Making Ukraine Soviet

Palko offers a fascinating tour of the myriad and mercurial cultural institutions of the early Soviet Ukrainian world. * The Times Literary Supplement *
Olena Palko’s highly accomplished book represents a ground-breaking contribution to several fields: Soviet history, Ukrainian history and 20th-century Ukrainian and Soviet literature and culture… [It] weaves a vivid picture of a whole literary and artistic culture in a state of flux, excitement and ultimately disillusionment. It is a rare book that has so much to offer to literary scholars and historians alike * BASEES Alexander Nove Prize Committee *
[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 *
Palko’s Making Ukraine Soviet represents a novel analytical study of the interwar period of Soviet Ukraine ... Palko’s book will appeal to scholars of Soviet history, literature, and culture, especially those specializing in Soviet Ukraine’s literary and political affairs. It may be equally attractive to a general readership familiar with the works of Tychyna and Khvyliovyi. * Canadian Slavonic Papers *
[A] well-researched monograph ... [the book] permit[s] the reader to gain a nuanced understanding of the protagonists both as artists and as political figures. * History: Journal of the Historical Association *
Palko’s work therefore has important lessons that reach far beyond the study of the 1920s and early 1930s ... The monograph lays a solid foundation on which other scholars will hopefully build to trace how this dynamic continued to shape Ukrainian culture. * Revolutionary Russia *
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 *
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 *