Prymak Thomas Michael Mykhailo Hrushevsky : The Politics of National Culture / Thomas M. Prymak. – Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 1987. – XLIV, 323 p..
Summary (1987) Ukraine's foremost historian and one of its most prominent national leaders, Mykhailo Hrushevsky was at the turn of the century a leading figure in the transformation of the Ukrainian national revival into a major political movement. His pivotal role in Ukraine's drive toward national autonomy earned him both the admiration of his countrymen and the vilification of his critics. The first scholarly biography of Hrushevsky, Thomas Prymak's study focuses on three major periods in the historian's life and in Ukraine's modern history. The first, from 1894 to 1917, was one of intensive scholarly and community activity for Hrushevsky and the advancement of his notion of federalism. The second, from 1917 to 1924, features Hrushevsky in the principal role in the Ukrainian revolution, and ends with his promotion of the Ukrainian cause abroad. The third period deals with his controversial return home to Soviet Ukraine, his uneasy yet productive relations with the regime whose ideology he steadfastly refused to endorse, and his mysterious death in 1934. Hrushevsky is still a target of attacks by the Soviet government. This biography presents a balanced and judicious evaluation of a figure who remains a villain in the eyes of the Kremlin and a hero to Ukrainian emigres. |