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Revolution through the Lens of Ordinary Life in Kyiv
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2020
Abstract
This essay discusses the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1921 from Kyiv's perspective. It emphasizes that mainstream historiography (that is, a concentration on reconstructing political and military events combined with an elite-centered approach) has exhausted itself. In order to explain the revolutionary events and how they were experienced, new approaches are needed. This essay demonstrates the potential of focusing on “little people,” of examining the revolutionary years from a polycentric perspective, and of broadening our perception of the revolutionary epoch as a way out of World War I. The essay demonstrates how an inclusive urban Kyiv narrative with a focus on ordinary life raises a number of new research questions and provides a variety of fresh topics. It also shows how productive it can be to study “big events” while closely following the life of a city and its dwellers.
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- Critical Discussion Forum: Ukraine in Revolution
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2020
References
1 Tsentral΄nyi derzhavnyi istorychnyi arkhiv Ukrainy u m. Kyievi (TDIAK), f. 127, op. 1080, spr. 481, ark. 139, 324 (Metrychna knyha Tserkvy Blahovishchennia Presviatoi Bohorodytsi u Lybidskyi chastyni).
2 According to data from the Kyiv Statistics Bureau, at least 1286 people were killed in January-February of 1918 in the city. See more, “Smertnost΄,” Statisticheskii biulleten΄ po gorodu Kievu / publikuetsia Statisticheskim biuro Kievskoii gorodskoii upravy, (January–March, 1918): 25–32.
3 TDIAK, f. 127, op.1080, spr. 484, ark. 291 (Metrychna knyha Tserkvy Sv. Volodymyra u Lybidskyi chastyni).
4 Vojensky historicky archiv Vojenskeho ustredniho archive v Praze—OCSNR v Rusku—presidium. 1917–1918, k. 6. č. 4073: Petrograd, Nadezhdinskaya № 36. Polucheno 15 fevralia 1918.
5 See, Betlii, Olena, “Ubi bene ibi patria: Reading the City of Kiev through Polish and Czech “Spatial Stories” from the First World War Period,” in Klusáková, Lud΄a, Teulières, Laure, eds., Frontiers and Identities: Cities in Regions and Nations (Pisa, 2008), 197–221Google Scholar.
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7 M-nov S., “Itogi vyborov v Kieve,” Kievskie gorodskie izvestiya, No 7 (1918): 6–16Google Scholar.
8 One of the most popular Ukrainian bloggers, Pavlo Kazarin, claimed that the ideal future for Ukraine would be when contemporary discussions about sovereignty and independence would become an archival set of truisms, and lose their relevance for further generations. I would agree that we have to leave the past events behind us and build Ukraine’s future on a different set of texts and events more relevant to the contemporary world. Kazarin’s text was widely read and liked by at least 42,000 users. See Pavel Kazarin, “Pohoronite nas za plintusom,” at https://site.ua/pavel.kazarin/12347/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=shrike (accessed October 8, 2019).
9 Lohr, Eric and Sanborn, Joshua, “1917: Revolution as Demobilization and State Collapse,” Slavic Review 76, no. 3, Special Issue on the Russian Revolution, A Hundred Years Later (Fall 2017): 703–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
10 Derzhavnyi arkhiv m. Kyieva (DAK), f. 163, op. 37, spr. 53, ark. 103–132 (Svedeniia o proisshestviiah i neschatsnyh sluchaiah po Kievu).
11 DAK, f. 163, op. 8, spr. 26, ark. 68 (Perepiska s ministrom prodovol΄stviia, Gorodskoi prodovol΄stvennoi upravoi o peredache dela po snabzheniiu naseleniia prodovol΄stviem gorodskomu samoupravleniiu o snabzheniiu goroda khlebom).
12 Ibid., ark. 80.
13 Ibid., ark. 111–120.
14 DAK, f. 163, op. 8, spr. 26, ark.185.