A verbal look at a very visual art form - we'll look at the evolution of Ukrainian dance. From a very pagan, spiritual dance form asking the gods for help to a modern, ballet-inspired whirlwind of complexity and FUN! We'll also get a look at the history of the hopak and how Ukrainian dance evolution diverged between Soviet-style Ukrainian folk and Diaspora Ukrainian folk dance and who was important in this process of evolution. Special thank you to Anna Sudyk Photography for the picture use!

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* Myron Shatulsky, The Ukrainian Folk Dance (1986)

* Andriy Nahachewsky, Ukrainian Dance: A Cross-Cultural Approach (2012)

* Andriy Nahachewsky, "Structural Analysis of the Kolomyika" in Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (1992)

* Marcia Ostashewski, "A Song and Dance of Hypermasculinity: Performing Ukrainian Cossacks in Canada" in The World of Music (2014)

* Henry Spiller, "Introduction: Music, Movement and Masculinities" in The World of Music (2014)

Who was this Cossack whom a Polish historian described as: "A lion's courage, the mobility of the snake, the cunning of the fox and the light-heartedness of the wind trembled in Bohun’s every vein. Freedom, space, the steppe and war were his element"? A man who was a stubborn independentist and believed that Ukraine should not rely on any other power but its own. This was a man who inspired generations of Ukrainian men and women (for two different reasons) - this was Colonel Ivan Bohun. We delve into his military history and tactical brilliance on the battlefiled and try to get a glimpse into his fierce stubborness! 

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* Mykhailo Huzar-Kolodzinsky, Polkovnyk Ivan Bohun (1941)

* Josyp Rollie, Ivan Bohun - Kozatskyj Polkovnyk (2012)

* B. Sushynsky, Koztsky Vozdi Ukrainy, Vol. 1 (1998)

* Yuriy Tarnawsky, "With Camer and Actors: Reflections of a Ukrainian on Jerzy Hoffman's With Fire and Sword" in The Polish Review (2000)

* Serhiy Husak, Lehendarni Postati Ukrainy (2009)

* Ivan Bohun in Encyclopedia of Ukraine

A man born in one empire, studied in Italy and Germany, came back to Lviv which was under Poland for his vocation, lived through the Second World War, was put in a GULAG for almost 20 years and freed by the efforts of an American President, a Vatican Pope and a Soviet Premier. This was Major Archbishop (and Patriarch for many Ukrainians) Josyf Slipyj - the successor of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. His life was embroiled in politics, but he remained apolitical but supremely Ukrainian. What influenced him, how did he react to his imprisonment and what role did he play once freed from the Soviet prison of nations? Find out in this episode which concludes the sort of trilogy of Ukrainian religious history.

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Sources:

* Jaroslav Pelikan, Confessor Between East and West: A Portrait of Ukrainian Cardinal Josyf Slipyj (1990)

* Bohdan Budurowycz, "The Greek Catholic Church in Galicia, 1914-1944" (2002-2003)

* Serhii Plokhy, "Between Moscow and Rome: Struggle for the Greek Catholic Patriariachate in Ukraine" in Journal of Church and State (1995)

* Karim Schelkens, "Vatican Diplomacy after the Cuban Missile Crisis: New Light on the Release of Josyf Slipyj" in The Catholic Historical Review (2011)

* Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine (1996)

A royal count who became a laywer who found his calling as a priest and became the head of his church at the age of 35! This was Metroplitan Andrey Sheptytsky - who came from a mixed Polish-Ukrainian family who valued the youth and Ukrainian national-consciousness. He was a man that didn't give the Vatican a dime of money but put it all back to his flock: by creating orphanages, hospitals and schools. He was admired as he was feared by imperialists, he openly condemned the killings that occurred on all sides of the Second World War and instigated a network of priests and nuns who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. And this episode is all about him - a man who followed the principle of the law of love in his teachings and leadership of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. 

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Sources:

* Andrii Krawchuk, Christian Social Ethics in Ukraine: The Legacy of Andrei Sheptytsky (1997)

* Andrzej A. Zieba & Bohdan Struminsky, "Sister Maria Krysta Szembek and Her Memoirs" in Harvard Ukrainian Studies (June 1991)

* Bohdan Budurowycz, "The Greek Catholic Church in Galicia, 1914-1944" in Harvard Ukrainian Studies (2002-2003)

* Nadiya Zayachkivska, "Andrey Sheptytsky - an Educator and a Caretaker of the Ukrainian Youth" in Czech-Polish Historical and Pedagogical Journal (2016)

What is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and how did it come about? Who were the main characters who made it happen, who sort-of lost his mind in the process and how was it received? This Union wasn't the first attempt to unify the Eastern and Western Christian churches but it made a great impact on Ukraine's religious history. We'll take a look at the beginnings of the Uniate Church (another name for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) and why they're (still) perceived as a threat to Moscow's Orthodoxy. 

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* Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe (2017)

* Paul Roberts Magocsi, A History of Ukraine (1996)

Teresa Chynczewska-Hennel, "The Political, Social and National Thought of the Ukrainian Higher Clergy, 1569-1700" in Harvard Ukrainian Studies (2002-2003)

* Tetiana Shevchenko, "Religion in the National Historical Narrative of the Early Modern Times in Contemporary Ukrainian Schooling" in Journal of Educational Media, Memory & Society (2015)

* Attila Virag, "The Cultural and Geopolitical Dimensions of Nation-Building in the Ukraine" in Society and Economy (2012)

* Michael J. Sheludko, Флорентійська та Берестейська унії: дві спроби поєднання православних і католиків (2019)

* Sophia Senyk, "The Background of the Union of Brest" in Analecta OSBM (1996)

* Athanasius Pekar, "The Union of Brest and Attempts to Destroy It" in Analecta OSBM (1992)

Our first interview of 2022 is with researcher and historian Alik Gomelsky. Originally from Kharkiv, he is a member of the Canadian Author’s Association, co-founder of the Ukrainian-Jewish International Association and the author of "History: Unlearned Lessons", "Simon Petliura: Facts against Myths" and his latest: "Jewish-Ukrainian Relations. 20thCentury" (all in Ukrainian). His work is based on declassified KGB, CIA, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and German archives along with memoirs. He focuses is mainly on historical events and personalities through the prism of Jewish-Ukrainian relations.

In this episode we look through the more troublesome history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations throughout the 20th century, including the widespread pogroms that occurred in the Russian Empire, the creation of the Ministry of Jewish Affairs under the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Symon Petliura’s stance on Jewish affairs, a look at Arnold Margolin (a very important Ukrainian-Jewish figure), Russian and Soviet attempts to create disunity among both ethnicities and a look into this current Russo-Ukrainian war.

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For more episodes, sources and extras, please visit: wanderingtheedge.net

Russia today wants to "deNazify" Ukraine, to eliminate the Ukrainian "fascists" and has systematically killed innocent civilians in this demented drive of theirs. But how did we get to this point - where Russian society supports the eradication of an entire people? Well, a lot of it has to do with misleading and outright lies that they turned into myths of the Second World War. Their version of events is different than the rest of the world, their experiences of the Second World War are so different than those of Ukraine that they don't have the capacity to understand those differences. Soviet propaganda and myth-making have warped their understanding of what occurred during the Second World War. They have not re-evaluated, re-examined and truly explored the history of the Second World War to include all those horrors that came with it. They glorify their past and this glorification has blinded them to the horrors of war. This episode takes a look at the myths that were created, at the consequences of those myths and why Ukraine is now in a full-scale war with Russia.

Sources:

The War and Myth (2016) - English version

Ukraine's independence in 1991 could not have been accomplished without the 1990 Revolution on Granite. The Orange Revolution could not have been organized without the students in 2004. And the 2014 Revolution of Dignity was as much a student protest as a national indication of the nation's governance. How were students so organized that they stood up against some huge political obstacles? What happened during those revolutions and why were there so many? This episode looks at the history of student protest and revolution in modern Ukrainian history. Unfortunately, no tourism information as Putin has escalated his war against Ukraine because he's a dictator who detests freedom!

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Sources:

* Coilin O'Connor & Halyna Tereshchuk, "The Revolution on Granite: Ukraine's First Maidan" on Radio Free Europe (2020)

* Various interviews, "Revolution of Dignity: We can be Called Cynics who are Ready to Die for an Idea" on Istorychna Pravda (2015)

* Valentyn Torba, "The Lesson of the Revolution on Granite" on Den Kyiv (2016)

* Serhii Ploky, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (2017)

* Paul R. Magosci, A History of Ukraine (1996)

* Adrian Karatnycky, "Letter from Kiev: On Independence Square" in The American Scholar (2005)

* Michael Mcfaul, "Ukraine Imports Democracy: External Influences on the Orange Revolution" in International Security (2007)

* Tristan Landry, "The Colour Revolutions in the Rearview Mirror: Closer than They Appear" in Canadian Slavonic Papers (2011)

* Geir Flikke, "Pacts, Parties and Elite Struggle: Ukraine's Troubled Post-Orange Transition" in Europe-Asia Studies (2008)

* Olena Nikolayenko, "The Revolt of the Post-Soviet Generation: Youth Movements in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine" in Comparative Politics (2007)

* Emily Channell-Justice, "Flexibility and Fragmentation: Student Activism and Ukraine's (Euro)Maidan Protests" in Berkeley Journal of Sociology (2014)

Russian preside/dictator went on national television on Feb. 21, 2022 and showed the world that he was an insane despot. Three days later, on Feb. 24 at 5am Kyiv time, the Russian army began bombing Kyiv. This episode is a response to that crazy, delusional speech from Putin. There is a lot of swearing, because I'm pretty mad. There's no travel or tourist information and won't be until every Russian soldier get's out of Ukraine! 

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For more episodes, sources and extras, please visit: wanderingtheedge.net

Due to the current Russia war against Ukraine, I've cut the travel/tourist topics from these episodes going forward until Putin withdraws his troops or basically dies. But I will still look at various historical topics, like in this episode: Nestor Makhno was a revolutionary anarchist during a time of complete chaos of the post-First World War Ukraine. He fought against various coloured armies and commanded the respect of his own "Black Army". The peasants who followed him, named him their "father" and the communists feared his reputation among those peasants. Who exactly was Makhno, how did he rule and why did he treat the Mennonite communities of Ukraine so harshly?

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Travel Information:

* See Dnipro City Tourism for a basic run-down about the city and things to see (even walking along the Dnipro River banks)

* Coast Restaurant and Lounge (61 Sicheslavska Naberezhna St. Dnipro, 49000)

Sources:

* Anarchist groups have created an online Nestor Makhno Archive

* Online archive of the "Delo Truda" Journal

* Pjotr Arshinov, The History of the Makhnovist Movement (1918-1921), (1923), English version

* Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack (2004)

* Frank Sysyn, "Nestor Makhno and the Ukrainian Revolution" in The Ukraine, 1917-1921: A Study in Revolution (1977)

* Colin Darch, Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine (2020)

* Erik C. Landis, "Waiting for Makhno: Legitimacy and Context in a Russian Peasant War" in Past & Present (2004)

* Volodymyr Semystiaha & Marta D. Olynyk, "The Role and Place of Secret Collaborators in the Informational Activity of the GPU-NKVD in the 1920s and 1930s" in Cahiers du Monde Russe (2001)

* Erik C. Landis, "Who were the 'Greens'? Rumor and Collective Identity in the Russian Civil War" in The Russian Review (2010)

* James Urry, "Who were the Mennonites?" in European Journal of Sociology (1983)

* Michael Confino, "Organization as Ideology: Dilemmas of the Russian Anarchists (1903-1914)" in Russian History (2010)

* Peter C. Mentzel, "Chaos and Utopia: The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution and Civil War" in The Independent Review (2017)

* Jochen Bohler, "Enduring Violence: The Postwar Struggles in East-Central Europe, 1917-21" in Journal of Contemporary History (2015)

* Paul Robert Magosci, A History of Ukraine (1996)

* Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe (2017)

* Peter Letkemann, "Mennonite Victims of Revolution, Anarchy, Civil War, Disease and Famine, 1917-1923" on Mennonite Heritage Center (2000)

* Lawrence Klippenstein, The Selbstschutz: a Mennonite Army in Ukraine, 1918-1919 (2007)

* Jason Yanowitz, "The Makhno Myth" in International Socialist Review (2007)