Rethinking Ukrainian History. by Ivan L. Rudnytsky; John Paul HimkaReview by: John A. ArmstrongSlavic Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 150-151Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2498293 .

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150 Slavic Review

In the first of the four parts of this book Coral Bell examines East-West relationships, especially concentrating on the Western component, and Morris Bornstein, in an elegant essay, discusses the issues that influence East-West trade development based on different economic assumptions. In the second part dealing with Soviet-East European relations William Zimmerman examines the changes in these relations during the past years and suggests that the institutional regional system that has emerged is not likely to be altered in this decade. Bornstein analyzes trade and energy problems within Comnecon, concen- trating to a large degree on Hungarian aspects of these relations. In part 3 the impact of domestic political and social changes is discussed in a comparative setting by Gitelman and Alex Pravda, while in the fourth part the East European responses to the changes that occurred in the 1970s are ably analyzed by Andras Nagy and Marton Tardos (Hun- gary) and Witold Trzeciakowski and Stanislaw Gebethnew (Poland). The concluding essay by Zimmerman summarizes the major findings.

As with all edited volumes, there are many elements that are "missing" from this collection. One could quarrel with some statements, as, for example, with Pravda's as- sumption that "workers' participation is potentially capable of helping to tackle some of the problems generated by domestic and external economic pressures, especially on the production side," or with Gitelman's perhaps all too pessimistic assessment that "some East Europeans cannot do what is economically necessary because it is politically dan- gerous." But that would be nit-picking and unreasonable, for this book is characterized throughout by a very high degree of scholarship and often even brilliant insight. Born- stein's two studies, Gitelman's and Pravda's chapters on the domestic impact of East- West relations, and Zimmerman's fine article on Soviet-East European linkages are re- quired reading for students of communist affairs.

IVAN VOLGYES

University of Nebraska

RETHINKING UKRAINIAN HISTORY. Edited by Ivan L. Rudinvtsky assisted by Johnl- Paul Himka. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta, 1981. x, 268 pp. Tables. Cloth.

This book is a testimoily to the success of a conference in 1978 'designed to bring Ukrain- ian history visibly into the mainstream of North American historical scholarship." The book is also convincing evidence of its contributors' professional standing, which only those who have followed the amazing improvement in Ukrainian historiography during the past forty years can fully appreciate. As Ivan L. Rudnytsky emphasizes, these scholars are successful because they approach the subject as a world problem. With considerable long-range promise, they emphasize the usefulness of the Ukrainian experience for- under- standing how a politically handicapped ethnic group can achieve complete nationhood. The approach entails expert use of two techniques which, as yet, have not been fully integrated into general historiography: the adaptation of the conceptual frameworks of social science and the adoption of precisely defined comparative perspectives.

Although it suggests how ready the participants were to explore new ideas, the closing roundtable discussion on periodization is mainly directed toward teaching. More signifi- cant conceptually and substantively are four articles on urbanization. Patricia Herlihy and Steven I. Guthier employ the concepts of relative size of central places in fully integrated polities and the differential impact of industrialization on ethnic elements to analyze nineteenth- and early twentieth-century data. Stressing demographic techniques, Roman Szporluk continues the statistical analysis into the late twentieth century, and Peter Wo- roby provides a useful general critique.

A larger portion of the book is devoted to earlier periods, for which quantitative data are scarce, and the focus turns to elites. Frank Sysyn draws on concepts used in analyzing

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Reviews 151

Western and East Central European nobilities for his examination of the upper strata in the early modern Ukraine, while Zenon E. Kohut scrutinizes the later relationship of starshinia to szlachta down to the 1830s. Omeljan Pritsak provides a fascinating overview of the political forces in Ukrainian history through the seventeenth century. Sophisticated as these treatments are, they tend to skirt a few basic questions. Only George Y. Shevelov (an avowed "outsider") suggests why a Ukrainian identity distinct from the broader Ru- thenian (or West Russian) identity emerged as a result (in part) of new linguistic patterns affected by policies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In his discussion of the relation between the Ukraine and the Mosleimn world, Orest Subtelny recognizes that the Cossacks, constituting a frontier society identified by its relation to the Turks and Tatars, were indispensable for Ukrainian distinctiveness. Shevelov also shows how the dominant pop- ular linguistic patterns of the northwestern regions were replaced by Kievan-Poltavan forms imbued with Cossack lore as nineteenth-century writers developed the literary language.

All of this suggests an interplay between identity, language, and political mythology that deserves further investigation. Perhaps this would be aided by closer attention to early seminal works on the area in Western languages, including Antoine Martel's La langue polonaise dans les pays rathMnes (1938) and Abraham Brawer's Galizien wie es an Oesterreich kam (1910). The contributors' extensive citations of early national Ukrainian histories and more recent Soviet works will nevertheless help scholars overcome the lack of a general Ukrainian historical bibliography.

JOHN A. ARMSTRONG University of Wisconsin

COSSACK REBELLIONS: SOCIAL TURMOIL IN THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY UKRAINE. By Linda Gordon. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983. xiv, 289 pp.

Before they became the object of scholarly inquiry, the Zaporozhian Cossacks had in- flamed both the romantic and the popular imagination of the nineteenth century. Sub- sequently modern scholars have undertaken the difficult task of separating fact from myth in the Cossack legacy. That the Cossacks of Zaporozhia were uniquely Ukrainian and played a pivotal role in Ukrainian history can hardly be disputed. Given the complexities of this history and the violent passions that its study still evokes among historians, however, some rather fundamental issues pertinent to the Cossacks remain largely unresolved; for example, who they were, what they did, and why they did it. The issue has been so clouded by controversy and by national and political prejudice that the Cossacks are variously portrayed as national heroes, defenders of the faith, promoters of class-struggle, outlaws, and trouble-makers.

Linda Gordon's study ostensibly deals with two major Cossack rebellions led by Kosynsky and Nalyvaiko against Poland during the crucial decade of the 1590s. The first half of the book, however, is devoted to a rather ambitious analysis of the broader factors which served to shape and define Zaporozhian Cossackdom, including the role of the frontier and geography, population dynamics, ethnic composition, religious orientations, social organization, the problem of leadership, international politics, and contemporary economic determinants. This is followed by a discussion of the Zaporozhian Cossack Brotherhood itself, and the book concludes with the examination of the two rebellions. Excellent footnotes, two maps, a historiographical essay, and an extensive bibliography complement the text.

The author approaches her topic from the perspective of the social historian. Ac- cordingly, she places the Cossacks within the confines of a general European phenomenon

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