Serhiy Bilenky: Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 2023.

 Serhiy Bilenky: Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 2023. ISBN 9780228017578

When the powers of Europe were at their prime, present-day Ukraine was divided between the Austrian and Russian empires, each imposing different political, social, and cultural models on its subjects. This inevitably led to great diversity in the lives of its inhabitants, shaping modern Ukraine into the multiethnic country it is today.

Making innovative use of methods of social and cultural history, gender studies, literary theory, and sociology, Laboratory of Modernity explores the history of Ukraine throughout the long nineteenth century and offers a unique study of its pluralistic society, culture, and political scene. Despite being subjected to different and conflicting power models during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ukraine was not only imagined as a distinct entity with a unique culture and history but was also realized as a set of social and political institutions. The story of modern Ukraine is geopolitically complex, encompassing the historical narratives of several major communities - including ethnic Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and Russians - who for centuries lived side by side.

The first comprehensive study of nineteenth-century Ukraine in English, Laboratory of Modernity traces the historical origins of some of the most pressing issues facing Ukraine and the international community today.

ToC:

Preface: What Can Ukraine Teach Us about the Modern World? | ix

Maps follow page xiv

Part One: Ukraine 1772-1831

1 Between Two Empires | 3

The Age of Enlightened Absolutism and Its Legacy | 3

Dynastic Empires Change Space | 9

The Rise of Bureaucracy | 22

How to Tackle Diversity? | 27

2 From Enlightenment to Romanticism | 38

Ukrainians as Empire Builders | 38

Dr Frankenstein’s Laboratory of Nationalism | 50

Heritage Gatherers, Glory Hunters | 57

Ukraine Begins in the East | 72

Old Regime under Threat: Poles and Decembrists | 81

Part Two: Ukraine 1831-1876

3 The Age of Romantic Nationalism | 91

Another Ukraine, Other “Ukrainians” | 91

Inventing an Ancient and Holy City: The Rise of Kyiv | 99

The Making of One Nationality is the Unmaking of Others | 106

From Serf to Prophet: The Improbable Case of Taras Shevchenko | 115

Was There a Revolution in Ukraine in 1848? | 122

4 The Age of Reforms | 132

Tradition vs. Modernization | 132

Liberal Interlude in Russia: The Reformers | 146

Liberal Interlude in Russia: The Reformed | 155

The Birth of the Intelligentsia from the Spirit of Reform | 164

5 The Empire Strikes Back | 179

Poles Rebel, Act II | 179

“There was not, is not, and cannot be” a Ukrainian Language | 189

Fathers and Sons, Ukrainian Style | 205

From Austria to Austria-Hungary | 217

part three: ukraine 1876-1914

6 Galician Exceptionalism | 227

Ruthenians in Search of a Nation | 227

The Ukrainian Piedmont | 241

From Dawn to Dusk of the New Era | 250

Whose City Was It? Lviv vs. Lwów | 260

7 New Society, Old Empire | 274

Nation of Peasants: Social Mobility and Immobility | 274

The Curse and Blessing of Resources | 285

Was Ukraine Russia’s Colony? | 295

Society at the Crossroads | 308

Live Fast, Die Young: Birth, Death, Family, and Gender | 325

The West is the Best? Oil Boom, Rural Poverty, and Emigration | 342

Imperial Pecking Order: Peoples of Ukraine | 357

8 Politics and Culture between Empire and Nation | 384

The World(s) of Fin-de-Siècle and Beyond | 384

The Dubious Blessing of Illiteracy | 402

When Ukraine Learned to Read: Non-Readers into Readers | 411

Between Theater and Terrorism | 430

“People do not exist for States” | 449

The Un/Solved Ukrainian Dilemmas: Epilogue | 470

Timeline | 489

Notes | 497

Bibliographic Essay | 539

Index | 567