This book is an impartial biography of the most famous Ukrainian playwright of the Soviet period, Oleksandr Korniychuk (1905–1972). He was the most odious representative of Ukrainian culture and theatrical establishment of the twentieth century. Having won all possible awards, Korniychuk came across as someone, who, when it came to staging, impersonated drawbacks of the Soviet ideology with all its Byzantinesque self-perception and hidden anti-humanism of the socialistic experiment.
The book examines a “vegetarian” period of Ukraine’s Soviet history when the regime had already stopped practising mass repressions, and yet the ideological pillars of late Stalinism, though slightly modified, remained the same. One element of propaganda was the so-called “fight against international Zionism.” The content of Party, state, and secret police documents impresses the reader with its ideological rhetoric and latent antisemitism as well as a combination of distorted reality and lies. Based on the archival collections of the Communist Party, the book shows that the methods of “anti-Zionist” propaganda were too distant from reality and could not influence the minds of those who did not find their place in the tight grip of the Soviet society.
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The book illustrates the development of Ukrainian translation from the times of Kyivan Rus to modernity. Special attention is paid to the 19th- and 20th-century translation and translators, whose activity, aside from its literary nature, had a distinct nation-making direction, helping draw a precise line separating Ukrainians from the dominant nations of the empires, to which Ukrainian lands belonged. Such a role of Ukrainian translation was not unique. German translation performed a similar role in the second half of the 18th century, when the French language and culture dominated the higher strata of divided Germany, and Catalan translation did so in the 20th century during the forced “Castiliasation” of Catalonia under the Franko regime. Nevertheless, it is the history of Ukrainian translations that contains the greatest number of dramatic narratives, and the fates of the most remarkable Ukrainian writers were considerably more tragic than those of their counterparts from the other countries that also suffered from foreign political and cultural oppression.
This guidebook describes locations in cities and villages of Ukraine that are related to the history and culture of Ukrainian Jews. The composition of the guide is based on the geographical principle, thus each chapter defines a given region of the country. Since the histories of the Jewish communities of Ukraine varied, a reader’s perception of the chapters can vary as well. The illustrations of the edition allow observing both cultural sights that exist nowadays and photos of the objects that have not been preserved. Special attention is paid to individuals, for instance, Jewish writers, artists, civil rights leaders, philanthropists, religious activists and righteous men. The book can be especially useful for tourists, who are interested in the Jewish history of the state.
До першого тому “Історичних есе” визначного українського вченого, професора Альбертського університету (Канада) Івана Лисяка Рудницького (1919–1984) входять праці з методологічних питань середньовічної та ранньомодерної історії України, інтелектуальної історії, а також українсько-російських, українсько-польських та українсько-єврейських відносин протягом століть. Особливе місце у книзі посідають студії, присвячені аналізу концепцій українських політичних мислителів доби “національного відродження” XIX ст.
До другого тому входять праці з історії України новітньої доби. (more…)
