The Search for a New History

While most of the essays in this volume seek to reconstruct, under­stand, and explain the process of negotiation between (and within) Ukrainian and Russian historiography and society, the essays collected in the last part of the book have a different purpose.

The chapter entitled 'The History of a Non-Historical Nation' was written in response to Mark von Hagen's influential essay 'Does Ukraine Have a History?' (1995). It considers the problems faced by Ukrainian historiography after the achievement of political indepen­dence and suggests the need for a new historiographic discourse and historical myth adequate to the new political circumstances and national expectations. In the last few years, a number of Ukrainian scholars have sought to deal with this challenge by going beyond the limits imposed on the historical profession by the traditional narrative of Ukrainian history. One of the leaders of this 'revisionist' group is Natalia Yakovenko, a specialist in the early modern history of Ukraine and Eastern Europe whose approach to her subject is discussed in the chapter 'Imagining Early Modern Ukraine.' Yakovenko's investigation of the 'parallel world' of opinions, attitudes, perceptions, and stereo­types of the early modern era offers a possible way out of the deadlock between politically motivated historians of Russia and Ukraine in debating seemingly insoluble issues pertaining to their common history.

This certainly applies to the study of Ukrainian Cossackdom, a lead­ing subject of research in traditional Ukrainian historiography.

The last chapter of the volume, 'Beyond Nationality,' examines alter­natives to the national paradigm in Ukrainian historiography and ways in which new approaches can reshape our understanding not only of Ukrainian history but also of the history of Eastern Europe. It looks at the formation of the Ukrainian national paradigm, examines attempts to study Ukraine as a multiethnic and multiconfessional entity, considers approaches to the history of Ukraine as a political, cul­tural, and civilizational borderland, and finally surveys conceptions of Eastern Europe advanced by proponents of area studies.

This volume is the result of more than a decade of research and writ­ing. A number of chapters were written specifically for this book, but the majority began as essays, research papers, articles, and introduc­tions to other volumes. Most of the previously published chapters have been revised and updated for this publication. While these essays are linked together by one overarching theme, they do not (as noted above) present a systematic discussion of the development of Ukrai­nian historiography or its relations with the Russian historical tradi­tion. Instead, they give an in-depth analysis of a number of 'episodes' that characterize the formation of Ukrainian and, to a lesser degree, Russian national historiography. They also indicate the possible future development of the Ukrainian historiographic tradition. It is the author 's hope that this volume will stimulate further research and dis­cussion of the complex development of Ukrainian and Russian histori­ography and historical identity.