Nation and Memory in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine

Nation and Memory in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine Lecture 20 Russia, Poland, Ukraine today + Revision Week 4, Summer Term

Outline 1. What is a nation? 2. Russia, Poland, Ukraine in the 19th century 3. Culture and Nation 4. The period of the two world wars 5. Relevance today

Primordialist viewModernist viewIntermediate view

Modernist viewNations are a product of modernityNations are constructed by elitesNationalists created nations “Nation as a natural, God-given way of classifying men, as an inherent … political destiny, are a myth; nationalism, which sometimes takes preexisting cultures and turns them into nations, sometimes invents them, and often obliterates preexisting cultures: that is a reality”. (Ernest Gellner) “Nations do not make states and nationalisms but the other way round”. (Eric Hobsbawm)

Intermediate view: Ethno-symbolism (Anthony D. Smith)Nations are a modern phenomenon, but have roots in pre-modern eras and culturesModern nations are directly or indirectly related to older ethnies with their distinctive mythology, symbolism and culture Nations are both, construct and real process “The point at issue is how far the modern, mass public culture of the national state is a modern version of the premodern elite high culture of the dominant ethnie, or how far it simply uses ‘materials’ from that culture for its own quite different, and novel, purposes.” Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism and Modernism, p. 42

Pattern of a successful national movement from below (M. Hroch) • A crisis of legitimacy • A certain amount of vertical social mobility (educated people from the non-dominant group) • High level of social communication (literacy, schooling, market relations) • Nationally relevant conflicts of interest

Nation building in non-dominant ethnies (Phase A) Groups in the ethnic community start to discuss their own ethnicity and conceive of it as a nation-to-be: scholarly enquiry into and dissemination of an awareness of the linguistic, cultural, social and historical attributes of the nation-to-be (Phase B) A new range of activists try to “awaken” national consciousness and to persuade as many members as possible of the ethnic group – the potential compatriots – that it is important to gain all the attributes of a fully-fledged nation: (1) development of a national culture based on the local language and its use in education, administration and economy, (2) civil rights and self-administration, (3) creation of a complete social structure – beginning of a national movement (Phase C) A mass movement is formed which pursues these aims: a fully-fledged social structure of the would-be nation comes into being Miroslav Hroch, From National Movement to the Fully-Fledged Nation, pp. 61-62

Who are we? • What does it mean to be a Pole, a Russian, a Ukrainian • Who can become a member of the nation? • What is more important, objective criteria or subjective identification with the nation? • What role does religion play? • How to win the peasants (which peasants) for the national project?

Nation building in 19th century Eastern Europe • Task: Make peasants into Russians, Poles, Ukrainians • Problem: Serfdom, abolished in Prussia 1807/10, in Austria 1848, in Russia 1861 • Gulf between nobility and nationally mobilised urban elite on the one side and peasants on the other side • Problem of literacy: 1850 in Prussia 85%, 1873 in Austrian Galicia 20%, 1897 in Russian Empire 21.1% • Fear of estate owners and conservatives of effect of literacy on behaviour of peasants • National movement: since last third of 19th century challenge by socialism • BUT • Abolition of serfdom precondition for reaching out to peasantry • Reading clubs • Co-operative movement • Often important role of priests but movement let by secular nationalist intelligentsia

Key questions - Russia • Kievan Rus’ and Byzantine Heritage – Orthodox faith • Mongolian ‘yoke’ • Peter the Great and Westernisation • Westernisers vs. Slavophiles in the 19th century • Official nationality: Autocracy, Orthodoxy, nationality (narodnost’) • Challenges of Russian nationalism

Russia: Empire and Nation Pro • Russian language and tradition of literate culture • Living in the Russian empire where members of own ethnic group are the elite • Common present • Orthodox faith • Common history • Cultural bonds: similar traditions, costumes, songs and so on Contra • Gap between culture of educated elite and peasant population • Late abolition of serfdom (1861) • Low level of political participation (autocracy) • Social conflict between land-owning nobility and peasantry • small middle class • Imperial tradition and ethnic minorities Ambivalent role of Russian Nationalism

Key questions - Poland • Latin (Roman-Catholic) traditions • Conflict with Teutonic Order • The ‘noble republic’ • The partitions: reasons: punishment of god, evilness of partitioning powers, weakness of Polish constitution, geography, division of society and exploitation of peasants, egoism of nobility • Romantic nationalism, messianism and uprisings • Realists: organic work • Who is a Pole? Different concepts (inclusive, exclusive)

Poland: The Partioned Nation PRO • Polish language and long tradition of literate culture • Influence in Galicia - here dominant-ethnic group since 1867, socially dominant in parts of Russian, German, and Austrian territories (landowners) • Roman-Catholic faith • Common history of most of the territory until the end of the 18th c. • Existence of a numerous, genuinely Polish elite – the nobility • Cultural bonds: similar traditions, costumes, songs and so on CONTRA • Partitions of Poland • Living in the Russian Empire, Prussia/German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. • No common present • Opportunities for educated Poles in the service of the Empires • small middle class • Policy of Russification and Germanization

Key questions - Ukraine • Kyivan Rus’- Orthodox • Kingdom of Halych • Uniate Church • Khmel’nits’kyj, the cossack state and the treaty or Pereyaslav • Little Russians, Ruthenians, Ukrainians • The Ukrainian ‘awakening’ • East Galicia – Western Ukraine – Eastern Ukraine

Ukraine: An unhistoric nation? CONTRA • Ukrainian language not yet a fully developed “high language”, Russian/Polish available as alternative languages for higher education • Since 1667/1772 Eastern part has common history with Russia, Western part since 1772 with Austria • traditional elites have become Russians or Poles • no Ukrainian state in history • Potential members of the nation live in different empires as non-dominant ethnic groups • Opportunities for educated Ukrainians in Russian Empire • almost no middle class • Different denominations • Politics of Russification/Polonization PRO • Ukrainian language and literature in the vernacular since 1798 • Russian Orthodox faith in Russian Ukraine – Greek-Catholic faith in Galicia a barrier to assimilation by the Polish nation • Common history until the 17th c. • Social antagonism to Polish or Russian/Russified overlords • cossack autonomy in early modern Europe and short period of independence • Cultural bonds: similar traditions, costumes, songs and so on

The ‘Jewish question’ • Assimilation or no assimilation? Can Jews be Poles, Russians, Ukrainians? • Reasons for anti-Semitism and pogroms: • Zionism • Jewish socialism: BUND

Culture and Nation • History Painting • National literature • National music culture • National symbols • Sites of Memory • Commemoration and Celebration “High Culture” and “Low Culture” What makes a national poet, national opera/music, national art?

1914 - 1921 • First World War: precondition for state building in Eastern Europe after 1918 • Collapse of Empires: were they reformable? • State building Wars 1918-1920 • War and war remembrance: provides heroes and binds nation together • Failure of Ukrainian state building – success of Polish state building: why did Poles succeed where Ukrainians failed?

Soviet nationality policy • 1920s: different approach to Ukrainians: indigenization, • Affirmative action: national in form, socialist in content • The Ukrainian famine • Changes in 1930s: Greatest Danger Principle • Changes in 1930s: Reduction of Complexity • National operations

Polish Nationality Policy • Towards Ruthenians (Ukrainians): assimilation • Towards Jews: exclusion (National Democrats) or assimilation (Pilsudski, Socialists) • Strengthening of the Polish element in the kresy (Eastern borderlands) – Polish settlers • Preferential treatment of ethnic Poles • Closing of Ukrainian schools or transformation into bilingual schools • Polonisation of universities and public space • In Volhynia more flexible than in East Galicia • Pacifications

The Second World War • Poland: Suffering and heroic fight with tragic outcome, private memory vs. official memory in Communist Poland, Warsaw Uprising • Russia: Suffering and heroic fight with triumphal victory, official memory and private memory coincide (for many), uses of the victory today • Western Ukraine: Suffering and heroic fight with tragic outcome – Ukrainian nationalist fighters are heroes • Eastern Ukraine: Suffering and heroic fight with ambivalent outcome – Ukrainian nationalist fighters are traitors • Local antisemitism (historical roots) and the Holocaust – • Impact of WWII on Polish-Russian, Russian-Ukrainian, and Polish-Ukrainian relations

Relevance • Putin and historical justifcations of his policy towards Ukraine – common heritage, Crimea and Russia, Russian speaking minority in Eastern Ukraine • Divided memory – divided nation: Ukraine - Holodomor and WWII • The suffering and heroic nation: Poland – the history policy of the new government, problem of anti-semitism during WWII (Jedwabne)

Nation and Memory in Russia, Poland, and Ukraine