This thesis is an attempt to describe and analyze Lenin's theoretical and practical approaches to the Ukrainian question in particular and the nationality question in general. It seeks to ascertain the role and importance of the Ukraine, Ukrainian institutions and, to some extent, Ukrainian personalities, in Lenin's published work both before and after the revolution. Furthermore, this thesis attempts to discover the role of the national and Ukrainian questions in relation to Lenin's other concerns of expediting the proletarian revolution and of maintaining organizational and governmental unity. Several conclusions of a general and particular nature have been reached. The national question in Lenin's works is a part of the general question of the socialist revolution, however, it is definitely a subordinate one: socialist concerns inevitably predominate over nationalist ones. It is also evident that Lenin stressed unity and centralism above any other organizational attribute. The highest degree of unity was mandatory if the revolution was to be made and consumated. Nationalism, however, was particularistic and by its very nature contradictory to Lenin's centralist views. Lenin was aware of Ukrainian peculiarities but he preferred to ignore them in most instances until he felt that to continue so doing would retard the revolution. It is for this reason that his attitude on the Ukrainian question seemed ambivalent. Lenin was willing to make concessions of form rather than substance: he advocated the right to national self-determination while ensuring that this right could never be exercised, he established federal relations with the Ukrainian government while arrogating all real power in the center, and he promoted Ukrainization in all Ukrainian organizations and institutions with the exception of the party. The ultimate goal of all these concessions was invariably unity and centralization. This thesis argues that, in order to be fully understood, Lenin's nationality theory and his application of it to the Ukraine must be conceptualized at two levels. At one level Lenin was concerned with the reality of making a revolution and this required allies from the nationalities. For this reason he conducted a propaganda campaign calculated to appeal to the nationalities and especially the Ukrainians. At the same time, while he was ostensibly demonstrating the similarities between the aims of the Bolsheviks and the nationalities, Lenin never lost sight of the concrete historical conditions of that period. His attitude to the nationalities and Ukrainians was a function of the progress of the revolutionary movement. At this level Lenin's nationality-theory and practice was historically relative and in his work he allowed for the possibility that his views would change as the historical situation changed. Lenin saw nationalism as an ephemeral phenomenon and essentially negative concept. The national movement in general and the Ukrainian one in particular was viewed in instrumental terms. Lenin hoped that he could use this movement as a means to more quickly achieve the goals of unity and assimilation in the most expeditious manner. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

xiv, 934 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The dissertation focuses on Protestants in the Soviet Ukraine from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the USSR. It has two major aims. The first is to elucidate the evolution of Soviet policy toward Protestant denominations, using archival evidence that was not available to previous students of this subject. The second is to reconstruct the internal life of Protestant congregations as marginalized social groups. The dissertation is thus a case study both of religious persecution under state-sponsored atheism and of the efforts of individual believers and their communities to survive without compromising their religious principles. The opportunity to function legally came at a cost to Protestant communities in Ukraine and elsewhere in the USSR. In the 1940s-1980s, Protestant communities lived within a tight encirclement of numerous governmental restrictions designed to contain and, ultimately, reduce all manifestations of religiosity in the republic both quantitatively and qualitatively. The Soviet state specifically focused on interrupting the generational continuity of religious tradition by driving a wedge between believing parents and their children. Aware of these technologies of containment and their purpose, Protestants devised a variety of survival strategies that allowed them, when possible, to circumvent the stifling effects of containment and ensure the preservation and transmission of religious traditions to the next generation. The dissertation investigates how the Soviet government exploited the state institutions and ecclesiastic structures in its effort to transform communities of believers into malleable societies of timid and nominal Christians and how the diverse Protestant communities responded to this challenge. Faced with serious ethical choices--to collaborate with the government or resist its persistent interference in the internal affairs of their communities-- many Ukrainian Evangelicals joined the vocal opposition movement that contributed to an increased international pressure on the Soviet government and subsequent evolution of the Soviet policy from confrontation to co-existence with religion. The dissertation examines both theoretical and practical aspects of the Soviet secularization project and advances a number of arguments that help account for religion's survival in the Soviet Union during the 1940-1980s. / Committee in charge: Julie Hessler, Chairperson, History; R Alan Kimball, Member, History; Jack Maddex, Member, History; William Husband, Member, Not from U of O Caleb Southworth, Outside Member, Sociology

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 K65 / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study is to determine how Galician Jewish emigration during the period 1869-1880 was affected by the Austrian Constitution of 21 December 1867, and in particular by Article IV of said constitution's Fundamental Law Concerning the General Rights of Citizens which granted freedom of movement for the first time to Habsburg subjects. Various demographic, economic, political and societal factors particular to migration, to Galicia and to Galician Jewry are examined in order to establish the effect of the 1867 Constitution on Galician Jewish emigration.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with the manuscript of the memoirs of Dov Ber Birkenthal, Ber of Bolechow. The memoirs describe Jewish existence in eighteenth century Poland and provide valuable information regarding economic, social and cultural matters of that era. Uncovered in 1912, the manuscript was edited and published in Hebrew and translated into English by Dr. M. Vishnitzer. / By primary supposition of the present thesis is that Dr. Vishnitzer's transcription of the manuscript is inaccurate, and for this reason, a re-working of the memoirs has been undertaken. In addition to providing an authentic transcription of the manuscript, this thesis also contains a description of Birkenthal's life, an analysis of the uniqueness of this somewhat exceptional person and an account of how the memoirs have been used in the literature. Moreover, the historical value of the memoirs has been assessed, and an indepth analysis of the flaws contained in Vishniter's transcription has been provided.

No description available.