Together with a long introductory essay, the editors of this volume have provided a collection of major documents dating from 1710 to 1995. The entries are persuasive testimony to the tenacity of Ukrainians’ sense of their unique identity. All composed by Ukrainian writers, and in one way or another, they all address the subject of Ukrainian identity. There are excerpts from nine letters written by Nikolai Gogol in the 1830s, seven of them to his friend Mykhailo Maksymovich, a Ukrainian scholar who lived in Russia. and “I am sorry that you are ailing, and ” he wrote. and “Give up your lousy Russianness and go to the Hetmanate and ” (p. 88). On hearing that Maksymovich had been appointed rector of the new university in Kiev, he rejoiced. and “To Kiev! To ancient, beautiful Kiev! The city is ours; it is not theirs and ” (p. 90). These texts best reflect the transformation of Ukraine, and the obstacles to such a transformation, into a modern nation, which in 1991 declared its independence. They serve, therefore, as a guide to a complex period of hundreds of years. The anthology contributes to an understanding of the past few centuries from a post-colonial perspective.

Towards Intellectual History of Ukraine: An Anthology of Ukrainian thought from 1710 to 1995 PDF

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