Abstract
In the context of the post-Soviet transition, the relationship between the Ukrainian diaspora and its homeland generally continued to be discussed with the help of such categories as “with us” or “against us,” “supportive” or “hostile,” “loyal” or “traitorous.” The official portrayals and oftentimes private understandings of emigration swung between projecting those Soviet Ukrainian nationals emigrating and already abroad (a) as “betrayers” of their homeland, (b) as “sufferers” under capitalism, and (c) as “brothers” in communist aspirations. In this chapter Natalia Khanenko-Friesen explores how these Soviet ideological projections of the Ukrainian diaspora’s betrayal of the homeland affected the grassroots understandings and experiences of the diaspora, and how and why the average Ukrainian embraced the ideological discourse on the diaspora’s betrayal. The chapter analyzes several stories, in which “acts” of betrayal have been attributed to, associated with, or triggered by Myroslav Irchan, a prominent Ukrainian writer whose productive years coincided with the transformative 1910s–1930s.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Much of his literary biography derives from Irchan’s own reflections on his life that we now understand were crafted to suit the canon of the good Soviet writer (Sloniovska 2016).
- 2.
Published in the magazine Svoboda, in Vienna, in 1914 (Bodnaruk 1996).
- 3.
Erected in 1977 by sculptors A. Lendiel and A. Nimenko (http://wikimapia.org/12388043/uk/Пам-ятник-М-%C2%A0Ірчану).
- 4.
Bodnaruk’s article first appeared in Paris-based weekly “Ukrainske Slovo [Ukrainian Word]” on November 5, 1978. Cited in Bodnaruk (1996), available also at http://ukrlife.org/main/cxid/bodnaruk10.htm.
- 5.
Irchan also served for a short while in the Denikin Army. It was after the defeat of the Denikin Army in February 1920 that Irchan with his brigade joined the Red Army (Dzhuvaha 2011). The Denikin Army fought against the Bolshevik Red Army.
- 6.
Specifically with what Krawchuk calls the Ukrainian labour press (Krawchuk 1998, p. 6), through the newspaper Ukrainski Robitnychi Visti (Ukrainian Labour News), and journals Holos Pratsi (Labour Voice) and Holos Robitnytsi (Working Woman Voice).
- 7.
Cited in (Kobzej, no date, p. 2), Pidhajnyi’s book is titled “Ukrainska Intelihentsiia na Solovkakh” (Pidhajnyi 1947).
- 8.
A Ukrainian Canadian activist, Ivan Semblay was deported from Canada to the USSR in 1932 and like Irchan perished in the Stalinist purges. Though the disappearances of both activists were oftentimes “bundled” in the progressive left discussions as the Irchan-Semblay affair, for the purposes of this Chap. 10.1007/978-3-319-66496-5_1I refer to the chain of events that evolved in that time as the Irchan affair.
References
Antoniuk, I.M. (1973). ‘Diialnist’ Myroslava Irchana iak holovy Spilky revoliutsiinykh pys’mennykiv “Zakhidna Ukraina”. Ukrains’ke literaturoznavstvo (L’viv, Vyshcha Shkola pry LU), XVIII, pp. 64–70.
Avery, D. (1991). ‘Divided Loyalties: The Ukrainian Left and the Canadian State’. In Hryniuk, S. and Luciuk, L.Y. (eds.) Canada’s Ukrainians: Changing perspectives, 1891–1991. Toronto, Ont.: Published in association with the Ukrainian Canadian Centennial Committee by University of Toronto Press, pp. 271–287.
Bodnaruk, I. (1996). ‘Myroslav Irchan (Andrii Babiuk) [originally published in “Ukrainske Slovo”, November 5 1978]’. In Olifirenko, V. and Biletskyi, V. (eds.) Mizh dvoma svitamy: Vybrani statti pro ukrainskykh pys’mennykiv. Donetsk: Donetskyi kul’turolohichnyi tsentr, Donetske viddilennia ukrainskoi movy.
Carynnyk, M. (1991). ‘Swallowing Stalinism: Pro-Communist Ukrainian Canadians and Soviet Ukraine in the 1930’s’. In Hryniuk, S. and Luciuk, L.Y. (eds.) Canada’s Ukrainians: Changing perspectives, 1891–1991. Toronto, Ont.: Published in association with the Ukrainian Canadian Centennial Committee by University of Toronto Press, pp. 187–205.
Dzhuvaha, V. (2011). Myroslav Irchan: Sichovyi strilets’ i radians’kyi poet. Available at: http://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2011/07/14/45777/view_print/ (Accessed: 3 October 2016).
Filewod, A. (2004). ‘Named in Passing: Derigimenting Canadian Theatre History’. In Wilmer, S.E. (ed.) Writing and Rewriting National Theatre Histories. Iowa City: U of Iowa Press, pp. 106–126.
Hinther, R.L. (2005). ‘Sincerest Revolutionary Greetings’: Progressive Ukrainians in Twentieth Century Canada (PhD Thesis, McMaster University).
Irchan, M. (1958). ‘V Burianakh [In the Weeds]’. In Novychenko, L.M. (ed.) Myroslav Irchan: Vybrani tvory v dvokh tomakh (Tom pershyi). Kyiv: Derzhavne vydavnytstvo, pp. 277–378.
Khanenko-Friesen, N. (2007). ‘The Robinson Crusoes, the Prostitutes, the Heroes? Constructing the “Ukrainian Labour Emigrant” in Ukraine’. In Gow, A.C. (ed.) Hyphenated histories: Articulations of central European Bildung and Slavic studies in the contemporary academy. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 103–120.
Khanenko-Friesen (Shostak), N. (2006). ‘In Search of Cinderellas, in Naples and beyond: Popular Culture Responses to Labour Migration from Ukraine’. Spaces of Identity: Tradition, Cultural Boundaries and Identity Formation in Central Europe and Beyond, 6(2), pp. 185–205.
Kobzej, T. (no date) De i koly buv roztrilianyi Myroslav Irchan? Kobzej Oseredok: Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre (Winnipeg), Box Kob B5(b)—Fb—3—3.
Kolasky, J. (1979). The shattered illusion: The history of Ukrainian pro-communist organizations in Canada. Toronto: General Distribution Services.
Krawchuk, P. (1996). Our history: The Ukrainian labour-farmer movement in Canada, 1907–1991. Edited by John Boyd. Toronto: Lugus Publications.
Krawchuk, P. (1998). The unforgettable Myroslav Irchan: Pages from a valiant life: Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of his birth, 1897–1997. Edited by Marshall A. Nay. Edmonton: Kobzar Pub. Co.
Lobay, D. (1935). Za diisne vyiasnennia polozhennia na Radianskii Ukraini! (self-published manuscript, New York). Lobay Danylo Oseredok: the Ukrain-ian Cul-tural and Edu-ca-tional Cen-tre (Winnipeg), Box Fa—4—4.
Makuch, A. (1986). UKR 220 (Ukrainian Canadian Experience) Final Examination (U of Saskatchewan).
Makuch, A. (2010). ‘Fighting for the soul of the Ukrainian progressive movement in Canada: The Lobayites and the Ukrainian labour-farmer temple association’. In Hinther, R.L. and Mochoruk, J. (eds.) Re-imagining Ukrainian Canadians: History Politics and Identity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 376–400.
Melnychuk-Luchko, L. (1963). Dramaturhiia Myroslava Irchana. Kyiv: Radians’kyi Pys’mennyk.
Novychenko, L.M. (1958a). ‘Myroslav Irchan’. In Novychenko, L.M. (ed.) Myroslav Irchan: Vybrani tvory v dvokh tomakh (Tom pershyi). Kyiv: Derzhavne vydavnytsvo khudozhnioi literatury, pp. 5–48.
Novychenko, L.M. (1958b). Myroslav Irchan: literaturnyi portret. Kiev: Derzhvydav Ukrainy.
Pawlowsky, A. (1997). Ukrainian Canadian literature in Winnipeg, a socio-historical perspective, 1908–1991 (Thesis, U of Manitoba).
Pidhainyi, S.O. (1947). Ukrainska Intelihentsiia na Solovkakh. Neu-Ulm: Prometei.
Sangster, J. (2005). ‘Robitnytsia, Ukrainian Communists, and the “Porcupinism” Debate: Reassessing Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in Early Canadian Communism, 1922–1930’. Labour/ Le Travail, 56(Fall), pp. 51–89.
Shkandrij, M. (2000). ‘The rape of civilization: Recurrent structure in Myroslav Irchan’s prose’, Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 25(1/2), pp. 61–72.
Sloniovska, O. (2016). Myroslav Irchan. Available at: http://www.segodnya.ua/revival/essay/miroslav-irchan.html (Accessed: 7 November 2016).
Vlasenko, V.P. and Kravchuk, P.I. (1960). Myroslav Irchan: Zhyttia i tvorchist. Kyiv: Radianskyi pysmennyk.
Wynnyckyj, I. (1976). Ukrainian Canadian drama from the beginnings of immigration to 1942 (Thesis University of Waterloo).
Wynnyckyj, I. Personal Communication (2015) 23 October.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Khanenko-Friesen, N. (2018). Betrayal and Public Memory: The “Myroslav Irchan Affair” in the Diaspora—Homeland Disjuncture. In: Grinchenko, G., Narvselius, E. (eds) Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66496-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66496-5_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66495-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66496-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)