Ivan Krypiakevych: Constructing an Autobiography

Abstract

The article analyses the autobiographical strategies of Ivan Krypiakevych (1886–1967), a Ukrainian historian and public figure, researcher of Ukrainian history, who lived a long life and built a relatively successful career, starting it in the Habsburg Empire and ending it in the Soviet Union. The political transformations of the twentieth century left their mark not only on the scholar’s worldview but also on his distinct ego narratives. This article pays particular attention to the author’s subjectivity, who lived and worked in a totalitarian society. Through an in-depth analysis of autobiographies and questionnaires with biographical data written by the scholar, most often to obtain or keep his job, but sometimes also to save his own life, we can see how the historian not only retrospectively explained events or adapted his biography to changing political realities, but also left room for manoeuvre in his relations with the authority. Analysing the drafts of these documents alongside other ego-sources, such as diaries, memoirs and activity reports (the latter covering 1941–1944), the article traces how Krypiakevych constructed and presented his official biography. It also raises questions of the possibilities and limitations of using autobiographies, particularly Soviet ones, as a source for reconstructing the biographies of intellectuals.