Andriy Zayarnyuk. Framing the Ukrainian Peasantry in Habsburg Galicia, 1846–1914.

In this ambitious and sprawling work, Andriy Zayarnyuk traces the emergence of the concept of “the Ukrainian peasantry” in Austrian eastern Galicia beginning in the 1840s, and he tracks how that concept became an experienced reality by the early twentieth century. The Galician countryside constitutes a classic example of the nationalization of the peasantry in the nineteenth century. Bringing together social history with poststructuralist theory, Zayarnyuk challenges in several ways the conventional wisdom about the development of the Ukrainian national movement and Ukrainian national consciousness. Zayarnyuk draws on a diverse theoretical base, from Foucault's insights on the discursive and institutional techniques of modern power, to anthropological studies of peasant societies, and research on class formation, to formulate his questions and analyze his evidence. He defines “framing” as “the process whereby a self-perpetuating framework for the deployment of modern forms of power is created” (p. x). He explores the relationship between theoretical conceptualizations of the peasantry and politics, the practical work of political activists, and statements made by the peasantry. But this is not a study of discourse without real people. The book fairly teems with the voices and experiences of peasants, but also the priests, intellectuals, officials, landlords, and politicians who talked to and about them. Zayarnyuk focuses on two districts, Sambir and Staryi Sambir, using a series of case studies to show how identity politics worked at the grassroots level, and tracing the development of networks of village activists and their interaction with the broader national movement. At the center of his interpretation are the writings and personal experiences of Ivan Mykhas, the most prolific peasant correspondent to popular newspapers from the Sambir district during the 1880s and 1890s. Zayarnyuk exploits a prodigious range of archival and published sources, and reading these diverse sources with an eye to uncovering the frameworks through which the peasantry was imagined, he emphasizes how discourses both arise from social experience and shape it.

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