"Commissars into Oligarchs: Cycles of Ukrainian History", a lecture by Dr. Taras Kuzio, St. Vladimir Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 16 August 2013. This video was not sponsored. - Consider Ukrainian history in terms of six cycles since the 1920s - 1st cycle: Liberal economic reform in Ukraine, NEP, indiginization, Ukrainianization 1:10 - "Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France" nation building process of France 1:38 - Ethnic Ukrainian nation building & Ukrainian cultural revival occurred with political liberalization and economic reforms 2:00 - 2nd cycle: Destruction of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (Українська автокефальна православна церква) 2:35 - 1933 Holodomor killed upwards of four million Ukrainians 2:39 - 3rd cycle: Stalin's death, counter-revolution against everything Ukrainian, destruction and degradation of the Ukrainian language 2:49 - Nikita Khrushev denounces Stalin in 1956; Revolution in Hungary 4:10 - Petro Shelest (Петро Шелест), Ukrainian national revival, support for Ukrainian language 1955-1972 4:42 - 4th cycle: Volodymyr Shcherbytsky (Володимир Щербицький), Leonid Brezhnev (Леонід Брежнєв) 5:19 - Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv produced Ukrainian elites 6:00 - Ukrainian Helsinki Group; 1976 Helsinki Agreement signed by USSR to uphold human rights; Ukrainians were dying in the Soviet gulag up to 1985 7:28 - 1970s early 1980s there were continuous executions of former members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) & Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) 8:02 - The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was the largest underground church in the world 8:20 - Leonid Kravchuk (Леонід Кравчук), Leonid Kuchma (Леонід Кучма), Viktor Yanukovych (Віктор Янукович) 8:39 - Mikhail Gorbachev, Glasnost, Perestroika, openness, Russian capitalism 9:50 - Erich Honecker (East Germany), Nicolae Ceausescu (Romania) 10:30 - Formation of Rukh 1987-88 10:45 - Revival of Ukrainian historiography, Mykhailo Hrushevsky (Михайло Грушевський) 12:58 - Ukrainianization of education occurred more under Leonid Kuchma, not Viktor Yushchenko 13:30 - Russophile views of history, Dmytro Tabachnyk (Дмитро Табачник), Vadym Kolesnichenko (Вадим Колесніченко) anti Ukrainian nationalism, Ukrainian collaboration with Nazis 14:10 - Massive growth in corruption in Ukraine 15:40 - Ukraine is a regionally divided country 16:30 - Leonid Kuchma promoted Ukrainian views of history and Ukrainian language at moderate level in schools, university 17:00 - Party of Regions (Партія регіонів) main bases are the Donetsk & Luhansk which together form Donbas, combined with Crimea, Odesa 17:29 - Donbas added onto Ukraine by Lenin in 1918-19; Crimea added onto Ukraine by Khrushev in 1954 - Mixed identities, mixed marriages in the Donbas; Rinat Akhmetov of Tatar origin; Akhat Bragin (Alek the Greek) organized crime figure assassinated of Greek/Tatar origin 19:10 - Children of mixed marriages did not want to choose one parent over another and thus chose a neutral "Soviet" identity 20:00 - Dmytro Pavlychko, Ivan Drach 22:17 - Most violence areas in Ukraine were Donetsk, Crimea, and Odesa 24:12 - Assassination of Yevhen Shcherban was wealthiest oligarch in Ukraine in the 1990s, Rinat Akhmetov 25:50 - Kuchma gave Donetsk de facto autonomy in exchange for not challenging him in Ukrainian elections; local elites merged together into one political force: Party of Regions; local elites in Dnipropetrovsk continued to be divided amongst themselves and therefore were unable to form a strong political party 27:10 - Ihor Kolomoysky, Pavlo Lazarenko 28:02 - Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko (Юлія Тимошенко) quarreled and lacked discipline in their political force 29:00 - American diplomatic cables from Kyiv, Wikileaks (Stephen Woehrel) 29:25 - Yuriy Lutsenko 28:49 - Leonid Kuchma was authoritarian but still presided over political pluralism in eastern Ukraine; Kuchma hated communists, separatists 30:45 - 3 scenarios for Ukraine: (a) muddling period of a divided society with no progress "the immobile state" (b) Yuri Andrukhovych; separation of Crimea & Donbas from Ukraine (c) cooperation in Ukrainian politics 32:20 - Yanukovych is afraid of leaving office as Tymoshenko's release from jail could mean he would be imprisoned; 2015 elections in Ukraine; Ukrainian fatigue abroad in Canada, America and Europe; possible breakup of Ukraine 35:09 See Taras Kuzio's book "Commissars to Oligarchs. A Contemporary History of Ukraine" (University of Toronto Press, 2014). http://www.taraskuzio.net Modern Ukrainian history, lecture, Ukrainian politics, identity, українська історія, Ukrainian oligarchs, Українська буржуазія, Олігархія, Партія регіонів, Ukrainian Studies

• published: 19 Aug 2013
• views: 1161