German-Ukrainian Relations in Historical Perspective

Description

The encounters between Germans and Ukrainians in the twentieth century have taken place primarily against the background of great violence. In the course of the world wars Germany twice occupied Ukraine, each time provoking both resistance and collaboration. This volume brings together the leading authorities in Ukrainian studies in North America, both historians and political scientists, and eminent German and Austrian scholars, experts in the history of Eastern Europe and German foreign policy, to explore the dramatic history of Ukrainian-German relations.

Chapters include:

• An Episode from German-Ukrainian Scholarly Contacts: Dietrich Christoph von Rommel;
• German Colonists in Southern Ukraine up to the Repeal of the Colonial Statute;
• German Culture and the National Awakening in Western Ukraine before the Revolution of 1848;
• Ukrainians and Germans in Southern Ukraine, 1870s to 1914;
• Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky and Germany (1917-18) as Reflected in His Memoirs;
• Germany’s Ukrainian Policy during World War I and the Revolution of 1918-19;
• German Colonization Plans in Ukraine during World Wars I and II;
• Soviet Ukraine and Germany, 1920-39;
• The New Agrarian Order in Ukraine, 1941-2, Sources and Considerations;
• Ukrainians in the Armed Forces of the Reich: The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS;
• The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the German Authorities;
• OUN-German Relations, 1941-4;
• Ukraine: Colony or Partner?
• Germany, Western Europe; and, Ukraine after World War II.

The German occupation of Ukraine during the First World War is the subject of two contributions: Peter Borowsky examines the aims of German policy in Ukraine from the perspective of the German military and diplomatic apparatus, while Jaroslaw Pelenski looks at the German occupation from the Ukrainian side, using the diary of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky to tease out the nuances of the relationship between the hetman and his German patrons. Four articles discuss key aspects of the Second World War: Ralf Bartoleit contributes a pioneering look at German agrarian policy in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine; Wolfdieter Bihl uses archival documentation to analyze the formation of the Waffen SS Division Galizien, comprised of Ukrainian volunteers; Peter J. Potichnyj documents the attitude of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) toward the German military and occupation authorities; and Taras Hunczak discusses relations between the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Germans in 1941-5. Linking the articles on the two world wars is Ihor Kamenetsky’s study of German colonization plans during both.

But the book is not limited to the themes of war and occupation. Cultural relations in the early nineteenth century are the subject of articles by Edgar Hösch and John-Paul Himka. Ethnic German communities in Ukraine from the end of the eighteenth century to the First World War are surveyed by Detlef Brandes and Andreas Kappeler. Diplomatic relations between Germany and Ukraine from 1920 through 1992 are studied by Bohdan Krawchenko and Yaroslav Bilinsky. And the “grand old man” of Ukrainian studies in the West, John A. Armstrong, offers an incisive essay ranging over the past, present, and future of the Ukrainian-German relationship, entitled: “Ukraine: Colony or Partner?”

This is one of the volumes on Ukraine and its neighbours published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. Other volumes deal with Jewish-Ukrainian (Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective), Polish-Ukrainian (Poland and Ukraine: Past and Present), and Russian-Ukrainian (Culture, Nation and Identity: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounter [1600–1945]), and Armenian-Ukrainian (Armenian-Ukrainian Historical Contacts) relations.