Harvard Studies of Omelyan Pritsak... From the point of view of the kgb of the Ukrainian SSR

Professor of the Universities of Hamburg, Washington, Harvard, and Kyiv, founder and first director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, world-renowned Orientalist, speaker of half a hundred of languages, researcher of the ancient history of Ukraine, in particular of the source base that testified to the unique origins of Ukrainian statehood and Ukrainian territories as the center of state formation. It was Omelian Pritsak's consistent Ukrainian-centrism that became the main reason for the Ukrainian ssr kgb’s paying great attention to his figure, collecting information on him, trying to influence his position and force him to abandon his statements and not stand in the way of the interpretation of history from the standpoint of russian-soviet scholars. This is evidenced by declassified documents found in the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.

“Linguist”

In cases of operational cultivation of Ukrainian émigrées in European countries and in the USA, the name of Omelian Yosypovych Pritsak appears more than once. It is noted that he was born in 1919 in the village of Luky in the current Sambir district of Lviv region. From 1936 to 1940, he studied at the philological (actually humanitarian) faculty of Lviv University, where he studied world history and Oriental studies, as well as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Mongolian languages ​​and literatures. Besides, he knew English, German, Polish, Chinese, Korean, Finno-Ugric, Semitic ​​and many other languages.

In 1940, he entered postgraduate studies at the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian ssr at the Department of Oriental Studies. It was during that period that he came to the attention of the nkvd for the first time. One of the documents states that he was then allegedly a member of the Lviv regional executive of the OUN and during his stay in Kyiv was involved in the creation of the OUN in eastern regions of Ukraine. But that was only preliminary operational information, which was not concretely confirmed. And then there is another interesting phrase: “In 1941, he was considered for recruitment, which was not completed due to the beginning of the war”.

As it turned out, the chekists really had such an intention. But when they were going to implement their plans, O. Pritsak was already in the ranks of the red army and was in distant Bashkiria. In the first days of the war he was captured as part of an artillery unit in Ternopil region. With the help of Lviv scientists, he was soon released. He continued his studies at Berlin and Göttingen Universities. Documents say that as a well-known expert in Slavic, Finnish, Turkish, Altaic philology and ethnography, O. Pritsak during his stay abroad visited Great Britain, France, Finland, Turkey, Switzerland and other countries, where he participated in the work of conferences and congresses on oriental studies, was elected a member of a number of international organizations. This information refers to the 1940s and 1950s. Therefore, as an object of the kgb’s interest, he was given the codename “Linguist”.

The kgb tried to keep in the focus of its attention such figures of science, culture, literature, art, who did not give up their activities even in emigration. The kgb collected information about their achievements, contacts, participation in political life and in the work of emigrant organizations. Some were taken into operational cultivation, some were subject to attempts to make them change their political views, others were subject to attempts to talk them into returning to the ussr and continuing their scientific and creative activities already within the clear limits of the “policy of the communist party and the soviet government”. The unyielding would be subject to pressure, discrediting and compromising measures.

O. Pritsak was interesting for the kgb in all respects. Especially as a researcher of the ancient history of Rus. He paid great attention to studying “The Tale of Ihor’s Campaign” as a historical source, to writing a multi-volume scientific work “The Origin of Rus”, to re-publishing Mykhailo Hrushevskyi's “History of Ukraine-Rus”, to studying the Cossack period of the history of Ukraine. In his scientific works and speeches, he interpreted history not up to the kremlin leadership’s liking, and not as it was promoted and taught in the ussr. At this, he relied on unique written sources and artifacts that he himself found and translated. And for this he also mastered rare languages ​​and dialects, often those that have already gone out of use.

Information about this reached moscow through the report of the residentura in Berlin. Therefore, they decided to influence this process in a certain way.

To Break Free from the Trap

In April 1959, O. Pritsak came to Poland, where his lectures were scheduled at Krakow, Poznań and Warsaw Universities. He suggested that his mother come there, because they had not seen each other for a long time. The kgb learned about this from a letter he sent to her to Ternopil. Information about the mother's place of residence was already known, and her correspondence was monitored. The kgb of the soviet Ukraine decided to take advantage of this trip of his to the Polish People's Republic, which was part of the socialist camp and with whose special services they had close contacts.

To begin with, they instructed not to let his mother go to Poland. They wanted him to visit her. To make this happen, they planned a separate operational combination. According to the plan developed in the bowels of the kgb, an employee of the Lviv directorate of the kgb was sent to Krakow for 20 days under the guise of a Professor at the Law Faculty of Lviv State University. According to the legend, he allegedly came to collect materials for his dissertation on criminal law and to visit his brother's grave.

A casual acquaintance with O. Pritsak was organized by Polish employees of the Ministry of Public Security of the Republic of Poland through one of the local Professors. A long conversation in the hotel room and questions about Lviv University, the city, and Ukraine in general touched the scientist deeply. He said that he would like to visit his homeland, in particular Lviv and Kyiv, to see his mother, but he did not know whether he would be allowed to enter. The Lviv “Professor” was ready to answer this question. He assured him that the period of confrontation in the Cold War was over and that such a permit was easy to obtain. He promised to resolve this issue and organize such a trip upon his return to Lviv. Besides, he pointed out that the Ukrainian Congress of Slavic Studies would soon be held in Lviv, which Pritsak could attend and communicate with Orientalists. This was the last straw that outweighed all of Pritsak's doubts.

That evening in the hotel room, O. Pritsak spoke warmly for a long time about Ukraine, his family, his six-year-old daughter, whom he taught Ukrainian and for whom he would like to buy gramophone records with Ukrainian songs. The interlocutor assured him that he could easily help with this. In his report, he wrote that by the end of the meeting, they had become almost friends and moved to a first-name basis. At that time, O. Pritsak did not realize that the alleged friend would actually turn out to be his enemy.

At the end of April 1959, O. Pritsak received a telegram from Lviv inviting him to the ussr to discuss scientific issues and meet his mother. At the same time, through the kgb of the ussr in moscow, the ministry of foreign affairs resolved the issue, so that the ussr consulate in Poland would grant him the appropriate visa without delay. Therefore, at the beginning of May, he was already being welcome in Ukraine, meetings were organized with scientists in Lviv and Kyiv, in particular with his teacher Academician Ivan Krypiakevych and others, and a trip to Ternopil to visit his mother.

And on the eve of his leaving for abroad, his “friend”, who accompanied him on all those trips, admitted that he was not a Professor, but a kgb employee. A. Pritsak was shocked by the news. He asked to leave him alone, assured that he was not interested in politics, but was exclusively engaged in science. Taking into account his emotional state and reluctance to make contact, the “friend” only managed to get the scientist’s promise that he would be able to publish articles by soviet scientists in the editions edited by him, would review the books and magazines sent to him from the Ukrainian ssr, and in every possible way would contribute to the development of scientific cooperation exchange.

In his memories and impressions of the journey, O. Pritsak later repeatedly pointed out in the circle of acquaintances that he had problems leaving the ussr and feared that he might simply not be let out of the country.

Founder of the Ukrainian Center at Harvard

The kgb employees intended to continue the pressure on O. Pritsak in 1960 at the International Congress of Orientalists in moscow, where he promised to come. They sent an “old friend” from Lviv there for the opening. But O. Pritsak, although he sent letters to the address of the organizing committee with consent to his arrival and theses of his speeches, did not come to moscow. All other attempts by the kgb to contact him were also in vain. In archival documents, this is interpreted as his reluctance to meet again and fear of possible provocations.

After months of the kgb’s efforts to find out where O. Pritsak was and what he was doing, they obtained information that he received an invitation from the USA and was teaching at the Universities of Washington and Harvard. In1964, at the invitation of Harvard University, he assumed the position of Professor of Turkology and History of Central Asia. So he moved to the USA for permanent residence.

Soon the kgb learned that on the initiative of O. Pritsak, the Ukrainian Research Center was created at Harvard University as part of the Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies and three Departments: of History of Ukraine, of Ukrainian Literary Studies, and of Ukrainian Linguistics. It was reported that the Professor himself was gaining more and more authority among the Ukrainian emigration, especially among scientists. It was noted that he had his Ukrainian like-minded people, young professors who aimed at introducing the achievements of Ukrainian scientists and Ukrainian science to Americans.

In view of this, moscow sent an instruction to the kgb residentura and the ussr embassy in Washington to collect as much information as possible about this Ukrainian scientific center. Therefore, the majority of delegations or individuals who came from the Ukrainian ssr to the USA for scientific, cultural and creative exchange focused on visiting the Center.

Among the archival documents, there are several reports written after the stay at Harvard of members of such delegations and their meetings with O. Pritsak and other teachers. One of the messages states as follows:

“According to his plans for Ukrainian studies, Pritsak intends to publish and republish about 20 volumes annually (a bibliographic rarity). He is especially obsessed with publishing a multi-volume serial collection of documents of the Zaporizhzhian Cossack state (universals, charters, treaties, etc.).

Pritsak himself has written and is currently finalizing books of 600 pages each on the origins of Rus and on “The Tale of Ihor's Campaign” as a historical document. His opinions on these issues are based on many multilingual sources and are original and convincing...

He has a huge library in the basement and on the first floor of his house. It contains mostly Orientalist literature and sources, including manuscripts, in almost all languages of the East in general and of the soviet peoples of the East in particular...

My acquaintance and communication with Pritsak gave me the impression that he is a true and talented scholar...”

(BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F.1. - Case 11041. - Vol. 3. – P. 110).

Another report is about a visit to Harvard in December 1972 of writer Pavlo Zahrebelnyi and the then member of the Permanent Mission of the Ukrainian ssr to the United Nations Viktor Batiuk. In general, the aim of that visit was for Zahrebelnyi to meet with the American writer John Updike. But the US Department of State did not grant permission for the trip to Ipswich. So they arranged a meeting in Boston and included a visit to the Ukrainian Research Center at Harvard University into the program of their stay. (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F.1. – Case 11041. – V. 3. – P. 110).

After communicating with O. Pritsak, the report stated:

“...Professor Pritsak is a Turkologist by profession. He is in this position in Harvard. For this, in fact, he receives a salary. He started Ukrainian studies simply for the sake of patriotism, as he himself says, to preserve Ukrainian spiritual heritage on this continent. Pritsak's motto from the very beginning is: Veritas, that is, truthfulness, integrity of scientific research, non-interference in politics, pure science. Until now, the studies were conducted without any plans and, so to speak, without excessive ambitions. But over time, monetary donations... from Ukrainian emigration became more and more numerous, and this led Professor Pritsak to the idea of ​​collecting the capital which would enable the establishment of the Ukrainian Institute at Harvard University. For this, 1.5 million dollars were needed, so that the interest on this capital would allow the Institute to exist “as long as there is America”, as Pritsak says...”

(BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F.1. – Case 11041. – V. 3. – P. 112).

Further, the message stated that O. Pritsak is greatly interested in establishing scientific contacts with universities in the Ukrainian ssr, in organizing courses at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University for a period of one month for Ukrainian students from America. And in the conclusions, it was proposed to invite O. Pritsak to Kyiv to discuss these and other issues of scientific exchange.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, both, the permanent mission of the Ukrainian to the UN ssr and the kgb continued to show keen interest in the activities of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard. Finally, in 1980, during one of their visits to Harvard, O. Pritsak was asked how he would view the proposal to visit the Ukrainian ssr through the Society of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Ukraine. He replied that he would gladly agree, but under two conditions. First, he should be invited only by the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian ssr, and not by any other organization. Second, he should have guarantees that he will not have problems, like those that happened in 1959, when they tried to persuade him to stay in the ussr on the grounds that he was allegedly a citizen of the ussr before.

To Ban Entry to the USSR

As shown by archival documents, it was the kgb that always most of all stood in the way of establishing normal scientific, cultural, and creative contacts at the international level. In the person of almost every representative of the Ukrainian diaspora, they tried to see an agent of foreign special services or an emissary of the so-called emigration nationalist centers. On the other hand, every visit of Ukrainians from abroad to the Ukrainian ssr was viewed from the point of view of the possibility of exerting “beneficial ideological influence” on them. The same was the case with O. Pritsak.

“Personally

To the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine

Comrade Shcherbytskyi V.V.

Memorandum

The State Security Committee of the Ukrainian ssr, for use in work against foreign OUNs, is studying Omelian Yosypovych Pritsak, born in 1919, a native of Lviv region, a Ukrainian, a Professor, the head of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University (USA), whose activity is generally anti-soviet in nature...

During a meeting with our source in June 1980 at Harvard University, Pritsak asked for assistance in visiting the ussr at the invitation of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian ssr to establish business and scientific contacts, exchange literature, and study the achievements of science and culture in soviet Ukraine.

We would consider it expedient to invite Pritsak to the ussr on behalf of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian ssr for 10 days, with his expenses paid by the “Ukraine” Society. In our opinion, Pritsak's arrival in the republic would strengthen the differences between the leaders of the national centers, allow for favorable ideological influence on him, work to separate the institution he heads from the influence of nationalists, and explore the possibility of transferring the Ukrainian Research Institute to anti-OUN positions.

Please consider.

Chief of the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr V.V. Fedorchuk”

(BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F.1. – Case 11041. – V. 3. – P. 106).

As part of the implementation of such measures, the kgb planned, as evidenced by other documents, to use O. Pritsak's arrival to gather additional information about the Institute headed by him and to persuade him not to participate in anti-soviet actions. And also – “to obtain information about national centers, their leaders, plans, anti-soviet policy, communication with special services, zionists, maoists and other reactionary forces, about the processes taking place in the emigrant nationalist environment”. And this despite the fact that in all previous reports, foreign sources wrote that O. Pritsak is exclusively engaged in science and fundamentally distances himself from politics, so that it does not harm the main idea for which he decided to found the Institute.

Correspondence continued for some time, discussing the date of arrival, meeting plan. Suddenly, at the end of 1981, everything changed dramatically. The code telegram of the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr from Kyiv to moscow reads: “... in connection with the publication in the nationalist magazine “Suchasnist”, Issue 9 for 1981, of an article with sharp anti-soviet fabrications regarding the 1500th anniversary of the city of Kyiv, as well as materials of similar content about the so-called “artificial famine” in Ukraine in 1932-33, which are being prepared by the mentioned Institute of Harvard University, we consider it expedient to deny him entry to the ussr, to cancel his entry visa, and through the Mission of the Ukrainian SSR at the UN on behalf of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR to officially announce this decision to O. Pritsak” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F.1. – Case 11041. - V. 3. – P. 217).

And in February 1982, a document was sent to the kgb of the ussr in moscow, with a request that O. Pritsak be officially banned from entering the territory of the ussr through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “which should be reported to the Consular Department of the ussr’s Embassy in Washington”.

In June 1987, a code telegram was sent from moscow to Kyiv, which said that the ban on O. Pritsak's entry was expiring and a decision had to be made on lifting this ban or extending it. A paper was prepared for the implementation of this code telegram, which stated that the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University has not changed the direction of its activities, has conducted a study of famine in Ukraine in the 1930s and published a number of publications on this topic, actively participates in preparations for the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of Christianization of Rus, but from an anti-soviet position. Therefore, a proposal was made to extend the ban on O. Pritsak’s entering the ussr.

At the end of this document, one of the deputy chiefs of the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr (the signature is illegible) handwrote the following resolution to the head of the 1st Directorate of the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr, Leonid Makarov: “Leonid Oleksiyovych, I am also in favor of not letting the enemy into the country. At the same time, there is another option. To prepare properly and invite. To sort him out, find out what kind of thing he is, take him to interesting places, document everything, and then, depending on his behavior, compromise him... Consult with the 5th Directorate and the Center. Then we will report to the Head” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F.1. – Case 11041. - V. 3. - P. 222-223).

Eventually, on July 31, 1987, at the request of the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr, the ban on O. Pritsak’s entering the ussr was lifted. It was expected that in January 1988 he would come to Kyiv to participate in the soviet-American literary symposium, or in the same year as part of a delegation from the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States – to participate in events commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Christianization of Rus. He could not miss such an event. But the archives have no information either about his visits to the Ukrainian ssr, or about the possible recording by the kgb of his stay in his homeland.

In that period, the processes of democratization gained more and more development. At the same time, not only this did not allow the kgb to resort to the planned measures of open pressure, intimidation and provocations. Above all, the principled and consistent position throughout the life of O. Pritsak himself as a scientist with a world name, his resolute reluctance to act contrary to his own convictions, to change his views on Ukrainian and world history became a kind of barrier that protected him from the kgb’s persistent actions.

Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

It is known from open sources that in 1989 O. Pritsak left the post of head of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University and decided to return to his historical homeland. He arrived at the invitation of Borys Paton, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian ssr. In Kyiv, he first lectured at Ukrainian universities, soon managed to create the Agathangel Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies and from 1991 to 1996 was its permanent director. He persistently renewed in Ukraine the work of this distinguished scientist, researcher and his teacher. He formed a scientific team, a library, organized the first international oriental studies conference, started publishing journals and series of scientific works. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

O. Pritsak participated in the creation of the Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where he was also a member of the scientific council for the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations. At the Taras Shevchenko National University, he founded the first in the post-soviet space Department of Historiosophy, taught a course on world historiosophy, conducted a scientific seminar, and supervised the scientific work of post-graduate students. In 1991, he became a laureate of the Agathangel Krymskyi Prize of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in 1993 – a laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in science and technology.

In 1996, O. Pritsak had to return to the USA for permanent residence due to his wife's illness and the deterioration of his own health, although after that he visited Ukraine twice. He passed away on May 29, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts. But the memory of him and his deeds lives on both in the USA and in Ukraine. In 2009, the Omelian Pritsak  Research Center for Oriental Studies was established at the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. In 2022, one of Kyiv's streets was renamed Omelian Pritsak Street. In general, the scientific activity of the scientist found recognition all over the world. This is evidenced by his numerous international awards and honors, membership in more than two dozen scientific academies and international scientific institutions.