'Above Kyiv there is a Golden Hum': The National Revolution in Kyiv -- In Search of 'a blue Savoy': The Bolshevik Revolution in Kharkiv -- Towards Soviet Literature in Ukrainian -- Defending Soviet Ukrainian Literature -- 'Ukraine or Little Russia': The Battle for Cultural Autonomy in 1926 -- State Appropriation of Literature during the First Five-Year Plan.
In: Euxeinos: governance and culture in the Black Sea Region ; newsletter of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St. Gallen, Band 12, Heft 34
This article investigates underlying state intentions behind the counting and standardizing minority populations in view of the dire need to modernize the country. It takes a close look at the statistics regarding the Polish minority provided by the 1897 Imperial and 1926 Soviet censuses to understand how, within a span of only thirty years, the abstract figures of language, religion, and social status came to represent rigidly ascribed and hereditary national categories. The article also explores how the category of "nationality" was understood and how its meaning, political, and economic significance changed in the decades between these two censuses.
AbstractBy investigating the information and propaganda campaign surrounding the election of delegates to the 1929 World Congress of Poles Abroad, this article seeks to elucidate a complex interplay between foreign policy considerations, security concerns, and nationality policies of the Polish and Soviet governments. It examines the role of national minorities in the Soviet modernization effort and the ongoing Polish-Soviet rivalry of the interwar period. The focused study of the information campaign, and the public discussion surrounding the election process to the congress, contributes also to the debates on mass political culture in the interwar Soviet Union. Party communication, intelligence, and secret reports compiled during the local elections and conferences provide a unique source for sampling public opinion of the Polish population regarding the Soviet regime in the early years of Stalin's First Five-Year plan. The article argues that despite the considerable efforts of the party to define and promote Polish identity, and thus shift their loyalties closer to the Soviet state, the Polish population in Soviet Ukraine, even at the end of the 1920s, continued to express persistent nonconformity and a lack of faith in the Soviet government.
By investigating the information and propaganda campaign surrounding the election of delegates to the 1929 Congress of Poles Abroad, this article seeks to elucidate a complex interplay between foreign policy considerations, security concerns and minority policies of the Polish and Soviet governments. It aims to examine the role of national minorities in the Soviet modernisation project, as well as in the on-going Polish-Soviet rivalry of the interwar period. The focused case study of the information campaign, and the public discussion surrounding the election process to the Congress contributes also to the debates on mass political culture in the interwar Soviet Union. Party communication, intelligence and secret reports compiled during the local elections and conferences provide a unique source for sampling public opinion of the Polish population regarding the Soviet regime in the early years of Stalin's First Five-Year plan. This paper argues that despite considerable efforts of the party to define and promote Polish identity and thus shift their loyalties closer to the Soviet state, the Polish population in Soviet Ukraine even at the end of the 1920s continued to express persistent nonconformity and a lack of faith in the Soviet government.
The October Revolution brought about a radical shift in the cultural sphere. A new generation of artists and writers was formed. Their orientation towards the future and critical attitude to the past initiated a new chapter of revolutionary and proletarian culture. In Soviet Ukraine, this new artistic cohort in addition embraced national sentiments advancing a culture that was both Soviet and Ukrainian. This article examines the artistic and ideological development of Mykola Khvyl'ovyy (1893–1933), a writer and publicist who championed the ideological struggle for the autonomous project of a Soviet Ukrainian literature to be developed independently from Russian patterns. In this article, Khvyl'ovyy's ideas as presented in his early prose and pamphlets, written during the so-called Literary Discussion of 1925–1928, are used to outline the writer's vision of Soviet Ukrainian culture. These ideas are examined against the backdrop of the political developments of the decade characterised by the gradual toughening of the political and ideological climate Union-wide. It is argued that, during the 1920s, an autonomous cultural project in Soviet Ukraine was developed on a par with the centrally endorsed canon of all-Soviet culture implemented in every Soviet republic as a by-product of the korenizatsiya (indigenisation) campaign introduced in 1923. By the early 1930s, the all-Soviet canon gained prominence, whereas the project of an autonomous Soviet Ukrainian culture vanished together with its main representatives, who, in most cases, were physically annihilated. Khvyl'ovyy's suicide in May 1933 symbolically drew a line under the 1920s decade of transition, with its relative ideological and political tolerance as well as its artistic experimentation.
The October Revolution brought about a radical shift in the cultural sphere. A new generation of artists and writers was formed. Their orientation towards the future and critical attitude to the past initiated a new chapter of revolutionary and proletarian culture. In Soviet Ukraine, this new artistic cohort in addition embraced national sentiments advancing a culture that was both Soviet and Ukrainian. This article examines the artistic and ideological development of Mykola Khvyl'ovyy (1893–1933), a writer and publicist who championed the ideological struggle for the autonomous project of a Soviet Ukrainian literature to be developed independently from Russian patterns. In this article, Khvyl'ovyy's ideas as presented in his early prose and pamphlets, written during the so-called Literary Discussion of 1925–1928, are used to outline the writer's vision of Soviet Ukrainian culture. These ideas are examined against the backdrop of the political developments of the decade characterised by the gradual toughening of the political and ideological climate Union-wide. It is argued that, during the 1920s, an autonomous cultural project in Soviet Ukraine was developed on a par with the centrally endorsed canon of all-Soviet culture implemented in every Soviet republic as a by-product of the korenizatsiya (indigenisation) campaign introduced in 1923. By the early 1930s, the all-Soviet canon gained prominence, whereas the project of an autonomous Soviet Ukrainian culture vanished together with its main representatives, who, in most cases, were physically annihilated. Khvyl'ovyy's suicide in May 1933 symbolically drew a line under the 1920s decade of transition, with its relative ideological and political tolerance as well as its artistic experimentation.