Preface to the Second Edition
What has occurred in Ukraine since this book first appeared in 1988 still boggles the mind. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the seemingly monolithic Soviet Union disintegrated. With it some of the features that have distinguished Ukrainian history for centuries disappeared, or at least receded: imperial rule, the economic exploitation of the land, and the repression of Ukrainian national culture.
On 24 August 1991 Ukraine proclaimed its independence, and in a referendum held on 1 December of that year, its population supported the proclamation in overwhelming numbers. Since statelessness had been a central theme of Ukrainian history for more than 600 years, the acquisition of a genuinely independent state was clearly a dramatic turning point. And it was bound to exert a decisive influence on another key historical theme, that of modernization. In Ukraine this universal, ongoing process had perennially been directed by foreign powers and had primarily served their interests, often to the disadvantage of the land’s population. With independence, the responsibility for deciding how they would become modern, and, of more immediate concern, how they would extricate themselves from the economic morass left behind by the Soviet system, finally passed into the hands of the Ukrainians themselves. As Ukraine gained control of its political and economic fate, it started to shed some of the anomalies that had characterized its past. It began to fall into step with the modern world.Clearly these are changes of the greatest magnitude, and a history of Ukraine would be incomplete if it did not incorporate them. Hence this second edition. It contains a new chapter, which surveys the far-reaching transformations that occurred between 1988 and 1993. The reader should keep in mind, however, that Ukraine today is a society still very much in a state of flux. While the general outline of its transformation is visible, the historical significance of many recent events and developments will become clear only with time.
This new edition also includes an updated bibliography and corrections of a few minor errors that crept into the previous edition. I am grateful to those who brought them to my attention. My thanks also to Roma Hadze-wycz of the Ukrainian Weekly for providing new photographs.
Orest Subtelny
Toronto, February 1993
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