Acknowledgments
Looking back at the time when I first developed my interest in Stalinism as a graduate student, I can now fully appreciate the guidance and encouragement of my professors at the University of Alberta.
My adviser, John-Paul Himka, counselled me over the years on a wide array of problems, ranging from the intricacies of modern Ukrainian history to the beneficial properties of red wine during times of uncertainty. He donated a 1982 IBM computer, which I used (and abused) to write my thesis, and his clan helped me and my family in meeting the myriad small and big challenges that every immigrant faces. If it were not for John-Paul, I would never have come to North America, let alone have completed my dissertation. Other Albertans who were generous with their advice and support include David Marples, Zenon Kohut, Oleh Ilnytzkyj, Lesley Cormack, Ann MacDougal, Stephen Slemon, and Nicholas Wickenden. The Department of History and Classics and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) provided a hospitable and stimulating environment for thinking and writing. My studies and research at the University of Alberta were made possible by a string of scholarships: the Alberta Ukrainian Centennial Graduate Scholarship, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Doctoral Fellowship, the Ivan Lysiak Rudnytsky Memorial Doctoral Fellowship in Ukrainian History and Political Thought, the Dissertation Fellowship, and a research grant from the John Kolasky Memorial Endowment Fund at the CIUS.No matter how much I liked the thesis at its defence in March 2000, a year spent as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan opened my eyes to the manuscript’s innumerable shortcomings. I am grateful to Bill Rosenberg and Fran Blouin for making me part of their excellent Sawyer seminar on archives and institutions of social memory, and to Jane Burbank, Geoff Eley, Debbie Field, Madina Goldberg, Vai Kivelson, Brian Porter, and Ron Suny for stimulating conversations over many lunches and coffees.
It was in Ann Arbor that this book acquired its main argument and new conceptual apparatus.Most of the present text, however, was written during the summer of 2001 in my parents’ apartment in Kiev and in the fall of the same year during my first semester at the University of Victoria I thank the colleagues in my two departments, History and Germanic and Russian Studies, for their support and kind words of encouragement during the last stages of work Most of all, I am grateful to them for having trusted me enough to give me a job — and the peace of mind that helped greatly in putting the finishing touches on the manuscript
This book is the product of my archival research in Ukraine and Russia Of the very helpful archivists at the eight institutions where I worked I owe a special debt of gratitude to Iryna Leomdivna Komarova, Viktor Oleksandrovych Tykhomy- rov, Valentyna Vasyhvna Serhnenko, and Antonina Lukivna Kraskivska at the Ukrainian Central State Archive of Civic Organizations (TsDAHO, former Party Archive) and to Lesia Klymivna Zabarylo and Olena Zinovnvna Rachkivska at the Ukrainian State Archive and Museum of Literature and the Arts (TsDAMLM) My research at TsDAHO furnished most of the materials for this book, while the files in TsDAMLM somehow seem to better preserve the unmistakable air of Stalinist culture
Hiroaki Kuromiya and Myroslav Shkandrij, who have since confessed to having served as anonymous reviewers of my manuscript, provided a number of helpful suggestions Many other colleagues and friends have commented on the work in progress or helped in other ways, in particular Mark Baker, Jeffrey Burds, Michael David-Fox, Diane Koenker, Yoshiko Mitsuyoshi, Don Raleigh, Oleksandr Serhnovych Rublov, Roman Serbyn, Stephen Velychenko, Amir Weiner, and Myroslav Yurkevich Special thanks are due to David Brandenberger and Marko Pavlyshyn, who read the entire text and most articles derived from it Susan Ingram, Peter Klovan, and Alan Rutkowski kindly suggested numerous stylistic improvements At the University of Toronto Press, Suzanne Rancourt took an early interest m my project and encouraged its completion, while Catherine Frost has carefully copyedited my manuscript
Parts of this book have previously appeared in a different form and are reprinted here with the kind permission of the following publishers ‘Diktat and Dialogue in Stalinist Culture Staging Patriotic Historical Opera in Soviet Ukraine, 19361954,’ Slavic Review 59, no 3 (2000) 597—624, © 2000 by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, ‘How the “Iron Minister” Kaganovich Failed to Discipline Ukrainian Historians A Stalinist Ideological Campaign Reconsidered,’ Nationalities Papers'll, no 4(1999) 579—604,© 1999 byTaylorand Francis (http //wwwtandfco uk), Condensation of‘Celebrating the Soviet Present The Zhdanovshchina Campaign in Ukrainian Literature in the Arts’ in Provincial Landscapes Local Dimensions of Soviet Power, 1917—1953, ed Donald J Raleigh, © 2001 by Univnsiiy of Pittsburgh Press Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press In addition, this book incorporates the text of my article ‘Stalinist Patriotism as Imperial Discourse Reconciling the Ukrainian and Russian “Heroic Pasts,” 1939-45,’ Kntika Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 3, no 1 (2002) 51—80, © 2002 by Serhy Yekelchyk
My greatest, broadest, and oldest debt is to my parents and grandparents, whose stories gave me a sense of personal connection to Stalins era and who - against many odds - made my school years in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev a time to remember My wife, Olga, has been more than patient and supportive during all the years it took me to see this work to completion Our daughter, Yuha, who started and almost finished elementary school as I was writing this book, never made me feel guilty for not spending enough time with her - although she should have