Olena Palko wins BASEES Postgraduate Prize, 2016

BASEES is delighted to announce that the Postgraduate Prize, 2016 (to be awarded at the 2018 Annual Conference) will go to Olena Palko (Birkbeck, University of London) for her article "Between Two Powers: The Soviet Ukrainian Writer Mykola Khvyl'ovyi" in Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 64 (2016), H. 4, S. 575–598. The jury's citation:

Olena Palko’s study of ‘Soviet Ukrainian Writer’ Mykola Khvyl’ovyi effectively challenges the existing historical and literary paradigm which seeks to classify prominent intellectuals as communist or nationalist. Palko’s central argument, that Khvyl’ovyi’s multifaceted identity as proletarian writer, Bolshevik and Soviet Ukrainian during the 1920s was complex but not contradictory, is compelling and lays the basis for a much more nuanced analysis of his life and literary legacy. This engaging and well-written article draws on available archival materials and original literary analysis, effectively integrated within a rich historiographical context. Palko’s study not only broadens our knowledge and understanding of Khvyl’ovyi and his work, but also provides many useful observations about ‘national intellectuals’ in the early Soviet period. Therefore, it is a deserving winner of this year’s BASEES Postgraduate Prize.

Jury: Andrea Gullotta, University of Glasgow and Kelly Hignett, Leeds Beckett University

The Postgraduate Prize for the best scholarly article by a postgraduate student was established by decision of the annual general meeting of the Association in April 2013.