Making Ukraine Soviet - (Library of Modern Russia) by Olena Palko (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

**Winner of The American Association for Ukrainian Studies 2019-2020 Book Prize**

While most studies of Soviet culture assume a model of diffusion, according to which Soviet republics imitated the artistic trends and innovations born in Moscow, Olena Palko adroitly challenges this centre-periphery perspective. Rather than being a mere imposition from above, Making Ukraine Soviet reveals how the process of cultural sovietisation in Ukraine during the interwar years developed from a synthesis of different - and often conflicting - cultural projects both local and Muscovite in orientation.

Engaging with a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including literary and archival material, Palko grounds her argument in the cases of two celebrated and controversial Ukrainian artists: the poet Pavlo Tychyna and prosaist Mykola Khyl'ovyi. Through this unique biographical lens, Palko's skilled analysis of cultural construction sheds fresh light on the complex process of establishing and consolidating the Soviet regime in Ukraine. In doing so, Palko offers a timely re-assessment of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict and adds nuance to current debates on the relationship between national identity, the arts, and the Soviet state.

Review Quotes

[Making Ukraine Soviet] is therefore a very entertaining journey through the history of Ukrainian culture during the period of consolidation of communist power over Ukraine ... this is one of the best books of the last decade as regards research on the history of Ukraine in the early communist era.
H-Ukraine

Olena Palko ably charts the emergence of a space called Soviet Ukraine through an engaging and carefully researched narrative. In her telling, Ukrainian writers crafted an emergent national culture, but readers ultimately defined its parameters.
Matthew Pauly, Associate Professor, Michigan State University, USA

This is a fresh look at a crucial episode in Soviet history. By following the careers of Mykola Khvyl'ovyi and Pavlo Tychyna, the author unravels tangled threads that united and divided writers, artists and political figures in the 1920s. She argues that a "simple arithmetic" of revolution, a juxtaposition of friends and enemies, cannot explain the situation in Ukraine. Instead, the story of cultural sovietization is best seen as a clash of two competing models: Soviet Ukrainian culture and Soviet culture in the Ukrainian language. The victory of the latter led in 1933 to Khvyl'ovyi's suicide and Tychyna's publication of Partiia vede (the Party Leads), the poem that symbolizes his capitulation to the regime's demands. Drawing on new archival findings, Palko's study skillfully interweaves political history, biography and literary analysis.
Myroslav Shkandrij, Professor of Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba, Canada

About the Author

Olena Palko is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.