A Village in Revolutionary Ukraine

This book examines the diary of a “common man,” Kostiantyn Sambursky, that stands out among the very few such known works. It provides a detailed account of daily events for almost 30 years in one village: Huzhivka in the Chernihiv province. The author recorded his experiences daily. Although he travelled to Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv, his focus is Huzhivka and settlements in an approximate 35-mile radius around it. Entries provide details about his education, work, neighbors, and life in surrounding settlements, together with asides, sometimes several pages long, on the history of nearby villages. The diary describes the comings and goings of rival armies, confiscations, requisitions, the activities of the local officials, the role of the church in local affairs, personal rivalries, and how land re-allocation occurred in this settlement of approximately 3,000 people. The diary provides invaluable insight into the human element of rural revolutionary Ukraine. It dwells on topics understandably glossed over or not mentioned at all in the historiography of the revolutionary decade.