Oleksander Ohloblyn
Encyclopedia
Oleksander Ohloblyn, Ukr. Олександер Петрович Оглоблин (born in Kiev
, 1899 and died in Ludlow, Massachusetts
, USA, 1992) was one of the most important Ukrainian emigre historians of the Cold War
era.
, which had formed an important part of the autonomous Ukrainian "Hetmanate" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and throughout his professional career as a historian retained a lively interest in this area and wrote frequently about it. Educated at the universities in Kiev
, Odessa
, and Moscow
, from 1921 to 1933 he taught history at the Kiev Institute of People's Education (as Kiev University
was known after the revolution), but during Joseph Stalin
's purges, was dismissed from his posts, forced to recant his allegedly "bourgeois nationalist" views, and suffered repression including several months of imprisonment. In the late 1930s he returned to teaching at Kiev and Odessa universities. When the Germans occupied Kiev in the fall of 1941, Ohloblyn was elected head of the Kiev Municipal Council, a post which he held from September 21 to October 25, and was a member of the Ukrainian National Council which tried to organize Ukrainian life under the difficult conditions of the occupation. he desperately tried to save from execution some of Jews he knew but the German commandant of Kiev informed him that "the Jewish issue
belongs to exclusive jurisdiction of Germans and they will solve it at their own discretion" (http://holocaust.ioso.ru/documents/10doc.htm, in Russian). Politics under the Nazis was not to his taste and he quickly retired from his public positions and returned to his scholarly work. In 1942 he worked as a director of Kiev Museum-Archive of Transitional Period, whose exhibition compared life under Bolsheviks and under Germans. In 1943 he moved to Lviv
in western Ukraine and in 1944 to Prague
. Upon the approach of the Red Army, he fled west to Bavaria
. From 1946 to 1951, he taught at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. In 1951, he moved to the United States
where he was active in various Ukrainian emigre scholarly institutions such as the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the US and the Ukrainian Historical Association. From 1968 to 1970, he was a Visiting Professor of History at Harvard University
.
(1954), the political elite of Left-bank Ukraine in the eighteenth century (1959), and Hetman Mazepa and his era (1960). He also published an important update to Dmytro Doroshenko
's pioneering "Ukrainian Historiography" (1957).
In his various publications which appeared in the west, Ohloblyn followed his distinguished emigre predecessor, Dmytro Doroshenko
, in stressing the strivings for national unity, autonomy, and independence of the Ukrainian Cossack elite and their successors, the Ukrainian gentry of Left-bank Ukraine. He greatly admired Hetman Ivan Mazepa
whom, he thought well represented this trend, and who actually openly defied Moscow during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great.
In his writings on Ukrainian historiography, Ohloblyn took a moderate position, positively evaluating the work of his former opponent Mykhailo Hrushevsky
, who had been severely criticisized by the generations of the 1930s and 1940s, including Doroshenko, for his ostensible undervaluing of the strivings of the Ukrainian Cossack
elite for statehood and independence. Ohloblyn tried to evaluate populist Ukrainian historians like Mykola Kostomarov, Volodymyr Antonovych
, and Hrushevsky within the context of their own times rather than that of the next generations which had learned new lessons about the importance of statehood from their experiences during the revolution.
, and Zenon Kohut.
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, 1899 and died in Ludlow, Massachusetts
Ludlow, Massachusetts
Ludlow is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,103 as of the 2010 census. It is located in western Massachusetts, north of Springfield, east of Chicopee, southeast of Granby, southwest of Belchertown, west of Wilbraham and is considered part of the...
, USA, 1992) was one of the most important Ukrainian emigre historians of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era.
Life and career
Ohloblyn traced his ancestry to the Novhorod-Siversky region of Left-bank UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, which had formed an important part of the autonomous Ukrainian "Hetmanate" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and throughout his professional career as a historian retained a lively interest in this area and wrote frequently about it. Educated at the universities in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, from 1921 to 1933 he taught history at the Kiev Institute of People's Education (as Kiev University
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
was known after the revolution), but during Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's purges, was dismissed from his posts, forced to recant his allegedly "bourgeois nationalist" views, and suffered repression including several months of imprisonment. In the late 1930s he returned to teaching at Kiev and Odessa universities. When the Germans occupied Kiev in the fall of 1941, Ohloblyn was elected head of the Kiev Municipal Council, a post which he held from September 21 to October 25, and was a member of the Ukrainian National Council which tried to organize Ukrainian life under the difficult conditions of the occupation. he desperately tried to save from execution some of Jews he knew but the German commandant of Kiev informed him that "the Jewish issue
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
belongs to exclusive jurisdiction of Germans and they will solve it at their own discretion" (http://holocaust.ioso.ru/documents/10doc.htm, in Russian). Politics under the Nazis was not to his taste and he quickly retired from his public positions and returned to his scholarly work. In 1942 he worked as a director of Kiev Museum-Archive of Transitional Period, whose exhibition compared life under Bolsheviks and under Germans. In 1943 he moved to Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
in western Ukraine and in 1944 to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. Upon the approach of the Red Army, he fled west to Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. From 1946 to 1951, he taught at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. In 1951, he moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where he was active in various Ukrainian emigre scholarly institutions such as the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the US and the Ukrainian Historical Association. From 1968 to 1970, he was a Visiting Professor of History at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Publications
During his early Soviet period, Ohloblyn authored several monographs on Ukrainian economic history (reprinted in the west in 1971 as A History of Ukrainian Industry) and began publishing on the Mazepa era of the early eighteenth century. After the war, he continued his studies of seventeenth and eighteenth century Ukraine, publishing books on the Treaty of Pereiaslav of 1654 between the Ukrainian Cossacks and the Muscovite TsarTsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
(1954), the political elite of Left-bank Ukraine in the eighteenth century (1959), and Hetman Mazepa and his era (1960). He also published an important update to Dmytro Doroshenko
Dmytro Doroshenko
Dmytro Doroshenko was a prominent Ukrainian political figure during the revolution of 1917-1918 and a leading Ukrainian emigre historian during the inter-war period.-Political career:...
's pioneering "Ukrainian Historiography" (1957).
In his various publications which appeared in the west, Ohloblyn followed his distinguished emigre predecessor, Dmytro Doroshenko
Dmytro Doroshenko
Dmytro Doroshenko was a prominent Ukrainian political figure during the revolution of 1917-1918 and a leading Ukrainian emigre historian during the inter-war period.-Political career:...
, in stressing the strivings for national unity, autonomy, and independence of the Ukrainian Cossack elite and their successors, the Ukrainian gentry of Left-bank Ukraine. He greatly admired Hetman Ivan Mazepa
Ivan Mazepa
Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa , Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate in Left-bank Ukraine, from 1687–1708. He was famous as a patron of the arts, and also played an important role in the Battle of Poltava where after learning of Peter I's intent to relieve him as acting Hetman of Ukraine and replace him...
whom, he thought well represented this trend, and who actually openly defied Moscow during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great.
In his writings on Ukrainian historiography, Ohloblyn took a moderate position, positively evaluating the work of his former opponent Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Mykhailo Serhiyovych Hrushevsky was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century...
, who had been severely criticisized by the generations of the 1930s and 1940s, including Doroshenko, for his ostensible undervaluing of the strivings of the Ukrainian Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
elite for statehood and independence. Ohloblyn tried to evaluate populist Ukrainian historians like Mykola Kostomarov, Volodymyr Antonovych
Volodymyr Antonovych
Volodymyr Antonovych , was a prominent Ukrainian historian and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national awakening in the Russian Empire. As a historian, Antonovych, who was longtime Professor of History at the University of Kiev, represented a populist approach to Ukrainian history.This...
, and Hrushevsky within the context of their own times rather than that of the next generations which had learned new lessons about the importance of statehood from their experiences during the revolution.
Legacy
Although Ohloblyn never held a tenured professorship at an American university and was largely unknown to the English speaking world, his activities in the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Ukrainian Historical Association and his extensive publications in the Ukrainian language influenced younger generations of Ukrainian historians in the United States and other western countries. His students and admirers who have continued his work include Lubomyr Wynar, Orest SubtelnyOrest Subtelny
Orest Subtelny is a Canadian historian. Born in Kraków, Poland, he received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1973. Since 1982 he has been a professor in the departments of History and Political Science, York University, Toronto, Canada.-Career:...
, and Zenon Kohut.