I have a subscription to one Ukrainian journalist, who almost every day writes high-quality and accurate texts on various topics. Let me take a risk and publish one of his posts in full (translated into English).
Of course, the language beauty will be slightly mutilated in the translation, but the main meaning will still be preserved:
“What good can the American professor Timothy Snyder, born in Ohio, say about the labyrinthine and convoluted Ukraine history – if the majority of Ukrainians born in Ukraine are not able to put together two words about the events of 1914-1945.
Despite his pro-Ukrainian commitment, Snyder spreads a foreign vision on Ukrainian history of the 20th century. All his views are shaped not by Ukrainian national historiography (which is in its infancy), but by Polish, russian or, at best, liberal-European.
Snyder (and other Western historians) looks at the national liberation struggle through the prism of “who fought against whom.” And rarely does anyone dive into the internecine, confusing and multifaceted details of “who fought for what.” And why.
Snyder’s series of lectures about Ukraine is a superficial excursion for newcomers who discovered Ukraine with the beginning of the great invasion. The venerable professor gives a framework, somewhat crude understanding of the path of Ukrainians to statehood. This is historical fast food without pretensions to molecular cuisine.
Since Snyder is a renowned researcher of the Holocaust (and even more narrowly, the Eastern European Holocaust), his vision of the “Ukrainian question” is Polish. Timothy Snyder rebroadcasts the Polish national vision of Ukrainians at that time. Hence the humiliating and incorrect assessments of nationalist movements.
One should not take offense and blow one’s cheeks, but titanically develop a national historiography, which will be dominated by a national view of one’s own interest, achievement and glorification. Western historians should form their interpretation of the Ukrainian issue on our doctrine, not on the basis of our neighbors.
Snyder – thanks for everything. But this is profanation.” (c) Ostap Drozdov
This text is taken from Ostap’s own Telegram channel. If you want, you can join at this link.
I can’t express my own opinion about Timothy Snyder’s open lectures, because I watched them very superficially. I trust Ostap in this aspect, and I fully agree that Ukraine has a lot of work to do after the victory, on absolutely all fronts.
