HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

216 ReviewsPEASANTS WITH PROMISE: UKRAINIANS IN SOUTH-EASTERN GALICIA, 1880-1900. By Stella Hryniuk. Edmonton,Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1991. 299pp., index, map, illustrations.Stella Hryniuk originally set out to study the causes for the massive emigration ofUkrainian peasants from Eastern Galicia to Canada at the turn of the last century.The general presumption was that Ukrainian immigrants came to Canada to escapehopelessness, ignorance, and a static society. She focused on immigrants to Manitoba,and noticed that the pre-1900 emigration had been from five Galiciancounties—Borshchiv, Chortkiv, Husiatyn, Terebovlia, and Zalishchyky. In preliminaryinterviews, Hrymuk found that both the level of literacy and the quality of lifeof the Galician-Ukrainian peasants was higher than had been generally supposed.Intrigued, she set out to investigate the life the Canadian immigrants left behind,postponing her original topic, the study of "the 'why' of emigration" to a later time.This book focuses on the material and social culture of the peasants—on theeconomy of the village and the modernity that impinged on peasant life in the formof school, community enlightenment projects, and programs in agricultural improvementsand public health. Hryniuk wisely avoids the discussion of the developmentof national consciousness and political awareness, stories that other historians haveinvestigated.The author mined Austrian government reports on cattle breeding, road building,schools, churches, and finances in the area; she perused statistical data and parliamentaryproceedings; she poured over Canadian and American immigration reports;she plowed through journals and newspapers and read much of what was publishedon the area. She supplemented these sources by travel to Western Ukraine and byinterviewing the few immigrants in Manitoba who still remembered "the old country."She looked at known fact with fresh eyes. For instance, the little Galicianhorses were always trotted out as proof of the poverty of the area. Hryniukdiscovered that the Galician horse, which owed its pedigree to Mongolian, Arabic,and English horses, was hardy, even tempered, and cheaper to maintain than thelarger horses preferred in Western Europe. From these varied sources Hryniuk wovea tapestry depicting the life of Ukrainian peasants from southern Podillia. The narrativeis supplemented by selective tables on the population of the area, taxes paid,prices for necessities and major cereal grains, land use, farm animal ownership, andschools and the languages in which the children were taught.Whereas other works have tried to illustrate the Western influence on Ukraine,Hryniuk tackles the actual life of the Galician village. She provides solid informationon the work of the Galician Agricultural Association, on the practical advice onagriculture and husbandry that was always included in Ukrainian newspapers, andon the crañs of the area. She marshals evidence of the husbanding and agriculturalactivities of the clergy and details how that information was disseminated to thepeasants through community organizations. She traces the impact the building of therailroads had upon the peasant economy and elaborates on the equally dramaticimpact formal schooling, even if limited to a few years, had on the village. The