Every month, the Library of Congress publishes new additions and changes to their subject headings (LCSH).  The October 2023 list of approved changes focused on Ukraine, and this post gives a quick summary of them.  They all relate to the events of 2013 and 2014 onwards, to the present day.

The Euromaidan protests which started 10 years ago last month then turned into Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity.  The LCSH for these events, over 2013 and 2014, has been changed to prefer “Revolution of Dignity”, with the “Euromaidan Protests” version now a reference form that points to the new heading.

BEFORE: 651 #0 $a Ukraine $x History $y Euromaidan Protests, 2013-2014
NOW: 651 #0 $a Ukraine $x History $y Revolution of Dignity, 2013-2014

The LCSH for Crimea had already reflected the reality that the Ukrainian peninsula’s history changed in 2014, but the heading now reflects more accurately that this change occurred through its illegal occupation by Putin.

BEFORE: 651 #0 $a Crimea (Ukraine) $x History $y 2014-
NOW: 651 #0 $a Crimea (Ukraine) $x History $y Russian occupation, 2014-

Note that we use still Crimea (Ukraine) $x Annexation to Russia (Federation) where the book is specifically about the annexation.

2014 of course also saw the explosion of Russia-backed violence in the East Ukraine that has never ceased.  When Russia committed its full-scale offensive attack against Ukraine in 2022, this was captured in LCSH as a separate, unrelated event.  The autumn 2023 LCSH changes, however, now situate the 2022 invasion (no longer open-dated) as part of the ongoing 2014 conflict, now renamed the Russo-Ukrainian War.

BEFORE:
650 #0 $a Ukraine Conflict, 2014-
651 #0 $a Ukraine $x History $y Russian invasion, 2022-

NOW:
650 #0 $a Russo-Ukrainian War, 2014-
650 #0 $a Russian Invasion of Ukraine, 2022

As for many sovereign states that were previously part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s general LCSH (eg for its history) had as its most recent authorised time subdivision 1991- .  The latest LCSH changes acknowledge that the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014 and its ongoing consequences are more than sufficient to warrant a change.

BEFORE:
651 #0 $a Ukraine $x History $y 1991-

NOW:
651 #0 $a Ukraine $x History $y 1991-2014
651 #0 $a Ukraine $x History $y 2014-

The same split has occurred for Ukraine headings for: Economic conditions, Economic policy, Foreign relations, Politics and government, and Social conditions.

The other change to mention is that there is now a Library of Congress subject heading for “Ukrainian question”.  In the authority record for this new LCSH, the 670 fields give instances of the term in written sources, which in this case date from 1935 to 2023.  The LCSH “question” formulation is not new (and non-cataloguers will of course be aware of its use in non-catalogue life) but it always feels uncomfortable.  There are no entries for “Ukrainian question” in iDiscover yet, but there are plenty of examples there for similar LCSH, eg for the “Irish question”, the “Polish question”, etc.

Do note that many iDiscover catalogue records also include FAST headings (which we accept if they are in records we import but which we don’t check or add ourselves), and these may be out of date.

The books whose covers are shown in this post were all catalogued in November, just as the LCSH changes were taking place, and their records reflect the new versions through automatic updates on the cataloguing system behind iDiscover.

• Ukraïna 2022 : sprotyv / upori︠a︡dnyky, Shpak Ihor Volodymyrovych (avtor ideï), Pashchenko Kateryna Andriïvna, Fedorenko Valentyna Hryhorivna, Istomina Alla Olehivna.
• Nasha stolitni︠a︡ : korotki narysy pro dovhu viĭnu / Volodymyr V’i︠a︡trovych
• Nezlamniĭ = For invincible / poezii︠a︡, Pavlo Vyshebaba, I︠A︡ryna Chornohuz, Vitaliĭ Byrchak, Oleh Vyshyvani︠u︡k, I︠U︡lii︠a︡ Z︠H︡yrokhova, Tani︠a︡-Marii︠a︡ Lytvyni︠u︡k, I︠U︡lii︠a︡ Vrotna, I︠U︡lii︠a︡ Maksymeĭko ; fotohrafiï, Oleksiĭ Samsonov, I︠A︡na Sidash, I︠A︡roslav Konyk, Oleksandr Medvedenko, Serhiĭ Nuz︠h︡enko ; idei︠a︡ proi︠e︡ktu, upori︠a︡dnyk, Vitaliĭ Byrchak.

Mel Bach

*updated 11/12/23 to reflect the fact that the monthly lists are issued by the Library of Congress