Conquest Prize 2020
The Conquest Prize for Contribution to Holodomor Studies is awarded on a biennial basis to the author of an outstanding article that contributes to a fuller understanding of the Holodomor. A jury of eminent specialists is assembled to determine the winner of the $2500 CAD prize. The Conquest Prize honours historian Robert Conquest, author of the groundbreaking work The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine, which marked a watershed in the study of the Holodomor at the time of its publication in 1986.
Eligibility:
– Nominated articles must have been published in English, in print or in an online publication, between September 1, 2020, and the submission deadline, which is September 30, 2022.
– Nominations may be submitted by the author, editor, publisher, or colleagues.
– Articles published in English translation are eligible.
Indicating in the subject line Conquest Prize submission, please send the following items as attachments to hrec@ualberta.ca :
1) Completed APPLICATION FORM
2) PDF of the article
3) CV of the author
4) Abstract of the article (in English, max. one page)
ABOUT ROBERT CONQUEST
The Robert Conquest Prize honours historian Robert Conquest, author of the groundbreaking work The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. Published in 1986, Harvest of Sorrow marked a watershed in the study of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33. Dr. Conquest’s comprehensive treatment addressed the role of Communist ideology and its relationship to the peasantry, collectivization policy and implementation, the deportation of kulaks, issues of nationality and religion in the Soviet Union, and the role of Stalin in the Famine. Dr. Conquest described the failure of the West to respond to reports of the Famine and assigned culpability to Stalin and his regime for setting impossibly high grain requisitions, seizing foodstuffs, preventing the starving from seeking food elsewhere, and covering up the crime. Based on eyewitness testimonies, his analysis and conclusions were corroborated by Soviet archival materials that became accessible with the collapse of the USSR.
Harvest of Sorrow sparked debates in academic and political circles and ensured widespread awareness of the Holodomor. In a legacy marked by achievement, Harvest of Sorrow is certainly one of Robert Conquest’s greatest accomplishments.
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HREC ANNOUNCES PRIZE WINNER OF 2020 CONQUEST PRIZE
The winner of the 2020 Conquest Prize for Contribution to Holodomor Studies is Olga Ryabchenko for her article “The Mobilization of Youth for Participation in the Communist Transformation of the Countryside during Collectivization and the Holodomor,” first published in Ukrainian Historical Journal.
The adjudication committee described her work as follows:
“This extremely well-researched article constitutes an important contribution to the social history of the era, adding substantially to our understanding of how the Soviet agricultural sector was able to recover in the summer of 1933. Among her significant findings, Dr. Ryabchenko points to the reliance on students from peasant backgrounds to carry out this work.
While histories of the period have emphasized the mobilization of the Party and the Army, Dr. Ryabchenko expands this discussion and also amplifies the notion of generational warfare. At the same time, she illustrates the complexity of this conflict and the moral crisis that it represented for some students who were forced to encounter a starving population.”
Olga Ryabchenko holds a doctorate in history and is head of the Department of World History in Hryhorii Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. Her research interests center on the everyday lives of young people in periods of social transformation. She is the author of more than 150 scholarly publications, including two individual and ten collective monographs. Professor Ryabchenko is co-author of numerous research and publishing projects of the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, including "Essays on Everyday Life of Soviet Ukraine during NEP (1921-1928)," “Social and Professional Strata of Ukrainian Society during the Stalinist “Revolution from Above” (1929–1938), and "Relations between Government, Society and the Individual during the Soviet System (1918) –1938)." She is a recipient of grants from the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society (USA) and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), University of Alberta.
Dr. Ryabchenko is the second scholar to receive the $2,500 prize, awarded on a biennial basis to the author of an outstanding article that contributes to a fuller understanding of the Holodomor. The Conquest Prize honours historian Robert Conquest, author of the ground-breaking work The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine, which marked a watershed in the study of the Holodomor at the time of its publication in 1986.
