Jeffrey Burds, assistant professor of history at the University of Rochester, has received a research grant from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. The $46,200 grant supports Burds' research in Ukraine and Russia over three summers.
Burds is analyzing patterns of state repression and popular resistance to Soviet power in post-war West Ukraine. Working in L'vov, Kiev, and Moscow archives last summer, he collected a considerable amount of formerly "top secret" material. In particular, he uncovered detailed KGB materials on mass repression, arrest and execution; documents revealing the Soviet reliance on spy networks that pitted Ukrainian informants against fellow Ukrainians; and materials on the role of Ukrainian national groups in undermining Soviet authority throughout West Ukraine.
During the next two summers, Burds will work in the archives of the Ukrainian KGB to review personal files of Ukrainian spies and nationalist rebels.
"The latter often includes interrogation transcripts, as well as letters and diaries documenting the work of the underground resistance," Burds said.
Burds' research will culminate in a monograph titled 'A Sea of Blood and Tears': Soviet Power in West Ukraine, 1944-1953.