Date:
Location:
Joshua D. Zimmerman, Professor of History; Eli & Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History, Yeshiva University, NYC
Moderated by Patrice Dabrowski, HURI Associate
In Person and Online
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Abstract
Jozef Pilsudski, the first commander-in-chief and head of state of reborn Poland in November 1918, had an ambivalent relationship with the Ukrainians. For he both annexed East Galicia – land that West Ukrainian People’s Republic regarded as Ukrainian – while subsequently supporting Ukrainian independence with Kyiv as its capital. After signing a political and military alliance with Gen. Symon Petlura in April 1920, Pilsudski put between 25,000 and 30,000 Polish boots on the ground to fight alongside Petlura’s forces to free Ukraine, taking Kyiv on May 7. This talk will discuss Pilsudski’s aims and vision for such a Ukrainian state.
About the Speaker
Joshua D. Zimmerman is Professor of History at Yeshiva University in New York where he holds the Eli & Diana Zborowski Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History. He previous books include The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945 (2015), which appeared in a Polish edition in 2018; and Poles, Jews and the Politics of Nationality: the Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914 (2004). He is also editor of two contributed volumes: Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922-1945 (2005), and Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath (2003). His journal articles have appeared in East European Politics & Society, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry and East European Jewish Affairs, as well as in the popular press, including the Washington Post, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Times of Israel, the Kyiv Post, Engelsberg Ideas, and Rzeczpospolita (Warsaw).
Moderated by Patrice Dabrowski, independent scholar and Associate at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University.
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Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at duncansmith@fas.harvard.edu in advance of the session (at least two weeks prior, if possible).
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