CONFERENCE MARKS TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN LVIV
25 July 2013—This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. The Institute was founded thanks to a generous donation from Petro and Ivanna Stelmach of Mississauga, Canada, who established an endowment fund at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in 1989. With the support of two prominent historians, Professor Yaroslav Dashkevych (d. 2010) and Dr. Frank Sysyn, the Institute has supported the initiation of changes in the research and teaching of Ukrainian history in independent Ukraine.
In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, the IHR held a conference on “Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Ukrainian History: New Approaches and Interpretations.” Among the prominent historians who took part were Stanislav Kulchytsky and Oleksii Haran (Kyiv), Teodor Turchenko (Zaporizhia), Vladimir Fenice (Uzhhorod), and Volodymyr Baran (Lutsk). Those from abroad included Olia Hnatiuk (Poland), Frank Sysyn (Canada), and Leonid Heretz (United States). Presentations and discussions focused on the following themes: church history, the First and Second World Wars, Ukrainian history after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence, and an examination of the Ukrainian national movement, focusing on biographical studies of its various leaders.
With reference to the last conference topic, a launch was held to mark the publication of the first volume of the collected works of the prominent social activist and scholar Mykhailo Zubrytsky (1856–1919). He also served as a priest in the village of Mshanets in the Sambir region. The volume was published by the Institute in collaboration with academic institutions in Canada and Ukraine. In attendance were members of the Zubrytsky family, people from Zubrytsky’s village and surrounding area, and distinguished academics such as Professors Stepan Vovkanych, Mariana Dolynska, Frank Sysyn, and Leonid Heretz. The latest issue of the journal Ukraїna Moderna under the title “How (Not) to Write History Books” was also presented at the conference.
In celebration of the Institute’s anniversary, a bibliography of its publications was issued. This 200-page index contains several hundred items, including 20 issues of Ukraїna Moderna and 34 books, comprising scholarly monographs, textbooks, and manuals on the history of Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and France, as well as world history.
The Institute owes its opportunity to embark on twenty years of outstanding scholarly achievement to the efforts of the well-known Ukrainian Canadian philanthropists Peter and Ivanna Stelmach. Long before the fall of communism, they made a bequest specifying that a portion of their estate was to be used for the creation of a historical institute at Lviv University upon Ukraine’s attainment of independence. Thanks to the Stelmach’s visionary spirit, the IHR is now a major centre of historical scholarship in Ukraine.
