Later last week Yale University Professor Timothy Snyder, well known for his studies of Soviet and Nazi crimes in Eastern Europe (incidentally, his book Bloodlands was published in Ukrainian), announced that the Party of Regions MP Vadym Kolesnichenko had infringed his copyright. One of the American historian’s articles from the blog “New York Review of Books” was reprinted without the author’s permission in the collection The OUN and UPA: A Study on the Creation of “Historical” Myths. The book was published this year by the International Antifascist Front and the international charitable foundation Dnipro-Sich co-chaired by Vadym Kolesnichenko.
Moreover, the publishers asked for Timothy Snyder’s permission to reprint his text, but he turned down the request. In spite of the refusal, the article was published as part of a collection with scandalous mistakes to boot. “They twice pulled the wool over the potential readers’ eyes: firstly, by calling this material a ‘scholarly article’ (in reality, it is an entry in a blog that has its own rules and a genre that differs from an academic publication), and, secondly, by twisting my name through the book (Schneider instead of Snyder),” UNIAN quotes the American historian as saying in an official statement. Now he demands an apology and the destruction of all the printed and electronic versions of the book.
It is quite easy to understand the desire of Kolesnichenko to publish Timothy Snyder’s article in the abovementioned collection (the message of this book is all too clear because the attitude of the MP to the OUN-UPA has long been known – suffice it to recall the scandalous exhibit “The Volyn Massacre: Victims of the OUN-UPA” that was shown, on his initiative, in 2010 in several large cities of Ukraine). For the American professor is of the view that the OUN-UPA is guilty of mass-scale killings. But the academic counterbalances this viewpoint by means of some other publications about Ukraine and a debate with Ukrainian historians, where a penetrating reader can find the golden mean. Meanwhile, Snyder’s opinions, pulled out of the context, serve, sadly enough, as grounds for political manipulations. After all, the historian himself noted in his statement that Ukraine needs today, like never before, the rules of civilized behavior, particularly in such a sensitive and inflammable field as historical memory and history-related politics. And the behavior of the publishers of the OUN and UPA is not, in his words, a model of civilized approaches or sensitivity. It does damage to Ukraine itself and its image all over the world.
Obviously, this can also explain the refusal to cooperate with the two foundations.
The Day has communicated with Timothy SNYDER by email on his vision of civilized behavior in what concerns historical memory.
Why did you prohibit the International Anti-Fascist Front to publish your article (as far as I know, earlier you gave a permission to, for example, publishing house Hrani-T)?
“The main issue is not why one person makes the choices he makes. The main issue is that we all have the right to make choices. You are a journalist working for Den. We have chosen to work together. We both know that I will not take your article and email it to another newspaper for publication. We respect each others’ rights. If I am a writer, then I have the right to decide who can publish my work, a right recognized by Ukrainian and international law.
“The independent publishing house Hrani-T published two of my books in Ukrainian. One of these books, Bloodlands, is a history of both Nazi and Stalinist crimes in eastern Europe, above all in Ukraine, from the Holodomor through the Holocaust. Hrani-T observed all appropriate laws and I am very happy to cooperate with them. The Anti-Fascist Front, on the other hand, simply took a text and published it without permission. In doing this they harm all Ukrainian institutions that are obeying the law.”
Commenting the situation, you said that Ukraine, first of all, needs to follow the rules of civilized behavior. How do you see the civilized behavior in the sphere of historical memory?
“Ukraine has the most tragic history of any European country. During the period when both Hitler and Stalin were in power, between 1933 and 1945, more inhabitants of Ukraine were killed than inhabitants of any other country. The entire republic was starved as a matter of Soviet policy in 1933. Ukrainians were among the Soviet soldiers deliberatly starved by the Nazis in 1941. Inhabitants of Ukraine, especially Poles, were killed disproportionately in the Soviet terror of 1937-38. And Ukraine’s Jews were murdered by the German occupiers, with local help, in the unprecedented crime of the Holocaust between 1941 and 1944.
“The horrible scale of this suffering creates enormous temptations for political manipulation. But the remedy is the same here as everywhere: open all the archives, and allow historians from Ukraine and everywhere else to interpret what they find. Fund research based on merit, and let historians publish as they please, and where they please, without political pressure. Precisely because these questions are so important and so difficult, we need to respect the rights of those who investigate them.”
Why, in your opinion, are political manipulations regarding the history of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and UPA still possible?
“This is unsurprising. In the United States political manipulations having to do with the history of slavery are still possible. All nations have difficult histories, and there is no choice but to confront them. Ukraine has two different experiences of history, which makes matters even more complicated.
“The OUN and the UPA are responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of people: Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and others. In Galicia and Volhynia this is history; in central and eastern Ukraine this is usually discussed as politics. Something similar is true for the crimes of the Stalinist regime: the starvation of millions of inhabitants of Soviet Ukraine in 1933 and the executions of tens of thousands of inhabitants of Soviet Ukraine in 1937-38. These are events that happened in central and eastern Ukraine; in Galicia and Volhynia they are usually discussed as politics.
“A common history of Ukraine must include the facts: all of them. So long as this is not done, it will always be easy for politicians to concentrate on the elements of the past that seem to support their own positions rather than on the problems of Ukraine’s present.”
Are these political manipulations particularly a result of the fact that the West apprehends the complicate historical events on the post-soviet space simplistically?
“Ukrainians cannot expect that the West will resolve their memory problems for them. I am very proud that my books have been published in Ukraine, just as I am proud of my collegial relationships with excellent Ukrainian historians. International cooperation is indispensible. But in the end it is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government to support independent historical research and to protect the rights of those who publish on these difficult issues in Ukraine.”
Did the International Anti-Fascist Front or Mr. Kolesnichenko take any steps to resolve the issue after your public statement?
“Yes. Mr. Kolesnichenko has done more than I expected. In a public statement, Mr. Kolesnichenko admitted that he published my text without permission. This is the fundamental point. After such a public admission, the next logical step will be an investigation by the appropriate Ukrainian authorities. Mr. Kolesnichenko will no doubt wish to cooperate. After all, as a parliamentary deputy he has a special responsibility to protect the law, not only in my case but in every case.
“My experience is only a very small taste of what citizens of Ukraine must confront every day. Ukrainians have to deal with the arbitrary application of the law whenever they try to pay their taxes, start a business, or do anything that involves the government. My case is not important because I am a foreign professor. My case is important only as an example of the major problem of Ukraine today: the weakness of the rule of law.”
