Capital idea!

Afraid I can't help much in the nonfiction section, but a few pieces of fiction spring immediately to mind.

1) Shortly before leaving for Ukraine (or perhaps shortly after) I recommended to my sister that she read "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok. I had read it a while back, and consider its reputation as a classic richly deserved. Imagine my surprise when she tells me it talks about Ukraine. Granted, not enough for me to have remembered it many months later, but she was dropping names like Odessa and Bogdan Khmelnitskiy.

2) Shortly after my return, my siblings encouraged me to read "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card. An enjoyable read, and it takes place mainly in Ukraine--ancient and modern. Baba-Yaga probably should have stayed out in Siberia, but I give it a thumbs up nonetheless.

3) I just finished "Вечера на Хуторе близ Диканки". It was good.

These are the first things that pop in to my head. If I get anything better, I'll drop a line.

I'd like to highly recommend another history title which also deals with culture and politics:
Anna Reid, Borderland: A journey through the history of Ukraine.

It's funny, beautifully written and mixes personal experiences with seriously researched history, travel stories and political analysis. I only wish she'd update it to cover the events of the past few years.

Oh boy, don't get me started!

Here are some good ones from Eastern Christian Publications (http://ecpubs.com )

1. Passion and Resurrection by Serge Keleher. A history of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine under the soviets, 1939-1989. Truly inspiring account of a persecuted church staying alive in the 'catacombs.'

2.Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky by Cyril Korolevsky. An account of this towering figure in Greek-Catholic history in Ukraine.

3. We Are All Brothers by Bishop Vsevolod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. A fine collection of essays dealing with Catholic-Orthodox relations in general and specifically in Ukraine as well.

I've got others ....

I was quite impressed by the Bradt Travel Guide to Ukraine. It's a travel guide, buta very insightful one.

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

Florence: Hah, I just thought of Borderlands last night after I ran out of time to post, figuring I'd put it up later. I must say it isn't top of my list, but it was a great short history that got me started. I'd call it popular history, and in that it works well. History for us mortal folks without the time to read through Subtelny's monster tome. (I still haven't finished the ancient history sections of that...)

R.Smith: Great idea! I hadn't even thought to put up a travel guide, but I've heard good things about that one from other people, too. I definitely like fiction ideas as well.

WRY: Oh good! I expect DLW will probably be along soon and he may have some ideas along religious lines as well.

DLW: When you do drop by here, I just wanted to say thanks for all the postings you've been doing. I very rarely reply, about which I'm a little embarrassed, but I do try to answer some of them in my main journal entries, where I can.

A lot of your postings have been about Yushchenko's responsibilities and position in Ukraine, which I think you may be putting too much faith in, as it were. Though I like some of the economic policies that have come out of Yushchenko's time in politics, I have never considered him a terribly strong political figure, as that is normally defined in EEurope. In the long run, that may be good for the country, in that the legislature and (I dearly hope) local governments will be able to step up to the plate more. But in thte short run it seems to be adversely affecting the economy and political progress.

Wherever the impetus for change and progress comes from, I am doubtful it will come from Yushchenko. Perhaps I'm cynical. We'll see.

Well, I agree that his performance so far has not given one much room to hope, but if his misleadership stems from personal insecurities over the loss of his good looks then that seems like the sort of thing that could be healed.

As it is, I do believe that it is in hands whether or not the OR coalition can come together and provide for both stability and reasonable changes in Ukraine.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that things are going to get worse in terms of stability with repercussions for the entire former Soviet Union...

I think you need bottom-up greater respect for "rule of law" to decentralize rule more significantly.
dlw

I'd recommend Askold Krushelnycky's 'An Orange Revolution'.

Seems like people were worried about him providing this kind of misleadership even before the poisoning. Of course, it seems like he proved them wrong once or twice, too, but that was exceptions, not the rule.

These aren't books at all, but they have a fun spin on Ukrainian culture, and they're accessible to the English-speaking public:

I recommend the cartoons "Как казаки соль покупали"(The cossacks buy salt) and "Как казаки в футбол играли" (The cossacks play soccer).

http://multiki.arjlover.net/multiki/kak.kazaki.v.futbol.igrali.avi
http://multiki.arjlover.net/multiki/kak.kazaki.sol.pokupali.avi

The links work outside of Russia 10pm to 4am Moscow time.

I don't think there are that many books on the nature of religious life in Ukraine, yet.

I know from my interviews that Chernobyl and the political changes in Ukraine have made a diff in terms of loosening the grip of the secular communist ideology on people and that religious groups were an important part of the civil society that made the OR possible.

I also know that many non-Orthodox pastors are still quite allergic to politics, as they were coerced during communism to make statements like Jesus was a communist or what-not.

Newer churches and the younger generations, like that of Sunday Adelaja, don't seem to have as much of hangup.

I think there will be some interesting books to be written about intergenerational cultural change in Ukraine.
I know that in the Cherkassy region where I stayed that during the OR that many of the young people from different religious backgrounds were able to get together and talk about their differences. I think some greater ecumenism may come from the experience, as also there has been coordination among different churches on what could be taught in Christian Ethics classes in highschools.

It seems like it has been mainly the Russian Orthodox Church that has insisted that they have the one true approach to Xty and refused to improve relationships with other denominations.

We'll see what comes of it, I am hoping that my home denomination will sponsor the translation into Ukrainian of parts of the writing of John Perkins, an african-american Christian who returned to his hometown in Mississippi where he took part in the civil rights movement there and economic development as well as Christian education. He now is one of the leaders of the Christian Community Development Association. I am hoping that some of what he has written on local Christian Community Development, which focuses on local leadership development and empowerment, will get translated first into Ukrainian and then into Russian and distributed in Ukraine for next to nothing....
dlw

You shd link to Taras Kuzio's page.
Here's where he has his bibliography on religious subjects for Ukraine.
http://www.taraskuzio.net/ukrainian/11.html

dlw

1) Riabchuk, M. Zona vidchuzhennia, 2004
2) Szporluk, R. Russia, Ukraine and the Breakup of the Soviet Union, 2000.
3) Mel'nyk, B. Vulytsyamy starovynnoho L'vova, 2002.
4) Subtelny, O. Ukraine: a History, 2000.

These aren't exactly light reading, but classics nonetheless.

This speech by a norwegian foreign minister is quite inspiring and helps me to believe that Europe will do more to ensure that further changes happen in Ukraine.
http://odin.dep.no/ud/english/news/speeches/minister_a/032171-090598/dok-bn.html

The Harvest of Sorrow, by Robert Conquest, covers the terror-famine/Голодомор that occurred under Stalin in the 1930s; it's considered to be a companion to The Great Terror. Conquest doesn't pull any punches in his criticism of the Soviet regime.

Thanks everyone for your ideas! I have updated the library with them. I left off your first recommendation, R. Smith, because it didn't seem Potok meant it to have a lot to do with Ukraine based on an interview:

http://www.lasierra.edu/%7Eballen/potok/Potok.unique.html#The%20Chosen

Tough call, but I figured better to keep the focus more closely on Ukraine.

I love those cartoons you sent links for. We've got them on CD. Those exact two are my favorite, as well.

Thanks for the ideas Leopolis. I've kept the English-language ones. I'm just not qualified/patient enough to address all the non-English books of note.

WRY, Rowan, Jo: Thanks for the suggestions!

"The Natashas : Inside the New Global Sex Trade"
by Victor Malarek

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559707356/104-3070603-6096703?v=glance&n=283155

"Ambassador of the Dead"
by Askold Melnyczuk
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582432511/qid=1149210527/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-3070603-6096703?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

"From Three Worlds : New Writing from Ukraine (Glas, No 12)"
editor Ed Hogan
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0939010526/qid=1149210643/sr=1-16/ref=sr_1_16/104-3070603-6096703?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

"An Orange Revolution"
by Askold Krushelnycky
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article361909.ece

"Conscience Calls - Poklyk Sumlinnia"
by Roksolana Tymiak-Lonchyna
http://www.brama.com/news/press/2006/02/060215book_consciencecalls.html

And then anything publ. by Palgrave - search Ukraine or Soviet
http://www.palgrave.com/home/index.asp

This one is about the Russian Orthodox Church, but nonetheless contains much information that would be of interest to anyone interested in Ukraine.

"A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy," by Nathaniel Davis. 2003 pub.

holocaust:
"Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust," by Miron Dolot. Account of the terror-famine. Gripping and horrific. An inexpensive paperback on Amazon.com

"Return to Ukraine," by Ania Savage. A low-key account of a woman's trip to Ukraine to visit her mother's home village.

From Publishers Weekly
Savage, a Ukrainian-born journalist, was invited in 1991 to teach a course on Western media at Kyiv State University, in the Ukrainian capital, and to serve as a guest editor for the Communist government-affiliated Ukraina's Society's English-language newspaper. Eager to see her birthplace again, Savage (who fled during WWII) returned to Ukraine with her mother (who was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's) and her aunt. As she recounts the emotional story of their travels, Savage writes of her ambivalent feelings about her country of birth. She writes of her trip to Babi Yar, where Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust; of her encounters with Ukrainian censorship and surveillance (Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union during her stay there); and of how years of Soviet oppression have left Ukrainians poorly housed, fed and educated. But she also recounts the warm welcome locals extended to her mother, her aunt and herself; the friendships she formed with several Ukrainians; and her affection for the suffering people and her hope for a better future for them after Communism. Part memoir and part history, this is a detailed and thoughtful look at a part of the world that until the 1990s was not easily accessible to Westerners. B&w photos.

"Education of a True Believer," by Lev Kopelev. Account of a young man's childhood as a Communist believer in Ukraine. This man is the "Rubin" in Solzhenitsyn's "First Circle."

"The Second Soviet Republic: The Ukraine after World War II" by Yaroslav Bilinsky. published in 1964, this excellent book contains a lot of information on topics such as language use and identity, as well as accounts of what happened in the areas taken over by the USSR from Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1945 and the supression of the Greek Catholic church. This is an excellent book, may be hard to find. Somewhat dated obviously but Ukrainophiles will not care! Bilinsky is sympathetic to Ukrainian nationalism.

I must also put in a plug for Paul Robert Magocsi's "History of Ukraine" (1996, U Wash. Press) I haven't read Subtelny, but as I understand it, Subtelny's book is more about the Ukrainian people, where Magocsi is concerned with the history of all peoples on the territory that is now Ukraine. But I'll defer to anyone who has read both books.

Magocsi also has the very excellent "Historical Atlas of Central Europe," which doesn't cover all of Ukraine but does include the western portions.

Magocsi is also an expert on the Carpatho-Rusyn people and has written several books and monographs on the subject, so I'll just leave it at that.


And oh, I almost forgot one of my very favorite books on the formation of national identity and similar concepts:
"The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999." Man, what a hell of a book. It's all here, the question of Russian/Ukrainian/pan-slavic identity, the question of overlapping national identities, Ukrainian nationalism during WWII etc etc. plus all the other countries mentioned.

Book Description (from Amazon.com)

Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of four rival modern nationalist ideologies from common medieval notions of citizenship. He presents the ideological innovations and ethnic cleansings that abetted the spread of modern nationalism but also examines recent statesmanship that has allowed national interests to be channeled toward peace.
“A work of profound scholarship and considerable importance.”—Timothy Garton Ash, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford
“Timothy Snyder’s style is a welcome reminder that history writing can be—indeed, ought to be—a literary pursuit.”—Charles King, Times Literary Supplement
“A brilliant and fascinating analysis of the subtleties, complexities, and paradoxes of the evolution of nations in Eastern Europe. It has major implications for all of us who want to understand the processes of state collapse and nation-building in the world.”—Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
“Snyder’s ultimate query in this fresh and stimulating look at the path to nationhood is how the bitter experiences along the way, including the bitterest—ethnic cleansing—are to be overcome.”—Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs

On the matter of the ROC, my thumbs up to Wiki for picking up my recent commentary on that church:

http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=3289011680632&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE9

Holy cow! Thank you everyone! I'm going to try to get up a new entry soon, but after that I'll put up your suggs in the library. I saw the Krushelnycky sug you put up, Jo, sorry I haven't gotten it up yet. I have been debating what to do with the OR Research page and how to merge/reconcile it with the library. I think I'll put a link in the library page or something like that.

Gotten all of the books up except your last two, WRY. But I gotta stop for this week. Hopefully get those two up next week.