Potichnyj on Potichnyj

By Volodymyr Kish

I just recently finished a most enjoyable autobiography written by Dr. Peter Potichnyj titled My Journey. I would hope that I need not have to tell you who Peter Potichnyj is, though it would suffice for me to say that he is one of the pillars of the Ukrainian academic community outside of Ukraine, being the author, editor or co-editor of some 35 books and more than 100 scholarly articles in numerous publications, including the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. He is also well known as one of the editors of Litopys UPA, a chronicle of the Ukrainian Underground (Insurgent Army) during and after World War II that has now surpassed 80 volumes.

I must admit that prior to reading this book, I knew very little of Dr. Potichnyj and his personal history, though I had read many of his books and admired his authoritative historical and analytical works which he produced on a regular and prodigious basis. Nonetheless, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy reading his autobiography. After all, the personal life of most scholars and academics does not usually make for gripping, “can’t put the book down” reading.

I am glad to say that I was more than pleasantly surprised. As I found out, Peter Potichnyj’s life has had enough adventure to challenge Indiana Jones for sheer interest and drama. He was born and raised in the village of Pavlokoma, which in 1945 was the scene of an infamous massacre of most of the village’s Ukrainian population by the Poles. Peter, who was 15 at the time, had escaped a few days earlier and he subsequently joined the UPA - Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the underground partisans who alternated fighting the Poles with fighting the Soviet occupiers of Ukraine after the War. For two years, though still a teenager, he lived the life of a partisan, fought in numerous battles and experienced constant danger.

In 1947, his partisan unit was ordered to break out of Ukraine, make their way across Czechoslovakia and try and get to West Germany where they would surrender to the American Forces. This they managed to do, though not without great difficulty and many skirmishes with the Slovakian police and armed forces. Eventually, he was able to immigrate to the United States, where instead of settling into a more normal life, Peter enlisted in the U.S. Marines, was trained and subsequently shipped off to fight in the Korean War.

Upon his return, Peter embarked on an academic career earning his B.A. at Temple University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Columbia University. In 1964, Peter Potichnyj was offered a teaching position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and he moved to Canada where he has lived ever since. In the following decades he would travel widely and earn well-deserved international fame as an expert on Soviet and Ukrainian affairs.

His autobiography My Journey takes us through all these events and is what can best be described as a fascinating whirlwind of experiences and adventures. The biggest criticism that I can lay on it is that it is way too short to encompass the richness of Potichnyj’s life. The book is dense with places, names, dates and events. It also teases us in a number of places with an irreverence and humour that one might not associate with a “serious” scholar and academic.

I only wish that Dr. Potichnyj had expanded the scope of this book to include a little more of his own personal reflections, and given us a deeper insight into his thoughts, impressions and the impact that all those events had on his philosophical evolution.

At the beginning of the book, he characterizes it as a “short memoir”, and I only wish that he would undertake to produce a somewhat “longer” version that would do proper justice to his interesting life.

My Journey can be purchased for $30 directly from Peter Potichnyj by calling 905-304-9891 or email peter.potichnyj@litopysupa.com