Stanislav KULCHYTSKY: “I am an orchestra performer”

On the occasion of the 70th birthday of the well-known historian Dr. Stanislav KULCHYTSKY, The Day, along with his numerous colleagues and disciples, congratulated this long-standing loyal friend of our newspaper and deputy director of the Ukrainian National Academy of Science’s (NAN) Institute of Ukrainian History. Below is The Day ’s interview with Prof. Kulchytsky:

What are your feelings about this jubilee?

“Seventy years is a long time. But one can hope for another dozen years of productive work. A historian never makes his masterpiece at too young an age. Hopes for the future build one’s optimism.”

What distinguishes a historian from other scholars? You can make this comparison, since you have written a book on the history of the NAN.

“History is not only a scholarly or academic subject. It constitutes a part of a personality’s self-consciousness. Other humanities and social studies also shape mankind’s consciousness, but history plays a leading part. That is what makes it interesting to people.

“How does it influence historians? Well, they have better chances of being noticed by society. The beginning of the 20th century had a lot of outstanding personalities among the public figures of the time, but the revolutionary people focused on Mykhailo Hrushevsky, a historian.

“The Institute of Ukrainian History at the NAN, where I have worked for 35 years, has a scholarly council consisting nearly exclusively of distinguished scholars and national award laureates. This makes it different from other divisions of the NAN, although their scholars and scientists are in no way inferior to ours. The reason for this is that life has made our team — which is also celebrating its 70th anniversary — face great tasks. The institute’s role in socio- political life has increased dramatically since the late 1980s, and it remains quite important. On Dec. 21 Borys Paton made a speech at the inter-branch conference on scholarly developments in higher educational establishments. He lamented the considerable losses suffered by Ukrainian scholarship in the post-Soviet period, but stated that some branches still have immense potential, including nanophysics, information technologies, molecular biology, philosophy, history, and law.”

You are an expert on 20th-century history. Was everything that happened to us in the 20th century inevitable? Could mankind have found shorter routes to a better life?

“In my lectures I try to convince graduates of Mohyla Academy and the Slavic Studies University that there is no determinism in the historical process. Arnold Toynbee was correct when he said that communities of people permanently face challenges to which they have to respond. If the challenge is not realized or the response is inadequate, the community degrades and disappears. “Tomorrow will be better than yesterday” — this song from our Soviet past has proved to be inappropriate. Where has it gone, this past of ours?

“All of us are still feeling the effects of the civilizational cataclysm of 1914. World War One triggered a social revolution in Russia. Out of this revolution emerged the political force that managed to convince everyone that it was the only one aware of the shortest way to universal well being. Led by that political force, the peoples of the Soviet Union achieved substantial results in developing industry and culture, but the price for those appeared to be too high. Ukraine suffered the most, because the Soviet leaders suspected it of separatism. When the Soviet system ceased to respond to the challenges of the period and disintegrated, we all had to learn to live under new conditions. I don’t know who should be blamed for all that happened. You see, the Bolsheviks were nothing more than the product of the First World War.”

Do you prefer to work in a team or alone?

“I am fond of violin compositions, and I know that they are performed both solo and with an orchestra. In the area of humanities there is enough space for both individual activities and teamwork. From the mid-1970s I was saddled with the administrative responsibility for a small research group, soon after with responsibility for the entire institute, although it was shared with its director. So I am an orchestra performer. It’s been a long time since I became convinced that the productivity of the group’s work does not decrease, and its effectiveness is unquestionably higher.”

What are you working on these days?

“You may laugh, but I am working on a long article for The Day. I have read the verbatim report of the Verkhovna Rada’s discussions of the draft law on the Holodomor and decided to formulate a historian’s thoughts that may be demanded by politicians seeking to have the United Nations recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide.