Professor Omeljan Pritsak | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 7 April 1919 |
| Died | 29 May 2006 (aged 87) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Occupation(s) | Academic, professor, historian, linguist, medievalist |
| Known for | First Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, founder and first director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, founder of the journal Harvard Ukrainian Studies, founder of the Oriental Institute of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, founder of the journal Skhidnyi svit (The Oriental World) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Polish “First Gymnasium” of Ternopil’, University of Lviv, Shevchenko Scientific Society, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Göttingen |
| Alma mater | University of Lviv, University of Göttingen, Harvard University |
| Academic advisors | Ivan Krypiakevych, Ahatanhel Yukhymovych Krymsky |
| Influences | Roman Jakobson, Viacheslav Lypynsky |
| Academic work | |
| Era | 20th century |
| Discipline | Medieval studies, Ukrainian history |
| Institutions | University of Hamburg, University of Washington, Harvard University |
| Main interests | Oriental, especially Turkic, sources for the history of Kyivan Rus' |
| Notable works | The Origin of Rus' |
Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak (Ukrainian:Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919 – 29 May 2006) was the firstMykhailo Hrushevsky Professor ofUkrainian History atHarvard University and the founder and first director (1973–1989) of theHarvard Ukrainian Research Institute.[1]
From 1921 to 1936 he lived inTernopil, where he graduated the state Polish gymnasium.[2] Pritsak began his academic career at theUniversity of Lviv ininterwar Poland where he studied Middle Eastern languages under local orientalists and became associated with theShevchenko Scientific Society and attended its seminar on Ukrainian history led byIvan Krypiakevych. After theSoviet annexation of Galicia, he moved toKyiv where he briefly studied with the premierUkrainian orientalist,Ahatanhel Krymsky. DuringWorld War II, Pritsak was taken to the west as aOstarbeiter.[2] Following the war, he studied at the universities inBerlin andGöttingen, receiving adoctorate from the latter, before teaching at theUniversity of Hamburg.
During his European period, Pritsak initiated the establishment of theInternational Association of Ural – Altaic Studies. In 1958–1965, he served as its President and Editor-in-Chief of the Ural–Altaische Jahrbücher in 1954–1960.[3]
In the 1960s, he moved to theUnited States, where he taught at theUniversity of Washington for a while, before moving to Harvard at the invitation of the prominentlinguist,Roman Jakobson, who was interested in proving the authenticity of the twelfth century "Song of Igor" through the use of oriental sources.
In 1973, he founded theHarvard Ukrainian Research Institute atHarvard. Two years later, he became the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History (1975). In 1977 he started the journal,Harvard Ukrainian Studies.
In 1988 he cofounded theInternational Association of Ukrainianists, established inNaples and became its Executive Board member and Head of Archeographic Commission.[3]
In 1989, he retired from his Harvardprofessorship. After theemergence of an independent Ukraine in 1991, Pritsak returned to Kyiv, where he founded the Oriental Institute of the National Academy of Sciences and became its first Director (since 1999 – Honorary Director). Also, he re-established the journalSkhidnyi svit (The World of the Orient). Pritsak spent his final years back in the United States and died inBoston at the age of 87.[1][4]
Pritsak was amedievalist who specialized in the use oforiental,[1] especiallyTurkic, sources for the history ofKievan Rus', early modernUkraine, and the European Steppe region. He was also a student ofOld Norse and was familiar with Scandinavian sources for the history of Kievan Rus'. Hismagnum opus,The Origin of Rus', only one volume of which has appeared in English (1981), inclines toward, but does not totally adopt, aNormanist interpretation of Rus' origins. He saw Kievan Rus' as a multi-ethnic polity.[2][5]
In addition to the early Rus', Pritsak's works focused onEurasian nomads andsteppe empires such as those created by theBulgars,Khazars,Pechenegs, andKipchaks. However, he firmly rejected the"Eurasian" approach to Ukrainian andRussian history and would have nothing to do with its Russian nationalist postulates.[citation needed]
Unlike his predecessorsMykhailo Hrushevsky,Dmytro Doroshenko, andIvan Krypiakevych, who wrote national histories or histories of the Ukrainian people, Pritsak followed the Ukrainian historian ofPolish background,Vyacheslav Lypynsky, in proposing the ideal of writing a "territorialist" history of Ukraine that would include the Polish, Turkic, and other peoples who have inhabited the country from ancient times. This idea was later taken up by his younger contemporaryPaul Robert Magocsi, who was for some time an associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Institute.
Pritsak sought to improve the quality and extent of Ukrainian studies at Harvard University. He supported establishing three different chairs for Ukrainian studies in the university: Ukrainian history,Ukrainian literature and Ukrainian philology.[6]
Omeljan Pritsak Research Center for Oriental Studies named in honour of the Professor, was founded in 2009. It is based on an extensive library and archive collection of Omeljan Pritsak, which he made a pledge to transfer to Kyiv-Mohyla Academy after his death. The heritage, collected by Omeljan Pritsak for 70 years contains manuscripts, printed editions, publications, historical sources, archival documents and artistic and cultural monuments on philosophy, linguistics, world history, Oriental Studies, Slavic Studies, Scandinavian Studies, archeology, numismatics, philosophy etc.[7] Thus it was brought to theNational University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2007. The research center as well as the library and the archive collection, are now open to the public.[8]
Pritsak was a politicalconservative and during his youth in easternGalicia under thePolish Republic, and later also during theCold War was a supporter of the conservative "Hetmanite" ormonarchist movement among Ukrainians. This led him to criticizeHrushevsky's political radicalism and historical populism, although, ironically, he claimed that Hrushevsky's "school" of history was being continued at Harvard. Also during the Cold War, Pritsak became prominent in the movement towardsUkrainian-Jewish reconciliation.[citation needed] Pritsak often was invited to briefPope John Paul II on developments in Central and Eastern Europe.[4]
