Orest Subtelny (, 17 May 1941 – 24 July 2016) was a Ukrainian-Canadian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. Born in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Poland, he received his doctorate from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1973. From 1982 to 2015, he was a Professor in the Departments of History and Political Science at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Early life

Orest Subtelny was born in

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

, on 17 May 1941.Passings: Orest Subtelny made significant contributions to history research

. 27 July 2016 His father, Myroslav, was a lawyer who had lived in the city in the mid-1930s and returned with his wife, Ivanna, in late August 1939 to take a government job. The following day, Germany invaded, forcing the family to return to Ukraine but Orest's mother returned to Kraków to give birth to her son because the city had a hospital. The family spent World War II in western Ukraine, then fled the country after the arrival of the Soviet Army. Between 1945 and 1949 they were in a displaced persons camp in Germany before settling in the United States in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

as refugees.

Education and teaching

Subtelny graduated from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

in 1965 where he earned a B.A. He received his M.A. from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

in 1973 in History and Middle East Studies. His dissertation was "Reluctant allies:

Pylyp Orlyk Pylyp Stepanovych Orlyk (; ; – May 26, 1742) was a Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack statesman, diplomat and member of Cossack starshyna who served as the Hetman of Zaporizhian Cossacks, hetman in exile from 1710 to 1742. He was a cl ...

and his relations with

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of th ...

and

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, 1710–1742". His adviser was Oleksander Ohloblyn while his interpretation was influenced by

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak (; 7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of History of Ukraine, Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director (1973–1989) of the Harvard Ukrainian Rese ...

. Subtelny started his teaching career in the History Department of Harvard (1973-1975), later moving to the

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its c ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

(1975-1982). In 1982, he became Professor of History and Politics at

where he taught until his retirement in 2015.

Career

Subtelny's major work is the general textbook '' Ukraine: A History'' (1988), a work of Ukrainian historiography. During the

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

reforms, the book was quickly translated into both Ukrainian and Russian and affected the growth of Ukrainian historical and national consciousness during the initial years of Ukrainian independence. In his history of Ukraine, Subtelny took a more traditional approach, like his predecessors

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky (; – 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is ...

, Dmytro Doroshenko, and Ivan Krypiakevych, writing a national history, primarily the history of the Ukrainian people. Subtelny's earlier work dealt with the Cossack era, especially the revolt of

Hetman ''Hetman'' is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders (comparable to a field marshal or imperial marshal in the Holy Roman Empire). First used by the Czechs in Bohemia in the 15th century, ...

Ivan Mazepa Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa (; ; ) was the Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host and the Left-bank Ukraine in 1687–1708. The historical events of Mazepa's life have inspired Cultural legacy of Mazeppa, many literary, artistic and musical works. He was ...

against Tsar

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

. He authored six books on Eastern European and Ukrainian history, along with 55 articles and book chapters.

Death

Subtelny died on 24 July 2016 at the age of 75 from cancer. The funeral was held at St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Church; he was interred at

Park Lawn Cemetery Park Lawn Cemetery is a large cemetery in the Etobicoke district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It currently has around 22,000 graves. It is managed by the Park Lawn Limited Partnership, which also runs five other cemeteries in Toronto. The cemetery ...

. His death was widely reported in the Ukrainian diaspora and in Ukraine. Ukrainian President

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician and Oligarchy, oligarch who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Minister ...

released a statement which lauded Subtelny's contributions to Ukrainian history.

Legacy

Taras Kuzio Taras Kuzio is a Professor of Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ( Kyiv, Ukraine). His area of study is Russian and Ukrainian political, economic and security affairs. Education Taras Kuzio is of Ukrainian de ...

, a senior research fellow at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, described Subtelny as having "made a truly enormous contribution to Ukrainian nation-building" whose "focus was on Ukrainian national identity, the struggle for independence and achieving statehood."

Awards

* Antonovych Foundation Prize for the monograph: "The Mazepists: Ukrainian Separatism in the 18th century" (1983) * Ukrainian Order of Merit (2001 & 2016) In 1992, Subtelny was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine. In Canada, he received the Shevchenko Medal by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for his "outstanding contributions to the development of the Ukrainian Canadian community in the category of Education."

Selected books and publications

* ''The Mazepists: Ukrainian Separatism in the Early Eighteenth Century'' (1981). * ''The Domination of Eastern Europe, Foreign Absolutism and Native Nobilities'' (1986) * '' Ukraine: A History'' (1988) * ''Ukrainians in North America'' (1991) * "Ukraine: The Imperial Heritage", Briefing Papers of the Canadian Bureau of International Studies (1996) * "Cossacks", in The World Book Encyclopedia (1997) * "Ukraine", in Encarta Encyclopedia (1997)

References

External links

Honorary Doctors of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine - Orest Subtelny

Subtelny, O. ''I am happy that Ukraine finally became legal subject of research''
Newspaper "Den". January 5, 1999 (interview)
Subtelny, O. ''Yushchenko made mistakes, but he will enter the history''
Newspaper "Hazeta po-ukrayinski", issue 270. December 12, 2006 (interview) {{DEFAULTSORT:Subtelny, Orest 1941 births 2016 deaths Writers from Kraków 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Ukrainian emigrants to Canada Academic staff of York University Harvard University alumni Historians of Ukraine Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class Hamilton College (New York) faculty Burials at Park Lawn Cemetery - novelist