As a Ukrainian I'd like to comment on Gogol as he is such a fascinating writer, and both we and russians claim ownership to this author. Yes, he worked from St. Petersburg, but was born on Ukrainian soil and wrote solely about Ukrainian culture and folklore. Sure, a lot of it is shared, but there is no hiding that he did write specifically about Ukrainians.
A comment on Mazepa as well -- he lead what I cannot characterise as a fully-fledged revolt per se. Sweedish forces were attacking Russian Empire and were in full march over his territory. He did what was common at feudal times -- if your current suzerain cannot protect you, you swear oath to another suzerain. Ultimately, it did not pay out and Peter I did make much too big of a deal of that. He desperately wanted to shift picture of Russia of that time into a more modern, westernised nation and as such he invited a lot of German and Dutch and so on personel into his empire. He saw Mazepa as a representative of that culture, that military tradition and so was quite fascinated by his persona. When he did what is exactly expected from that military tradition, he couldn't get over his tribalistic notions of "solidarity". He used his case to further crack down on separatism within his empire and solidify his rule, as Russian empire was only beginning to grow in strength at that time. That's why Mazepa persona is so heavily discussed in contemporary literature.
I would also like to add that Cossack mythology was, curiously, actively endorsed by Soviets themselves during second world war. It is a common practice to use the glory of past military victories as a morale booster in the future wars. And Soviet policy was a merry-go-round, with periods of bolstering national identity and periods of crackdowns.
Thanks for bringing light to Ukraine into your corner of the world!
All great additions and context! I wish I could have gotten more into the Soviet side of things though Plokhy didn’t really dwell on them as much as he could have since the manuscript became essentially buried after the thaw and until the 1990s and the war years loom so large they really need their own book. But yeah the Soviets’ selective application and suppression of nationalism is interesting and something I’ll be discussing in school next week, actually.
I could do this one next, though I haven't done much in expanding my knowledge on the topic beyond this book. I was actually thinking I would do a podcast version of my recent essay over on The Radicalist; if you haven't seen it, here's a link!
No problem! I do recommend this book, though I have to warn you: it is DENSE (and like I said, it has an insane number of names to keep track of). But it's a compelling mystery and the paperback and Kindle versions are pretty affordable, unlike most academic books I've read.
As a Ukrainian I'd like to comment on Gogol as he is such a fascinating writer, and both we and russians claim ownership to this author. Yes, he worked from St. Petersburg, but was born on Ukrainian soil and wrote solely about Ukrainian culture and folklore. Sure, a lot of it is shared, but there is no hiding that he did write specifically about Ukrainians.
A comment on Mazepa as well -- he lead what I cannot characterise as a fully-fledged revolt per se. Sweedish forces were attacking Russian Empire and were in full march over his territory. He did what was common at feudal times -- if your current suzerain cannot protect you, you swear oath to another suzerain. Ultimately, it did not pay out and Peter I did make much too big of a deal of that. He desperately wanted to shift picture of Russia of that time into a more modern, westernised nation and as such he invited a lot of German and Dutch and so on personel into his empire. He saw Mazepa as a representative of that culture, that military tradition and so was quite fascinated by his persona. When he did what is exactly expected from that military tradition, he couldn't get over his tribalistic notions of "solidarity". He used his case to further crack down on separatism within his empire and solidify his rule, as Russian empire was only beginning to grow in strength at that time. That's why Mazepa persona is so heavily discussed in contemporary literature.
I would also like to add that Cossack mythology was, curiously, actively endorsed by Soviets themselves during second world war. It is a common practice to use the glory of past military victories as a morale booster in the future wars. And Soviet policy was a merry-go-round, with periods of bolstering national identity and periods of crackdowns.
Thanks for bringing light to Ukraine into your corner of the world!
All great additions and context! I wish I could have gotten more into the Soviet side of things though Plokhy didn’t really dwell on them as much as he could have since the manuscript became essentially buried after the thaw and until the 1990s and the war years loom so large they really need their own book. But yeah the Soviets’ selective application and suppression of nationalism is interesting and something I’ll be discussing in school next week, actually.
Thank you for this review. I'll be waiting for the expanded podcast version?
I could do this one next, though I haven't done much in expanding my knowledge on the topic beyond this book. I was actually thinking I would do a podcast version of my recent essay over on The Radicalist; if you haven't seen it, here's a link!
https://www.theradicalist.com/p/trump-is-making-america-progressive
awesome! Thanks so much for sharing :)
No problem! I do recommend this book, though I have to warn you: it is DENSE (and like I said, it has an insane number of names to keep track of). But it's a compelling mystery and the paperback and Kindle versions are pretty affordable, unlike most academic books I've read.