Table Of ContentUkrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes
Ukrainian Research Institute
Harvard University
Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies 80
HURI Editorial Board
Michael S. Flier
George G. Grabowicz
Serhii Plokhy, Chairman
Oleh Kotsyuba, Manager of Publications
Cambridge, Massachusetts
trevor erlacher
Ukrainian nationalism
in the age of extremes
An IntellectuAl BIogrAphy of
Dmytro Dontsov
Distributed by Harvard University Press
for the Ukrainian Research Institute
Harvard University
The Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute was established
in 1973 as an integral part of Harvard University. It supports
research associates and visiting scholars who are engaged in
projects concerned with all aspects of Ukrainian studies. The
Institute also works in close cooperation with the Committee
on Ukrainian Studies, which supervises and coordinates the
teaching of Ukrainian history, language, and literature at Har-
vard University.
Publication of this book has been made possible by the gener-
ous support of the Jurij and Oksana Lyczkowskyj Publication
Fund in Ukrainian Studies at Harvard University.
© 2021 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the U.S. on acid- free paper
ISBN 9780674250932 (hardcover), 9780674250949 (epub),
9780674250956 (Kindle), 9780674250963 (PDF)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020941771
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020941771
Front cover illustration: David Burliuk, “Ukrainians” (fragment, 1912).
Oil on canvas. © State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Reproduced with
permission.
Author photo by Amelia Parlier. Reproduced with permission.
Cover and book design by Mykola Leonovych, https://smalta.pro
Contents
vii acknowledgments
xi abbreviations
xv note on names and soUrces
1 introdUction
45 chapter 1. the roots of Ukrainian integral
nationalism: dmytro dontsov’s formative years,
1883–1914
99 chapter 2. “the GötterdämmerunG of
Ukrainophilism”: dmytro dontsov and the
entangled eastern front, 1914–1918
159 chapter 3. “to the old gods!”: reactionary
modernism and the foUndations of Ukrainian
integral nationalism, 1919–1925
231 chapter 4. nationalists, commUnists, and
national commUnists: dmytro dontsov, the oUn,
and soviet Ukraine, 1926–1933
305 chapter 5. the personal and the political:
feminism, nazism, and the vistnykites,
1926–1939
367 chapter 6. from politics to mysticism:
dontsov’s final battle and the fates of the
vistnykites, 1939–1973
433 conclUsion
457 notes
571 bibliography
609 index
ACknowledgments
Many individuals and institutions have contributed to this work
over the course of its twelve- year incubation. Absent their gener-
osity, insight, labor, and support, this book would not have been
conceivable. Insofar as the endeavor can be judged a success, it
is thanks to them. Nevertheless, I take full responsibility for any
errors, inaccuracies, shortcomings of analysis or exposition, and
controversial opinions found herein.
More scholars than I can name here have contributed to
the conception and refinement of this project. I thank my first
mentor in the field, Chia Yin Hsu, for inspiring me to study the
Russian Empire and Soviet Union as multinational states while
I was an undergraduate at Portland State University. Throughout
my years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC),
Donald J. Raleigh was the best advisor one could possibly hope
for. I have been extremely fortunate to have the intellectual and
moral support and rigorous training in the historian’s craft that he,
Louise McReynolds, Chad Bryant, Christopher Browning, and other
faculty members at UNC gave to me. I thank Oleksandr Zaitsev,
the world’s premier expert on interwar Ukrainian nationalism,
for kindly welcoming and advising me during my stay in Lviv,
and for his generous yet incisive critiques of my dissertation and
previous drafts of this work. I am especially grateful to Mark
von Hagen, who was munificent with his time, expertise, and
viii ErlachEr. Ukrainian nationalism in thE agE of ExtrEmEs
encouragement, and helped me to find my footing in the world
of Ukrainian studies. Sadly, Mark passed away last year, before
I could present to him a copy of this book, which would not exist
without his guidance and trailblazing scholarship.
My gratitude also goes out to William Risch, Faith Hillis, Serhii
Plokhy, Georgiy Kasianov, Benjamin Schenk, Fabian Baumann,
Frank E. Sysyn, Olena Palko, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Robert Jenkins,
Michael Matthews, George G. Grabowicz, Marta Kolomayets, An-
dreas Kappeler, George O. Liber, Eric Kurlander, Tanja Penter, Oleh
Wolowyna, Heather Coleman, Natan Meir, Serhiy Bilenky, Gregor
Thum, and all the other scholars who have fostered and commented
on this project in various ways. Many archivists and librarians
have assisted with my research over the years in Ukraine, the
US, Canada, Poland, and Switzerland. I am particularly grateful to
Kirill Tolpygo and Halyna Svarnyk for their aid in accessing and
navigating Dontsov’s archival legacy. Anna Isaieva and Iaroslav
Kovalchuk provided critical assistance with research. I thank my
inspiring friends and colleagues from graduate school, particularly
Emily Baran, Mike Paulauskas, Andrew Ringlee, Adrianne Jacobs,
Aaron Hale- Dorrel, Gary Guadangolo, Alex Ruble, Mark Hornburg,
Grace Mahoney, Scott Krause, Fabian Link, Jenya Mironava, Col-
leen Moore, Dakota Irving, Louis Porter, Michael Skalski, Emily
Lipira, Andal Narayanan, Lars Stiglich, Amanda Bellows, Sarah
McNamara, Liz Ellis, and Peter Gengler. Stephen Riegg has been
a true comrade ever since that grueling first- year seminar.
Numerous institutions have sustained this project. I owe a
debt of gratitude to the Department of History and the Graduate
School of UNC, the Fulbright Program in Ukraine, the Canadian
Institute for Ukrainian Studies, and the Ukrainian Research in
Switzerland initiative at the University of Basel. These institu-
tions generously funded the research and writing of this book
and the dissertation on which it is based, provided employment
and teaching opportunities, and granted me access to the wis-
dom and expertise of many scholars. The Centers for Slavic, East
European, and Eurasian Studies at UNC and Duke University, and
acknowlEdgmEnts ix
the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University (HURI),
sponsored my study of Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish. I thank
the Ukrainian Catholic University for hosting me during my stay
in Lviv, Ukraine, where the bulk of the archival research for this
volume was conducted. My coworkers at the Association for
Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the Center for
Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies—including Nancy
Condee, Zsuzsánna Magdó, Lynda Park, Sean Guillory, and many
more than can be listed here—have boosted my academic work
since I arrived at the University of Pittsburgh in early 2019.
It has been a pleasure to collaborate with the publications
team at HURI. Oleh Kotsyuba’s advice, vision, and diligence were
key to making this project a reality. Michelle Viise and Jessica
Hinds- Bond did a marvelous job editing the manuscript. Portions
of this work first appeared elsewhere, and I am thankful to Cam-
bridge University Press for permission to publish this material
in revised form: “The Birth of Ukrainian ‘Active Nationalism’:
Dmytro Dontsov and Heterodox Nationalism before World War I,
1883–1914,” Modern Intellectual History 11, no. 3 (November 2014):
519–48. I also thank Paul Robert Magocsi for granting permission
to reprint historical maps from his atlases, and the Ukrainian
Museum, Ukrinform, Melitopol´skii Kraevedcheskii Zhurnal, Gal-
info.ua, the Russian State Museum, and the Internet Encyclopedia
of Ukraine for the images reproduced here.
I owe everything to my family, a constant source of strength
and inspiration. My parents—Jennifer FitzSimons and Graham
Erlacher—set examples of hard work, determination, and intel-
lectual integrity to which I still aspire, and taught me the value
of education, world travel, self- discipline, and creativity. I am
grateful to my sister, Mason Claine Erlacher, who brings joy to all
who know her through her art and compassion. Finally, I dedicate
this book to my partner in crime, the brilliant and stunning Amelia
Parlier, whom I thank for the vital input and perspective on every
aspect of this book, from the content to the cover design, and for
her unstinting love, support, and companionship.
For Amelia.
