Papers by Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak
Kyiv-Mohyla humanities journal, Jul 18, 2016
Тhe editor of the Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal asked me to jot down my thoughts on the teaching... more Тhe editor of the Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal asked me to jot down my thoughts on the teaching of the humanities and ideology, issues with which many in my generation have grappled. One would think that as I hear my eighties thumping nearer I would have some great insights that could be stated in a sentient lapidary tweet. Hasn't come to me yet. Yet I could not pass up the request for purely personal reasons. I've watched, and even slightly helped, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) emerge from the complex meshing of the good that survived in the Soviet sphere and the best traditions of humanism that embered through people and ideas, despite ideological regimes. As always through history, humanism and ideology clashed with each other, taking on each other's coloring and making our life complex and interesting. Neither humanism, in its broadest definition, nor ideology, in its narrowest meaning, can be merely taught. Both need to resonate with their audience, not to mention adherents, to be understood and accepted. During the existence of the USSR, Soviet Ukraine was more closed than Soviet Russia. More foreigners could visit Russia, while only a few were granted visas to Ukraine. It was particularly difficult for scholars of Ukrainian descent to get accepted on the exchange program, which was the only way to access any archives. I was already working on my third book in 1980 when I finally managed to get the necessary permissions to work in a few Ukrainian archives. As a first-time visitor to Kyiv, one Sunday I headed down to Podil to make a pilgrimage to what remained of Mohylianka (NaUKMA). I made it into the courtyard, peeked inside, and was unceremoniously thrown out for violating the privacy of the hospital wing of the buildings into which I wandered. I am certain the security officer knew very little about the history of the building he guarded so assiduously, but he certainly knew his regulations. Of course, at the time I could not even dream that a little more than a decade later the security officer would be taking care of the safety of a reborn Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which resumed its original function of defining what it means to be human. Big words are easy to define-until you see how people use them to characterize themselves and others. In the previous millennium humanity chiseled ideologies-integrated systems of belief or thought, which almost inevitably turned themselves inside out to destroy their makers. We, the educated elite who were formed by wars and by those who wrote about wars, sought hope in reason, in education, in what we call humanism to help us understand the potential of evil, of the danger lurking in any hermetically closed system of thinking, so we could save the world and avert more wars. The generation of the First World War fought to end all wars. The Second World War idealists fought to destroy one totalitarian system, but failed to recognize the other. After the inevitable ideological wars, we turn to education, to the hopeful conviction that what we call
Catholic Historical Review, 2000
Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine: The Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky. By Andrii Krawchuk. (Ottawa:... more Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine: The Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky. By Andrii Krawchuk. (Ottawa: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, and The Basilian Press. 1997. Pp. xxiv, 404. $49.95.) Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky (1865-1944), a scion of high Polonized nobility, was for almost half a century the metropolitan to Ukrainians, most of whom were poor peasants. Had he remained a Catholic of the Roman rite instead of reverting to the Eastern Catholicism of his distant ancestors, his life would have lacked the sharp poignancy that creates the major interest in his life and work. As a committed pastor of a flock facing discrimination, first within the Habsburg Monarchy, then in the Polish Republic, and ending in the unprecedented tribulations of Soviet and Nazi occupations, Sheptytsky did not have the luxury of simply expounding his views on Christian ethics. The times of his life made the simplest injunction- "Thou shalt not kill," the title of one of his major pastoral letters-a politically charged position. Placed within the crucible of ideological and geographical struggles, arrested by the Tsarist government, exiled by the Soviets, detained by the inter-War Polish regime, groundlessly accused of collaboration with Nazi Germany, Sheptytsky struggled most valiantly for the souls of youths caught in the vise of economic depression and political repression. He deplored the growth of terrorist nationalism, seeing in it the obverse side of godless communism and a negation of all he and his Church stood for. The affirmation of life runs through Sheptytsky's whole life, and Krawchuk aptly titled the last chapter of this book "The Sanctity of Life: Resistance to Nazi Rule;' that includes a brief discussion of the aid Sheptytsky was able to proffer Jews. The main value of Krawchuk's study is that he eschews the potential of high drama in Sheptytsky's life to focus on his interpretation of Christian ethics. Krawchuk's research is solid, his expositions carefully presented. The close focus on the topic deprives the reader of a sense of the approachable Sheptytsky, but it provides us with a wealth of information not available previously. The book is comprehensive and balanced to the point of at times being dry. Nevertheless, given the dearth of scholarly material on Sheptytsky, this is a welcome fault. While stressing Sheptytsky's open opposition to Nazi policies, Krawchuk provides a useful appendix on the thorny matter of Sheptytsky's alleged letter of qualified support of the Galician Division, the German-founded military unit that fought briefly on the Eastern front. …
A quick search for "Ukrainian Catholic Church" in a big American city might yield confusing resul... more A quick search for "Ukrainian Catholic Church" in a big American city might yield confusing results. One might find Ukrainian Greek Catholic churches, several Ukrainian Catholic churches, Byzantine Greek Catholic churches, Ruthenian Catholic churches. Attend Mass at any of them, and you'll note similarities in the rites. This is confusing. Current events have increased broad public recognition of Ukraine, its history and its culture. The little-known history of the Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. reveals the source of this profusion of churches. This history is scattered in disjointed nuggets that illustrate the interaction between Ukrainian American society and that of the home country. One result of such interaction was the separation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S. into two separate churches, even as it exists as a single entity in the homeland.
SOLOYYOY • NIKOLAI GROT • SKRGKI niAGIIILKY • \ASILLV Y. BB A REVOLUTION OF THE SPIRIT Crisis of ... more SOLOYYOY • NIKOLAI GROT • SKRGKI niAGIIILKY • \ASILLV Y. BB A REVOLUTION OF THE SPIRIT Crisis of Value in Russia, 1890-1924 Edited by BERN ICE GLATZER ROSENTHAL & MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY-CHOMIAK - DMITRI S. MKRK/HK()\ SKY • GKORGII ...
Russian History-histoire Russe, Nov 1, 1984
The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 1979
... Russian alternatives to Marxism: Christian socialism and idealistic liberalism in twentieth-c... more ... Russian alternatives to Marxism: Christian socialism and idealistic liberalism in twentieth-century Russia. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Putnam, George F. (b. 1923, d. ----. PUBLISHER: University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1977. ...
The American Historical Review, Feb 1, 1992
SOLOYYOY • NIKOLAI GROT • SKRGKI niAGIIILKY • \ASILLV Y. BB A REVOLUTION OF THE SPIRIT Crisis of ... more SOLOYYOY • NIKOLAI GROT • SKRGKI niAGIIILKY • \ASILLV Y. BB A REVOLUTION OF THE SPIRIT Crisis of Value in Russia, 1890-1924 Edited by BERN ICE GLATZER ROSENTHAL & MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY-CHOMIAK - DMITRI S. MKRK/HK()\ SKY • GKORGII ...
The American Historical Review, Apr 1, 1990
... Galician villagers and the Ukrainian national movement in the nineteenth century. Post a Comm... more ... Galician villagers and the Ukrainian national movement in the nineteenth century. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Himka, John-Paul (b. 1949, d. ----. PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press (New York). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1988. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0312016093 ). ...
Slavic Review, 2013
Kesseli, and larskaia-Smirnova and Romanov demonstrate the ways in which gender complicates our u... more Kesseli, and larskaia-Smirnova and Romanov demonstrate the ways in which gender complicates our understanding of post-Soviet politics and society. The average American undergraduate will not find this book accessible; many of the chapters are packed with detailed descriptions and extensive theoretical discussions. Nonetheless, there is much here to interest and inform scholars of family, gender, and state policy.
Canadian journal of history, Aug 1, 1995
The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 1976
The American Historical Review, Jun 1, 1986
Slavic Review, Dec 1, 1975
The American Historical Review, Oct 1, 1995
The Literary Discussion of the 1920s was a pivotal event in Ukrainian intellectual history, one w... more The Literary Discussion of the 1920s was a pivotal event in Ukrainian intellectual history, one whose significance reaches far beyond issues of literary form and style. An expression of cultural self-assertion, it produced a vigorous debate of issues fundamental to Ukraine's future as ...
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Papers by Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak