Stories of Khmelnytsky

Competing Literary Legacies of the 1648 Ukrainian Cossack Uprising
Herausgeber: Glaser, Amelia M

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Amelia M. Glaser is Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 320
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. August 2015
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 238mm x 161mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 555g
• ISBN-13: 9780804793827
• ISBN-10: 0804793824
• Artikelnr.: 42800554

Autorenporträt

Amelia M. Glaser is Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: Bohdan Khmelnytsky as Protagonist: Between Hero and
Villain  Amelia M. Glaser
chapter abstract
This introduction provides an overview of the 1648 Cossack uprising, and
discusses the contested legacy of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. It takes as an
example Mikeshin's statue of Khmelnytsky, unveiled in Kyiv in 1888 to
commemorate the Baptism of Rus', to present the central problem of
memorializing a charismatic figure like Khmelnytsky, who has been
remembered as a hero or villain depending on the national context and the
regime in power. The introductory chapter also offers a discussion of the
literature in Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish that has
memorialized Khmelnytsky and the Cossack uprising from 1648 to the present,
focusing on the early modern period, Romanticism, Modernism, and the
twentieth century.
1A Portrait in Ambivalence: The Case of Natan Hanover and His Chronicle,
Yeven metsulah  Adam Teller
chapter abstract
In Jewish communal memory, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi is reviled as the
mass-murderer of thousands of Jews in Ukraine. However, this memory
preserves little detail about the man himself. This can be traced back to
the contemporary Jewish chronicles that describe him in only the briefest
terms. However, the most sophisticated and detailed chronicle, Yeven
metsulah, by Natan Neta Hanover (Venice 1653), presents a multifaceted
portrait of Khmelnytsky. Hanover uses his literary skills to explore the
factors leading the Cossack hetman not only to rebel against the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but also to turn his anger on the Jews.
Though Jews' pro-Polish orientation during the rebellion was clear, Hanover
presents the little known, but highly significant, ambivalence felt by some
Jews towards Khmelnytsky in the years before the uprising. This chapter
contextualizes Hanover's portrayal of Khmelnytsky, reflecting on the
sources of Hanover's outlook and its significance for later generations.
2"A Man Worthy of the Name Hetman": The Fashioning of Khmelnytsky as a Hero
in the Hrabianka Chronicle  Frank E. Sysyn
chapter abstract
The most widely disseminated historical-literary work of eighteenth-century
Ukraine, the Hrabianka Chronicle, exists in short and long redactions in
scores of manuscripts. Yet, there is no academic edition or a thorough
examination of its sources. Even Hryhorii Hrabianka's authorship is in
question. The text is viewed as exemplary of the founding myths of the
Hetmanate at the turn of the eighteenth century. Mykhailo Hrushevsky saw it
as a product of the milieu of the chancellors of the Hetmanate. Source
studies such as Mykola Petrovsky's questioned the authenticity of documents
in the Chronicle. Early twentieth-century scholars such as Ivan Franko and
Mykola Zerov cast it as one of the major prose works of early modern
Ukrainian literature. This chapter examines the depiction of Khmelnytsky as
a hero in the Chronicle. It also treats that image's impact on subsequent
Ukrainian historiography and literature.
3A Reevaluation of the "Khmelnytsky Factor": The Case of the
Seventeenth-Century Sabbatean Movement  Ada Rapoport-Albert
chapter abstract
The Khmelnytsky uprising and its violent aftermath devastated many Jewish
communities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, especially the Ukraine.
This chapter considers whether, or to what extent, these catastrophic
events may have triggered the emergence of what, by the mid-1660s, had
become the mass messianic movement of Shabetai Tsevi-an Ottoman Jew who
first proclaimed his messianic vocation in 1648.
4Apotheosis, Rejection, and Transference: Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Polish,
Russian, and Ukrainian Romantic Literature  George G. Grabowicz
chapter abstract
Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian pre-Romanticism and Romanticism provide a
comparative basis for examining the figure of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Each of
these literatures, while variously interacting with the others, articulates
its own perspective. This is particularly true in the Ukrainian case which
witnessed a belated, rapid development of a national literature. The topos
of national leader was applied regularly to Khmelnytsky, as reflected in
Polish dramas by Niemcewicz (1817) and Zaborowski (1823), as well as in
Decembrist writings by Glinka and Ryleev. The Ukrainian Istoriia rusov
(written ca. 1800-1820s, published in 1846) culminates in the Hetmanate's
"official" perspective, which apotheosizes Khmelnytsky. The historicism in
the early part of the century is supplanted by an emphasis on the folk, the
national cause, and the structures of mythical thought. Khmelnytsky becomes
marginal or absent from depictions of the Cossack past (for example for
Gogol/Hohol). Shevchenko in large measure rejected his legacy.
5Heroes and Villains in the Historical Imagination: The Elusive
Khmelnytsky  Taras Koznarsky
chapter abstract
This chapter examines the stock repertory of heroic qualities assigned to
Khmelnytsky in Ukrainian historical narratives of the first decades of the
nineteenth century. It argues that the cult of Khmelnytsky served as the
most important element in the mobilization and self-promotion of the
Ukrainian elites in the Russian empire, and hence, as the foundation for
the legitimacy of the Ukrainian historical narrative itself. The chapter
suggests that Khmelnytsky functioned as an antidote to the stigma of Mazepa
the traitor, ingrained in the self-perception of Ukrainian elites as well
as in the Russian popular imagination. It reveals the mirrorlike connection
between Khmelnytsky the hero and Mazepa the villain at the level of the
structure of their biographies, attributes, and agencies in Ukrainian
historical narratives.
6The Image of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Polish Romanticism and Its
Post-Romantic Reflex  Roman Koropeckyj
chapter abstract
In contrast to the image of the haidamak, the figure of Khmelnytsky barely
registers in Polish romantic literature. This is a function of the
open-ended nature of the Polish-Cossack conflict and the ambiguous nature
of the hetman himself. When he appears, it is most often in a melodramatic
fashion, as an indignant but proud Cossack bent on avenging the seizure of
his estate and the abduction of his wife by the Polish gentryman
Czapli¿ski. This image draws heavily on Polish romantic historians' attempt
to explain the causes of the 1648 rebellion. This episode is also the basis
of the fullest treatment of Khmelnytsky in Polish literature, Henryk
Sienkiewicz's novel With Fire and Sword, where it is reconfigured as the
story of Bohun and Helena. The reconfiguration and ostensible resolution of
this subplot allows Polish literature to finally narrate the Khmelnystky
uprising as a comforting allegory.
7The Heirs of Tulchyn: A Modernist Reappraisal of Historical
Narrative  Amelia M. Glaser
chapter abstract
This chapter examines Minskii's retelling of the massacre at Tulchyn in his
Russian-language play in verse, "Osada Tulchina" (The Siege of Tulchyn),
which appeared in the St. Petersburg Jewish literary journal Voskhod in
1888 (the same year Mikeshin's monument was unveiled in Kyiv's St. Sophia
Square for the nine-hundred-year anniversary of the baptism of Rus').
Minskii emphasizes Jewish resistance to the Cossacks, and creates a heroic
Jewish figure, a Marrano named Josif de Kastro, who flouts Ashkenazi
passivity to fight the Cossacks. Avrom Reisin translated this play into
Yiddish in 1905. Many aspects of Minskii's version of the Tulchyn episode
would reappear in twentieth-century Jewish narratives about 1648, including
Sholem Asch's 1919 Kiddush ha-Shem, which describes the uprising as a test
of Jewish protagonists, revealing unexpected acts of bravery and heroism in
the face of destruction.
8Hanukkah Cossack Style: Zaporozhian Warriors and Zionist Popular Culture
(1904-1918)  Israel Bartal
chapter abstract
This chapter addresses positive images of the Ukrainian struggle for
independence (as well as the 1648 uprising) as depicted in the writings of
several Jewish radical Zionists at the beginning of the twentieth century.
These images found their way to Palestine and had considerable influence on
the emerging Israeli popular culture. The Cossack warrior served as a model
for the "regeneration" of a "New Jew," claimed by members of Labor Zionism
in Palestine. The Eastern European "other"-the horrifying enemy of the
shtetl Jew- had transformed in the minds of some of the "second Aliyah"
pioneers (1904-1918) who settled in Palestine into an ideal example of
heroism, simple rural life, and unlimited national commitment. Furthermore,
they tended to apply some of the supposedly Cossack traits to the
Middle-Eastern Bedouin.
9The Cult of Strength: Khmelnytsky in the Literature of Ukrainian
Nationalists During the 1930s and 1940s  Myroslav Shkandrij
chapter abstract
Ukrainian literature written outside the Soviet Union during the 1930s and
1940s found itself within a force field in which three political currents
competed: the national democratic, the authoritarian (as promoted by the
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), and the Dontsovian. The portrayal
of Khmelnytsky is compared in three novels by popular writers of the
period: Semen Ordivsky (Hryhorii Luzhnytsky), Yurii Lypa, and Yurii Kosach.
Although in each case the literary portrait emphasizes Khmelnytsky's strong
leadership and "masculine" virtues, there are also significant differences
in the way the ruler is presented. Each novelist implicitly challenges
tenets of authoritarianism, particularly the version promulgated by Dmytro
Dontsov.
10Jews and Soviet Remythologization of the Ukrainian Hetman: The Case of
the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky  Gennady Estraikh
chapter abstract
In October 1943, the importance of Ukrainian Cossackdom as a constituent of
the usable past was recognized by introducing the Order of Bohdan
Khmelnytsky, the only Soviet military order named after a non-Russian
historical personality. At the same time, the town of Pereiaslav, where in
1654 the Pereiaslav Agreement between the Russian Tsar Aleksei I and the
Ukrainian Cossacks led by Khmelnytsky had laid the foundation for Ukraine's
integration into the Russian state, was renamed Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky.
This chapter analyzes the reaction of Soviet and non-Soviet Jews to
Khmelnytsky's elevated position in the official hierarchy of national
heroes.
11On the Other Side of Despair: Cossacks and Jews in Yurii Kosach's The Day
of Rage  Yohanan Petrovsky-Shterm
chapter abstract
This chapter contextualizes Yuri Kosach's two-volume historical novel Den'
hnivu (The Day of Rage, 1947) against the backdrop of Ukrainian
twentieth-century literary reconstructions of the 1648 Cossack rebellion.
Unlike his ethnocentric contemporaries in Soviet Ukraine and in the
Diaspora, Kosach creates a highly unusual multiethnic version of the
events, capitalizing on multiculturalism and heteroglossia. Natan Neta
Hanover, a celebrated Jewish chronicler, appears in his novel as a Jewish
sage sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause, while Hanover's disciple Berakha
joins the Cossack troops. Although written by a Ukrainian nationalist,
Kosach's alternative conceptualization of the 1648-49 events moves beyond
the established Ukrainian literary patterns and paves the way for new ways
to imagine Ukraine as a complex multiethnic and multicultural geopolitical
phenomenon in the center of Europe.
12Khmelnytsky in Motion: The Case of Soviet, Polish, and Ukrainian
Film  Izabela Kalinowska and Marta Kondratyuk
chapter abstract
In pictorial art, Khmelnytsky towers above those around him. Likewise, in
monuments scattered throughout the post-Soviet space, he appears as a
strong and determined figure. This uniformity reflects the predominantly
positive interpretation of Khmelnytsky within imperial Russian and Soviet
state ideologies. This chapter examines and compares the constituent
elements of the cinematic Khmelnytsky in three film productions from
different national and political contexts: Igor Savchenko's Bohdan
Kmelnytsky (1941), Jerzy Hoffman's With Fire and Sword (1999), and Mykola
Mashchenko's Bohdan-Zinovii Khmelnytsky (2007). It analyzes the historical
and cultural ramifications of Khmelnytsky's image in the three films. In
each, the hetman's world reflects the ideological circumstances of the
film's making. Yet Khmelnytsky himself emerges as a positive character in
all three pictures. Thus, the question is how Khmelnytsky, a controversial
and divisive historical figure, becomes a hero not only for the Ukrainians,
but also for the Russians and the Poles.
Afterword  Judith Deutsch Kornblatt
chapter abstract
The Afterword examines the image of Khmelnytsky and his fellow Cossacks as
boundary jumpers who provide subsequent readers, viewers, and listeners
with ample material to use in the construction of their own ambiguous and
contradictory identities.