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After the fall of communism, KU professor Paul D'Anieri teaches politics in Ukraine
Calling attention to Ukraine
By Brandy Straw Kansan staff writer
PHOTO BY THAD ALLENDER
Paul D'Anieri, associate professor of political science, taught politics in Ukraine. D'Anieri said he hopes his research can help westerners and Ukrainians understand the state of past and present Ukrainian politics.
Paul D'Anieri spent five years researching and writing his doctoral dissertation about arms control, the United States and the Soviet Union.
Then in 1991, just as D'Anieri was completing his doctoral studies and beginning his career at the University of Kansas, the Soviet Union collapsed. All that hard work seemed pointless.
"I was disappointed that something I poured five years of my life into suddenly seemed uninteresting," said D'Anieri, associate professor of political science.
But, D'Anieri didn't dwell on his disappointment. After the fall of communism, he thought politics in former Soviet Union region had become more interesting and exciting. He turned his attention to Ukraine. Reinventing his career
D'Anieri had an obstacle to his studies -- he did not speak Ukrainian.
Before he left for Ukraine in 1993, D'Anieri studied Ukrainian for two semesters at the University. However, since he already knew Russian, Ukrainian was easy to learn.
Russian, Switzerland was the Bruce Berglund, assistant director of the center for Russian and East European studies, said that choosing to work in Ukraine was a dramatic change for D'Anieri.
"I respect people who choose to do all their work over there," Berglund said. Why the Ukraine
D'Anieri then he hopes his research would help westerners and Ukrainians understand the state of past and present Ukrainian politics.
D'Anieri is intrigued by studying Ukraine, which he thinks is similar to studying the founding of the United States when politics were unstable and unpredictable.
Ukraine has deep ethnic and religious divisions similar to the countries that previously comprised Yugoslavia.
were unstable and important U.S. allies -- it borders Russia and Poland and is close to Germany.
D'Anieri has written a textbook about Ukrainian and Russian relations, Economic Interdependence in Ukrainian-Russian Relations.
"His knowledge of Ukraine's reality is amazingly deep. When you read the book, you can feel that he knows the country and the people."
people."
Elena Kovalena colleague of D'Anieri
Elena Kovaleva, who participated in D'Anieri's Summer Institute for Ukrainian Social Scientists in July 1999, said his book was the most detailed study available of Ukrainian-Russian relations.
"His knowledge of Ukraine's reality is amazingly deep." Kovaleva said. "When you read the book,you can feel that he knows the country and the people."
She said his research of Ukraine was objective, and he described the true state of Ukraine rather than how Ukrainian leaders portrayed it.
Living and teaching in Ukraine
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon as the winter sun started to set in L'viv, a city of Ukraine. D'Anieri had to end class before his lecture was finished because there was no light left for students to take notes or see his writing on the blackboard. The students in his introduction to international relations class always went home early because L'viv State University had neither lights nor heat
But that's how it was in 1993 when D'Anieri traveled to Lviv as a visiting Fulbright Scholar. The economic conditions in Ukraine were so bad that by the time he left in 1994, the Ukrainian currency, karbovanets, was valued at 180,000 to one U.S. dollar. Ukrainians survived at subsistence levels. D'Anieri said Ukraine taught him a lot of lessons, especially patience.
"It was not a very easy place to live." D'Anieri said. "It was sort of like camping."
He said that even basic transactions,such as going to the store for groceries, were difficult. Only raw ingredients were available, such as sugar, flour, milk, eggs, bread and meat.
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