The Ukrainian West : culture and the fate of empire in Soviet Lviv /

This intriguing book revises the consensus-bordering-on-stereotype view of Lviv as the traditional center of Ukrainian ethnic nationalism. The "West" of the book's title refers not to the city's geography, but to its inclusion in the "Soviet Abroad," those Western border territories annexed after WW II that gained a cachet as "Western" or "European" among the Soviet population. The world is familiar with the oppressive measures taken by Soviet security organs after the war to subdue "bourgeois nationalism" in western Ukraine (anti-Soviet guerilla activity persisted until 1950), but Risch (Georgia College and State Univ.) demonstrates how authorities made concessions to Lviv's unique identity in their campaign to render this cosmopolitan city "Ukrainian" while Lvivians adopted strategies to accommodate Soviet power. The Ukrainian West evolved in the interstice of this compromise, affording more cultural freedom than was available in the rest of Ukraine. According to Risch, this circumstance contributed more to Lviv's defiant, sometimes nationalist, local culture in the late Soviet period than its "Banderite" past. The author relies heavily on oral testimony, with the result that his often-illuminating text at times founders on labored descriptions of obscure episodes. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. P. E. Heineman University of Maryland University College