hornowa (Poland).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pavlyk, M. Mykhailo Petrovych Drahomanov 1841–1895. Ieho iubylei, smert', avtobiohrafiia i spys
tvoriv (Lviv 1896)
Franko, I. `Suspil'no-politychni pohliady M. Drahomanova,' Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk, August
1906
B. Kistiakovs'kyi's introductory essays to the Paris (1905–6) and Moscow (1908) editions of
Drahomanov's works.
Hrushevs'kyi, M. Z pochyniv ukraïns'koho sotsiialistychnoho rukhu: Mykh. Drahomanov i
zhenevs'kyi sotsiialistychnyi hurtok (Vienna 1922)
Zaslavskii, D. M.P. Dragomanov: Kritiko-biograficheskii ocherk (Kiev 1924)
Ukraïna, 1926, no. 2–3 [issue dedicated to Drahomanov]
Vozniak, M. `Do istoriï misiï Drahomanova,' Ukraïna, 1929, nos 1–2
Zaslavskii, D. M.P. Dragomanov: K istorii ukrainskogo natsionalizma (Moscow 1934)
Mytziuk, O. `Die politischen und sozialüokonomischen Anschauungen Drahomanivs,' Jahrbüucher
füur Kultur und Geschichte der Slaven, new series, 11 (1935)
Doroshenko, D. `M. Drahomanov and the Ukrainian National Movement,' Slavonic Review, April
1938
Rudnytsky, I.L. `Drahomanov as a Political Theorist,' in Mykhaylo Drahomanov: A Symposium and
Selected Writings. aua, 2, no. 1 (New York 1952)
Zaslavs'kyi, D.; Romanchenko, I. Mykhailo Drahomanov: Zhyttia i literaturno-doslidnyts'ka
diial'nist' (Kiev 1964)
SLA 218 – 126
After Shevchenko
11
Atanasov, P. `Rol' M.P. Drahomanova u zmitsnenni ukraïns'ko-bolhars'kykh zv'iazkiv,' UIZh, 1965,
no. 9
Pyziur, Ie. `Konstytutsiina prohrama i teoriia M. Drahomanova,' Lysty do pryiateliv (Philadelphia),
1966, nos 8–10
Sokurenko, V. Demokraticheskie ucheniia o gosudarstve i prave na Ukraine vo vtoroi polovine xix
veka (M. Dragomanov, S. Podolinskii, O. Terletskii) (Lviv 1966)
Hornowa, E. Ocena dzialalnoésci Michala Dragomanowa w historiografii ukraiénskiej, rosyjskiej
i polskiej (Opole 1967)
Rudnytsky, I.L. `Mykhailo Drahomanov and the Problem of Ukrainian-Jewish Relations,' Canadian
Slavonic Papers, 1969, no. 2
Ivanova, R. Mykhailo Drahomanov u suspil'no-politychnomu rusi Rosiï ta Ukraïny (Kiev 1971)
Odarchenko, P. `Naukova diial'nist' Mykhaila Drahomanova,' Suchasnist', 1972, no. 7–8
Hornowa, E. Problemy polskie w twéorczoésci Michala Drahomanowa (Wroclaw 1978)
I.L. Rudnytsky
Slavic 218
Lecture Two, Spring
Ivan Neuj-Levyc’kyj, Mykola Džerja
Ivan Levyc’kyj, 1838-1918, pseudonym Neuj
born in Stebliv, near Kaniv, on the banks of the Ros’ river
father a priest, a relatively enlightened man, interested in Ukrainian history and literature,
education for peasants
apparently cold to his children but a cultured home life
1845- Levyc’kyj at Bohuslav monastery school, stifling atmosphere
1858- Levyc’kyj at Kyiv seminary—father is a priest, preparing son for a clerical career--but
Levyc’kyj studies modern languages and literatures
1861-1865 Levyc’kyj at Kyiv religious academy, finishes, decides against clerical career and
becomes a teacher
starts writing in mid 1860s
Bounces around among various teaching jobs until
1873, he gets an appointment at a high school in Kishinev.
He teaches Russian, OCS, Logic. He stays for 12 years then
1885 he retires, returns to Ukraine, to Kyiv, where he lives quietly and writes until he dies in
1918
peculiar, crotchety old man
after retirement, he took a walk every day at the same time, like Kant, you could set your clock
by him
went to bed early every night, even left a testimonial dinner in his honor right in the middle of
the speeches.
very old fashioned man, very conservative views, quarrelsome with publishers over orthography
Realism is both a style in fiction and a period in literary history, particularly in prose.
Realism usually associated with writers like Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, and especially Flaubert.
Qualities most critics would agree are part of realism
1. material world affecting the individual
2. psychology of the individual
3. lower social classes
descriptiveness, (pretence of) objectivity
Levyc’kyj's realism
1. Broad range of subjects
he is a prolific writer, by far THE prose writer in Ukrainian literature in the 19th century
novels on various subjects:
clerics: Starosvits’ki batjušky i matjušky (Old World Priests and Their Wives)
intelligentsia, Kyiv: Xmary (Clouds)
upper classes: Pryepa (The Hanger-On)
pre-reform village, wage labor: Mykola Džerja
post-reform village: Kajdaševa simja, “Baba Paraska i baba Palažka”
SLA 218
Ivan Neuj-Levyc'kyj
Lecture 2, Spring
2. Elements of the characterization of Levyc’kyj's characters are fairly realistic. Motives and
development are well depicted. Satiric depiction of the village old bags in the Baba Paraska
stories is good. Language is very well depicted. Džerja too is a decently made character.
3. Attention to lower classes, the material difficluties of the oppressed
4. social conditions
5. very observant eye
description of Petro Džerja, father, pg. 11. the physical signs of hard work
% N"HJ &&z6T@& FH"D46 )0,Db, &4F@846, H@>846, 2 F4&J&"H4<4 *@&(4<4 &JF"<4, 2
>J0*,>>4< $:z*4< :4P,< H" F<JH>4<4 @R4<". Gb08" BD"Pb *J0, 2"D">z 2z(>J:" 6@(@
FH">. ':4$@8z 2<@DT84 >" V@8"N, >" :@$z, B@<@DV,>" H,<>" B@H4:4Pb @* ("DbR@(@
F@>Pb, (DJ$z DJ84 — &F, P, >z$4 8"2":@, V@ 6@<J &"08@ 04:@Fb >" F&zHz. =" 6@(@
B":\PbN, >"&zH\ >" *@:@>bN, T8JD" H"8 B@<@DV4:"F\ H" B@D,B":"F\, >z$4 B@HDzF8":"F\
>" 0"DJ. =" :z&z6 DJPz &Fz B":\Pz HDJF4:4F\ $,2B,D,FH">J >"&zH\ H@*z, b8 &z> FB"&.
E8z:\84 &z> &40"&, B,D,<@:@H4& H" B,D,&zb& H4<4 DJ8"<4 N:z$" >" B">V4>z 2" F&z6
*@&(46 &z8! (3: 40)
Old Dzheria came inside. He was a lanky man with a pale, worn-out face, a long grayish
mustache and sorrowful eyes. Hard work had bowed his back early in life. Deep furrows running
across his cheeks and forehead, his rough hands and the wrinkled, sunburnt back of his neck
indicated that living in this world had not been easy for him. The skin on his fingers and even on
his palms was so cracked and creased that it looked as if his hands had been burned by fire. The
fingers on his left hand shook incessantly, even while he slept. During his long life he had mowed,
threshed and winnowed much of his master's grain with those hands.
haggling with the priest, 23-24
Petro Dzheria put on a new coat, stuck a bottle of vodka in his bosom, took a loaf under
his arm and went with one of the matchmakers to the priest to arrange the wedding.
The Verbivka priest was still young but had already doubled the fees he charged for his
services.
Petro kissed the priest's hand, placed the bread-and vodka on the table and asked how much he would
have to pay for the wedding.
"For five rubles I'll marry your son," the priest said.
"Father! Have mercy! I'm a poor man. W here on earth could I get five rubles? Let it be three."
"It can't be, because these are hard times for me too. All the prices have gone up," the priest explained.
"Have pity, Father! As God is my witness, I can't pay so much. At least let's meet halfway: let it be
four."
"Then it's no use talking. Take your vodka and go home."
Dzheria took his vodka and bread and went out. He stood in the passage for a while
whispering to the matchmaker and then went back in.
"So what will you say now, Petro?" the priest spoke from another room.
"Have pity and mercy! I need money for the wedding party and for the taxes. By God, it's
too much for me! Let it please be four rubles. That would be the Lord's way."
The priest thought about it and agreed.
"Give me that vodka," he said, "and the money, too. "
Dzheria lifted the skirt of his coat, pushed his hand into his pocket, got out a white
handkerchief with red edges, untied it and put some coins on the table. Then he poured a glass of
vodka and offered it to the priest. The priest drank it, then poured two more glasses for Dzheria
and the matchmaker. They drank them after lengthy toasts, said good bye and went home.
the sugar mill and the Jewish leaseholder, 69-72
SLA 218
Ivan Neuj-Levyc'kyj
Lecture 2, Spring
As they approached the mill, the men stopped to ask whom they should see to get hired.
W orkers pointed to the house of the leaseholder who ran all these plants.
The leaseholder was a Jew named Abram Moiseievych Brodovsky. The plants belonged
to a very rich nobleman who lived abroad and visited his holdings only rarely. The Jew's way of
running things was much in evidence, and signs of it could be observed everywhere. Some fences
lay on the around, the square was covered with pools of stale water, the houses were peeling,
panes were missing in windows and whole herds of goats wandered around orchards
skinning fruit trees.
While the Verbivka peasants stood talking with the workmen, the leaseholder
appeared in person. He was a fat, heavily built Jew with a ruddy beard, gray eyes and
wearing a black velvet vest. A heavy gold chain with a seal and some trinkets dangled
across his belly, and massive gold rings with shiny precious stones glittered on his
stubby fingers. His collar, shirt and black necktie were so soiled that they glistened in the
sun. A long black coat and a cherry-coloured cap pushed to the back of his head gave
him a very characteristic appearance. Despite his expensive clothing and all that gold, he
had an unmistakable smell which the tramps recognized at once, the way dogs recognize
the smell of a wolf's skin.
description of village and willows, name of village, 3
Near the town of Vasylkiv, the small Rastavytsia river quietly flowed across a wide valley
between two rows of gently sloping hills. Clumps of lush, tall willows dotted the valley where the
village of Verbivka lay engulfed in their greenery. A high, white-walled, three-domed church was
clearly visible in the sun, and beside it a small bell tower seemed entangled in the green branches of
old pear trees. Here and there, whitewashed cottages and black roofs of big barns peeped out from
among the willows and orchards.
Communal vegetable fields and meadows stretched across the village on either side of the river.
There were no fences; plots were separated only by boundaries or rows of willows. A footpath wound
its way through Verbivka along the grassy riverbank. Looking around from that path, one could only
see a green, green sea of willows, orchards, hemps, sunflowers, corn and thick-growing sedge.
S’ohoasne literaturne prjamuvannja 1878-1884
Ukrajina na literaturnyx pozvyšax z moskovšynoju 18911
Program for Ukrainian literature in The Current Literary Direction Realistic, National, Populist
Panas Myrnyj, in reality Panas Rudenko, 1849-1920
Do the Oxen Low When the Mangers are Full
1.Neuj-Levyc'kyj, Ivan. "S'ohoasne literaturne prjamuvannja." Pravda. Part 1, 1878, no. 2, pp.
1-41, Part 2, 1884, Dodatok, pp. 195-231.
Neuj-Levyc'kyj, Ivan (under the pseudonym I. Baštovyj). Ukrajinstvo na literaturnyx pozvax z
Moskovšynoju. Lviv: Dilo, 1891.
Slavic 218
Lecture One, Spring
Ethnographic Theater, Drama
On the blackboard:
Marko Kropyvnyc'kyj, Ivan Karpenko-Karyj (Tobilevy), Myxajlo Staryc'kyj,
Tobilevych family: Mykola Sadovskyi, Panas Saksahans'kyi, sister—M. Sadovska-Barliotti, and
Karpenko-Karyi’s wife—Sofiia, both actresses, Sofiia wrote memoirs
Before 1870 there is very little dramatic literature in Ukrainian:
Kotljarevs'kyj, Natalka Poltavka, Moskal' arivnyk 1819
Gogol's father, very amateur stuff
Kvitka Osnovjanenko, Svatannja na Honarivci
Ševenko, Nazar Stodolja
not really very much more than this
1860s amateur theater, e.g. the Markovyi (Marko Vovok)
1870s some development but the Ems ukaze in 1876 ends it, the ukaze specifically bans staging
plays in Ukrainian, of course, you can't publish them either
1880 some relaxation. Ukrainian play can be staged if permitted by local governor BUT a
prohibition is made against forming Ukrainian theater companies. These rules are later
modified--a Ukrainian play may be staged if a Russian play of equal length is staged on
the same night in the same place. This led to evenings where the company played two
plays, first a Russian one to an empty house and then the Ukrainian one that they really
wanted to stage.
1881 Russian theater company of G. Aškarenko in Ukraine, which has among its members
Marko Kropyvnyc'kyj and Mykola Sadovs'kyj (stage name, real name is Tobilevy), asks
for permission to stage Ukrainian plays in order to improve its finances. Permission is
granted.
Successful productions in Kremenuk, Xarkiv, eventually in Kiev. Reflection of a demand for
Ukrainian theater, recall that the serfs are now free and some have migrated to urban areas.
1882 Kropyvnyc'kyj forms an exclusively Ukrainian theater company in Jelysavethrad (now
called Kirovohrad). It includes Zan'kovec'ka, and Sadovs'kyj. later Karpenko-Karyj and
P. Saksahans'kyj also join (bringing all three Tobilevy brothers together.
1883 Governor General in Kiev bans Ukrainian theater companies from the gubernias under his
jurisdiction, i.e. Kiev, Poltava, ernihiv, Volyn', and Podillja. This lasts 10 years.
Success on the periphery
Throughout the 70s and 80s and up to the 90s in all provinces only certain kinds of plays were
permitted. Specifically prohibited were 3 kinds of plays:
Translations
Plays on historical subjects, particularly Ukrainian history
Plays in which a Ukrainian intelligentsia was depicted
This leaves.........THE VILLAGE
Later in 90s and in private and amateur productions other subjects did appear prohibitions are
only on public theater.
The plays of Kotliarevsky, Kvitka-Osnovjanenko and drama generally in the beginning of the
SLA 218
Drama
Spring, Lecture 1
19th century were not usually what we would think of as high drama, they were operettas, full of
vaudevillean devices, setimentalism and melodrama. The ethnographic theater of the 70s and 80s
is still very much in the same style, although more realistic.
Three playwrights of this period:
Marko Luky Kropyvnyc'kyj, 1840-1910
born in Bobrynec' in the Xerson area
father manager of a landlord's estate. mother left when he was 5; father and step-mother take up
alcohol
although a free man, he is poor and close to serfs
local elementary school, goes to Kiev where he audits courses at the University, returns and
serves in local, Bobrynec' court chancery (civil service)
1871 he becomes actor in Odessa, later joining provincial touring theater companies
1882 forms a Ukrainian theater company. later gives up being its director but stays an actor till
he dies
Kropyvnyc'kyj, like anyone else in the theater at this time, feels the need for new and more
plays--so he writes:
Daj sercevi volju, zavede v nevolju (Give the Heart Freedom and It Will Lead You Into
Captivity)
Thsi is a story like Kotliarevs'kyj's Natalka Poltavka
Young lovers: Semen and Odarka, Ivan is Semen's good buddy, Mykyta is the evil nemesis who
is going to marry Odarka. Play ends with Mykyta's repentance and death.
There is a social element here but its mostly hardy lads and pretty lasses in the Oh so colorful
Ukrainian village
Kropyvnyc'kyj also stages some of Ševenko's poems, e.g. Nevol'nyk
Hlytaj, abo pavuk (The Profiteer, or the Spider) _______ or __________ as favorite title model
of the time.
play about rich exploiting poor peasants in post-reform village. Plot line is a love story. Rich
man wants poor man's wife, lies cheats, blackmails her into becoming his lover. When honest
poor schmuck returns from out of town (village) he kills rich guy.
Myxajlo Petrovy Staryc'kyj, 1840-1904
born near Poltava, small landowning family.
orphaned at 12. taken in by mother's cousin:
Vitalij Lysenko, father of Mykola, the composer. This puts him in a very cultured home and
2
SLA 218
Drama
Spring, Lecture 1
establishes good contacts, especially Mykola Lysenko, for life
elementary education at home
Poltava high school
Xarkiv University--faculty of Mathematics; then Kiev University--Math then Law. but interest in
literature
spends most of his life in Kiev in various cultural projects, especially theater.
stages Gogol Soroinsky fair, Taras Bulba
Ševenko Utoplena
reworks other plays, e.g. Neuj's Na kožumjakax becomes Za dvoma zajcjamy also does this for
Kostomarov, Myrnyj etc
ethnographic original plays: Pans'ke boloto, Ne tak stalosja, jak hadalosja
later in 1890s, he writes historical dramas, probably his best works: Marusja Bohuslavka,
Bohdan Xmel'nyc'kyj.
Ivan Karpenko-Karyj (Ivan Karpovy Tobilevy), 1845-1907
the best and most important of the playwrights
father manager of estate, mother had been a serf
elementary school only
clerk in government office, but involved in secret organization, arrested but let off easy
interest in theater, actor in Staryc'kyj's theater company
spent whole life in theater with his brothers, Saksahans'kyj and Sadovs'kyj, until he died of
cancer
his plays have wider range of subjects, better psychology, generally more sophisticated (partially
because he wrote more in 1890s
Martyn Borulja
one of the better peasants in a village has great ambitions, wants to be an aristocrat
gets son a job in the county court, finds his daughter a fiancée she doesn't like or want, he thinks
that aristocrats lounge around in bed late into every morning and contemplates doing so himself
submits petition for gentry status but gets turned down because in the old document he submits
as evidence his surname is spelled differently (Borylja instead of Borulja)
this happened in fact to Tobilevy's father
son gets kicked out of job, daughter's fiancée turns out to be no better than they are, he runs away
from the engagement
Other plays:
Najmyka
Beztalanna
Rozumnyj i duren'
largely social conditions, social satire
3
Slavic 218
Lecture Four, Spring
Drahomanov & Antonovy
The Turn of the Century
blackboard: Xlopomany, Hromada, Volodymyr Antonovy, Myxajlo Drahomanov
Late 50s and early 60s, a movement called Xlopomany (peasant lovers). A group of Polish
gentry, young men, took up the cause of the Ukrainian peasants and the idea of the Right Bank as
Ukraine, not Poland.
Central figure in this group--Volodymyr Antonovy
1863 Polish uprising. The Valuev circular is a response to the perception of the cause of
Ukrainian national revival as a Polish plot
The Nicholas and Alexander Show
Nicholas I 1825-1855
Alexander II 1855-1881 liberal, then assasinated
Alexander III 1881-1894 repression, police state
Nicholas II 1894-1917
1870s, early 1870s, (Old) Hromada formed in Kiev
group of people interested in Ukrainian culture, history, ethnography, etc.
later it will become more politically interested and active
among the members: Antonovy, Drahomanov, Neuj-Levyc'kyj, Lysenko, Ivan Rudenko
(Bilyk, Panas Myrnyj's brother, co-author of Would the Oxen Bellow), Staryc'kyj, many others
The (Old) Hromada takes over publication of a newspaper, Kievskii telegraf, in Russian but
about Ukrainian matters, short lived because
1876 Ems ukaze closes down the newspaper, reduces activity of the newspaper until
1880s, when the Hromada picks up steam again
1882 Kievskaja starina begins to come out, a monthly journal in Russian but lots on Ukrainian
subjects, especially history
Southern Branch of Imperial Geographic Society also active in research on Ukrinian history,
publications such as the Arxiv Jugo Zapadnoj Rossii (Archive of South West Russia) South West
= Right Bank, which publishes a great deal of material on 16-18th century Ukrainian history
Hromadas are formed in other cities
All of this is part of a general Ukrainian awakening and a populist political groundswell
Tsar assasinated in 1881, this is not populism its radicalism and that's the way things are going,
largely cultural Ukrainian forces become politicized
Most notable example of this is Franko, who is radical on both social and national issue
All organized Ukrainian life gradually moves into the political arena, especially Hromadas
Ties to Western Ukraine
1876, Drahomanov, having been kicked out of Kiev University for pro-Ukrainian activities, is
sent by the Hromada to be its man in the west. He goes to Geneva, on the way stopping in
Galicia, where he has an important impact, especially on the young Franko
1894 a chair of Ukrainian History is created at the University of Lviv (which is Polish) the chair
SLA 218
Spring, Lecture 4
is offered to the most outstanding Ukrainian historian at the time, Volodymyr Antonovy, but he
turns it down and suggests one of his students, Myxajlo Hruševs’kyj, who will soon become a
major figure in Ukrainian history
lots of publishing interaction between East and West
lots of contacts, but Russia is still a very repressive country, and it pays particular attention to
stifling the budding Ukrainian cause
1903 dedication of a monument to Ivan Kotljarevs’kyj in Poltava. An important rallying event
for Ukrainian culture speakers from Galicia and Russian Ukraine, Galicians speak in Ukrainian,
speakers who are Russian subjects are told not to and speak in Russian
1905 Russian defeat in Russo-Japanes war sparks a revolution. Suddenly an outlet for Ukrainian
activity and political interests
prohibition on Ukrainian printing is not officially lifted but it is no longer enforced
Ukrainian newspaper, Rada, a DAILY, begins to appear
Ukrainian representation in the duma
Ukrainian political parties form
actually, all this doesn't last very long, within a few years repression sets in and most of this is
stopped BUT the ball is rolling with too much momentum and it can't really be stopped, except
the war puts everything on hold.
Volodymyr Antonovy, 1834-1908, born near Kiev to a family of Polish gentry, but they're
Polonized Ukrainians from many generations back, Volodymyr goes back to his roots, so to
speak. My Confessions, in Osnova, 1862, is his coming out of the closet as a Ukrainian
Historian, archeographer, professor of history at Kiev University from 1878editor of important series of publications by the Kiev Archeographic Commission
editor of Arxiv Jugo-Zapadnoj Rossii
author of very, very many works on Ukrainian history, especially the Right Bank (naturally,
given his background)
teacher of a generation of Ukrainian historians, e.g. Hruševs’kyj and Bahalij
central in Xlopomany movement
head of the Old Hromada
plays an important role in Polish-Ukrainian relations and in East Ukraine-West Ukraine relations
Myxajlo Drahomanov 1841-1895, gentry family, old cossacks
studied at Kiev University, history
1864 privat docent (professor) at Kiev University
1875 dismissed from University for Ukrainian activities, sent by Hromada to be its spokesman in
Western Europe
In public correspondence with Western Ukrainians, stirs them into a new understanding of their
situation and the backwardness of their political and cultural orientations
1876 Geneva
2
SLA 218
Spring, Lecture 4
publishes the journal Hromada 1878-1882 the Hromada has some wealthy members and is
paying for Drahomanov's activities in Geneva, including his publishing such things as Panas
Myrnyj's Would the Oxen Bellow if the Manger Were Full?
writes a great deal, including political stuff, in both Ukrainian and Russian and in Western
languages
He is in the west and is influenced by Western ideas, including radical political ones,
SOCIALISM grows on him more and more
1880s Drahomanov's socialism eventually puts him at odds with the basically conservative folks
in the Old Hromada who are footing the bill for him. they cut him off
1889-death in 1895 he is professor at Sofia University in Bulgaria
Ahatanhel Kryms’kyj. “M. P. Drahomanov.” A. Ju. Kryms’kyj: Tvory v p"jaty tomax (Kiev:
Naukova dumka, 1972) 2: 614-679.
3
Slavic 218
Lecture Five, Spring
Ivan Franko. Biography
Galicia Under Austria-Hungary
As we discussed in connection with the Rus’ka Trijcja
Galicia is an economically backward place
Galicia is culturally more backward than Left Bank (the traditions of the Cossack state do not
affect Galicia but neither does much of Western Europe
Polish province with Polish landlords, Ruthenian peasants, also a large Jewish middle class and
of course an Austrian government
Austria-Hungary, unlike Russia is a semi-liberal country
1. limits on serfdom
2. education for peasants is mildly encouraged
3. recognition of Ukrainian Catholic Church
a slow process of national and cultural awakening characterizes the national minorities in the
Austrian empire throughout the 19th century and not just Ukrainians
1848 is a key year in this process, Spring of Nations. a year of revolutions in Europe, particularly
national revolts in the Habsburg Monarchy.
abolition of serf obligations
constitutional constituent assembly, i.e. a parliament
Although Ukrainians did not participate in the revolution (Poles did) they benefit from it.
Gradual development of Ukrainian political demands, organization etc.
In the second half of the 19th century the situation of Ruthenians in Galicia is
1. limited democracy, a degree of cultural and political freedom
2. economic backwardness, particularly land shortage, resulting in emigration to CANADA
Austrians -- Poles -- Ukrainians as opposed to
Russians -- Ukrainians
Pluses:
No problem of distinctiveness, national aspect is clearer
They are Uniates, they speak a language that is certainly not Polish, it has a different alphabet
etc. BUT
they may not be sure they're not Russians anyway
Political and economic power in the hands of the Poles but sometimes Austrian interest in
supporting Ruthenians against Poles, Uniate Church never loses its position
Minuses:
Poles discriminate against Ruthenians and the lines are sharply drawn, in Russia a Ukrainian is
not discriminated against per se
Austria fears Russia and fears Russian intrigue in Eastern Galicia (these Ruthenians are just like
our Little Russians and that area should be part of Russia not Austria), with some justification, so
it won't support Ruthenians too much
Ukrainian Catholic Church has privileges, but its a VERY conservative institution and not a
hotbed of national revival
SLA 218
Lecture 5, Spring
Cultural situation of Ruthenians in 1870s
Two orientations
Russophile. Ukrainophile (or Populist).
Both groups are anti Polish, this is an absolute, given the discrimination against Ruthenians, the
failure to make any headway against Polish non recognition of a national issue
Both groups are conservative, with religious coloring
Priests are among the only Ruthenians who have an education so both groups have strong clergy
element
Russophiles see the Ruthenian peasant as the lowest form of cultural being, very backward, they
are looking for a higher cultural form to which they can claim allegiance, actually we are
Russians, part of that large, important, vigorous culture just across the border. This orientation
gets some support from Russian slavophile conservatives, and of course the Russian government
will not discourage it. But it does not have contact with what is best in Russian culture (Realist
fiction, new literature, new ideas, political reformers) and the language they think is Russian is a
hodge podge of archaisms and dialect.
Ukrainophiles (populists) start off as a democratically oriented movement to embrace the
Ruthenian peasants but acquires religious conservative coloring and becomes a reform
movement along temperance lines. The poor plight of the Ruthenian peasant is a result of his
own laziness, alcoholism, ignorance, and sinfulness. He needs a sermon and a good whipping.
Drahomanov as key figure. Points out to the Russophiles that they are picking up the worst of
Russian backwardness and that they are ignoring the social issue. Shows Ukrainophiles social
problem is a secular issue
Emergence of a third group, radicals
1. Ukrainian culture but in touch with the best of Western Europe and Russia
2. Socialist view of social issues
3. Secular, somewhat anti-clerical orientation
Two important people influenced by Drahomanov are University students, in whose journal
Drahomanov publishes his letters, they are Myxajlo Pavlyk and Ivan Franko
Ivan Franko 1856-1916
Stature in Ukrainian literature and Ukrainian cultural history second only to Ševenko. In some
ways he does for Western Ukraine what Ševenko did for Eastern Ukraine
Born in Nahujevyi, near Drohoby. Father a blacksmith.
Drohoby gymnazija then Lviv University
Studies classical philology, Ukrainian language and literature
He and Pavlyk are young radicals, heavily influenced by Drahomanov, with whom they have
been in touch and whom they meet while he passes through Galicia and with whom they
communicate while he is in Geneva. This gets them in trouble and they're arrested in 1877 for
pushing socialist propaganda. Franko spends 8 months in prison. Period after release is very
productive, dynamic for Franko. Involved with socialism and Marxism, Translates some Marx,
writes some of his best known revolutionary and social issues works
2
SLA 218
Lecture 5, Spring
Poetry:
Kamenjari 1878 The Stone Cutters
Vinyj revoljucjoner 1880 The Eternal Revolutionary
Ne pora 1880 It's Not Time
Prose:
Boa Constrictor 1878
Boryslav smijet'sja 1881 Boryslav Is Laughing
Zaxar Berkut 1883
1880 arrested again, 3 month sentence. Forced to drop out of University
Franko is actively pushing revolutionary ideas: not only is the police watching him but the
conservatives, the Russophiles, the prohibitionist Ukrainophiles, the clergy are all against him as
a crazy, dangerous radical
Contacts with Ukraine, trips in 1885 & 1886 to Kiev
marries a woman from Kiev in 1886
Hostility of Ukrainian community produces crisis in his life, he turns away from the Ukrainian
community to a certain extent. Spends a decade (1887-1897) working as a journalist for a Polish
newspaper (Still writes in Ukrainian of course, but a little less)
1889 arrested 3rd time
Finishes studies at ernivci and Vienna Universities.
1893 Gets doctorate
1894 appointed to chair of Ukrainian literature at Lviv University but the Polish governor blocks
the appointment
becomes friends with the historian Hruševs'kyj, together they reinvigorate the Ševenko
Scientific Society, which becomes a Ukrainian Academy of Science
Slowly moving away from Marxism. After major disappointment with Polish community he
leaves newspaper and returns to activity in Ukrainian community and politics.
1897 “Ein Dichter des Verrates,” Die Zeit, 1897, no. 36.
Poles take it as an insult. Franko leaves Kurjer Lwowski
1890s Franko and Pavlyk are central figures in forming Ukrainian Radical Party
1895, 97, 98 Franko is a candidate for Parliament and Galician Diet, loses, irregularities in
elections, Polish left wing will not support a Ukrainian leftist, even though they preach national
trust when seeking Ukrainian support for Polish leftists
1899 Franko, this time with populists, helps form National Democratic Party. He is slowly
moving away from the legacy of Drahomanov (who died 1895), says Drahomanov was too
radical and tied Ukraine's fate to Russia
1904 Franko turns inward, leaves public life (but not literature)
His poetry of the 1890s was personal:
Zivjale lystja 1896 The Withered Leaves
Mij Izmarahd 1898 My Emerald
1905 Moses personal and programmatic, we'll see
1908-1916 poor health, syphilis, very debilitating
3
SLA 218
Lecture 5, Spring
Not just literature
Journalism Ukr. Polish. German
scholarship: literary history & criticism
history (Ukrainian)
economics (from left wing perspective)
Folklore, linguistics
Kulturträger
from journalism to scholarship with, sometimes, little difference, trying to do everything, but a
man of incredible energy, great knowledge and erudition but sometimes out of his area of
expertise. Real strength is in literature, especially in poetry
4
Slavic 218
Lecture Six, Spring
Ivan Franko. Works
Bring to class: translation of Ripnyk (Oil Worker) and Vera Rich's Moses, whole book with other
poems too.
Ivan Franko was a very prolific writer.
A 50 volume edition of his works was recently published. It is not complete. In a general sense,
Franko's writing can be divided into three categories: belles-lettres, scholarship, journalism.
He wrote in three languages.
The volume of his writing is both his strength and his weakness. He wrote so much that not all of
it is very good.
He tried to do so much that he sometimes lost perspective on his immediate goals and the
important line between scholarship and journalism was sometimes blurred, as was the line
between belletristic writing and writing with a political intent.
Among the subjects he wrote on, both as a scholar and as a journalist are: politics, economics,
folklore, sociology, linguistics, history, and, of course, literature in both a scholarly and a
journalistic capacity.
Franko was a KULTUR TRÄGER, a man trying single-handedly to raise the cultural level of
Ukrainians in Western Ukraine and trying to raise the level of Ukrainian culture in general, as
well as trying to pursue political goals, personal ambitions, and the public good. Sometimes, he
stretches himself thin, he dilutes his energies, he doesn't concentrate on what he is doing--but he
does accomplish a great deal.
His literary output interests us most, and it is what his reputation stands on. He wrote Poetry,
Prose, Drama, children's literature, and an enormous quantity of translations.
Drama: not his real strength. His two best-known plays are
Ukradene šastja (Stolen Happiness) 1894
Son Knjazja Svjatoslava (Prince Svjatoslav's Dream) 1895
Prose: by one count 9 novels and over 100 short stories of various size
Novels: Boa Constrictor oil baron, capitalism
Boryslav smijet'sja (Boryslav is Laughing) capitalism
Zaxar Berkut (set in 1241, Western Ukraine, defense against Mongols)
Velykyj šum (The Great Noise) -- abolition of serfdom
Osnovy suspil'nosti (The Foundations of Society) -- contemporary Galician society
Dlja domašn'oho vohnyša (For the Home Hearth) -- contemporary Galician society
Collections of short stories:
3 most important: Boryslav, V poti ola (Sweat of the Brow), Halyc'ki obrazky (Galician
portraits)
subjects: stories about workers (former peasants), peasants, autobiographical
Franko is best known for his Boryslav stories about the rapid industrialization of the Boryslav
region after the discovery of oil. The social changes this causes.
Boa Constrictor (if no report on it)
story of Herman Gol'dkremer, rich Jewish entrepreneur who managed to rise from poverty in the
SLA 218 – 206
Ivan Franko. Works
Oil Business. Psychotic wife, idiot son. Relations with workers. But the novel is his personal
story. The painting of a Boa Constrictor on the wall in his office is a metaphor for his relations
with the workers, whom he is exploiting, but it is also a metaphor for the effects of Business,
materialism, and greed on Gol'dkremer himself. He has nightmares about being choked by a Boa
and he awakens one night to find his son standing over him with a knife in his hands.
Boryslav smiet'sja is the story of the workers' strike against Gol'dkremer. Modelled on Zola's
L'Assomoire.
Poetry: Franko's greatest achievement is in this genre.
Among the important collections:
Z veršyn i nyzyn (From the Heights and the Depths) 1887
Zivjale lystja (Withered Leaves) 1896
Mij izmarahd (My Emerald) 1898
Iz dniv žurby (From the Days of Sorrow) 1900
Semper tiro (Always an Amateur) 1906
Some of the important long poems:
Pans'ki žarty (The Master's Jests)
Smert' Kajina (The Death of Cain)
Ivan Vyšens'kyj
Mojsej (Moses)
Franko's themes: (in General, in all his works)
politics -- social issues, oppression
politics -- call to action, solidarity
love poetry
philosophical poetry
personal, autobiographical
the individual vs. the crowd, the solitary leader vs. the community he leads.
Early works of Franko are very socially conscious
read Kamenjari (The Pioneers, Stone Cutters) pg. 119
I saw a vision strange. Stretched out before me lay
A measureless but barren, open plain, And I,
With iron chains on hands and feet, stood in array
Before a granite mount which rose up, towering high,
With other thousands — captives, fettered the same way.
Deep lines of pain and grief were etched on every 4 ate
Yet in the eyes of all the flame of love still burned .
The fetters clung to each with serpent-like embrace,
And every back was bent, each face was downwards turned,
For all seemed bowed beneath a burden of disgrace.
SLA 218 – 206
Ivan Franko. Works
A mighty iron sledge I saw in every hand,
And sudden from the sky a voice like thunder burst:
"Break through this rock! Let neither cold nor heat withstand
Your toil! In spite of danger, hunger, cold, and thirst,
Stay not, for yours it is to smash this granite band!"
At this we all as one our sledges raised on high;
A thousand thundering blows crashed down upon the rock.
On every side we saw the shards of granite fly,
The rock crack off in blocks. With ceaseless, desperate shock,
We hammered on with strength that nothing could defy.
Like roaring cataract or battle's bloody din,
Our sledges kept on thudding with exhaustless might.
New footholds every moment we never failed to win.
Though many a one of us fell cripped in the fight,
We onward pressed, for naught could shake our discipline.
Yet each of us well knew he should no glory reap,
Nor would man's memory requite our toilsome pain,
That long before our seed along that road would sweep ,
Ere we could break a path and make it smooth and plain,
Our bleaching bones would lie beside it in a heap &6e*We had no thirst of glory in our hearts to slake,
For we were neither knights nor heroes seeking fame.
Mere slaves we were, but such as freely, gladly take
Their bonds as self-made slaves in freedom's glorious name
The pioneers who toil a new highway to break.
And all held firm belief that by our strength unfurled
We'd rend the prisoning rock, the granite wall defy;
That by our mortal strength, though we to death were hurled,
Yet after, with our bones, we'd pave a road whereby
New life and hope might come into this sorry world.
And every one knew too, that in the world we'd left
Behind us for these chains and sweat and toil forlorn,
Were mothers, sweethearts, weeping wives and little ones bereft,
And friends and enemies, who, pitying or in scorn,
Cursed us and our emprise and feared the dreadful cleft.
SLA 218 – 206
Ivan Franko. Works
We knew it and at times, bowed down in sore distress,
Our hearts would almost fail as sweet remembrance came.
Yet neither tears nor pity nor great weariness
Nor curses ever made us falter in our aims —
No sledge dropped from our hands beneath the awful stress.
We march in close accord, for each the purpose owns
To form a brotherhood, each with a sledge in hand.
What though the world forgets, or even us disowns!
We'll rend that prisoning rock, we'll pave a broad new strand!
New life shall come to man, though it come o'er our bones!
1878
Middle period of Franko's poetry is more lyrical, philosophical. He begins introducing the theme
of the individual. It has two dimensions--the individual vs. society and the personal integrity of
the individual
a few poems with "the double"
Image of a man seeing himself (Pojedynok [The Duel] and Poxoron [The Funeral])
pessimism and self doubt, internal conflict
betrayal is also an important theme tied in with this self doubt and individual vs. society. Franko
writes an essay on Mickiewicz's Konrad Walenrod, a man who joins the enemy side deliberately
to destroy it from within. Franko calls this the poetry of treason. The importance of Franko's
interpretation is not in whether he is right but in the angle from which he sees the issue.
Mojsej
the story of Moses' last days
for 40 years the people have followed Moses, wandering in the desert. He took them from
Egyptian captivity and said he would lead them to the promised land. 40 years later, the
promised land is still not in sight and Dathan and Albiron are urging the people to dump Moses.
Read prologue. pg 26-27. Identification Jews=Ukrainians; Moses=Franko
Dathan and Albiron have won over the people and they have tabled a piece of legislation that
will silence Moses--anybody who says he will lead the people to the promised land of prosperity
will be punished Dathan says:
read last two stanzas on pgs 34 and 35
"Whoever would make himself prophet,
Wild ravings expressing,
Sway the ignorant tribesmen with promise
Of God's curse or blessing —
SLA 218 – 206
Ivan Franko. Works
"Who arouses the people for change,
To rebellion woos them,
Or beckons them over the mountains
To their final ruin —
Moses can't resist, tells parable of trees seeking a king. All refuse except bramble-thorn bush.
Bramble as king of trees is like Israel being the chosen people, says Moses
Albiron laughs at this, pg 54-55 (read up to "roses...")
Albiron says Jews should follow Baal and go in the opposite direction.
Dathan takes a different tack. He accuses Moses of being a traitor, read pg 58-59 all of it
Moses is chased out of the community. He goes up the mountain. He asks God for guidance. God
is silent.
Azazel, (voice of the devil) tries to accuse Moses of being another tyrant. Saved the Jews from
one tyrant only to become one yourself, pg 78-80. Weakness: when things go wrong you turn to
God, ey Moses?
Moses resists
Azazel again tempts Moses, 90-91, one rock falls off the cliff, hits another and pretty soon you
have an avalanche. just as no one can control the avalanche once the first rock has started falling,
so God also can't control all the consequences of what he started.
then God shows Moses the promised land 95-96
and the consequent blood and destruction 98-99, 100-101
Jehovah tells Moses to accept 106-107
Jews see Moses on the mountain but the next morning he's gone, 110-111. That's enough to
cause a revolt and a new leadership takes over that will lead the Jews to the promised land.
Slavic 218
Lecture Seven, Spring
Lesja Ukrajinka
Bring to Class: Lesja Ukrajinka Hope, Lesja Ukrajinka Selected Works
Lesja Ukrajinka 1871-1913
Larysa Kosa (in 1907 she married Klyment Kvitka)
the non-biography
her father was an intellectual, member of the Kiev hromada and a landowner of middle wealth
Her mother was Olena Drahomanov, Drahomanov's sister, aka Olena Pilka, a writer in her own
right
Lesja is educated at home, private tutors
the family home atmosphere is very intellectual, the mother is for all practical purposes raising
her daughter to be a poet. Tennis mother of verse
When Lesja is 12 years old her mother sends some of her daughter's poems to be published in a
Galician journal.
Larysa was called Lesja at home, it was her mother's pet name for her. When she sends the
poems to Galicia she signs them for her daughter with Lesja Ukrajinka, that is Lesja from
(non-Galician) Ukraine, as opposed to Lesja Halyanka. That's how it would be understood by
Galician readers.
at age 10, first signs of health trouble.
She has Tuberculosis, first in the bones--leg, hands--she has an operation on her hand, palm, in
Berlin in 1883 then another on her foot in 1889. The operations help, but only temporarily. The
disease spreads to her lungs, but it is in remission. She must seek warmer, drier climate. She
spends a good deal of time on the European Riviera, in spas, in the Caucuses, in Egypt, in
Crimea.
Much of her life she is bed-ridden.
This is a woman for whom every day is a physical struggle.
When in Kiev, she is active in cultural circles, on one such visit in 1907 she marries Klyment
Kvitka, an ethnologist an musicologist. She died in the Caucuses in 1913 when the Tuberculosis
spread to her kidneys.
The Myth of Lesja.
Great Triad
She's a Woman
Heroic struggle against disease
The yževs'kyj-Grabowicž debate.
(yževs'kyj, pg 615 (2 pars) and pgs 616-617)
Lesja Ukrajinka, inspired by her mother and by Staryc'kyj, adopted the important idea of the
necessity of the cultural expansion and elevation of the Ukrainian literary language. Her poetic
beginnings were lyric verses and translations, chiefly from Heine. Today it is impossible to be
overly delighted with her lyrics. One is struck by the optimism of this girl who was gravely ill (a
desperate tubercular condition), which compelled her to travel around the world in search of a
better climatic environment, severely restricted her work and ultimately led her to an early grave.
SLA 218
Lesja Ukrajinka
Spring, Lecture 7
Lesja Ukrajinka concludes the history of Ukrainian realism having made the invaluable
contribution of a literary form which led literature far beyond the limits of Realism and which
made Ukrainian literature a world literature for the first time.
The poetic work of Lesja Ukrajinka, which represented only the first half of her literary
creativity, could not be considered extraordinary in either theme or form....
She then progressed to ... an entirely new form which she developed as the "dramatic poem" and
of which she contributed fifteen examples. They are significant from the formal aspect for they
are symbolic works (Ukrainian literary historians are constantly trying to decipher their
symbolism); they lead their subjects far beyond the compass of Ukrainian themes into the realm
of world spiritual history.... Lesja Ukrajinka's first plays of this type provoked a storm of protest
from the critics: why does the poetess stray so far from actuality, they asked, failing to
understand the significance of the gigantic step the poetess had taken on to the field of world
literature. In the second place, they charged, her plays were excessively rhetorical and
declamatory and, therefore, unsuited to stage presentation. Even contemporary literary historians
occasionally repeat these amazing allegations....
The Ukrainian Realistic theater was incapable of presenting the "exotic" plays of this talented
authoress. Even the label "exotic" was an imperceptive one to apply to the dramatic poems of
Lesja Ukrajinka. They were remote from Ukrainian contemporary life only because they were
dealing with universal human themes. In other words, Lesja Ukrajinka raised Ukrainian literature
to the level of world literature, one which treats themes that are common and important to
mankind as a whole (involving situations which happen not only in Ukraine but everywhere in
the world and at any moment in the historical process). In the dramatic poems, these problems
are presented in a concentrated and intense form. It was by disregarding the boundaries of a
certain people or of a certain time that Lesja Ukrajinka, possibly for the first time in the history
of Ukrainian literature, was able to create works that belonged both to the heritage of Ukraine
and of the world (even Ševenko's "Caucasus" requires commentaries if it is to be read by a
non-Ukrainian, while for the "exotic" plays of Lesja Ukrajinka, they are unnecessary).... If there
are any Ukrainian works which are able to speak not only to fellow Ukrainians but also to
humanity at large, these works are the dramatic poems--a fact that would hold true even if they
had appeared in prose translation.
Grabowicž's response is in Toward a History, pg 82. I'll summarize.
This is patently absurd. Literature is not good or bad according to whether it takes its subject
from the common repository of west European culture or from some obscure provincial reality.
Mark Twain is a great writer because he writes great books. The fact that they're set in some
God-forgotten, cultural backwater (which is what the U.S. Was in the middle of the 19th century)
does not make them any less great.
The persistence of the Low vs high literature problem. This comes from Kotljarevšyna, but it is
an acute issue around the turn of the century when Ukrainian culture is struggling to rise above
2
SLA 218
Lesja Ukrajinka
Spring, Lecture 7
the peasant, ethnographic level. But yževs'kyj's argument is a reflection of the fact that he still
thinks that way. In other words, what was acceptable in 1910, the perception of the
overwhelming significance of bringing world themes to Ukrainian literature, need not be
accepted today, when we see this in context but do not necessarily consider it great merely
because it is western.
Lesja reflects the thinking of her mother (Pilka) and her uncle (Drahomanov)
How do we read Lesja
Neo-romantic. Herself removed from the bustle of everyday life because of her illness, her life
dominated by four walls, a bed, and intense pain--and--BOOKS.
Read Hope in Hope pg 73
Contra Spem Spero in Selected pg 256
Contra Spem Spero
Thoughts, away, you heavy clouds of autumn!
For now springtime comes, agleam with gold!
Shall thus in grief and wailing for ill fortune
All the tale of my young years be told?
No, I want to smile through tears and weeping,
Sing my songs where evil holds its sway,
Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping,
I want to live! You, thoughts of grief, away!
On poor, sad, fallow land, unused to tilling,
I'll sow blossoms, brilliant in hue,
I'll sow blossoms where the frost lies, chilling,'
I'll pour bitter tears on them as dew.
And those burning tears shall melt, dissolving
All that mighty crust of ice away,
Maybe blossoms will come up, unfolding
Singing springtime for me, too, some day.
Up the flinty, steep and craggy mountain
A weighty ponderous boulder I shall raise,
And bearing this dread burden, a resounding
Song I'll sing, a song of joyous praise.
In the long dark ever-viewless night time
3
SLA 218
Lesja Ukrajinka
Spring, Lecture 7
Not one instant shall I close my eyes,
I'll seek ever for the star to guide me,
She that reigns bright mistress of dark skies.
Yes, I'll smile, indeed, through tears and weeping,
Sing my songs where evil holds its sway,
Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping,
I shall live! You thoughts of grief-away!
Forest Song
Unusual among her plays in that this is on Ukrainian Material. Furthermore, this is turning to
folklore, something that was characteristic of Romanticism. But this is not the folklore of
Metlyns'kyj and Borovykovs'kyj. We'll see folklore again in Kocjubyns'kyj's Shadows of
Forgotten Ancestors. In Forsest Song the folklore is intellectualized. Lesja Ukrajinka is
foregrounding the anthropological origins of the folklore. She is highlighting its meaning and its
significance in an analytical manner. This is something that never happens in folklore itself. The
latent suggestiveness of the folklore is made explicit. The various characters represent ideas.
The dambreaker, (Toj, šo hrebli rve) is the natural destructiveness of nature; its power and
energy. read pg 17, opening lines of play.
What is the Mavka? When Lukaš asks her what she does, and who her parents were she is
confused. read pg 55
notice the highly metaphorical language, which complements what she is saying. She observes
beauty. She represents aesthetic values.
Why is she attracted to Lukaš? -- Because he plays the sopilka, pan pipe. pg 123
The conflict in the play is, obviously, between nature and man, between nature and civilization.
The agricultural life that Lukaš's mother is so fond of is a desturction of the natural habitat in
which the Mavka and her freinds live. But on another level the conflict is between practical needs
and aesthetic values, which are human as well as natural. The conflict between beauty and life
offers the Mavka few choices. One choice is offered by the Lone Crag Sitter (Toj, šo v skali
sydyt'). pg 63. His choice is to escape life to enjoy eternal beauty. That is death. The Mavka, at
the end of the play makes a different choice. Here we need to read not only the text but the stage
instructions at the end of the play. pg 213. The Mavka becomesnature and part of the seasons.
Beauty is asked to become a permanent aspect, although a silent one, of life.
Kassandra
Vol 4. pgs 9-99
7 scenes and an epilog
1. p. 10.
Kassandra and Helena, Kassandra tells her you're not my sister, plot exposition, how Helena
4
SLA 218
Lesja Ukrajinka
Spring, Lecture 7
came to Troy, how Kassandra sees or saw things.
2. p. 17.
Kassandra and her younger sister Polixena
Polixena happy to be engaged to Achilles. News that Hector killed Patroclus. Kassandra cuts off
Polixena's braid.
3. p. 23
Andromache sends servants to report on battle, her husband (hector) is killed.
4. p. 28
Dolon is going out to spy on Achaeans. Asks Kassandra whether he will return. She says, why do
you want to know? Will it stop you from going. He says No. Then why ask? (32-34) Kassandra
then moans and wails cause she knows Dolon, whom she loves, will die. She stands on the
ramparts with Polixena going through the agony of seeing Dolon get killed (which only she sees).
Helen and Deiphobus (her brothers) come to take the raving Kassandra home. She says they
killed Dolon. She adds, no it was I.
5. p. 40
Dejifob tells Kassandra her behavior is unseemly, (42). She has been engaged to Onomaj, the
Lydian king. [role of women] Kassandra has a war of words with her brother, then enters
Onomaj, with whom she also spars verbally, mostly on a woman's freedom to choose her
husband. But it's a question of resigning to fate or forcing it. Onomaj sees women as malleable
(49) Ä dumaü, ço dolä lübyt` syl`nyx,/ odva¥nyx i riwuqyx; ko¥na ¥inka/ povynna ïx lübyty, a ne
lübyt`, to musytyme polübyty. She is about to refuse, but Dejifob appears and she consents.
Polixena tells her the Lydian troops were unwilling to fight because they heard Kassandra had
cursed the enterprise. Andromaxe enters says Lydian army was convinced by news of
Kassandra's consent and Helenus's bird prophesy. Kassandra's self-doubt. Let's talk to Helenus
about the bird prophesy.
6. p. 57
Helenus says the problem is Kassandra, whose prophesies cause despair and therefore are selffulfilling. (60) Truth needs to be steered like a ship. Helenus sees no truth or lies, only
effectiveness and necessity. Tells how he staged spectacle to undo Kassandra's damage to Lydian
morale. News that Onomaj is dead and Lydians are routed. Helen tells her to rejoice cause she
won.
7. p. 65
Outdoors, what to do about the Trojan horse. Helenus says it's a peace offering. Sinon (a Greek)
is found. Kassandra sees evil. Dejifob tells her that if Sinon is evil, she should kill him. She can't.
8. p. 77
The sentries complain that they can't party with everyone else. Paris appears, in Party mood.
5
SLA 218
Lesja Ukrajinka
Spring, Lecture 7
Kassandra berates him that Hector is dead but he is celebrating. Paris reminds her that she had
sword in hand and did nothing. Sinon brings liquor for the sentries. The Greeks. Menelaeus has
killed Parris, goes after Helen, but she stops him by askking if he came all this way to kill her.
She is again a queen while the Trojan women are slaves, soon to be wives to Greeks.
epilog p. 93
In Greece, Agamemnon's palace. Kassandra makes vague prophesy about Agamemnon's fate.
Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia, his daughter, to gain favorable winds to sail against Troy.
Clytamnestra, his wife never forgave him and when he returns, murders her husband with the
help of her lover, Aegisthos. Her children, Orestes and Electra, will kill her for this. All this is
the curse of the house of Atreus, Agamemnon's father.
7"<z>>46 '@FB@*"D
G@< 6. EH 71-162.
1. 71.
!>>" z )@:@D,F >" P&4>H"Dz. !>>" 2"DJR,>" 2" 7@<">*@D". )@:@D,F 2" )@> /J">", b846
BD@(>">46 2 E,&z:\|. 77. )@:@D,F 8"0,, R@< b >, P4(">8", V@$ *:b >\@(@ 2D,8H4Fb &@:z
*:b >\@(@. 81. !>>4 <Dzb, 2"<@8 >" (@D$8J. /J"> &4N@*4H\ 2 (D@$J. !>>" 6@(@ 2"BD@TJp
>" <"F8"D"*J. 7@<">*@D, z &4N@*bH\. Eh">"D,:\, F:J(" /J">", *@<@&:bpH\Fb 2 >4< BD@
*@>>J E@:\.
2. 90.
)z< $"H\8z& !>>4 (!:\&"D,F). 7@<">*@D BD4>zF !>>z *"DJ>@8. %@>" (@D*", 0"DHJp 2
>4<. =, 8@D4H\Fb 6@<J. '@FHz >" <"F8"D"*J. C@2B@*z: H">Pz& 2 !>>@`. )@>>" E@:\
Bz2>"p /J">" (;"&D4H">Pb). %@>" <"p *@ >\@(@ BD4H,>2z|, &z> >zR@(@ F@$z, F:J04H\,
B@<@0, ":, >, D@$4H\ B@F&bH R4 2@$@&b2">\. /J"> z !>>" D@2<@&:b`H\ BD@ F&@$@*J. {|
- >" (@Dz. %z> *J<"p, V@ >" (@Dz &b2>4Pb. GD,$" F,$, 2&z:\>4H4 z2 BJH (D@<"*F\84N. %z>
F84*"p <"F8J. %z> (@H@&46 || B@<@(H4 @Fb(>JH4 F&@$@*J, &@:`. %@>" 6@(@ &4BD@$@&Jp.
AD@F4H\ @$DJR8J. %z> >, *"p. %@>" 8"0,, $"R4T. G4 H"8@0 BD48JH46. 7@<">*@D. /J">
6@<J BBD,FH"&:bpH\Fb, z <"& $4 &$4H4, ":, )@:@D,F (& <"FPz )@<z>@) 6@(@ 2JB4>bp.
3. 112.
/J"> z Eh">"D,:\ 8@:@ 7"*z8FJ J F&@|6 B,R,Dz. )@:@D,F J &$D">>z R,>Pb. #J::4, V@
6@<J BD@V,>@. %z> || BD@B@>Jp T::`$. A@RJHHb 2@$@&b2">>b. ),8D,H 2*@$JH@ 8@TH@<
)@:@D,F@(@ &FHJBJ J <@>"FH4D. %z> 8"0,, V@ BD4R4>4&Fb *@ || V"FHb, %@>" FH":" H4<,
R4< $"0":", <"H4<, FB"Fz>>b. %z> B4H"p 2" !>>J (R4< z <JR4H\ )@:@D,F).
4. 123.
6
SLA 218
Lesja Ukrajinka
Spring, Lecture 7
!>>" >, <@0, &,F,:4H4Fb, $@ J 0":@$z 2" *b*\8@< b84<F\ R@:@&z8". 7@<">*@B z
BD,H,>2z| >" 8@D@>J. E"<@-B@&"(". 1>"R>, <zFP,. )@HD4<J&">>b BD"&,: (D4. ;,H"L@D"
7@<">*@D" B,D,(J8JpH\Fb z2 || (@D@`: 128 "G"8 @D:4Pb Hz:\84 <@0, ... !>>" $"R4H\
$,2&4Nz*>zFH\ F&@` z BD46<"p FBz:\>J 2 7@<">*@D@< *@:`. 7@<">*@D BzT@&, BD4N@*4H\
/J">. !>>" 6@(@ FB@8JF4 &z*N4:bp. %,D>J&Fb 8@<">*@D. /J"> 6@(@ &$4&"p. !>>" 8"0,
6@<J &H,8H4 " &@>" F8"0,, V@ 2:@*z|. y>"8T, || 2"84>JH\ V@ 8@N">,P\ R@:@&z8" &$4&.
5. 137
=" P&4>H"Dz, 8"<b>46 B"<'bH>48 7@<">*@D@&z. !>>" &z*BJFH4:" *J,>`, B@b&4&Fb /J">.
A@V@ %"< Pz BJH" *@$D@&zF\>z, 8"0, &z>. Q@<J %4 >"<"(":4Fb F&@` F&bH4>` FHb(H4 z2
B'p*,FH":J? 8"0, &@>". %z> T">H"0Jp: "$@ H4 <@b, "$@ b BD4:`*>@ BD42>"`Fb *@
&$4&FH&". ="*z6T:" )@>>" 7@>F,BF\6@>. #"R4:" |N. !>>" 7"0,, V@ /J"> Hz:\84 z
N@Hz&, V@$ H"8 @BD4:`*>4H4 FBD"&J z &4(D"H4. 1"BD@TJp 6@(@ *@ N"H4 >" BD4:`*>J
&,R,D`. 7@<,*z68" z2 Eh">"D,:\ BD@ H,, V@ (@FB@*"Db (J >"*(Dz$>@<J B"<bH>48J) HD,$"
BD@F4H4 *@2&@:J *@ N"H4. % DJPz FH"HJ| 2"B4F8" AD4N@*\, b 0*J.
6. 150.
I !>>4, >zNH@ >, N@R, FzFH4 >" <zFP, (@FB@*"Db. AD4N@*4H\ /J">, &z> H"< Fz*"p.
7@LD@>H"Pzb *, /J"> @$FH@`p F&@p BD"&@ @$@D@>bH4 !>>J. '@FHz, @$D"0,>z &z*N@*bH\.
!>>" D@28"2Jp B:b>, b8 /J"> FH">, >" <zFP, 7@<">*@D", F"< $J*, 7@<">*@D@< z <@0, z
8@D@:,<. %z> B@(@*0JpH\Fb, &$4D"p @*b( z B,D,* :`FHD@< $"R4H\--6@(@, 8@<">*@D", 846
&4N@*4H\ z2 F&zR"*" z DJ8@` @8"<,>z:`p /J">".
7
Slavic 218
Lecture Eight, Spring
Myxajlo Kocjubyns'kyj
Bring to class: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and Written in the Book of Life
Myxajlo Kocjubyns'kyj 1864-1913
born in the family of a civil servant near Vinnycja. He attended a theological college and then
was a school teacher for a while. Later he got a job as a statistician. After 1898 he lives in
ernihiv.
Rubchak gives you a biographical sketch in the edition of Shadows that you are reading, pp.
79-86, not in the xeroxes.
Modernism. as a general european development
1. Not a very well defined phenomenon.
2. A reaction against realism and naturalism:
a. a picture doesn't capture reality
b. the beautiful as well as the ugly, especially in poetry
c. literature as art rather than message or propaganda
3. assertion of subjectivity, the individual cf. romanticism
a. this is evidenced in psychological approach, Freud
4. Sense of cultural crisis, Nietzsche
5. experimenting in new forms
Modernism. in Ukrainian literature.
1. abandonment of village, of ethnographism
2. enormous influence of western literature
a. art for art's sake, pure art as important ideas among some writers. as opposed to Franko's
practical approach, we'll talk abaout this next time
3. focus on intelligentsia, as both subject and audience
Myxajlo Kocjubyns'kyj's works
Fata Morgana, a novel
a few dozen short stories, among them the best known:
Vin ide (He is Coming)
Smix (Laughteur)
Koni ne vynni (The Horses are Not to Blame)
Intermezzo
Posol od ornoho Carja (The Emissary From the Black King)
Cvit jabluni (Apple Blossoms)
Dlja zahal'noho dobra (For the Common Good)
two subjects stand out in his stories: the 1905 revolution, particularly the relations between
peasants and the intelligentsia; and the South, Crimea and Bessarabia, the phylloxera
commission he worked on in these areas
SLA 218 – 208
2
Characteristics of Myxajlo Kocjubyns'kyj's works
1. Focus is on psychology of individual
2. Psychology is revealed or depicted, not explained or described, showing vs. telling
3. Laconic narration--vivid but very selective; suggestive rather than descriptive
4. Impressionism. A word I don't like. It is used alongside Modernism, Romanticism, Realism to
designate a movement. It is not a movement. It is a technique in writing. It was popular at the
turn of the century. The idea is to present reality not as it really is, or as an objective, all-seeing
observer would see it but rather as it impinges on the consciousness of a character or in a
selection as it might impinge on a consciousness to produce a particular effect (this latter usually
called expressionism). It consists of subjective, point-of-view narration, highly selective
description, seemingly unmotivated transitions from one subject to another.
5. Poetry in prose. That is, attention to sounds, rhythms, images, etc.
Shadows is a little bit unusual in its technique.
Talk about Smix as a good example. Liberal intelligentsia household during riots of 1905,
pogroms. They huddle at home, hiding from the mob. He is a liberal do-gooder. Hopes he will be
spared. Praises his servant for not being like the mob. Until he meets her and tells her so--she
laughs.
read pg 114 in Written in the Book of Life
Now Chubinsky was truly frightened. Abjectly, shamefully frightened. He realised it, but what
was he to do? Where to go? He didn't wish to die in this wretched, terrible fashion. Should he
hide? Not himself only—oh no—but all of them. He looked around the room. His wife was
moaning, barely conscious, holding her head between her hands. Varvara padded around the
table. Run away? Where? Dozens of plans struggled through his mind, like flickering will-o'-thewisps, and were as suddenly extinguished. No, not that... not that! Animal fear drove him in a
fury about the room, from door to door. He tried desperately to suppress his trembling. "Don't
lose your head... Don't lose you head," something seemed to be saying to him, while his thoughts
darted about like in a wild animal, newly-captured, in cage. What? Varvara was speaking. What
was she saying?
"Shall I serve lunch?"
Ah, that Varvara. The sound of her voice brought him to his senses.
"What did you say?"
"I'm asking if I should serve lunch?"
"Lunch? No, no, it isn't necessary. You heard what is happening?"
"Why, of course I heard! Ha-a! "
The "ha" brought him up short. He noticed a tremor in the maid's face, like that of a still surface
of water after the movement of a fish. One of the ripples had reached him.
"They're beating the gentry," he explained piteously, and watched in surprise as Varvara's heavy
body shook, as though with suppressed laughter.
"What is it?"
"I... I..."
And suddenly the laughter broke through.
SLA 218 – 208
3
"Ha-ha-ha! Beating them! Well, let them! Ha-ha-ha! Enough of their lording it... Ha-ha-ha!
Glory be to God, that people have lived to see the day! "
She even crossed herself.
Her face turned crimson, her eyes flashed. She stood with arms akimbo, her reddened, bare to the
elbow arms, and rocked with laughter, as though drunk, her large breasts threatening to break out
from under her grease-stained blouse.
"Ha-ha-ha! A-ha-ha! " She could not stop the gusts of irresistible, drunken laughter that boiled up
within her breast and like froth, bubbled up in words:
"Ha-ha-ha! All of them... They should all be rooted out! Ha-ha-ha... Their seedlings too... all of
them! A-ha-ha! " She subsided into sobs.
Her wild laughter resounded through the house and was as painful and frightening as a frenzied
dance of sharp, cold, glittering knives.'It was like a torrent of lightning, that laughter, wounding
and deadly in its unrestrained peal upon peal.
Chubinsky seized at the table to prevent himself from falling. The laughter beat at him, whipping
at his face. What was she saying? Something impossible, preposterous!
Shadows is more narrative than is usual for Kocjubyns'kyj.
As in Lesja Ukrajinka's Forest Song, Kocjubyns'kyj in Shadows is taking folklore and making it
exotic, using it as the exotic element in a story, just like, say Conrad's Lord Jim, set in Thailand
has an exotic settting. Folklore is no longer ethnographic, although Kocjubyns'kyj has made a
better study of his subject than did most of the romantics. But that's precisely the point. He has
studied the folklore of the Hutsuls like a scholar but he is not publishing his results, he is not
showing off the folklore but merely using it as material. Like a professional writer, which he is,
although he doesn't live off of the income.
As usual, there is little plot, the focus is on atmosphere.
Notice the importance of place in this story. Nature is an actor in the drama.
So what is this story about?
An exceptional man is crushed by the restrictive confines of his community.
What is exceptional about Ivan?
From birth he is different, read first paragraph on pg 9.
Immediately we have not only his being different from others, but the suggestion that this
difference is the work of evil forces, the she-devil has switched children. Implicit in this is the
idea that this society demands conformity. It does not reward individuality.
What makes Ivan different from his society?
read pg. 9, last paragraph:
When Ivan turned seven, he looked at the world with different eyes. He already knew many
things. ...
He is inquisitive and intelligent. He seeks to know the world around him. He is especially
attuned to the spiritual side of life. All this, makes him suspect in the eyes of his peers.
SLA 218 – 208
4
read pg. 11, from the top until "found in the forest what he had been looking for."
the encounter with the vanisher signals the importance of nature and music to Ivan, he is a very
sensitive man, an artist, of sorts. The floiara is the symbol of this artistic exceptionality.
Marichka, their relationship, in a sense, breaks the rules. The feuding families. The fun they
enjoy is not part of the world into which they were born.
The upland pasture. This is a magic place.
(Rubchak has a good essay on this story in the edition you're looking at, but not in the xeroxes. I
recommend his essay.) Rubchak says this is a quest, a test for Ivan. I'm not convinced. In any
case it is a place where Ivan learns about the source of his inspiration, about what makes him
different. He learns both the beauty and the terror of nature. The reader also learns. We learn the
origin and importance of the community order. To preserve itself from a hard nature.
Mykola's stories told to Ivan about the aridnyk are a simultaneous acceptance and rejection of the
dark side, read pg 24-25 last paragraph on 24 up to three stars.
sign of cross and spit to defend agaist evil but that also means he accepts the fact of its presence.
Marichka dies. Ivan gives up his music. Slow process of acculturating individual, wearing away
at his individuality.
read pg 40-42. skim, the community rejoices in its own continuity rather than mourning death.
Rubchak talks about the conflict between personal myth and collective myth. The point is that
there is a conflict beteen the community and the individual.
Slavic 218
Lecture Nine, Spring
Volodymyr Vynnyenko
Bring to Class: Text of “Hunger” (Their Land) and “A Strange Episode” (Modern Ukrainian
Short Stories)
Volodymyr Vynnyenko 1880-1951
Most popular Ukrainian writer before World War I
Unusually little is known of his early biography
apparently of peasant origin, from near Jelysavethrad, where he studied at the gimnazija
attended Kiev University. served (was drafted?) in army. Deserted from army
starts writing in early 1900s. “Krasa i syla” (Beauty and Strength published in Kievskaja starina
in 1902)
Gets involved in political activity. He is a Socialist.
Founding member of USDRP, Ukrainian Social-Democratic Workers' (Robitnya) Party
In 1917 he is its head. He enters the Central Rada government. Later he is part of the Directory
with Petljura. Resigns. Conflict with Petljura.
Emigrates. Mission to Moscow in 1920—fails.
Émigré political activity and writing
Settles in southern France. After his death his archives were brought to the United States, they're
in New York, at Columbia, held for the Ukrainian Academy of Science.
Vynnyenko's annomalous position
Soviets used to condemn him because
1. his politics were opposed to Lenin's
2. Lenin in a letter to Krupskaja mentions one of Vynnyenko's novels and says its terrible, i.e.
he didn't like it.
Émigrés also condemn him because
1. his politics are very left, not extreme right wing
2. he is seen as a purveyor of moral irresponsibility, especially on the sexual arena
In 1989, two Kievan journals serially publish two works of Vynnyenko's, Sonjašna mašyna and
Zapysky kerpatoho Mefistofelja.
Not because they are so very good, Sonjašna mašyna is pretty terrible, but because they were
very popular in their time and the hunger for forbidden fruit is great.
Vynnyenko was a very popular writer in his own day and he was a very important politician. He
had a considerable, though subtle, influence in the history of Ukrainian literature. His politics
always lost, both against the Right, Petljura, and the Left, Lenin.
Volodymyr Vynnyenko
Importance of Vynnyenko as a writer, not so much in quality, his early stories are better than his
later work, after the revolution he's a terrible writer.
1. Realism, psychological realism, naturalism--there is little of this in Ukrainian literature.
2. Sex as a subject. Almost noone will touch this subject in Ukrainian.
3. Ethics as a basic theme. The personal ethics of the individual.
4. Influence on a generation of writers in the 1920s. Pidmohyl'nyj and Xvyl'ovyj, for example.
Characteristics of Vynnyenko's prose.
1. Influence of Dostoevsky.
2. Sex, prostitutes.
3. Social problematics.
4. New morality. Personal ethics vs. community ethics.
5. Spiritual beauty vs. physical ugliness.
Novels:
esnist' z soboju 1911 Honesty with Oneself
Po svij 1914 For yourself
Božky 1914 Idols
All these were on Sex-marriage and personal ethics
Rivnovaha 1913 Equilibrium, about Émigrés
Xou 1916 I want, the national question
Zapysky kerpatoho Mefistofelja 1917 The Notebooks of a Snub-Nosed Mephistopheles
Sonjašna mašyna 1928 The Solar Machine
Plays:
Velykyj molox 1907 The Great Moloch
orna pantera i bilyj vedmid' 1911 The Black Panther and the White Bear
Brexnja 1910 The Lie
Hunger—presentation of types, upper class is cruel and heartless, also spiritually bankrupt. the
peasants are exploited but they are animal-like, they have no dignity
Caught stealing grain, peasants brought to chief of police, who is entertaining. Peasants told to
fight each other for the amusement of the polite company.
Moths on pg 170-71 and in last paragraph
The front man shrugged his shoulders, sighed and set off behind the gendarme. The others
followed him sullenly, with the soldier, carrying his rifle, bringing up the rear. In three or four
minutes all five of them stood in the orchard from which they had heard laughter and gentle
singing. On the table under the acacia trees stood lanterns with candles inside. From among the
lanterns bottles protruded; and among the bottles stood plates with hors-d'oeuvres, boxes with
some food, knives and glasses. Two ladies sat at the table, beside them some elderly gentlemen
and two officers of the gendarmerie. One of them was bald, with a lush brown moustache, the
other one was handsome.
Volodymyr Vynnyenko
Around the candles moths kept circling in mad confusion, hitting the glass, falling on the table,
struggling, crawling and flying up again. The eyes of the persons sitting at the table were misty,
and the lips and cheeks of the ladies were somehow very red.
"Well, what is it?" said the
officer with the lush moustache. He looked expectantly at the gendarme. The latter, shielding the
captives with his body, stepped forward and saluted.
[last par:]
The stars looked down sadly from the dark skies, and, peering through the foliage, it seemed that
they were crying: a curious wind rustled anxiously among the twigs; while the moths, paying but
little heed to the commotion and sensual clapping of the satiated, drunken people, just flew
around and blasted themselves against the glass, crawling stubbornly on toward the light; and
once again falling, crawling, and flying toward the light.
Strange Episode--The Dostoevsky influence
world divided between spiritual and physical, 1st page and pg. 71-73
Beauty is not a social phenomenon. The prostitute who is a sculptor. Beauty and ugliness.
[First par:] Why does my heart contract sadly when it looks at beauty? Why do I want to grasp
my head in my hands and cry hot tears? Why? And why is there tenderness, happiness, grief and
hopelessness in those tears?
Volodymyr Vynnychenko. Selected Short Stories. Trans. Theodore S. Prokopov. Wakefield,
New Hampshire: Longwood Academic, 1991. PG 3948 V88 A25 1991. Contents: “Honor,”
“First Love,” “The Moment,” “Kooz and Hrytsoon,” “The Purchase,” “Illusion and Reality,”
“Zina,” “A Zealous Friend,” “Contrasts.”
Slavic 218
Lecture Ten, Spring
Modernism in Poetry
1901 in Literaturno-naukovyj visnyk Mykola Voronyj published an appeal to Ukrainian writers
calling for submissions to an almanac he was preparing to publish (Z nad xmar i dolyn, Odessa,
1903, From above the clouds and the valleys). He is looking, he says, for works
“with at least a little originality, with an independent, free idea, with a contemporary content; it
would be nice to have works with at least a little philosophy, where we could see the brightness
of at least a little portion of that distant azure sky that has been attracting us for centuries with its
unreachable beauty, with its impenetrable myteriousness.” The appeal specified that “primary
attention will be given to the aesthetic appeal of the works.”
This provoked Franko into a debate, in poems.
Franko, in the introduction to his Lisova idylija. The title of the introduction: Posvjata Mykoli
Voronomu. [Dedidcation to Mykola Voronyj]
ŁŒ º , ‡Ø
Œ
‡Ø,
º‡æ
ŁØ!
‡
Ł
ł
º Œ ª ˚
;
ª Œ
Æ‡ Ł
º Ł ‡
, ø Æº Ł
ºŁ ‡,
ˇ æ Ł Ł æº
, ‡ Œ , æ ‡º ,
æ
‡
ø ‡º :
Dear Mykola, my old friend
Impenitent idealist.
Your voice brings solace to the soul
From distant Katerynodar.
Like a trembita s powerful sound
For those who saunter in the valley
Your resolute and fearless word
Has caused a stir in many hearts:
ˇ‡æ
Ø
,
`
‡Ø ¿ ŁŒ
` æ ‡ º
ª
ª
`
æ æ ‡
ª æ
`
‡Œ
Æ
` ª
ŒŁı ŒºŁŒ‡
` æ
‡
‡ ‡
` ª
æ ŒŁı Łı Œ
Poets, send to us your song.
Without tendentiousness writ long,
Without the din of social strife,
Without the universal pain of life,
Without the miserable swarms,
Without appeals, To arms!, To arms!
Without debates twixt think and know,
Without the pride of civic show.
†
˝
˙
˝‡,
‡Ø,
ª
Ł,
Ł,
,
,
,
Æ ,
‡ ,
‡ ! ...
Ł !
Ł ,
No, no, my friend, the times are vexed,
Our song must not appear relaxed,
No hospital recuperation
For us, just will and aspiration.
Our song is flaming with alarm,
It s all a struggle and a path
A search, a chase, a burning quest
Towards goals that rise from east to west.
æ
‡æ
˝ ł Ł º
”º
´
æ
Łæ
æ ‡Æ
,
† æ
ª
‡ æ
Ł ª ,
´æ Æ
Æ ‡ æ
ª
ŁŒ
, æº‡ ‡ ª ‡
˜
,ø
Æ æŒº ‡.
[ˇ
]
Ø æ
æ ¿ ‡æ ‡ æŒº
†æ ‡
Ł ”.
´
ŁØ ! º
º
,
”
Put all these things into your songs
And don t cry out for sympathy.
It will yet come. Words are mere chaff.
SLA 218
º
ª
` æ
ˇ
Ł
10
Modernism in Poetry
‡ æº
,
‡æŒ
But burning in these verbal clothes
Is the eternal force of magic
Prometheus s genuine flame.
,
ˇ
.
ˇ
2
ºŁæ 1900
1
.
Let’s have poetry without ... a long series of withouts. Franko is making fun of Voronyj,
the last without is without life. Franko thinks this abstract beauty stuff is lifeless.
Voronyj answers with a poem that has as its epigraph a line from Baudelaire:
La poØsie n’a pas la veritØ pour objet. Elle n’a qu’elle mŒme.
This is seen as decadent.
This episode is significant as a debate on the future of Ukrainian literature. Voronyj’s call
for submissions is, in effect, a manifesto. So is Franko’s answer. Again as with
Neuj-Franko, we have a discussion about what literature should be. That’s a sign of good
health, or at least the patient isn’t dying. People are interested enough in Ukrainian
literature to have a difference in views.
Furthermore, groupings of writers develop.
Moloda muza [The Young Muse] is a group of young writers in Lviv centered around
the journal Svit.
The group publishes a real manifesto, authored by O. Luckyj, father of our own Prof.
George Luckyj. This manifesto attacks utilitarianism in literature, realism, Neuj, ,
Myrnyj, and Franko
Franko’s answer, in print, is angry, he looses self-control, he calls the members of Moloda
Muza names, etc.
The Moloda Muza platform is influenced by a number of factors: specifically a Polish
group called Mloda Polska and the philosopher Nietzsche. Old values are dead. Their
works are characterized by solitary individualism, pessimism, a sense of cultural crisis
The group consists of people who are not major writers: Ostap Luc’kyj, Vasyl’
Paovs’kyj, Petro Karmans’kyj, Bohdan Lepkyj, Myxajlo Jackiv, arnec’kyj and others
In Kiev from March 1909 to 1914 (the War) a new journal appears, entitled Ukrajins’ka
xata. Its stand is anti-populist. Measure art by pure beauty (and by national idea)
Among the people associated with Ukrajins’ka xata:
Mykola Voronyj, Myxajlo Filjans’kyj, Olexander Oles’, Hryhorij uprynka, apoval,
Bohac’kyj (last two are editors). The journal publishes works by Vynnyenko, Ryl’s’kyj,
Tyyna, Semenko, Kobyljans’ka, Lepkyj
The debate here is with Serhij Jefremov, a populist, who publishes in the Ukrainian daily
newspaper, Rada
SLA 218
10
Modernism in Poetry
3
Mykola Voronyj 1871-1938
Born in Katerynoslav, attended University in Vienna and in Lviv, worked in the theater
in Kiev. He emigrated after the revolution but returned to Soviet Ukraine in 1926, was
arrested and executed in 1938.
He translates Baudelaire and Verlaine, he is much influenced by French symbolist poetry
His themes include Love, Beauty, Search for Truth
read To the Sea and A Palimpsest
TO THE SEA
A PALIMPSEST
To thee goes my salute, O vast blue sea!
Unplumbed, unmeasured in immensity,
To thee, vast power, I make salaam!
Mu humble gaze at thee can never tire,
And awed by thee, my prayers must still aspire
I’ll sing thee a majestic psalm.
Potent and matchless, not by cloud nor thunder
Canst thou be daunted or be rent asunder.
Thou art thyself thy own high law.
Enticing and luxurious thou dost prove;
In thee are found the dreams and joys of love
And slumberings in pleasant awe.
I came to thee, exhausted and far spent,
Yet not a stranger but a friend I went,
Akin to thee and glad in this.
And now my spirit merges in thy own,
In azure space I rock on waves unknown
And gently sink in thy abyss.
W hen paper from the abbey cell was stripped,
The monks would scour off some manuscript
To write an anthem or a chant’s assertion,
And labelled palimpsest the newer version.
And strange! Time passed and from the works
of John
Old Aristophanes appeared anon.
Darling, my soul is like that palimpsest.
Three years have passed by since your image
blest
And gentle smile and voice that you employ
W ere written on my soul with moving joy.
Though time has rudely traced its script above,
Your face once more emerges and my love!
As thou art vast, unstaid, mysterious,
Alluring yet a rebel boisterous,
So must the poet’s soul contend.
Therefore that soul to thee a friend remains;
Unable to be held by bonds and chains
It leaps like thee in freedom without end.
Olexander Kandyba (Oles’) 1878-1944
Born in the Xarkiv area. He was a veterinarian in Kiev.
He was involved with the independent Ukrainian government, Central Rada. He
emigrated. Died in Prague.
Title of one of his collections is Z urboju radist’ obnjalas’. That is a characteristic
sentiment for him.
SLA 218
10
Modernism in Poetry
Personal lyrics. Intense lyrical attachment to Ukraine.
A curious phenomenon in Ukrainian modernist poetry is this anti-utilitarian stand
coupled with patriotic verses.
read Sorrow and Joy and How glorious
SORROW AND JOY
Sorrow and joy have kissed each other
Laughter and tears are strung like pearls.
Morning and night together smother
In vain my hand their folds unfurls.
My joy and sorrow still embrace;
One seeks to fly, and one says No
Their struggle never shifts its base,
W hich is prevailing does not show.
How glorious: to see a reborn nation!
But yesterday the tears of serfdom fell,
Icons were silent in our ruins’ ashes
And the old steeple tolled a funeral knell.
W hen suddenly a zealous might emerging
Snatched up all life and filled it full of
power
Lo, in men’s hands are sudden banners
waving;
W e raise a hymn of triumph in that hour.
So sleeps an eagle when his swift eye opens,
He sees the light and beauty of the sky.
Then in the golden morn, in boundless
freedom,
He spurns the cliff and, screaming, soars on
high.
Thus does the sea at times dream through the
night,
Then beats its waves like wings on
shoreland’s shelf,
And strangely plays with pearls and coloured shells
And draws creation’s glances to itself.
1.y&"> KD">8@. G&@D4. =\` 5@D8: 7>4(@FBz:8", 1958. 16:162–63
4
Slavic 218
Lecture Eleven, Spring
Western Ukraine after Franko
Bring to Class: Kobylianska, On Sunday Morning (But the long quote is here).
The years 1905-1918 are marked by growing ties between East and West Ukraine
gradual unification (culturally), e.g. Hruševs'kyj and the Literaturno-Naukovyj Vistnyk move to
Kiev
this despite various difficulties. Western Ukrainian speak a different dialect with many different
words, they have a different outlook on many issues, etc etc
But, Ukrainian culture is finally developing in one stream, not two separate ones.
3 outstanding western writers:
Les' Martovy 1871-1916
lawyer, social and political activist
active in Ukrainian Radical Party
He, Stefanyk, and Marko eremšyna are known as the Pokuttja Trijcja (Triad)
influence of Drahomanov and Franko
psychology as a major idea in Martovy, satire and humor
social satire of peasants and intelligentsia
Neytalnyk (The Non-Reader) pig-headed peasants
Zabobon (Superstition) Slavko, son of a priest, does nothing, balances on a stool with a leg
missing
Vasyl' Stefanyk 1871-1936
family of a wealthy peasant
met Martovyin gimnazija in Kolomyja, lasting friendship and mutual influence
University of Crackow
very sensitive young man, hates the city with its bustle and human misery. not very healthy
either, neurasthenic
community work, member of Austrian parliament from the Radical party, 1908-1914
doesn't write 1905-1916
last 20 years, poor health and poverty, accepts a Soviet pension
Struk identifies 5 qualities
brevity (both genre and laconicity)
dialogue -- dramatization
focus on one moment
language -- stylized dialect plus literary norm
rhythm
his subject is human suffering. Poverty and war erode human dignity and cause anguish
read Pious Woman.
Semen and Semenykha (a very pious woman) come home from church. He’s something of a
slob, so she starts berating him. Eventually, she gets him angry.
SLA 218 – 11
2
“The hell with you, woman. Leave me alone. You're a holy one! So you've joined some
“archroman” sisterhood and you think you're a saint already? Boy, will I tan your hide until it
has blue lines, just like a book! So the ladies've formed a sisterhood? No one's ever seen or
heard anything like it: one had a kid while she was still a girl, another while she was a
widow, a third had one without a husband; real respectable ladies you've got together. Boy, if
those priests knew what kind of a crowd you are, they'd chase you out of church with a whip.
Look at the pious females; all you need is a tail. They read books, they buy holy pictures;
they want to get into Heaven alive.”
Semenykha, on the verge of tears, trembled with anger.
“Then you shouldn't have taken me when I had a child. So-oo what a fate I found for myself!
Even a bitch wouldn't have gone for a bull like you. You should thank God that I ruined my
life with you or you'd still be hanging around alone 'till you died.”
“Because I was stupid and greedy for land, I took a witch into my house. Now I'd even add
some of my own land to get rid of you.”
“Oh, no you won't. You won't get rid of me. I know, you'd like to have another wife with
land, but don't you worry, you're not going to get rid of me that easy. I'll live and you'll have
to put up with me and look at me and that's that.”
The fight goes on a little more, then:
“Lay off woman, 'cause I'm gonna grab something and I'll latch onto you, but good.”
“Oh, mother, did you ever marry me off to a Calvin; look at him there, he's planning to beat
me on a Sunday!”
“Well, did I begin the fight? And she still thinks she's holy! Oh, my dear, if you're gonna
carry on like that then I'll have to take you down a peg or two, I'll have to close that mouth of
yours a bit. Or I'll have to leave my house because of this pious female. But whatever
happens I'll beat you.”
Semenykha was running out of the house, but her husband caught up with her in the hallway,
and he beat her. He had to beat her.
Ol'ha Kobyljans'ka 1863-1942
Bukovina is (after 1849) a part of Austria-Hungary, but it is administered separately from
Galicia. It isn't Polish.
Southern Bukovina is in Romania.
Ol'ha's father was a Galician, a very conservative man. Her mother was German.
She studies Ukrainian language and literature at home but she has a good German education.
Knows German literature and philosophy and has a very Western orientation.
Best known long works:
Carivna 1896 The Princess
Zemlja 1902 The Earth
V nedilju rano zillja kopala 1909 Digging Herbs on Sunday Morning
characteristics:
Influence of Nietzsche: individualism; the uncommon, above-average man (or woman), i.e.
SLA 218 – 11
3
superman.
Feminism
Romantic mysticism, powerful forces affecting people
mixes realism, romanticism, and modernism
read from Impromptu Phantasie, pg 142, girl with horse
Cursing and grumbling, the boys ran over the fields lying beyond the house and garden,
trying to catch a colt that refused to be caught, and seemed to be mocking at them and
making an aggravating game out of the chase.
Up to the moment that they were within a few feet of him he stood quietly, nibbling at the
rye that reached up to his neck. But just as they would stretch out a hand to grasp the
bridle that was trailing behind him, he shied away like lightning, kicking out with his
hind legs so that his horeshoes flashed, then galloping wildly through the undulating
grain, shaking his luxurious mane and trampling everything under foot like some sinister
force...
Like a small kitten she bent over and crept to the frenzied animal, and in a moment when
it once again stopped to graze, grasped the bridle unobserved...
The small heart pounded in terror and the little body trembled with fear! What if the horse
should turn and kick out at her with its heels?
But the impossible happened.
He did not kick at her. He walked along quietly and, led by the tiny hand, followed
obediently, like a child, until he was handed over into responsible hands.
Then she almost got a spanking for doing such a thing and for putting herself into such
danger.
“You little fool! You could have been killed!”
But she didn't cry.
Fixing her eyes on one spot and biting her nails, she thought of God knows what!
Within, she was strangely, strangely agitated. She felt as if she was stifling, everything
seemed so vivid, so overwhelming, something that conjured visions and passed into
sound...1
On Sunday Morning, 1909
Based on a very popular Ukrainian folk song, Oi ne khody Hrytsiu.
This is a combination of two elements, a traditional, folkloric story-telling and a modernist
sense of artistry and
What Kobylianska brings to the story that was not in the folk song: Mavra, the whole gypsy
episode.
Centrality of the female characters
read pg 53–4:
1. Written in The Book of Life. pg 142
SLA 218 – 11
4
“Tell me your name!”
“I am Turkynia,” she answers, looking squarely into his beautiful sky-blue eyes,
which she finds somewhat disconcerting.
“Turkynia?” he repeats, baffled, for he has never heard of any Turkish women in
the district.
“Turkynia,” she calmly repeats and turns away, because she can no longer bear his
bright and interested gaze upon her.
“Wait, beautiful Turkynia!” he implores, and instinctively puts his arm around her
shoulders. She slides out from his embrace, and again raises her eyebrows.
“You don't know me, and you're pestering me” she speaks dryly and pushes him
away with quiet resistance, “Do you think I am available for everyone? I am not for
everyone! I tell you, I'm not for everyone!”
He became serious.
“I see that you are as beautiful as a nymph, and I love beautiful girls.”
“There's nothing clever about that.”
“And I could easily fall in love with you.”
“Just try. Do you think, as I have already said, that I'm available for everyone?
No, I'm not for everyone!”
“But maybe for me?” he said humbly and bowed low, holding his hat in both
hands as he did so.
“Then go ahead, love me!” she answers coolly, as before, but looking at him with
a bright, startled gaze and moving back a few steps.
“You're going away!” he accused her again.
“Why not? Nobody stands in one spot for long.”
He fell into step beside her, silent, noticing that she is almost as tall as he is, then
asks:
“Your parents are Turkish?”
“No,” she answers.
“Where is your house?”
“Where do I live?” she repeated. “Well, as you see, I'm in the forest, so.…” She
stopped, waving her arm forward, then behind her.
“Somewhere here in the forest?” he presses, not understanding her gesture.
“No,” she answers, and suddenly bursts into laughter, so hearty and spontaneous,
that he felt he had never heard such laughter before. At this his sensitive nature took over
and he became offended.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because you're a fool!”
He flared up.…
“You-u-u!” he snaps, and with blazing eyes waves a hand threateningly. “Take
care, you wretched girl, watch what you say, for I am not the fool you take me for!”
She holds her head proudly, her brows arched, as if measuring him from head to
foot, and drawls out lightly, disdainfully, “You don't say!”
Now he boiled over.
SLA 218 – 11
5
“You!” he says, his voice accentuated with menace that flows through his body
and concentrates, like lightning, in his eyes. “You just say one more word like that again
and you'll see who the fool is!”
“You don't say!” she dares him again, taking a step toward him.
His eyes burning, he raises his hand, but she bends toward him with lightning
speed, facing him with eyes half-closed, as if expecting a caress, her lips smiling. “You're
a fool,” she says softly, caressingly. “You're a fool, and I am Turkynia, I'll have you
know!”
Slavic 218
Lecture Twelve, Spring
Tyyna
Bring to Class: Xerox Poetry handouts
Pavlo Tyyna 1891-1967
born to a village cantor, (djak) near ernihiv
grade school in a monastery and then ernihiv Seminary
He has a religious education, although he is not going to be a priest.
In ernihiv he also meets Kocjubyns'kyj, who encourages the young Tyyna and influences him.
The idea of affirming life and man gets reinforced with Kocjubyns'kyj's influence.
Starts writing in early 1910s. Published in Ukrajins'ka xata
Spends a few years at Kiev University. Immediately after the revolution he's already a major
figure in Ukrainian literature. He is a factor in the formation of Hart and then Vaplite with
Xvyl'ovyj.
He survives Stalinism although he was attacked. But he also wrote things that are not very
appetizing.
Early vs. late Tyyna
collections before 1935:
Zamist' sonetiv i oktav 1920 (Instead of Sonnets and Octaves)
Pluh 1920 (The Plow)
Viter z Ukrajiny 1924 (The Wind from Ukraine)
ernihiv 1931
Partija vede 1934 (The Party Leads)
Vsix paniv do 'dnoji jamy, ... while collectivization and the famine
Tyyna's place in Ukrainian poetry is enormous. He is a brilliant, original poet. He is clearly the
best Ukrainian poet of the 20th century. His early work is extremely influential, but Tyyna's
greatness lies not in his influence but in the quality of his own work.
Unfortunately, poetry is always dependent on language. The single most important quality of
Tyyna's poetry is sound, and you won't get that from a translation.
Tyyna vs. Modernism
In one sense Tyyna is a modernist poet. He fits in with such characteristically modernist
principles as the focus on aesthetic rather than practical values; idealism, in both a popular and a
philosophical sense; individualism (for the most part); his poetry is mostly contemplative,
abstract, sometimes erotic.
But, unlike the modernists, he has no Nietzschean pessimism.
In fact, optimism, in a cosmic sense and in a cosmic amplitude is one of Tyyna's most
recognizable features.
Also unlike the Modernists, with their Nietzschean distaste for man the simple, stupid animal,
Tyyna is a devoted humanist in the sense that he has overwhelming respect for man as a being,
not merely as an intelligence that writes beautiful poetry.
Also unlike the Modernists, Tyyna is not copying West European poetry. He knows it, there are
SLA 218
Tyyna
Spring, lecture 12
some points of similarity, but he is not following in its footsteps or holding it up as a model. He
is a very original poet, whose inspiration comes from within himself.
Characteristics of Tyyna's poetry:«TS15»
1. Music. This is both a technique and a subject for Tyyna
musical sound of his verse
poems about sound
the world as a musical harmony
2. Nature.
Beauty of nature—like Modernists but also
Joy of life
One-ness with nature, pantheism
3. Optimism. As an almost religious principle. Sunny outlook
4. Harmony of man with world. Unlike much of 20th centry philosophy.
5. Synasthesia, deliberate confusion of senses.
6. Drama of powerful forces.
read:
Haji shumljat' 4/14 Groves Rustling
Sonjašni kljarnety 4/13 Sunny Clarinets
Pasteli 1/28 Pastels
Enharmonijne 1/24 Enharmoniques
V kosminomu orxestri, In the Cosmic Orchestra, pt. 3
Na majdani, In the Square
Not Zeus, nor Pan, nor Spirit-Dove
Am I, but sunny clarinets.
Within the dance's rhythm I move,
In music that each Sphere begets.
A shifting dream my fancies mark.
About me are sweet notes' demands,
The chiton of the pregnant dark,
The pressure of good tidings' hands.
I wake—and I am you anon:
Above and under me, I dream
Worlds are ablaze and worlds rush on
In Melody's unceasing stream.
2
SLA 218
Tyyna
Spring, lecture 12
I watch and springtime fills my path:
Each planet-sphere its chord begets.
I recognize you are not Wrath
But just the sunny clarinets.
'"| TJ<:bH\ —
a F:JN"`.
M<"D84 $z0"H\ —
;4:J`Fb.
;4:J`Fb — *4&J`Fb,
Q@(@ (*JTz <@|6) [<,>z]
H"8 &,F,:@.
',6, *2&z> (J*, —
y2*":,8J.
)J<84 BDb*, —
="* >4&"<4.
="* >4&"<4 — BD4:4&"<4,
7JB"`R4 (<,>,),
<@& :"FHz&8J.
a 6*J, z*J —
1&@DJT,>46.
7@(@F\ &F, 0*J —
EBz&"`R4.
EBz&"`R4 — 8@N"`R4
Az* (H4N46) T,BzH HD"&
(@:J$:bR46.
U@F\ <Dzp ("6 —
="* DzR8@`.
',> >,$" 8D"6 —
a8 2@:@H@.
;@& 2@:@H@ — B@8@:@H@,
'@D4H\ — (HD,<H4H\) Dz8",
b8 <J248".
Bibliography:
Dmytro Stepovyk. “Zustrii z Pavlom Tyynoju.” Suasnist' 1991: 2, 18-28. Scared and lonely.
3
Slavic 218
Lecture Thirteen, Spring
Literary Politics in the 1920s
1914-1917 There is a total clampdown on Ukrainian. These are war years and the Russian
government sees all Ukrainian activity as more or less seditious. This now includes Galicia,
which was occupied by Russian troops in 1914, although they retreated in 1915
1917 Revolution. This means freedom for Ukrainians to write what they want and to publish
what they want. At least until some new government stops them
Three Ukrainian governments all have some kind of a policy to promote Ukrainian culture. The
mere fact that these are Ukrainian governments, (at least nominally, as far as the Hetman is
concerned) is culturally significant and significant as a milestone in the development of national
consciousness.
The Hetman government, a German puppet and the most conservative and culturally pro-Russian
of the governments is, ironically, instrumental in such developments as the Academy of Science
in Kiev, although under the Hetman these are largely Russian institutions.
In the period 1917-1919 literary and cultural life revives quickly.
Groups of poets are formed, e.g. Futurists, Symbolists, Neoclassicists
With Communist victory, many writers leave. But not only writers. Much of the intellectual,
cultural, and institutional infrastructure of Ukrainian literature and culture in general, leaves or
disappears.
The Communist view of literature, taken at its best, its theoretical, ideological stand, rather than
at its everyday, terror-inspired form, is a pragmatic one. Literature, as everything else in the
Communist perspective, has a purpose. It must serve the people. It is a tool and a weapon in
creating the socialist state. A writer cannot be free from society. New ideas are introduced, such
as the idea of proletarian literature. But what is proletarian literature? Since it didn't exist before
and since there is no clear definition of what it must be--everyone is making it up to suit their
own interests. And many are trying to designate their own work as the real "proletarian
literature."
1919-1922 Many short-lived institutions, organizations, journals, initiatives
1923 Year of Big Changes. NEP and Ukrainization.
read pg 44. from Literary Politics. decree on Ukrainization
The workers' and peasants' government deems it necessary ... to center the efforts of the state on
the widest diffusion of the Ukrainian language. The formal equality of the two most widely
spread languages in the Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian, which has been recognized up to now,
is not sufficient. The slow development of Ukrainian culture in general, the shortage of suitable
textbooks, and the lack of well-trained personnel have brought about a situation in which the
Russian language enjoys, in fact, supremacy. In order to abolish this inequality, the government
will initiate a series of measures which, while respecting the equal rights of all languages on
Ukrainian territory, will safeguard the position of Ukrainian; a position to which the numerical
and other preponderances of the Ukrainian people entitle it.
SLA 218 – 13
2
3 options for Ukrainian writers:
inner emigrés (e.g. Jefremov and Neoclassicists) aloof, do not participate in organized literary
life. They do not debate what proletarian literature is and certainly do not pretend that what they
are doing is proletarian literature.
But they are very influential and organize much of the publishing activity.
fellow travellers (e.g. Lanka group, Pidmohyl'nyj, Antonenko-Davydovy, Kosynka). They
participate in literary life but as a kind of opposition to the proletarian, to the official. They
argue, in essence, for the old values.
proletarian the mainstream of literary life and literary discussion. Trying to be the
representatives of the new proletarian literature, to have their view accepted as the official view.
Very diverse group.
Two Big Organizations (in the beginning) and other small
Pluh and Hart
Pluh (Plow) is peasant oriented. Leader is Serhij Pylypenko. Prominent members include Andrij
Holovko, Petro Pan, Hryhorij Epik, Jakiv Kopylenko.
Their journal: Plužanyn, later Pluh.
Hart (Tempering) proletarian, worker oriented
prominent members: Tyyna, Ellan-Blakytnyj, Myxajlo Sosjura, Xvyl'ovyj, Majk Johansen,
Jevhen Polišuk
many former Borotbists
1925 Party resolution on literature--no one group is the official one, no one view will be given
preference, fellow-travellers have a place in Soviet literature also.
Hart and Pluh had been in a struggle for which was the "correct" proletarian view
Pluh had a mass orientation, Hart had a more national, more Ukrainian orientation, intellectual,
artistic integrity
The Literary Debate
May 24, 1925 a public debate on the subject: Europe or Prosvita?
Xvyl'ovyj's position:
graphomaniacs, speculators, and other enlighteners, who can't write
orientation on Europe, tradition of high civilization, and high culture.
Asiatic renaissance, that is we are going to rejuvenate culture
read 2 pars on pg 95, much of this comes from Marx
There cometh a mighty Asiatic renaissance in art, and we, the "Olympians," are its precursors. As
at one time Petrarch, Michelangelo, Raphael, and others from their Italian nook set Europe afire
with the flame of Renaissance, so new artists from the once oppressed Asiastic lands, new artistscommunists who will follow us, shall climb the Helicon and place there the beacon of a
Renaissance which, amid the distant cries of barricade fighting, will flare up in a purple-and-blue
SLA 218 – 13
3
pentagram over the dark European night.11
Further on, in the same pamphlet, Khvyl'ovyi explains that
speaking of the Asiatic renaissance, we mean a future undreamt flowering of art among such
nations as the Chinese, the Indians, and others. By this we mean a great spiritual regeneration of
the backward Asiatic areas. This Asiatic renaissance must come because the ideas of
Communism appear as a nightmare not so much to Europe as to Asia. Asia, which realizes that
only Communism will liberate it from economic slavery, will use art as a weapon.
also read 3 pars on 96 and 98
When we now ask ourselves what trend must characterize our period of transition, we answer: a
romantic vitaism (vita—life). . . .
We repeat again. The real destroyers of proletarian art are the Octobrist simplifiers and
vulgarizers. In Russia this has degenerated under the influence of "mother Kaluga" into "factory
whistles and sirens," while in our country it is turning to "tractors and ploughs." The enlighteners
are resting on their laurels; they are "creating a new life," they do not feel or wish to feel the
world catastrophe—the epoch of civil wars
.
The proletarian art of our VAPLITE's time is a Marseillaise which will lead the avant-garde of
the world proletariat on to barricades. Only Communists can create the romantic vitaism. It is
like all art, for those with developed intellects. It is the sum total of a new outlook on life, new
and complex vibrations. This [romantic vitaism] will be the art of the first period of the Asiatic
renaissance. From the Ukraine it must spread to all parts of the world and play there not a
domestic role but a universally human one.
Since our literature at last can follow its own path of development, we are faced with the
following question: "Toward which of the world's literatures should it orient itself?"
On no account toward the Russian. This is unconditional. One must not confuse our political
union with literature. Our poetry must run away as fast as possible from Russian literature and
its styles. The Poles would never have produced Mickiewicz if they had followed ; Muscovite
art. The point is that Russian literature has been burdening < us for ages; it has been the master of
the situation, who has trained us to imitate him slavishly. Thus if we try to feed our young art
with ; it, we shall impede its development. Proletarian ideas did not reach us through Muscovite
art; on the contrary, we, a young nation, can I better apprehend these ideas and recreate them in
proper images. Our orientation is toward Western European art, its style and its techniques.
We are truly an independent state which is one of the republics of the \ Soviet Union. The
Ukraine is independent not because we, the Communists, so desire, but because it is made
imperative by the iron and unwavering power of the laws of history, because only in this way
shall we hasten class differentiation in the Ukraine. If any one nation (much has been written
about it before) shows throughout many centuries a will to express itself as an entity in the form
of a state, then all attempts to arrest in one way or another this essential process on the one hand
SLA 218 – 13
4
hinder the formation of class forces, and on the other bring an element of chaos into the general
historical development of the world. To attempt to rub out independence by empty pseudoMarxism means a failure to understand that the Ukraine will continue to be an armory of
counterrevolution as long as it does not pass through that essential stage which Western Europe
underwent at the time of the formation of national states.
1. Not Russia
2. High culture vs. backwardness of east. establishing a connection between the Party line on
literature and the old prosvita appraoch
3. Against Party control, allow free development
So we have Pluh, Pylypenko and Co. with the Party apparat
against
Xvyl'ovyj, Vaplite (which he forms out of the Hart Split-up), fellow-travellers, Neoclassicists
Pluh vs. Hart becomes
VUSPP vs Vaplite
But starting 1928-29 the Party begins to excercise more control until eventually in 1932 it
declares that all literary organizations are abolished and one Writers Union is created
Mykola Skrypnyk 1872-1933
Borotbist, loyal and respected communist
1926 Commissar of Education
this position makes him the official protector of the Ukrainization program, overseeing schools
but also publishing
he takes on the cause of the "national" rights of Ukrainians
goes as far as criticizing Stalin. read pg 188
As far as practice is concerned, why do we tramp about the same piece of ground; in spite of the
solution of the national problem in principle, we are in reality powerless. The reason is that all
the time we are dithering in the field of one national problem. Some are continually attempting to
find a middle course. Each directive concerned with imperialist chauvinism they feel it necessary
to counterpose with an opposite directive—about the chauvinism of the formerly stateless
nationalities—and so there is always a double bookkeeping. Each mention of Great Russian
chauvinism is always to be discounted. . . .
It is true that theoretically comrade Stalin sets side by side both nationalisms: that of the formerly
imperialist nation and of the formerly oppressed nationalities. However, does not comrade Stalin
stretch this too far? Will not this counterposing of two nationalisms provide a pretext for many of
those who are in opposition, trying to excuse their passivity toward the whole national problem?
I am very much afraid of this.
and defending republic read 187
The first clause of the Union law on the use of land declares that all land is the property of the
USSR. I regard this statement as false in principle, since it contradicts the resolutions of the Party
SLA 218 – 13
5
on the relations between the Union and the Union Republics.
The new law concerning the use of land declares that the land is not the property of the Republic,
but of the whole Union. If we should pass such a law it would mean that the sovereignty of the
individual Republics is limited to the fact that they merely have their own governments, but no
territory. I think that all such tendencies must be rejected..
May 13, 1933 Xvyl'ovyj suicide
July 6, 1933 Skrypnyk suicide
Slavic 218
Lecture Fourteen, Spring
Poetry of the 1920s
The poetry of the 1920s is plentiful and very diverse
A number of Modernist poets from before the revolution are still around and still writing. Of
course Tyyna is writing as he was before the revolution.
Instead of surveying the various kinds of poetry that were written lets look at three important
poets who are all very different from each other, Semenko, Zerov, Bažan
Myxajl' Semenko 1892-1939
the central figure in Ukrainian Futurism.
Futurism is a movement in literature founded by an Italian poet, Marinetti, in 1909. It is a violent
reaction against the traditions of the 19th century. It is an attempt to express the new dynamic life
of the 20th century. It appeals to violence, strife, and irresponsibility. It is a poetry of speed,
movement, color, and change.
Free verse and free association of words.
Semenko was writing before the revolution. His first three collections were published 1913-1914.
When the war begins he leaves for America but gets stuck in Vladivostok for three years. Returns
to Kiev after revolution. Organizes Ukrainian Futurism
Characteristics of Semenko's works:
1. Urban life
2. the mundane and the non poetic
3. seeking shock effect
read Giant Chain,
A giant chain is unwinding
look out, you worm-eaters at the bottom of the slime
the giant chain will catch you in a million steel claws
with electromagnets
and it will push you out of your caves and puddles
it will dry out the sea-weed
and YOU?
The giant chain is rising
and here behind the control panel are we
The panfuturists.
C?E7CIQIoG[Ea
%+9+G+=E[735 9!=O_'
#y5G+E[ R,D&@|*4 B" &
& <J:z
*" >
>" *>z
p
4
SLA 218 – 14
Poetry of the 1920s
2 &,:,
H,>F\846 :">P`(
1!M?A3G[ %!E
;y 9y?=!;3
E%?{M
EG!9+%3M
A!1ICy%
1 +9+7GC?;!'=yG!;3
6 &4BN>,
2 B,R,D z 8@&$">\
&4FN>, $"(@&z>>b >" F@>Pz
! %3?
Ay)=y;!oG[Ea % '?CI
%+9+G+=E[735 9!=O_'
! GIG 1 7=?A7!;3
1! !A!C!G?; ;3
A!=KIGIC3EG31
read Smoke and Noise pg 383 of The Ukrainian Poets
Smoke and Noise
On an inky night there was smoke
And an uproar rose.
The city began to tremble. It stirred in its concrete woes,
And a rioting stream outbroke.
The city began to clatterwith iron wheel' duress;
it hissed in its angry chatter
with its resin-smelling express-on a dark night--a scarlet smoke
overcast the sky with its murky cloak.
In slender files, in slender files
1
Myxajl' Semenko, Vybrani tvory, (Würzburg: Jal-reprint, 1979) p. 242. The translation is
mine.
2
SLA 218 – 14
Poetry of the 1920s
the power is alive,
chined into one by a mutual aim,
with the outcry of inspired souls,
with the outcry of inspired will-in slender files the power is enchined
by a mutual aim.
Before the train pulls out, rush to the station;
don't wait for dawn—the steel will flash elation,
the sun will light our gains by intuition,
the will of the elements dictates its law,
earth glories in a prostitute's ambition,
dreams to material forms their essence draw.
The town was scattering its iron chords
with the bold hand of avenues of steel,
when to the centre marched the anxious hordes,
and the high roots their blazing wreck reveal.
And sinuous flames in monstrous arias merged
and the unsoldered steel sang red romance;
on the red sidewalks like a torch it surged;
subsiding cadences oi history dance.
With measured pace and bold associate deeds
the throngs advanced through fire to their goal;
the individual halts—'tis love he needs,
but rumbling stones above his death-cries roll.
Who, who has fallen in love with flaming shows?
Whose heart goes pulsing as he sees the smoke?
The city trembles under iron blows,
the town is muffled in a murky cloak.
And when the morning comes, when clouds disperse,
and when the corpse of genius walks again,—
the sidewalks in the brightness will converse
and agelong scabs fall off, devoid of pain.
The steamships and the trains, controlled by will,
will fringe with roads the stations' black-squid brood;
structures will blossom, built by fortune's skill:
thinkers will close their books, and call it good!
3
SLA 218 – 14
Poetry of the 1920s
4
All of the powers and fragments start to sound
in a stream roaring ruthless, void of pity,
and concrete pedestals befoul the ground,
while a great pall of smoke conceals the city.
Mykola Zerov 1890-1941 (?)
central figure among the Neoclassical group.
The only one who actually is a neoclassical poet, i.e., who reverts to classical forms and subjects
in his poetry.
He is an aloof, academic, ivory tower kind of poet. He is also a teacher and a scholar. He is, even
in the Soviet 1920s, highly regarded and very influential, but in a quiet, personal way.
He is an important translator of classical literature.
Characteristics of Zerov's poetry
1. classical meters and forms, especially sonnet
2. subjects from classical history or literature
3. focus on the function of the poet, on literature itself
read To A Builder
Vergil Rome=USSR, Vergil=Zerov
TO A BUILDER
He will yet come, not architect, but poet,
New scion of old builders, bold of standing,
With marble white on staircase and on landing
He will adorn each slope, with grace to show it.
He'll break with architectural common fare,
The shameful heritage of styleless years,
He will soar up on wings above the spheres
And set free captive Beauty from the snare.
The hilly garden and the distant sand
Spondylic brick and glass and concrete stand,
Spreading new backgrounds of creative ways;
With fires of night they'll bloom in pearl-like splendour
And say: No ancient village do we render
But the grand capital of future days.
Mykola Bažan 1904-1983
starts as futurist--constructivist
quickly moves beyond that and away from it. Establishes his own unique voice.
SLA 218 – 14
Poetry of the 1920s
After 30s his poetry changed.
Characteristics of Bažan's poetry
1. philosophical
2. earthy, hard. non-lyrical
3. historical subjects
read Blood of Captive Women
THE BLOOD OF CAPTIVE WOMEN
The tethered, shaggy horse stamps with his hoof.
Deep down in hollowed barrels unawares
Boils the sweet milk of the lascivious mares.
The offshoots void their scent—wild, salty-proof.
The horsemen sleep. Not even death could wake them.
Unmoving on the ground their bodies drowse.
The heavy patterns of the tree-top boughs
Like muscles on a lion's belly strake them.
Downward inclines the brushwood of the fire;
The smoke, cord-straight, supports the heavenly vault.
Tearing their dirtied garments where they halt,
The full breasts bend their buds of outraged ire.
With lavish moisture, fertile sweat indeed,
Ukrainian captive women's bodies flow;
Their mouths are bruised; tomorrow starts to grow
In maidens' wombs the caustic Mongol seed.
And the years grow, the eternal after-grasses;
In quivered hearts, the tale has smouldered out;
But the old blood, for centuries, past doubt,
Their issue, in his veins, still darkly passes.
We love those words, as heavy as thick smoke
Of threatening pyres that gave the Tartar light;
We cultivate the blood's dim appetite;
And the expanse of steppeland, vast and bright,
We welcome with the hearts of simple folk.
From Anthology of Soviet Ukrainian Poetry
5
SLA 218 – 14
Poetry of the 1920s
Vasyl' Ellan-Blakytnyi
Hammer Blows
Beating hammers, beating hearts-Irregula beats ... then not again ...
But flooding free once more there starts
The tempered in the fire refrain
The horizon 's barred, as by a wall.
Strike in measured timeone, two ...
We're only the first brave souls who fall,
Millions will see our venture through.
A milliard "we" will raise proud heads,
We only strike the initial spark.
Well-forged blades will slash to shreds
The ancient curtain-shrouds of dark.
1920
pg 77 Soviet Ukrainian Poetry
Ievhen Pluzhnyk
Lenin
Decades pass, in time's day-measured paces,
Joyous neb-born generations rise
Always, though
once early,
on their
faces
Sadness like a sombre shadow lies.
YHound and old remember him who died
This same moment long and long ago
Ever after -Whistles, throttled wide
Blow three minutes!
Just as now they blow!
Always, through the factory-whistle riot,
(Immortal for all workers as a hymn!)
People are
united,
solemn, quiet-For three minutes mutely honour
6
SLA 218 – 14
Poetry of the 1920s
him!
Faces wince from hidden grief internal,
Lenin lives in millions-never died!
... Whistles prove his memory is eternal
With a clearness yet unrealized.
Storm-like decade after decade passes,
Years of wars and blood, of struggle, pain.
But, a living truth among the masses-Lenin will remain.
pg 159 Soviet Ukrainian Poetry
7
Slavic 218
Lecture Fifteen, Spring
Prose of the 1920s
Bring to class: Before the Storm; Soviet Ukrainian Short Stories; Antonenko Davydovych,
Duel
After the war and revolution, prose is slow to readjust. There was not that much prose before
the war but the war and revolution make a big disruption.
1. The sociology of prose. People write poetry anytime and often for themselves only. Prose
is generally a market phenomenon. You don't write unless you think you will be published.
2. Prose is slower to respond to current events than other genres. The Vietnam War did not
appear in long prose works for about ten years. Postwar German literature could hardly deal with
the war years till the late sixties. The turbulent years between 1914 and 1921 don't appear in
Ukrainian prose for a few years, especially in long prose.
3. Physical discontinuity between the pre-war writers and the post-revolutionary ones. Ivan
Neuj-Levyc'kyj, Panas Myrnyj, Ivan Franko, Myxajlo Kocjubyns'kyj are all dead by 1920.
Volodymyr Vynnyenko has emigrated. The old masters of prose are gone.
1922-23 some prose starts to appear. It is very lyrical, highly symbolic melodrama about
revolutionary events.
e.g. Myroslav Iran (1897-1937; 1923-29 in Winnipeg), "Land To the Poor" (1923) Read
first and last paragraph.
First Page:
"Mom, Mo-o-o-ommy! You hear?"
"What is it child?"
"The bells are ringing, calling for the village gathering."
"God's wrath be on them! They'll torture him! They'll murder him! Oh my dear child! Oh my
poor one!"
The woman, lying in bed, began moaning. It was a very loud, drawn-out moaning. Her
weeping, curses and groans mingled together to produce a jumpy, wheezing noise which filled
the room.
Varka embraced her mother, talking soothingly.
"No ringing, dear mother, no bells. I misheard. Oh please don't cry, mother don't..." She
couldn't go on; lowering her fair head onto her mother's sickness-ravished breast, she burst into a
flood of tears.
And the ominous tolling of the bells spread throughout the village.
* * *
The big fight in the village took place the previous night. At the gathering of villagers,
Hordij Tytarenko, who had recently returned from the gubernial center, said that the power of the
poor had been established and the rich no longer ruled.
"There will be no such thing as rich and poor any more. All are equall, because we are all
humans. The land of the rich we'll divide among the poor, because that's the law now. In the
towns, the factories were given to the workers, and in the country, the land was given to the poor
peasants. The rich will be brought level with the poor, and the rich won't have power. The time
SLA 218 – 15
Prose of the 1920s
2
has come for the poor to rule!"
The story of Hordij Tytarenko, Varka's brother, who tells the village gathering there has
been a revolution and the land of the rich should be divided. The rich peasants protest. A big
fight breaks out with the rich winning and arresting Hordij and the village cripple Jurko
Panyšyn, both of whom are severely beaten. Next day they are brought out for a "trial." Yurko
is shot. Hordij is buried alive.
read last par. Varka's mother is dead.
The story is told from the perspective of Varka and her sick mother, who are at home
waiting for news of their son and brother. We are delibarately made to sympathize with them.
"Mom, Mommeeeee! They've killed him! Accursed beasts! They buried him alive.
Mo-o-ther! Our dear Hordij is no more... You hear?"
But her mother did not reply and lay quietly in her bed. Her wrinkled face wore a mask of
immeasurable pain. Varka took hold of he mother's hands, and immediately dropped them,
leaping away from the bed in horror: the hands were deathly cold.
She ran out screaming, and collapsed at the door. No one came to help. Only the rays of the
autumn sun danced playfully on her fair head, and the naked stems of sunflowers at the wattle
fence swayed sadly.
Although it was autumn, the day was clear and worm, brimming with hope for the better.
The distant thunder of huge guns drowned the singing of larks.
It was autumn ... or maybe spring?
Springtime for the revolution, of course. This is the springtime of a new era and this is the
story of one of the martyr heroes of this new era, Hordij Tytarenko, whose only crime was that
he brought news of the revolution to the village.
Kosynka's "Politics" 1924 which you are assigned to read is also built on this kind of
melodrama
Until around 1926, short stories and fiction of a quasi-journalistic type and style
1926-27 things change. Suddenly there are novels being written, in fact, Ukrainian literature
is awash in a sea of novels. Wide range of subjects. Wide range of quality. Some pure trash.
There were novels about prostitution in Kiev, chemical plants in New York, airplane pilots and
filmmakers, 17th century history, the future world communist revolution, but mostly there are
works about the revolution. Village dramas of heroic struggle by the poor opressed communists
against the rich, the nationalists, and sundry other forces of imperialism and social injustice. One
of the ironies of post-revolutionary literature is that when this literature takes up revolutionary
events as a subject it usually begins to resemble the old ethnographic realism and social
consciousness of the end of the 19th century.
Much of the better literature--that is the literature that is better written, more interesting,
more thoughtful--is about the inner conflict of the new man. How can one be both a dedicated
communist and a sensitive, humane individual. How can you be an intellectual and a
SLA 218 – 15
Prose of the 1920s
3
revolutionary. How can you be a Ukrainian patriot and an opponent of the bourgeoisie. Notice
that some of this resembles the intellectual vs. the community theme that we examined in
Franko, Lesja Ukrajinka, Kocjubyns'kyj, Vynnyenko. The selections in Before the Storm
overrepresent this intellectual prose in terms of its quantity but they give a good taste of its
flavor. There were, of course, some other writers who did not fit either category. There were
detective stories and thrillers, there were historical romances, there were travel diaries pretending
to be novels and many other kinds of prose. There was also one outstanding realist writer,
Valerijan Pidmohyl'nyj, about whom next time. Now lets look at two works that nicely
demonstrate the characteristics of intellectual prose.
Borys Antonenko-Davydovy 1899-1984. His biography is sketched out in the introduction
to the book you have.
Duel (Smert', i.e. Death in the original)
How does this compare in style to the prose we've seen
Read pg 23
It was morning. The sun boldly cut the green leafy mass with its golden swords,
embroidering a fantastic tapestry on the wall. Kost Horobenko came up to the veranda parapet
and took a deep breath of fresh air.
The morning was celebrating its triumph. Its azure forehead was not darkened by a single
cloud. It had effortlessly tossed the night over the horizon and made its way victoriously towards
day. Thousands of birds sang triumphal cantatas to it; the neglected dahlias, probably planted by
the previous owners, and those common red irises in the orchard near the veranda seemed
spruced up specially for today - washed, preened, a little saddened by their eternal silence,
greeting the victor with gentle smiles.
And the morning marched on. Its invisible legions dressed in golden armor rushed forward
unchecked, and before their countless phalanges the last prince of night - the pale,
barelynoticeable moon - fled, bent double, across the heavenly expanses.
Horobenko leaned against a post gray with peeling paint and unbuttoned his collar. The
morning freshness pleasantly penetrated his languid body, but the sunbeams had already
overcome the last hurdles and burst through the damp leaves, their passionate breath trembling
on Horobenko's chest. The sun inundated the veranda, and only a sorrowful piece of shade
remained in one corner near the eaves, almost as if a memory of someone's hopeless grief.
Horobenko peered into this shade and found it dear to him. The intoxicated sunny joy and the
lonely sorrow of the shade were related, they complemented one another like true brothers.
Notice the very symbolic natural description, notice the association made between the state
of nature and the state of the hero, the state of society (dawn of a new era) this is not what we
generally think of as realism.
The focus is on the psychology of the individual, his inner conflicts and struggles, but this
psychology is more often described, narrated than presented. Told rather than shown, although
there is a good deal of interior dialogue so to speak and the character is not devoid of self
SLA 218 – 15
Prose of the 1920s
4
discovery. But the actions and descriptions all seem to carry a great deal of symbolic weight.
What is the inner conflict Horobenko feels:
Set the scene: Horobenko has had portraits of Myxajlo Drahomanov printed and distributed,
thus adding him to the heroes of communism, along with Marx, Lenin, etc. etc. At a party
meeting Horobenko is called on the carpet for this by his adversary, Popelnaenko, who says
"Drahomanov is a well-known Ukrainian nationalist." Popelnaenko is, of course, completely
wrong but notice how Horobenko responds
read pg 89-90
‘So, nothing has changed in their view towards me. They still distrust me as before, to them
I’m as much a nationalist as the imagined Drahomanov.’
Again his heart ached deep inside and stopped him from lying still in the one spot.
Horobenko turned over and thought in despair:
‘All right, then, if they consider me to be a Ukrainian nationalist, why don’t they throw me
out of the Party? This would be so logical …’
Horobenko scraped away the jacket from his head and the gloomy soiled wall posed him a
question:
‘What would you do outside the Party …?’
‘Fool! What are you asking about? Your ships have long been burnt, and there is nothing for
you to do outside the Party. Understand — there is nothing to do. Beyond it there is only a desert
for you.
‘It makes no difference what they think of you. What’s important is what you think. Do you
already know yourself? You aren’t the fellow you were, Horobenko. No, no — not at all. You
know the importance of things. But who are you? Have a good think first — have you eroded
away everything which does not relate to Communism, which flits about inside you from your
past? Why
the hell did you need Drahomanov, who although a Ukrainian revolutionary, was still
Ukrainian. And what does Drahomanov’s Ukrainian ethos stand for in mankind’s universal
conflagrations, in that great fire which will sweep the earth in preparation for a new life! Well
then, Horobenko? Speak up …!’ ‘Aha, Horobenko, so now you remember? That’s just it!’ The
Central Rada1. Teachers, ‘Cossack’ soldiers and other party intelligentsia … And suddenly some
bishop arrived before the white bastions of the Pedagogical Museum, claiming to be a Ukrainian.
He said a few words in broken Ukrainian and blessed the place. And what happened? The naive
‘topknots went mad with joy. ‘We have a bishop too! We are a real nation, not just peasants and
teachers!’ …
You are like them, Horobenko — only from the opposite pole: ‘We Ukrainians had
revolutionaries too! Here is Drahomanov for you. Isn’t the root of this, the essence, an embryo of
nationalism? You want to emphasize that Drahomanov was a Ukrainian? Well, own up — isn’t it
true? Yes. Isn’t it all the same to a Communist what nationality Drahomanov, Zheliabov and
1
Central Council set up in Kyiv on March 17, 1917 as an all-Ukrainian representative
institution, soon becoming the centre of the Ukrainian liberation movement.
SLA 218 – 15
Prose of the 1920s
5
Khalturyn are? To a true Communist, Kostyk, it is all the same. And Popelnachenko is thrice
right, he even caught you at it today. Perhaps he was wrong in his assessment of Drahomanov, he
may have distorted the facts on purpose, but in the end Drahomanov was a revolutionary,
perhaps even a cosmopolitan (you know full well, Kostyk, that you don’t even know
Drahomanov all that well!), but you, Horobenko, whether you like it or not, are a Ukrainian
nationalist after all, be it only one quarter, or an eighth, a tenth or even a hundredth part. You still
haven’t eradicated that. And besides this, you’re also a petty intellectual. That’s what it is. That is
the splinter sitting inside you, thwarting you. They’re quite right about you.’
self-analysis, seeing the mote in his own eye even though he sees the forest in theirs.
self-doubt and guilt. How do you prove yourself to yourself. How do you jump off the
intellectual, rationalistic fence. Obviously you become decisive, determined, aggressive--you
have to be a man, so to speak, but not only so to speak. The way to become a man is to kill,
prove his loyalty to the cause by killing Ukrainian nationalists:
read pg 34
Quietly, hedging about, a long familiar thought emerged from the nooks of his
subconsciousness. Well yes: he had decided this a long time ago, only until now he wasn’t able
to voice it out loud:
‘They must be killed … I must execute them, rather than kill them. And then, when their
blood appears before my eyes, when this blood of executed rebels, kulaks, speculators, hostages
and countless other categories which all have one common denominator — counter-revolution,
when it falls at least once on my head, as they say, soiling my hands, then all this will come to an
end. Then the Rubicon will have been crossed. Then I will be completely free. Then I can tell
myself boldly and openly, without the slightest hesitation and doubt: I am a Bolshevik.’
the metaphor, become a man by killing, is real however.
When he kills the prisoner with his rifle butt and sees the blood he remembers the blood on
the sheet after his first sexual experience (with Nadia, his former girlfriend who is dead but
would have been a political liability because of nationalism) read 135
Horobenko hits one of the people escaping with his rifle butt:
The sun burned his forehead and his crown was still itching. He threw his cap on the ground
and was about to bury his fingers in his hair when his eyes fell on the red spot.
“Blood …!”
His hand began to tremble and the cherry droplet glistened in the sunshine, smiling at the
sun.
And all of a sudden he had a much too vivid recollection, as if it had just all happened now:
… Nadia’s bloodied shirt and a rusty spot on the sheet … Nadia’s blood! Chaste, pure virgin
blood … He longed so much for that which had disappeared for some reason without any return,
which had forever torn apart the garland, and he felt tearfully overjoyed that something new had
been born, something very intimate, something inseparable and dear …
SLA 218 – 15
Prose of the 1920s
6
Notice that in Mykola Xvyl'ovyj's The Woodcocks something similar is going on
Karamazov tells Vovyk, the linguist, that he hates his wife, Hanna, because she couldn't kill
someone
read page 20
"And I'm deadly earnest too!" Karamazov paused, rose from the sofa, and said in a strained
voice: "However, I see that you still don't understand what I detest her for. So get this into your
head: I detest her for being quiet and gentle, for having affectionate eyes, for being weak-willed
and, finally, because she is incapable of killing a person. Do you understand now?"
"Why would she need to kill a person?"
"That is a very complicated story, Vovchyk," Dmytriy smiled morbidly, "and I fear you
won't understand it. Of course, you are a learned person, but as far as I know such questions
weren't broached in the philological department."
"What do you mean by that?" the linguist replied in an offended tone.
"Exactly nothing...! And yet, here's what I want to say: it is very hard to kill a person,
Vovchyk...! You've never killed yet... not in war, but in everyday life? There you go! But I have,
and I know. It's a very complicated procedure. And it is complicated simply because you perform
the whole thing consciously, knowing in advance that there is no way you can avoid killing the
person."
"You're speaking nonsense, Dmytriy!"
"No, Vovchyk, I'm speaking my mind. And I'm telling you a long-known truth: only through
murder can one achieve complete social cleansing.... Do you understand what I'm getting at? In
the dynamics of progress social ethics can only be viewed as a permanent 'crime.' I place crime in
inverted commas, because I've never regarded premeditated killing in the name of social ideals as
a crime."
Aglaia is pulling him off the intellectual fence but how does she do it? Mostly with
coquetish appeals to his male ego.
The style of Xvyl'ovyj's prose, however, is a little different from Antonenko-Davydovy's.
Xvyl'ovyj likes mysterious, opaque psychology, choppy, dramatic dialogues, and a languid
romanticism in narration
Ostap Vyšnja has a caricature of Xvyl'ovyj's style
read "Blue Fen" pg 100
BLUE FEN
(A caricature of Mykola Khvylovy's novel)
Fen — how bland ...
It sounds vague: fen ...
But now fever — that's vivid. Tossing and turning ... Sweating . . . Convulsions . . . Eyes
red, lips red, breasts red, but the tongue is white . . . (Tongue — language — nation —
oppression — liberation). ..
Liberation — nation ...!
SLA 218 – 15
Prose of the 1920s
Eh, people!
Arise ye people, before the flies and mosquitoes finish you off!
Fen sounds bland ... We'll call it a swamp ...
Swine . . . wine . . . grapes . . . Press . . . Juice ... Blood ...
Revolution ...
Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat!
... The dawn glowed red ...
Came day ...
Day came and went
... The day passed (to pass, to piss, toilet).
?:,8F">*,D 'D4P,>8@. "M"D8z&F\8z +*zB4 H" <@F8@&F\846 FLz>8F." EJR"F>zFH\ 1992,
1: 136-43, 162-64.
?:,8F">*,D 'D4P,>8@. "9@(z8" $J>HJ BD@H4 :@(z84." %zHR42>" 1991, 7: .
7
Slavic 218
Lecture Eighteen, Spring
Pidmohyl'nyj
Valerijan Pidmohyl'nyj as an outstanding writer and as an example of a writer of the 1920s
Born Feb 2, 1901 in a village near Katerynoslav, today called Dnipropetrovs'k, also called
Sieslav for a time between 1917-1919
not really of peasant background
school in south
1920 goes North after publishing first book, Works, Volume One
Hangs around University but needs to live, resumes teaching, village outside of Kiev
1923 tries to publish stories in The Red Path but they turn him down because he has had stories
published in the West
1924 change in Editorial board
becomes professional writer, leader of Lanka, laters MARS
1927 editor of Life and Revolution
1928 Misto, makes a big splassh
1930 Little touch of Drama but only in journal
no longer published, around 1935 disappears into the camps
Nov 3, 1937 executed by firing squad.
never really condemned but not quite rehabilitated, mentioned occasionally but not published,
now published 1989
3 Reasons he is a better writer:
1. Intellectually deeper.
2. Thematically richer, many ideas blended together, not uniderectional, one thread.
3. Aesthetically more pleasing, more convincing.
Characteristics of Pidmohyl'nyj's writing:
1. focus on the psychology of the character
2. controlled, reserved narration--no attempt at poetic prose, no attempt to have the technique or
the style call attention to itself, to become the central element in the work
3. structure, symmetry, balance--careful construction
4. humor, a light tone, even in somber situations, avoidance of melodrama
REALISM, influence of Maupassant and the west
Pidmohyl'nyj's thematic concerns:
1. The Pidmohyl'nyj hero
1. A Hero, with a desperate antagonism to-2. The Environment, which is completely oblivious to his presence (Representing this
obliviousness there often, although not always, arises from this environment--a heroine).
3. Strenuous exertion by the hero in a supreme effort.
4. By way of an epilogue, an attack on the emptiness. The end reveals the tragic or tragi-comic
needlessness of the hero's tragedy. Death and curtain.
SLA 218 – 18
Pidmohyl'nyj
(M. Dolengo (Myxajlo Klokov), "Trahedija nepotribnoji trahynosty," ervonyj šljax 1924,
4-5: 266.)
2. Basic conflict between two forces, instinct, passion, irrationality, the magic of the Night and
Reason.
This is seen not only in Freudian terms, id and ego, but also in Nietzschean terms, Appolonian
and Dionysian. It is also seen in social terms, freedom and anarchy vs justice and order; and
cultural terms, creativity vs. productivity.
3. Sex
4. Existential self discovery
Philosophical writer, facing questions that will become the basic issues in much of 20th century
philosophy
Stories:
Vanja
Third Revolution
Problema xliba
Ivan Bosyj
Recommend: In the Infirmary
Misto
A Little Touch of Drama
read first par. Marta Vysoc'ka, 17
The dense forest within which she walked with a sharp tremor in her heart and a tense body full
of desire, was still and damp. Not a rustle, whistle, or crackle was to be heard; the heavy forest
was dead and heartless behind the veil of the mounting air. She could not hear her footsteps on
the ground and, as it were, floated further and deeper into the thicket while stern tree trunks
seemed to step aside in front of her in an endless avenue leading to where she craved to go with
her easy walk. She came to the edge of the forest. The invisible sun, somewhere behind her, cast
a wide ray across the steppe and on a hill nearby she saw a church. She stopped and her heart
stirred wildly in anticipation, nailing her to the spot with its every beat. For a monk was moving
solemnly down from the church on the hill. Now he raised his bearded face and the short space
grew with every step, hiding the church and horizon. She waited with hope and fear, feeling his
approach as if it were a storm. Now he was raising his hand to her breasts and at that moment
from behind his horrible body there sounded thousands of bells stretching out in an endless
piercing sound which enveloped her like a wave, plunging her into darkness.
*** Then the alarm clock rings.
sex, freud, show rather than tell
Yuri Slavenko introduced, pg 51
The professor of biology's room on Piatakov street showed all the signs of being inhabited by
2
SLA 218 – 18
Pidmohyl'nyj
3
someone devoted to scientific research. In this kind of order, obviously created by a man, the
most important thing was purposefulness, however poor its aesthetic appeal. The bookcases were
different sizes, shapes and colours, some standing glumly along the walls, bulging with books
like pregnant women, others slim and tall, showing only one row of books. Some were carved
and made of oak, others were of plain pine, and a couple were American ones. About a dozen
kinds of glassed-in cases were also there, obviously acquired by accident. True, all of them,
regardless of their differences, protected the books inside them from dust. An overflow of books
spilled onto the windowsills, making the room darker, and even onto the table which was so
perfectly clean as to make one think that perhaps it was never used. The table, although full of
books, seemed deserted because it had no inkwell. Slavenko wrote exclusively with an indelible
pencil, sharpening it from time to time with a special gadget which looked like a miniature
machine for shelling corn. Various scraps of paper and notes were stuffed into the drawers.
Among them were bills for small expenses for the past few years, documents, and letters, kept in
their envelopes, containing addresses—all this so well arranged that the owner could easily find
what he wanted. It had taken the scientist some time to train his new maid to keep this order in
his room. In spite of the incident when he had tried to seduce her, she had stayed with him; it was
not the first time that sort of thing had happened to her and she got good pay for very little work.
She learned to clean the room so that nothing was disturbed or moved from its place, for if this
happened, Slavenko's mood would be ruined for the rest of the day and he would lose his peace
of mind.
The walls, papered a dark brown, had no pictures, ornaments or photographs but were also free
from cobwebs. A wide sofa was a little too large for the room, but was very comfortable to sleep
on.
His parallel her contrast==Irene Markevych
Her parallel, his contrast==Liova Rotter
Illusions, both his and hers, read pg 19, her washing in cold water
And yet every day she had to miss half an hour of sleep for several serious reasons. The point
was that Marta loved to wash herself in cold water and then to dry her body with a rough towel
till it was all red. This gave her encouragement for the entire day, otherwise she felt tired, lazy
and unpleasant just like somebody used to cleaning her teeth every morning who one day doesn't
do it. Water was her greatest passion in life. She had grown up near the Dnieper, in Kaniv, where
the river is wide and full. Her father, a village school teacher, was very fond of fishing and she
herself, like a boy, had been his ardent assistant when she was a small girl. It was then that she
developed a special attitude to water, as to a special, elemental force of life and the source of all
craving and power. So to her, winter, which stopped the flow of the great waters, always seemed
dead and evil. Thus to her daily ritual she secretly added the inner one unnoticed by any outsider,
a voluptuousness which often forms the deep substratum of human habits, a voluptuousness born
in old, forgotten days, out of youthful undeveloped desires, turning habit into the steady ritual of
living, elevating it to the main trait in a personality. She imagined water always to be cool like an
evening stream, when in the dusk boys and girls go together to the river bank and swim in the
SLA 218 – 18
Pidmohyl'nyj
4
water a few feet apart. As a teenager she had felt a joyful pang of shame and daring when she ran
from the place where she undressed into the river, hiding herself in the water from the piercing
eyes of the boys. There was a web of prohibition spun around it since her father did not approve
of her communal evening swims.
He is obviously repressing his sexual desires but her feelings are also conditioned by a
psychological imbalance
Man doesn't live on proteins alone but neither is love the only reason for living, its all in books
anyway
Slavic 218
Lecture Nineteen, Spring
Mykola Kuliš
Theater and Drama in the 1920s
Soviet political ideology favored cultural products that were aimed at the masses. For most
literature this meant little or was even a handicap. Not surprisingly, this emphasis on mass appeal
meant that some forms of art were seen as particularly suitable for the new communist values.
This was particularly true of film, which was seen as the model form of art for a proletarian age.
To a certain extent this was also true of drama and the theater.
Whether it was because of this official interest or, more likely, for other reasons, Film and Drama
really were experiencing a revolutionary development in the 1920s. We'll talk about the cinema
next time. Today we focus on Drama and the Theater.
The theater of ethnographic realism, as seen in the plays of Staryc'kyj and Karpenko-Karyj and in
the Sadovs'kyj theater company and the acting of the Tobilevy brothers.
1917 A Galician, Les' Kurbas, comes to Kiev, joins the Sodovs'kyj theater company but soon
forms his own company, which he calls Molodyj Teatr
After the revolution, (1922) Kurbas organizes a group Berezil', that's an old form of the word
Berezen', which means March. March is the month in which the first signs of spring appear. It is
also the month in which the first revolution toppled the Tsar. The Bolshevik revolution is in
October.
The Berezil' experimental theater was formed in 1922. A few years later it became the "national"
theater, which means that Flora McDonald, Marcel Maase, Minister of Culture, gave Les Kurbas
an AMEX Gold Club card and the monthly statement was sent to the ministry of finance. It
meant that Berezil' was now the official representative theater in the country. In 1926 it moved to
the new capital, Xarkiv. In the late 20s it came under attack from various Marxist critics and
party hacks but it also had some powerful defenders, most notably Mykola Skrypnyk.
In 1933, however, Kurbas was arrested and the theater was reorganized. Today, Kurbas and the
Berezil' theater company are enjoying renewed interest, both in the West and in Soviet Ukraine.
The Avant-garde Theater here in Toronto, has shown interest in Kurbas, in New York, Virliana
Tkach, a professional theater director is a specialist on Kurbas, and in Kiev and Moscow, books
and articles about Kurbas and the theater have appeared in recent years.
What is the impact of the Berezil' theater?
1. It stages a wide repertoire of plays: Ukrainian classics, new Ukrainian plays by Mykola Kuliš
and others (but their aren't really that many), and American and European plays or other works
adaptedfor the stage (e.g. Upton Sinclair's Jimmy Higgins [a novel made into a Ukrainian play]
or Shakespeare and German expressionist theater)
2. It is a school for new actors, bringing out a new generation of young actors with a new
approach to theater, e.g. the late Josyp Hirnjak and his wife, Olympija Dobrovol's'ka).
3. It is an experimental theater. It brings new ideas to theater. Theater is not just language, not
just the script. Replace melodrama with symbolic action, rhythmic motion.
4. Not just new plays in a new style--getting away from the old ethnographic theater--but also
new ideas about theater itself. The point of theater is not just realistic representation. Berezil' and
Kurbas have a whoile new approach to theater. Theater is not an immitation of reality but a
SLA 218–19
Mykola Kuliš
2
shaper of reality.
Mykola Kuliš 1892Born to a poor peasant family, not a very good education. He serves in the Russian Army in
World War I, on the Austrian Front, which means contact with the Ukrainian National movement
in Galicia. Later he helps organize a regiment of anti-Denikin partisans.
After the Revolution he works in the ministry of education offices in his won village
1922 member of the Communist Party
1924 member of Hart chapter in Odessa
1925 moves to Xarkiv, the new capital, and gets involved in literary and theater activity
1926-28 he is the head of VAPLITE
He has some heart trouble and political trouble in the early 1930s. He spends some time in the
Caucausus. Arrested in December of 1934 and sent to the Solovky islands.
He wrote 14 plays, among them:
97 in 1924
Komuna v stepax in 1925 (The Commune in the Steppes)
Xulij xuryna in 1926
Narodnij Malaxij 1928 (The People's Malaxij)
Myna Mazajlo in 1929
Patetyna sonata in 1931 (Sonata Pathetique)
Zakut in
Prošaj selo in (Goodbye Village)
Maklena Grasa in 1933
Narodnij Malaxij 1928 (The People's Malaxij)
a provincial postal clerk goes crazy and starts advocating a reform of mankind, leaves his village
and goes to the capital, where he takes his quest to a factory, a brothel, and the Council of
People's Commissars.
His desire is to "light bonfires of universal love in the streets of our cities." Sounds like George
Bush and a thousand points of light, but for Kulish this was meant as comedy. Malaxij has a wild
utopian vision of universal love and brotherhood. The crux of the play is the juxtaposition of this
lunatic's utopian social program with the reality of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s.
Myna Mazajlo 1929
This is a comedy about Ukrainization, the policy of giving the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian
culture official status as the language and culture of Ukraine. Like Bill 101 in Quebec but much
more far-reaching.
The hero is a Russophile, a "maloros." He gives lip service to Ukrainization, because it's the
official policy, but he is a closet Russophile. His son is a staunch Ukrainian, pushing
Ukrainization. Aunt Motia is a Russian chauvinist. She hates everything Ukrainian. She would
rather be raped than Ukrainized.
SLA 218–19
Mykola Kuliš
3
Patetyna sonata 1931 (Sonata Pathetique) Beethoven's
This is a political play about events 1917-19. It depicts a struggle between 3 camps, represented
by different floors of a building that everyone lives in.
The 3 sides are Red (Bolshevik), White, and Ukrainian.
Maryna - the female in the love story, Ukrainian
Luka - Bolshevik, in love with her
André - White, helped by Maryna, but then he betrays her
In the end, the bolsheviks win, and Maryna, the romantic idealist, is willing to die for her
patriotism.
This is a very topical play. It presents the reality of the day and the issues of the day, as far as
national feelings and the unresolved national issue are concerned. It is a very political play. It is a
response to Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margerita) play The Days of the Turbins a
dramatization of his novel The White Guard. Bulgakov was a Russian who was born and lived in
Kiev. He saw things from a White perspective. He hated Ukrainians.
Patetyna sonata played in Moscow in a Russian translation but was not staged in Ukraine.
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty, Spring
Oleksander Dovzhenko
Oleksander Dovženko 1894-1956
born near ernihiv, attends Hluxiv teacher's seminary, worked as a teacher, was active in
revolutionary events, was a member of the Borotbist Party. Oleksander Šums'kyj, the Commissar
(Minister) of Education (before Skrypnyk) and also an ex-Borotbist, was Dovženko's friend and
mentor, so Dovženko gets sent as a diplomat to Warsaw and then Berlin, 1921-23. In Berlin he
studies Art.
1923-26 in Xarkiv, caricaturist for newspaper Visti VUCVK, active in literary and cultural life.
1926 goes off to Odessa to make movies, joins the new film studio there, becomes a film
director.
Among his films are:
Vasja reformator 1926
Jahidka koxannja 1926
Sumka dypkur"jera 1927
Zvenyhora 1927
Arsenal 1929
Zemlja 1930 last of his silent films
Ivan 1932
Aerograd 1935
Šors 1939
The significance of film in the 1920s and 1930s is large. A new art form for a new age. An art
form for the masses. This attracts Dovženko too. But in time, the Party clamps down on films
and Stalin gives Dovženko a hard time.
Experimentation in the Cinema: Dziga Vertov, Eisenstein
Influence of American films, D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) and
Charlie Chaplin's films.
The Enchanted Desna
After the War Dovženko wrote stories which were not published until after he and Stalin had
both died. This is a highly autobiographical story. It also helps explain, at least in part, the
atmosphere in his films. Joy emerging from suffering. Style—not socialist realism. A story about
a creative artist.
Pope = AzB = Priest.
59-60 the lion story, read it.
It happened like this. Father and I had sunk the cord string with fishing hooks in the
Desna and were returning to camp in our small boat which stood a mere inch above
water level. The river was flowing fast, the sky was studded with stars, and it was so
wonderful and easy going downstream. I felt I was gliding through blue space. I looked
into the water — the moon smiled at me. I willed the fish to jump — and they jumped. I
looked into the sky, hoping to see a star fall — and it did fall. The smell of grasses
SLA 218–220
2
wafted across the river. I wanted to hear a sound coming from the grass — and
presently a landrail started to crake. I looked at the haunting beach flooded with silvery
light and wished for a lion — and a lion appeared. He had a large head, shaggy mane,
and a long tussle-tipped tail. He was slowly walking down the beach.
“Pa, look, a lion,” I whispered to Father, spellbound.
“A what? But it’s a...” Father looked intently toward the beach and when our boat
was on a level with the lion, he raised the oar and brought its flat side down on the
water with a loud crash. Heavens, what a jump and roar the lion gave! Its echo rolled
like thunder. My heart leaped into my mouth. Everything — the beach, the banks, the
willows were gripped by terror. Father almost dropped the oar into the water, and,
though generally a brave man, even he was unnerved and didn’t move until the current
carried us further downstream and pushed the boat to a steep bank. After sitting there
quietly for about half an hour we turned round — the lion was gone: he had probably
disappeared in the willows.
We kept the fire going at our river camp till morning.
For some reason I was both afraid of the lion and sorry for him. Father and I would
probably not have known what to do if he’d start eating our horses or Grandpa sleeping
under the oak. I listened intently into the darkness to hear him roar again. But he did
not. Before I dropped off to sleep I had a great desire to start breeding lions and
elephants so that the world would be transformed into a beautiful place to live in from
the dump it was. I was sick of seeing only calves and horses around me.
The next day we heard the news that the lion’s spell of liberty had been short-lived.
After a derailment near the town of Bakhmach the cage of the itinerant zoo got broken
and the lion escaped. He was probably so depressed and sick of the spectators, the
tamer, and everything else in this world that he decided to let things run their course
and made for the Desna to find a bit of peace. He had covered no more than thirty
versts before he was overtaken, surrounded on all sides and killed because he was a
lion. After all, he couldn’t go roaming about among the calves and horses. You couldn’t
possibly hitch him to a wagon. So what use could he be? It’d be a different thing if he
could bellow or bleat — but his voice was unfit for this purpose: his roar made the
leaves wilt and the grass droop... Oh well...
Wait a minute, what am I writing about? On second thought I realize it wasn’t me in
the boat on the Desna on that particular night. It was Father all by himself, while I was
sleeping under the oak tree beside Grandpa. Anyway, the lion stalked on the beach!
And somewhere near Spaske he was shot by watchmen.
He didn't see the lion. His father told him the story. But he tells it as if he experienced it. Art IS
reality. Subjectivity and the function of art. Reality is transformed by the artist.
7-8 Grandpa and God. Myth, symbols enrich and shape experience. The kid's-eye view.
Near the cottage, which stood in the orchard, there grew flowers, and beyond the
cottage, just across from the door by the cherry trees, there was an old wormwood-
SLA 218–220
3
covered cellar with an open hatch, which permanently gave out a smell of mould. The
murky depths of the cellar were inhabited by toads, and, in all probability, snakes too.
Grandpa liked to sleep on top of the cellar.
Our Grandpa looked very much like God. When I prayed and looked in the icon
corner I would see a portrait of Grandpa wearing old silver-foil vestments, while in fact,
he would be lying on the pich and coughing quietly as he listened to my prayers.
On Sundays a little blue lamp always burned before the icons, and attracted a cloud
of flies. The icon of St. Nicholas also looked like Grandpa, especially when he trimmed
his beard and downed a shot of pepper horilka before dinner and Mother was not angry
with him. St. Theodosius looked more like Father. I did not pray to St. Theodosius. His
beard was still dark, and he had a long staff like a shepherd in his hand. God, who as I
said looked like Grandpa, appeared to hold a round salt-shaker in one hand, while the
three fingertips of his other hand were held together, as though to pick a head of garlic.
Grandpa’s name, as I found out later on, was Semen. He was tall and lean, with a
high forehead, long wavy hair, and a white beard. From his younger years when he was
a chumak he had inherited a large hernia. Grandpa smelled of warm earth and a little
bit of a flour mill. He was a literate man in a religious way and loved to intone the
Psalter in a solemn voice on Sundays. Neither Grandpa nor we understood what he
read, but it had a mysterious quality which excited us and lent the strange words a
special sense.
Dovzhenko characteristically blends the past and the present, the old and the modern.
The past is a traditional, folkloric and patriotic version of 19th century rural Ukrainian
culture. There is an appearance of nostalgia in this, in fact, Dovzhenko is playing with this
nostalgia, but mostly this past is what determines the character and the values of the heroes in the
present. But, characteristically for much of what is patriotic in Soviet Ukrainian culture,
Ukrainian culture is typically rural and in the past.
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Two, Spring
Oles’ Honar
?:,F\ '@>R"D 1918—1995
born 1918 in a village near Poltava
graduated from Dnipropetrovs’k University
World War II veteran
first published in 1938
reputation develops after the war. He begins with war stories and novels
1959-1971 head of Writers' Union of Ukraine
In 1990 he quit the Communist Party
Praporonosci. The Standard Bearers 1948, trans. 1948
Tavrija 1952 (Old name, 19th century, for Crimea)
Perekop 1957 (Strip from Crimea to mainland)
These two form a dilogy about WW II
Ljudyna i zbroja. Man and Arms 1960 trans
Tronka. The Sheeps's Bell 1963
Sobor. The Cathedral 1968 trans 1989
Cyklon. The Cyclone 1970 trans
Bereh ljubovi. The Shore of Love 1976 trans
Tvoja zorja. Your dawn 1980
Socialist realism, the officially approved style in Soviet literature under Stalin and, in fact, until
almost the very end. A hybrid form resulting from a blending of features of late 19th century
ethnographic realism with the highly symbolic, heroic romanticism of the early years right after
the revolution. Melodramatic, predictable struggle of the solitary true good communist to — win
the battle, build the factory, bring in the all-important harvest, or otherwise achieve the goal —
that will bring salvation to the whole world — against evildoers of the bourgeois
counterrevolution, the nazi enemies, the evil saboteurs who are trying to prevent communism
from achieving victory or the forces of nature or other abstract hurdles that do not show soviet
society in a bad light.
Honchar has some of these elements too but he adds something to them, not the least of what he
adds is some real skill as a writer.
Elements of traditional soviet novel
Sobor, The Cathedral
Strengths and weaknesses in this novel.
Weaknesses: characters are lifeless, two-dimensional. They have insufficient motivation. They
are either heroes or louses. Black and white. No psychology. Very little individuality.
The writing is lyrical, rhapsodic.
There is a pretence of realism, but actually, this is more like whitewashing. Details are chosen on
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
a premise of ideological correctness.
Strengths.
The weaknesses are less apparent in this novel than in others.
There is at least an outline of a real dilemma in this novel, there is an attempt at a real
presentation of a dilemma.
A number of issues are tied together in this work
We can easily identify a number of problems:
hooliganism, careerism, pollution, failure to respect others
Positive values, negative values
Humanism
Pragmatism
freedom
efficiency
culture and spirituality
utility
respect for others
self-interest
history
the present
struggle
comfort
work
indulgence
Read Yelka’s interview with the accountant on the collective farm:
Page 29, chapter 3
"A passport — never, Yelka," he replied categorically, hearing out her demand.
"Everyone's become very smart.
Always off somewhere, and who'll create the material wealth here?"
The "wealth" enraged Yelka.
"You talk like I'm chained to this place. To stay here in this stinking village till my
plaits turn gray! I don't think I signed anything not to leave here."
"Come, come," the accountant stared at her dumbfounded. "What are you talking
about? Which books have you been reading, Comrade Chechil? Our farm not to your
liking anymore? Sick of milk and cream — want something tastier?"
"1 want freedom!"
"So that's what it is! There's not enough freedom for you here?"
"1 want to look for another freedom."
"Look for it, maybe you'll find something: Many a girl has already returned from
there bringing her mother freedom in a diaper. Or perhaps you'll return with a cigarette
between your teeth, Miss Freedom Seeker?"
"I won't return at all. Never. I hate you all."
The accountant's live eye squinted ironically.
"Where will you go then, if it's no secret? Not to the mines on the heels of your
grandfather?"
"Why, isn't it my country there too? This muddy farm is not the whole country! Do
you think I'll cry after it, after your 'wealth?"
"At least forward us your address."
"I'm going where no one will torment me! Where they won't sling mud at me, like
your big-mouthed wife!"
2
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
3
"Not so loud, please," the accountant cowered momentarily, glancing at the
windows, and his tone immediately became serious. "If it was up to me, Olena, I wouldn't
hold you here... Go somewhere else, don't bother our boys, don't break up families. Even
I've got chaos and quarrels at home, though 1 don't know if there is any basis for it."
He paused, probably for Yelka to say something, but she was silent.
"So, as a family man, it would even be to my advantage to send you off on a long
journey... but rules are rules. You can see for yourself, there aren't enough hands on the
farm. We desperately need your hands."
Yelka reacted as if someone had struck her with a whip.
"Is that all you need, my hands? Here they are, chapped from your wealth!" And her
tensed palms flashed before the accountant's nose.
"Come on, we can do without this," he lunged back, protecting his glass eye.
"I don't have just hands!" retorted Yelka, turning red and hearing nothing. "I've got a
soul too. It hasn't all been burned away. If you don't give me a certificate, I will go
anyway!"
"You won't get far without a passport, girl. You'll be picked up very quickly. Scream,
beg, or even eat dirt, there's no way we can issue you a certificate."
And he did not issue her one.
In the evening there was another altercation in the accountant's yard, again his wife's
wild, biting words echoed throughout the village:
"That trampled rubbish? Someone else has spilt her milk, and you want to bring her
into our home?"
This shout became Yelka's passport. With the words "spilt milk" weighing heavily
on her heart, she left for the city at dawn, to disappear in it, to be lost to her fellow
villagers in its crowds forever.
Read Page 83, chap 11, the director of the old folks home:
The director of the institution, a heavy man with a shaven head, was sitting in the
shade of a green walnut tree in his silk suit and, having put on his glasses, was reading a
book. A person of responsibility, he was on call even on Sundays. Loboda became
acquainted with him back when he was making arrangements for his father. A regular
soldier of high rank and who would have thought that this iron old-timer would turn into
such an archpastor, the assiduous peaceful manager-overseer of this residence of happy
pensioners.
Loboda the son came up, greeted the director with a handshake. However, for some
reason the latter responded without much enthusiasm, displeased perhaps that his
comrade had not been around to visit his old father for a long time, or simply because his
reading had been interrupted (he just couldn't read his fill, having seven rest days a
week!). He told Loboda that his father was alive and well, and if need be, he could be
found. Beckoning to one of the younger pensioners, he delegated him to go down to the
bee garden and seek out Izot Loboda from ward seven. While he was saying all this, a
thin grimace of displeasure played on his face. Only after the visitor inquired about the
book, what it was about, did the old-timer seem to become a little more benign. It turned
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
4
out that he had in his hands a book about the life of Campanella. There had been such a
person, an Italian monk imprisoned for many years, and he had written his book there in
prison — about the City of the Sun. The work was serious, though it had provocative
passages — Utopia, actually. The director was obviously a seasoned critic, because
yielding to no authority, he confidently set about criticizing Campanella. What the fellow
had dreamed up, could be dreamed up only by a monk and an eternal prisoner: rationed
distribution of clothing, food, the fruits of labor... he even foresaw the apportionment of
women.
“Women, eh?” Loboda smiled with interest.
“Yes, women. They would not be chosen by the call of one's heart, but would simply
be allocated by the joint consent of members of the community. This was how he
imagined the ideal future of society, the City of the Sun. Identical food, identical
language, identical clothes would be worn in that society. So everything would be equal,
by tickets, by tokens... The psychology of an eternal prisoner, only this can give birth to
such a conception of ideal existence. But ask anyone, even any old inhabitant of the
jungles, and he will tell you that such limited happiness is not enough for him,” the
retired Skarbne sage commented seriously. True, he showed the monk generosity too: he
had lived a heroic life and so could be forgiven many things. He had proven how much a
person could stand, to what limits his endurance reached.
“Perhaps his teachings would have been more accessible to those monks who once
went about here in Skarbne in identical robes, lived by a single covenant, acknowledging
the same prayers and regimen. The philosophy of standardization would have been
understood by them, but we aren't ascetics; army barracks aren't the pinnacle of
everything. The severity of barracks, even if it is necessary, only comes at a certain stage.
In general it is an abnormal phenomenon and transient in life... People's happiness lies not
in this; the future will not mold everyone in the same style as you imagined, Comrade
Campanella.”
Read pg , chap 11 meeting of father and son
At last his father appeared on the horizon. Loboda the son would have recognized
him from a hundred verst off, this old Cossack with a large forehead and a mighty face
topped with disheveled gray hair. The voice of blood, did it really exist? What had
touched his soul then, when he saw the person so dear to him like this? There was
something dear in his gait alone, in his arms, which stuck out, in that gray bristling mass
on his head... The old man was in his everyday clothes: in canvas pants, a cotton shirt on
his bony shoulders — which seemed old-fashioned to the son — made from linen, like
the ones chumaks used to wear. In these everyday clothes the old master, Loboda, strode
sedately across the yard. In the past, giants were selected for the steel plants, and he was
one of them — a head higher than those old men who accompanied him at a trot. His
face, naturally large, seemed swollen — perhaps he had been sleeping in the hut, or
maybe he had put on weight on the sanitarium's food? Light, flat-bellied, with a broad
bony chest — he moved along steadfastly, looking straight ahead, offering the sun his
round wise forehead. A patriarch! King Lear! The prophet Isaiah! The son simply feasted
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
5
his eyes on his father, admiring his every step — firm, confident, proud. The old master
seemed to be moving against a wind, a storm!
For a moment a thought flashed through the son's mind: he must have done well for
himself, to be stepping so firmly. And he felt almost fearful in the face of his father's
majesty.
Standing beside a column, the son awaited his father with a smile, with love, a son's
pride toward his father, and he — he seemed not to recognize him! Stopping several steps
short of the veranda and leaving his son unnoticed, he asked the director sternly:
“You called for me?”
The director said almost apologetically:
“Your son's here to see you...”
Only now did Izot Loboda look at his son. Looked at him with angry, surprised,
bloodshot eyes. A sure sign that strong mead, and not syrup, had been consumed in that
apiary. Hay stuck out from his tousled gray hair — he had probably been relaxing in the
hut after lunch, it would have been better not have awakened him. He held a grass truss in
his hand, the way he held a belt when Volodka was a child. He showed no sign of
parental feeling, staring at him silently with his red gaze.
“Here's your son,” the director repeated, to relieve the tension.
The father seemed scalded by the word.
“Son? Do I have a son?” His large face became even more swollen, flushed: “I had
sons! One near Kryvyi Rih, the other in Berlin... I have no more.”
“Dad...”
“I was dad!” he thundered for the whole yard to hear. “While I carried you about in
my arms! While ! rocked you in the cradle! But what father am I now? I'm a dad no
more! A parasite of the state! Into the refuge with him! Into the poor-house! A childless
beggar, not a dad!”
The old man was seething. It was frightening to look at him, his face crimson: he
might get sunstroke, fall to the ground like a cross in the middle of the yard, his lower
jaw out of joint.
But the old man did not fall, standing as solid as a bell.
The scene was frightening. People appeared from everywhere. Soon quite a few of
them were standing about the yard, even near the shed, against the whitewashed stone
wall, resembling Scythian idols brought in from the steppes and placed in disarray on the
grounds of a museum. They did not join in the quarrel, however. Loboda Junior felt
intolerably uncomfortable with their dry, thorny gazes resting on him. He felt himself
thrown into someone's clutches, into a trap. Just to think that all this wasn't a nightmare, a
dream, that all was reality: Skarbne, and the beautiful sunny day, and this explosion of his
father's anger and hatred. Refuge! Poorhouse! Ghastly, ghastly.
Even the director must have been stung by that “poor-house.”
“It's no poorhouse, if you'll let me point out... Besides, your son makes his payments
for you regularly. He has never had to be reminded.”
This angered the old man even more. The disheveled fan of his beard shot up:
“Well thank you! Thank you for paying your installments regularly for your own
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
6
father! Like union dues! For your father! Ooh! You couldn't pay your debt to me with
your life!” he bellowed at his son again, and the blood rushed to his face again.
Characteristics of Honar:
Humanism: students, India
History: Javornyc'kyj, Maxno, Kozac'kyj barok,
The System: Bureaucrats
Creativity: In steel, in song
Individuality: Campanella (136-37:E) Yelka tied to the collective farm, passports
Practical values vs. deeper values: Father and son, father's anger is extreme (141-43:E) Loboda in
defence of careerism (104). Same is true of pollution vs. expediency.
(Chapter, Ukrainian, English)
1. (5/15) 1"RzB:b>8", ;48@:" #"(:"6 22 D@84, 6@(@ FH"DT46 $D"H y&"> @*DJ0,>46 2
%zDJ>\8@`. y&"> & y>*z|. A"HDJ:\, %zD" N@*4H\. a(@D 7"HD"H46
2. (20/28 a8 D@*4&Fb ;48@:", & @8@Bz Bz*R"F &z6>4, &B,DT, &z*8D4&T4 @Rz $"R4H\
2"8D4&"&:,>@(@ F@:*"H" (21/29), 2">,R4V,>>b *@&8z::b, o:\8" J a(@D"
3. (30/37) o:\8" (?:,>8") Q,Rz:\, || <4>J:,, $"H\8@ B@<,D J &z6>z, <"H4 $z*Jp, <"H4
B@<,D:", o:\8" &z**":"Fb $D4h"*4D@&z, || B,D,F:z*J`H\, &@>" N@R, F&@$@*4, "a V@,
BD4B>JH" *@ P\@(@ <zFPb? (50/56)
4. (52/57) J *b*\8" a(@D", 6@(@ <4>J:, (;"N>@) [o:\8" z a(@D "8 *&" B"D":,:\>z
BD48:"*4 &z*B@8JHJ&">>b F&@(@ (DzT>@(@ <4>J:@(@]. 1"&@*4, <,H":JD(4, 2">,R4V,>>b.
5. (65/69) E@$@D, " R@(@ 6@<J, &:"F>,, FH@bH4? (65/69), & D4TH@&">>b @*b(>JH4!
%@:@*4<4D y2@H@&4R 9@$@*" (F4>)
6. (77/80) E@$@D 2" &z6>4, Bz*Nz* JH4:zH"D>46, C@<Pb ?D:bR,>8@ D,":zFH-P4>z8. "S:J>84
<"`H\ &Fz F@H&@Dz>>b. [!:, 2$J*J&"H4 F@$@D] ... P, 2*"H>" :4T, :`*4>". (83/85).
B,D,B":8" 2 %zDJ>\8@`, <4FH,PH&@, B@,2zb, *JN V@ p*>"p :`*FH&@.
7. (95/96) '@:@&" o:\R4>@(@ 8@:(@FBJ &z*&z*"& a(@D", BD4p<>@ (@&@D4&. o:\8" & <zFHz,
<J2,6 8@2"PH&" (100/100), 9@$@*" & a(@D", 8"D'pD42<, V@ & Hz< 2:@(@ **(104/104),
FB@8JF" 8@>L@DHJ, $JD'b >" )>zBDz
8. (110/109) G"$:4P` z2 F@&@DJ &8D"*,>@. E:zB46 7@FHb z ="H":8", &@>" B@FHz6>@ 6@<J
>,&zD>" B@Hz< <4DbH\Fb, &@>4 B@$"R4:4 B,DTz, V@ 2>48:" H"$:4Pb. %zDJ>\8" BD4("*Jp,
b8 DJ6>J&":4 *,D,&'b>J P,D8&J. %@>" 6*, *@ 9@$@*4 F8"D04H4Fb, R@<J >, B4:\>Jp, " &
>\@(@ 2>"N@*4H\ H"$:4P`.
9. (117/115) 1:zFH\ & 1"RzB:b>Pz. M@<" C@<">@&4R, JR4H,:\, zFH@Dzb FB@DJ*0,>>b F@$@DJ
(118/117), ;"N>z&Pz 8D":4 *2&z>, ":, >, *@&,2:4 $@ 2" &"0846 >" |N>z6 &z2 (120/118), &B"&
J &@*J, z >"&zH\ Bz*R"F *DJ(@| F&zH@&@| &z6>4, NH@F\ 6@(@ &DbHJ&"& 1&z*84 H" BF4N@:@(zb
$D"8@>\pDFH&"? (122/120). <4FH,PH&@ B@8:48">, @$:"(@D@*0J&"H4 *JTz :`*F\8z
10. (123/121) 9@$@*" >" E8"D$>, >" &z*B@R4>@8. =@&, z FH"D,. 9@$@*" *J<"p BD@ P, z H,, z
BD@ F@$@D z BD@ o:\8J. %@p>8@< z 9@$@*" >" E8"D$>z<. !:, Hz 2 9@$@*@` >, B'`H\,
%@p>8@< <"p F:"$, F,DP,, 6@(@ F4> 2" DJ:,<. Subjective narration.
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
7
11. (136/133) 9@$@*" *@ $"H\8", F8"0, 6@<J BD@ o:\8J, y2@H y&">@&4R 9@$@*" J $J*4>8J
<,H":JD(z&. *4D,8H@D R4H"p G@<" 7"<B">,::4 ;zFH@ E@>Pb, H@$H@ JH@Bz6>46 H&zD.
AF4N@:@(zb *@&zR>@(@ &'b2>b, 8"0, *4D,8H@D BD@ 7"<B">,::J, $@ &Fz< @*>@8@&,
BD4B4F">, **(140/136-137) '>z& $"H\8" >" F4>" ***(145-146/141-143)
12. (150/146) %@p>8@< BD@ F@$@D, $J& HJH 2" &z6>4, 8"2"& "DH4:,D4FH"< >, $4H4 & F@$@D,
6@(@ F4> - "DNzH,8H. ;zFH@
13. (159/154) 1'b&4:"Fb H"$:4Pb. 9@$@*" & 8"$z>,Hz A,DT@(@. ;z:zPz@>,D - o:\8" >,
BD@B4F">". a(@D BD@ T:`$ 2 9@$@*@`, SB"R4N" H,0.
14. (172/166) %zDJ>\8" #"(:"p&", || 04HHb, || H@&"D4T8" 9,Fb, 9,F4>, 8@N">>b, %zDJ>\8"
>" 2"&@*z, <4>J:,, &z*FHJB >z<Pz&.
15. (182/176) o:\84 F@>. y&"> #"(:"6 B4T, 2 y>*z|, V@ F8@D@ BD4|*,. a(@D BD@F4H\ *@
F,$,. o:\8" HD4&@04H\Fb.
16. (188/181) & a(@D" 2"DJR4>4, B@N<JD@, BzT@& C@<Pb B@ <J248J " &,D>J&Fb ;48@:",
:`$@&, 2"DJR4>4 B@&,F,:z:4
17. (195/187) ;48@:" z o:\8" >"* )>zBD@<, H"p<>4R@ &@>" &Hz8"p
18. (203/195) ;4>J:, a(@D". E&@$@*" z H@:\84! B"F, R,D,*J " ;"N>@ $,D, >" 8@>@&@*".
;"N>@ >" F@$@D ":, a&@D>4P\846 6@(@ &z*FH@`p, B'b>46 ;"N>@
19. (221/212) ;48@:z o:\8" >"("*Jp <4>J:,, zFH@Dz`, FH,B. EHJ*,>H4 >" D@$@H"N, ;48@:4
B"D", ',>"*z6, *4&JpH\Fb, b8 <@0>" Pz8"&4H4Fb F@$@D@<. @$@D@>" <4FH,PH&" z (J<">z2<J
(224-225/215-216), *JN@&>z &"DH@FH4, ?:,>Pb... o:\Pb... o:,>"... !N,6Pz 2" o:,>J
&@`&":4 2 GD@p` (232/222). 2"8@N">46 ;48@:"
20. (233/223) y&"> #"(:"6 &,D>J&Fb, K4:4<@>"-FH":z>(D"*Pb &0, >,<", 2"<zFH\ >\@(@
B4&>z "&H@<"H4. 1JFHDzRz 2 D@$zH>48"<4 >"* B4&@<. y&"> #"(:"6 (@&@D4H\ 2 #@:@*\8@<
9@$@*@I BD@ FH"D@(@ 9@$@*J. ;@:@*46 9@$@*" 2("*Jp, V@ H4H">" z2 2"&@*J B,D,*
>z<Pb<4 &DbHJ&"& <z0 z>T4<4 a(@D (237/227) G"D"HJH", V@ H"8@0 $J& J y>*z| ":,
&4(>">@. ;@:@*z T<"D8"Rz. Q@<J H"8 B@T4D,>" B"H@:@(zb, H@$H@ B@&,*z>8" B@(">"
(246/unusable in English line, not translated.)
21. (249/238) o:\8" BD4 $D"<z 2"&@*J, BD@$J&":" *zFH"H4 D@$@HJ, >, *"`H\. %@>"
0JD4H\Fb, V@ ;48@:" B@*J<"p BD@ || <4>J:,, B@|N":" >" E8"D$>, *, 2JFHDz:" FH"D@(@
9@$@*J
22. (260/248) E,8D,H"D @$8@<J, )z$D@&46, 2"0JD4&Fb BD@ 2">,R4V,>>b. ;48@:"
&,DH"pH\Fb z2 F,:", 6@(@ *,>\ >"D@*0,>>b
23. (267/254) o:\8" *zFH":" R,D,2 FH"D@(@ 9@$@*J D@$@HJ & $J*4>8J <,H":JD(z&. N@*4H\
B@ E8"D$>@<J. 2JFHDz:" ;48@:J. {| F"<@2>,&"(". $J*JH\ <zFbR>z >@Rz
24. (276/262) Az8->z8 2 >@Rz&:,` >" E8"D$>@<J. o:\8" FBz&"p. EH"D46 9@$@*", y2@H
y&">@&4R @B@&z*"p. y&"> #"(:"6 @B@&z*"p BD@ #Nz:"6, y>*z`. G"D"HJHJ &z*BD"&4:4,
&4(>":4, y&"> B,D,B:4& @2,D@ *@ B:,<,>. =, <@0>" $J*J&"H4 F&@p 04HHb >" B@*@2D"N H"
>,*@&zDz ... (296/280)
25. (296/280) =,RJ6&zH,D (= y2@H 9@$@*") &<,D >" R@&>z. "G@6 <JDJp, H@6 DJ6>Jp"
[S,&R,>8@ z E8@&@D@*"], 9@$@*" BD@ F4>" *J<"p, V@ DJ6>Jp
26. (303/287) MJ:zh">4, G"D"HJH", 8@:4T>b 0z>8" ;@:@*@(@ 9@$@*4, @D(zb & E@$@Dz.
;48@:" "yFJF MD4FH@F" #"(:"6, b8 z a&@D>4P\846 z2 ;"N>@<, &4(">bp 2*4R"&z:4N
BD4T,:\Pz& 2 z>T@| b8@|F\ B:">,H4 z2 F@$@DJ ":, &@>4 6@(@ BD@8@:``H\ >@0,<. o:\8"
SLA 218 – 222
Oles’ Honar
8D4R4H\ @ B@<zR z b H,$, :`$:`. EH":\->z0. )48J>4: B:,<,>" & y>*z| z NJ:zh">4 HJH.
G"*0-;"N": z E@$@D.
8
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Three, Spring
The Sixties, the West,
Shestydesiatnyky
(The Sixtiers). The literary generation that began to publish in the second
half of the 1950s, during N. Khrushchev's `de-Stalinization,' and reached their literary peak in the
early 1960s; hence, their name. The first representatives were Lina Kostenko and Vasyl'
Symonenko. Following their lead came a veritable proliferation of poets: Ivan Drach, Mykola
Vinhranovsky, H. Kyrychenko, Vasyl' Holoborodko, Ihor Kalynets, B. Mamaisur, and others. At
first Volodymyr Korotych was close to the group. The more prominent prose writers were Valerii
Shevchuk, Hryhir Tiutiunnyk, Volodymyr Drozd, IevhenHutsalo, and Ya. Stupak, and literary
critics, Ivan Dziuba, Ivan Svitlychny, Ievhen Sverstiuk, and I. Boichak. The shestydesiatnyky
held their `literary parents' responsible for Stalinist crimes, for adapting to a despotic regime, and
for creative impotence (eg, Dziuba in Òda chesnomu boiahuzovi' [Ode to an Honest Coward]).
In turn, some of the older writers, such as P. Tychyna, P. Voronko, M. Sheremet, and M.
Chabanivsky, exhibited a hostile attitude to the experimentation and innovation of the
shestydesiatnyky. Characteristic of shestydesiatnyky poetry was the renewal of poetic forms and
subjects, which had been stamped out by the dogma of *socialist realism. The prose of the group
was characterized by realistic descriptions free of the constraints of socialist realism, witty humor
(as in the short stories of Tiutiunnyk) or sharp satire (as in Drozd's `Katastrofa' [Catastrophe] and
`Maslyny' [Olives]), subtle delineation of the motives of protagonists, and an interest in historical
subjects (as in the works of Shevchuk).
The shestydesiatnyky movement lasted barely a decade. The writers concerned were harshly
criticized at a special meeting of the creative intelligentsia as early as 1963, and they were
completely silenced by the arrests of 1965–72. During the course of those repressions some
individual writers went over to the official position without having offered particular resistance
(eg, Korotych, Drozd, and Hutsalo). Some of them were denied permission to publish, or refused
to do so for some time (Kostenko); others were not published again until the changes after 1985
(Mamaisur, Holoborodko, Stupak). Others, who continued to opposed national discrimination
and Russification, were arrested and punished with long sentences (Svitlychny, Sverstiuk, V.
Stus, Kalynets, and V. Marchenko), whereupon some died in labor camps (Stus, Marchenko).
Only Dziuba recanted, and after his release he was permitted to continue his literary work. The
shestydesiatnyky movement completely died out at the beginning of the 1970s. Elements of the
literary rebirth that it had initiated remained only in the works of certain poets and prose writers
(Kostenko, Shevchuk). Apart from that, the shestydesiatnyky movement played an important role
in popularizing samvydav literature and, most of all, in strengthening the opposition movement
against Russian state chauvinism and Russification (as in Dziuba's book Internatsionalizm chy
rusyfikatsiia? [Internationalism or Russification?, 1965], the essays of Sverstiuk, the samvydav
poetry of many authors, especially Symonenko and M. Kholodny, the accusatory leaflets and
protest letters of Stus, Marchenko, and others). With the declaration of glasnost and perestroika
in 1985, the shestydesiatnyky once again became active both in their own creative work and in
publicistic writings in defense of the Ukrainian language and the autonomy of Ukrainian culture.
Some of them, like Drach and Dziuba, became active politically.
SLA 218–220
The Sixties, the W est
Themes in the poetry of the sixties
away from civic poetry, rebellion, abstraction, simple things.
Ivan Drach, Sunflower, 395
Ivan Drach
SUNFLOWER
The sunflower had arms and legs,
had a rough, green body.
He raced the wind,
he climbed a pear tree
and stuffed ripe pears into his shirt
and swam near the mill
and lay in the sand
and shot sparrows with his sling-shot.
He hopped on one foot
to shake the water out of his ear—
and suddenly saw the sun
with its golden spindrift of curls,
the beautiful tanned sun
in a red shirt that reached to its knees.
It rode on a bicycle
weaving through banks of clouds.
For years, for centuries the sunflower froze,
silent in a golden trance:
—Let me have a ride, Uncle!
At least let me sit on the cross-bar!
Uncle, be a sport!
Poetry, my orange sun!
Every minute some boy
finds you for himself
and changes to a sunflower forever.
Translated by Daniel Halpern
Lina Kostenko, Granite Fishes, 337
Lina Kostenko, Landscape from my memory, 341
Lina KOSTENKO
GRANITE FISHES
Quiet rules over the expanse of ocean,
2
SLA 218–220
The winds press close and airless,
And mighty fishes
Splashed out by the sea's motion,
Have turned to stone upon a granite stairway.
Wearied by the pounding of the breakers,
They turned to stone in last convulsive anguish.
The scales have turned to hard, dark simulacres.
Heavy and without movement their fins languish.
And on the angled gills, among the cloven
Scorching cracks of grey granite, salt is gleaming.
The burned-out tang of asphalts, pressed, pressed over,
And scorched magnolias' fragrant-choking dreaming,
A snaky rustling on stones moistly wetted,
Despairing sobbing of a little wave.
Here, blocks of stone had once been raked together,
And in their contours forms of fish were saved.
In this there was
Something so alarming!
In this there was so much bitterness!
Once there passed by the spot a giant-artist,
Once there passed by
But further could not pass.
He took a chisel, engraved the lines deeper.
He carved the granite, hard and scorched and weathered.
So that the people
Might know how hard for fishes
It is to be left waterless forever.
Translated by Vera Rich
Lina Kostenko
LANDSCAPE FROM MY MEMORY
Just barely I'touch a word with watercolor—
faded morning, silence, a parapet.
From a misty tunnel of maples
Rylsky steps out, almost a silhouhette.
A woodcarving along the sky—mahogany.
I, too, appear from mists as an outline.
Sadly-sadly he looks at me, wanting
to know who I am and why I stare.
And I continue to gaze... I am somewhat moved...
3
SLA 218–220
And we passed each other. Only the silhouette.
That is all. Two epochs met.
A stupid little girl and an old poet.
Leaves circle, and you can't hear the footsteps.
A landscape that is years, years old...
Translated by Michael M. Naydan
Mykola VINHRANOVSKY, pg 405
* **
I got on the wrong plane
At first
I thought
It was the right one
But I got
On the wrong one
It had
One wing
You were that wing
The other
Was supposed to be
Me
I
Didn't become it
And here for so many days
We've
Been flying
And every moment
The Onewing
Threatens
To fall
My dear well enduring one
I'm not fearful of death
And you're not thinking
About it
We
Fly on.
Mykola Vinhranovsky, pg 407 (untitled)
***
4
SLA 218–220
When the night begins
All begins from the beginning
On a black field
A white grand piano appears
Made of ice and snow
The height of the sky
A girl enters
To the left
With her back to me
In a dark green dress.
She walks and sits down at the piano
For a moment
And her fingers began to weep
For a moment
Her fingers began to laugh
And the piano began to melt
First it's a cloud
Then it's a steamship
Then it's a seagull
Then it's chamomile
And how incredibly
The girl
In the dark green dress grew
My love
No matter how much you're chided
No matter how neglected you are
From night to night
You'll
Begin
To grow
All over again.
Mykola Vinhranovsky, pg 409
THE FIRST LULLABY
Sleep, my little baby, lulla-bye!
Sleep, my child, my little brown-eyed worry!
In warm dreams, above the fields stirs rye,
High above it sunrise starts to hurry.
Father's is the happiest of souls.
Sleep, my darling, it is very late.
There, outside the window, restless, roll
5
SLA 218–220
All your future years—your future fate.
Sleep, my little one, until your time.
Shadows drowse; the maple, too, is sleeping.
Only let Ukraine not sleep in you—
Like the sky reflected in the Dnieper.
Let it never sleep in you at all;
It is yours and all the world's, my sweetest.
Sleep, my little man, my little soul,
Silver dreams are dropping from the treetops.
Translated by Dorian Rottenberg
Vasyl’ Stus, 411
Vasyl STUS
***
The sea—
a black lump of sorrow,
the soul of Mephistopheles
all alone.
The piano becomes numb
under a girl's dainty fingers,
and earth falls from a cliff
into the water.
Parched grass
catches the moist passages
and the primordial moan
is swathed in heavy fog.
Translated by Jaropolk Lassowsky
Bohdan Boychuk, Look intto the Faces of Dead Poets, 361
Bohdan BOYCHUK
LOOK INTO THE FACES OF DEAD POETS
The cheek bones protrude
the eye sockets empty and sunken
look into their gaping mouths
the words have turned to lime
look into their skulls
where the waters are dead thick
look into their faces
6
SLA 218–220
for you have to search behind the eyes
covered with cataracts
you have to reach beyond the ears
plugged with silence
you have to touch hair parting
from the skull
arms and legs stiffened
lump veins and nerves
self-devouring cells
you have to penetrate the dead faces
you have to get to the absence of blood
you have to pause on the other shore of bones
to see
how they press themselves into your memory
with their Gods
with the horror at separating
from the nakedness of women
how their words drill
for openings through their deaths
but you
stare into their faces
stroke your plump women
feed
Translated by David Ignatow
Prose
Valerii Shevchuk,
Ihor Kalynets
VERSES ABOUT UNCERTAINTY
²ãîð Êàëèíåöü
ÑÒÈÕÎÒÂÎÐÈ ÏÐÎ ÍÅÏÅÂÍ²ÑÒÜ
someone strode this road
before me
someone left the mark of a knee
on the doorstone
someone stood behind me
when I snuffed out the candle
someone blew over my shoulder
when I plucked a dandelion
õòîñü ³øîâ ïîïåðåäó ìåíå
ñèì øëÿõîì
õòîñü íà êàì'ÿíîìó ïîðîç³
çàëèøèâ çíàê êîë³íà
õòîñü çà ìíîþ ñòîÿâ
êîëè ÿ ãàñèâ ñâ³÷êó
õòîñü ïîäóâ ìåí³ ³ç-çà ïëå÷à
êîëè ÿ ç³ðâàâ êóëüáàáó
7
SLA 218–220
*
there were good stars
and evil stars
when I eyed the good stars
everything was right
when I glanced at evil stars
someone placed a hand on my heart
but your shadow was not
beside my shadow
my heart is still gray
*
our land doesn't lack
three whales
our sky doesn't lack
iron posts
our certainty doesn't lack
a crossroad
is a prayer to your doubt
in a roadside chapel
authentic
*
a finger carved from stone
my apparition
my road cruel
as a woman
my road treacherous
as a woman
my road a ring
given by a woman
*
and yet
even in this desert
a pride of lions
is not a vision
beating every day
against the horizon's ice
waiting
for red sky to flow
from the broken firmament
*
how to achive certainty
amidst cruelty
staying itself
*
çîð³ áóëè äîáð³
³ áóëè çîð³ íåäîáð³
êîëè ÿ äèâèâñÿ íà äîáð³ çîð³
áóëî âñå ãàðàçä
êîëè ãëÿíóâ íà íåäîáð³ çîð³
õòîñü ïîêëàâ ðóêó íà ñåðöå
òà á³ëÿ ìîº¿ ò³í³
íå áóëî òâîº¿ ò³í³
ñåðöå ìîº äîñ³ ñèâå
*
íå áðàêóº íàø³é çåìë³
òðüîõ êèò³â
íå áðàêóº íàøîìó íåáîâ³
ñòîâï³â çàë³çíèõ
íå áðàêóº íàø³é âïåâíåíîñò³
ðîçïóòòÿ
÷è â ïðèäîðîæí³é êàïëè÷ö³
ìîëèòâà äî ñóìí³âó
º ïðàâäèâîþ
*
ïåðñò âèòåñàíèé ²ç êàìåíþ
ìîº ïðèâèä³ííÿ
ìîÿ äîðîãà æîðñòîêà
ÿê æ³íêà
ìîÿ äîðîãà çðàäëèâà
ÿê æ³íêà
ìîÿ äîðîãà êàáëó÷êà
ïîäàðîâàíà æ³íêîþ
*
òà âñå òàêè
íàâ³òü ó ö³é ïóñòåë³
íå º â³ç³ºþ
ñòàäî ëåâ³â
á'ºòüñÿ âîíî ùîäíÿ
îá ë³ä íåáîêðàþ
÷åêàº
êîëè ç ïðîëîìó îâèäó
ïîòå÷å ÷åðâîíå íåáî
*
ÿê äîñÿãòè ïåâíîñò³
ñåðåä æîðñòîêîñò³
çàëèøàºòüñÿ ñîáîþ
8
SLA 218–220
though seeking a way out
from one cage to another
the early Christians
had no time
to mail us their memoirs
but the girl
lives through
the most ordinary day
lion tamer
*
being able to graze lions
is brought about by naivetH
of course she isn't you
she has a body and a shadow
she hasn't gone
outside the horizon
or beyond herself
she's too downhome
but where can I find
a safer hiding place
than her body
*
the girl closed the circle
at night in the enchanted palace
of love
escape from the meeting
occurred
on the path of dreams
I'd like to see
whether the roadside chapel
is standing
whether my angels
both black and white
are grieving on the ruins
*
the most charming creature
was sleeping under a burdock
the scale of doubts was stilled
the voiceless figures disappeared
peace descended on the lions
the sun overtook the zenith for the first time
when I emerged from the flesh
on the barefoot grass
õî÷ øóêàº âèõîäó
ç îäí³º¿ êë³òêè â ³íøó
íå ìàëè ÷àñó
ïåðåñëàòè íàì ñïîãàäè
ïåðø³ õðèñòèÿíè
àëå ïðîæèâàº
íàéáóäåíí³øèé äåíü
ä³â÷èíà
ïîãîíè÷ ëåâ³â
*
âì³ííÿ ïàñòè ëåâ³â
äîñÿãàºòüñÿ íà¿âí³ñòþ
âîíà çâè÷àéíî íå òè
âîíà ìàº ò³ëî ³ ò³íü
âîíà íå âèõîäèëà
ïîçà îáð³é
ÿê ³ ïîçà ñåáå
çàíàäòî òóòåéøà
àëå äå çíàéòè
ïåâí³øó êðè¿âêó
íàä ¿¿ ò³ëî
*
ä³â÷èíà çàìêíóëà êîëî
âíî÷³ íà çà÷àðîâàíîìó òåðåì³
êîõàííÿ
çä³éñíèëîñÿ çâ³ëüíåííÿ
â³ä çóñòð³÷³
íà ñòåæö³ ñíó
õîò³â áè ÿ áà÷èòè
÷è ñòî¿òü
ïðèäîðîæíÿ êàïëè÷êà
÷è íå ñóìóþòü
íà ðó¿í³ ìî¿ ÿíãîëè
÷îðíèé ³ á³ëèé
*
ñïàëî ï³ä ëîïóõîì
íàé÷àð³âí³øå ñòâîð³ííÿ
âð³âíîâàæèëàñÿ âàãà âàãàíü
çíèêëè áåçãîëîñ³ ïîñòàò³
ìèð ç³éøîâ íà ëåâ³â
ñîíöå âïåðøå äîïàëî çåí³òó
êîëè ÿ âèéøîâ ç ïëîò³
íà áîñó òðàâó
9
SLA 218–220
*
no one ahead
no one behind
no one beside
you could have only
been within me
if you existed
at all
but I didn't know this
earth and sky
lack nothing
the world is complete
I only managed
to utter
Translated by Marco Carynnyk
*
í³êîãî ïîïåðåäó
í³êîãî ïîçàäó
í³êîãî îá³÷
òè ìîãëà áóòè
ò³ëüêè â ìåí³
êîëè á òè âçàãàë³
³ñíóâàëà
àëå çíàòè ÿ öüîãî íå çíàþ
í³÷îãî íå áðàêóº
çåìë³ ³ íåáó
ñâ³ò çàâåðøåíî
ëèøå âñòèã ÿ
ïðîìîâèòè
10
SLA 218–220
Sunflower
The sunflower had arms and legs,
had a rough, green body.
He raced the wind,
he climbed a pear tree
and stuffed ripe pears into his shirt
and swam near the mill
and lay in the sand
and shot sparrows with his sling-shot.
He hopped on one foot
to shake the water out of his ear —
and suddenly saw the sun
with its golden spindrift of curls,
the beautiful tanned sun
in a red shirt that reached to its knees.
It rode on a bicycle
weaving through banks of clouds.
For years, for centuries the sunflower froze,
silent in a golden trance:
— Let me have a ride, Uncle!
At least let me sit on the cross-bar!
Uncle, be a sport!
Poetry, my orange sun!
Every minute some boy
finds you for himself
and changes to a sunflower forever.
[D.H.]
Babi Yar
July 22 1966 at five in the afternoon
we were passing through Babi Yar
the afternoon sun lingered
in a heavy cloud
the villagers lay in bushes drinking beer
sucking herring from their fingers
nearby a Negro rested his head
in the lap of a blond girla grayhaired woman
11
SLA 218–220
went from person to person
looking for a cross to buy
the maples were wilting in the heat
and my son slept on my lap
dreaming of a wild horse racing in high grass
somewhere piledrivers pounded the dry earth
someone shoveled the sky on me
roots of clouds, stones of the sun
and the steel cobras of lampposts
hid their long necks in leaves
I covered my son with my hands
July 22 1966 at five in the afternoon
when we were passing through Babi Yar
[D.H.]
Old Man Hordij
The dark stops me at the doorway
and a ray of light leads me into the house,
lighting my heart
with ragged kerosene flames.
I go in to him, sit at the black table
with my conscience, with a shot of pervak,
with the shade of Horpyna, who went
to the graveyard yesterday, to the moonstruck crossroads,
under the patter of the stones.
A ritual black he-goat hangs from a beam
its legs trussed on a maple stake.
His dead breath reeks, sweet and garlicky
and the skin hangs from the fluted horns.
The man beats the goat-ribs with his fists
and shakes his shock of hair at me.
His pregnant daughter sleeps,
her weary arms flung out to Kazakhstan,
her black braids and black hopes flung out
to her lover, who for months
has drunk another's lips.
Her father flays the skin
of the splendidly reeking goat
and begs me to plant a cigarette between his cracked lips.
Under his nails, black grease;
12
SLA 218–220
the tractor sleeps outside, silent in the rain.
Under the heart of an oaken man
numbness roots.
For yesterday his Horpyna went
to the graveyard, to the moonstruck crossroads,
under the patter of the stones...
So you go to the truth, to the source of things,
caught in leagues of philosophy,
universal harmonies and lunar integrals.
Sometimes you come within a heartbeat
of that rare ozone truth.
[P.S.]
Bread
Crack the egg. Glaze the loaf.
A wooden shovel slides it in the oven,
and sparks fly up the crackling soot,
a night sky in miniature.
Drunk with hops, the loaf puffs its chest,
round and flushed,
and hot embers of the hardening crust
wake the appetite.
Caked with dough, the shovel
withdraws the hot loaf,
and the whitewashed house glows
with the fragrant sun on the table.
[P.N. & M.R.J
13
Slavic 218
Lecture Twenty Four, Spring
Yuri Andrukhovych
Yurii Andrukhovych born March 13, 1960 in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
1982 Department of Editing, Institute of Polygraphy in the field of journalism.
Military service in 1983-1984
1985, together with Viktor Neborak and Oleksandr Irvanets, Y. A. founded the popular literary
performance group "Bu-Ba-Bu" (Burlesque-Bluster-Buffoneery)
Military service in 1983-1984
1989 – 1991 Maxim Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow where he was enrolled in “Advanced
Literary Courses.”
poetry —
The Sky and Squares, 1985
Downtown 1989
Exotic Birds and Plants 1991
prose —
Series of seven "army stories" 1989
Recreations 1992
Moscoviada 1993
Perversion 1996
screenplay, A Military March for an Angel 1989, = A. Donchyk`s film Oxygen Starvation 1991.
Toronto Harbourfront Readings 1998.
(Orest) Khomsky
Rostyslav Martofliak and Marta
Hryts Shtundera and Yurko Nemyrych
Dr. Popel
Mykola Kiindratovych Bilynkevych
Pavlo Matsapura
Satire focused on a number of “sacred cows” of both Soviet and of post-soviet Ukrainian society
poets are presented as mere pampered silly self-indullgent children, not as national heroes or
creators of a “spiritual” level of existence
Ukrainian patriotism is shown as something resembling a commercial fad, a popular style,
something that is exploited, used
Soviet habits of control, organization, the whole Org-committee, Bilynkevych, etc plus the
military ending
The essential lack of authenticity, everyone is behaving in a manner that indicates they are not
SLA 218–224
Yuri Andrukhovych. Recreations
confident that this is real, that things can continue, that they are who they seem to be.
carnival
long list, pg 69-70
Martofliak with his admirers: 72–
Hryts Shtundera off on his night adventure 76– haircut, Sich rifleman outfit, off to Little Villge,
his father’s place of birth before he was deported to Karaganda, Little village Nature Site, and at
the site of Soviet massacres of western Ukrainians in 1941 there is now the Hutsul Girl
international tourist center
87 Marta the whore talks about Bilynkevych and Martofliak who came to her place
91–105 Yurko Nemyrych leaves Marta and Khomsky and goes with Dr. Popel to the Gryphon
Villa
105 Marta Khomsky and the street junkie
109 Martofliak wakes up in the bordello
111–115 Marta’s monologue
2
Slavic 228, Soviet Ukrainian Prose
Class 22 and 23, Valerij Ševuk
Valerij Ševuk
born 20 August 1939 in Žytomyr, studied (history major) at Kiev University, worked as editor in
newspaper Moloda hvardija
books:
E,D,* G40>b 1967
="$,D,0>", 12 1968
E,D,*@ND,FHb 1968
%,RzD F&bH@| @F,>z 1969
7D48 Bz&>b >" F&zH">8J 1979
)@:4>" *0,D,: 1981
G,B:" @Fz>\ 1981
=" B@:z F<4D,>>@<J 1983
)z< >" (@Dz 1983
;":,>\8, &,RzD>p z>H,D<,PP@ 1984
#"D&4 @Fz>>\@(@ F"*J 1986
GD4 84FH84 2" &z8>@< 1986
;4F:,>>, *,D,&@ (1986, D@<">-,F,6)
7"<z>>" :J>" 1987
AH"N4 2 >, &4*4<@(@ @FHD@&" (1989)
;4F:,>>, *,D,&@ 1989
;@D (1989)
)24h"D @*&zR>46 (1990)
)@D@(" & H4FbRJ D@8z& (1990)
A">>" 8&zHz& (1990)
y2 &,DT4> H" >424> (1990)
EH,08" & HD"&z. /4H@<4DF\8" F"(" (J 2 H., 1994)
I R,D,&z "B@8":zBH4R>@(@ 2&zD" (1995)
7@2"P\8" *,D0"&". +H`*4 *@ zFH@Dz| J8D"|>F\8@(@ *,D0"&@H&@D,>>b (1995)
?8@ BDzD&4 (1996)
/z>8"-2<zb (1998)
_>"84 2 &@(>,>>@| B,Rz (1999)
#zF B:@Hz (1999)
AD"P`p H"8@0 >"* "8HJ":z2"Pzp` FH"D@84|&F\8@| :zH,D"HJD>@| H,<"H484 H" :zH,D"HJD4
F,D,*>\@| *@$4: D@<"> «=" B@:z F<4D,>>@<J» (1982), D@<">-,F,6 «;4F:,>>, *,D,&@»
(1986), JB@Db*8J&">>b & B,D,8:"*"N >" FJR"F>J :zH,D"HJD>J <@&J 2$zD84 :`$@&>@| :zD484
16 — 19 FH@:zH\ «AzF>z 7JBz*@>"» (1984), «9zH@B4F E"<z6:" %,:4R8"» J 0JD>":z «74|&»
1986 — 87, H" z>T,.
Also a prolific translator of poetry and prose.

Slavic 218 Ukrainian Literature and Culture Lecture Notes

Transcription

Similar documents

STM news - The Ukrainian Museum Of Canada

UKRAINIAN FESTIVAL - Hearthstone By The Bay

Ziluks in Ukraine

FEAtURE FEAtURE - Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts

"Ukraine Disaster Assistance Fund" (UDAF) - US

How to make a Ukrainian wedding korovai

Delve Deeper into The English Surgeon

Why Ukraine?

ukrainian day in vancouver - Ukrainian Canadian Social Services