Konstantin Shteppa

Konstantin Feodosyevich Shteppa, Russian: Константин Феодосьевич Штеппа, also Step(p)a (3 December 1896, Lokhvytsia, Poltava Governorate — 19 November 1958, New York City) was a Soviet and American historian of German-Ukrainian descent. He studied history of the Byzantine Empire, the Orthodox Church, late medieval history of Ukraine and the history of Stalin's purge. Being an NKVD informant, he switched allegiance to SD during World War II and immigrated to the US after the war.

Biography

Born into a family of an Orthodox priest of German descent in Ukraine. He studied history in Petrograd University, was a White Army officer during the Civil War. He was able to conceal his anti-Soviet past and became a prominent Soviet historian, head of the Chair of Antiquity and the Middle Age in Kiev University, later dean of the historical faculty in the same university, deputy of Kiev city council. He co-authored with Oleksander Ohloblyn several propaganda articles against the "Russian imperial chauvinism and local nationalism".[1]

From 1927 to 1938 he was an NKVD informant. In February 1938 he was arrested for his alleged anti-Soviet sentiments. While he was in prison, his baby daughter died of hunger. In 1939 he was released without explication and restored to his professor position in the University; Ukrainian historians blame him of continued cooperation with NKVD.

During the German occupation he shortly worked as head of education department in the city administration and head of Kiev University (which was dissolved soon afterwards). He conflicted with the mayor of Kiev, Volodymyr Bahaziy and his supporters, a group of pro-Melnyk Ukrainian nationalists, which resulted in their arrest and execution, as well as banishment of the city newspaper "The Ukrainian Word". As a result, Shteppa was appointed editor-in-chief of the newly created newspaper "The New Ukrainian Word" (which, contrary to the dissolved one, was published in Russian). The newspaper took an open pro-German stance and criticized the "nationalist" policy of the previous city administration.

At the end of the war Shteppa worked in mass media of general Andrei Vlasov's movement. His son Erasm was conscripted to Wehrmacht in 1944, was captured by the Soviets and spent subsequent 20 years in prison before he was able to emigrate to Germany.

Shortly after the war he met Fritz Houtermans, a renowned physicist who had been his cell mate in 1938. The latter provided him and his family permits to stay in Germany.[2] Later they co-authored a book "Russian Purge and the Extraction of Confession",[3] which was published under the pseudonyms of Beck and Godin in order to protect their many friends and colleagues back in the USSR.[4]

In early 1950s Shteppa himself managed to emigrate to the US with the rest of his family, where he worked as a history professor, published articles and books on the Soviet and Russian history. His role in persecutions of Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev under the German occupation was never forgotten and forgiven by them. Oleksander Ohloblyn ignores Shteppa in his publications on the modern Ukrainian historiography.

Shteppa's daughter Aglaia Gorman published a book of reminiscences about the family's history.

References

1. http://www.history.org.ua/zbirnyk/problems/12.pdf
2. T. Powers. Heisenberg's war. p. 414
3. Beck, F. and Godin, W. "Russian Purge and the Extraction of Confession" (Hurst and Blackett, 1951).
4. Khriplovich, Iosif B. The Eventful Life of Fritz Houtermans, Physics Today Volume 45, Issue 7, 29 – 37 (1992), p. 35.

Bibliography

• A. Gorman. A Choice Between Two Evils: My Family’s Story of Tragedy And Survival Xlibris Corp, 2006. ISBN 978-1-4134-8420-5
• (In Ukrainian) I. В. Верба. Кость Штеппа (на укр. языке) // Український історичний журнал. 1999. № 3
• (In Ukrainian) I. В. Верба. Кость Штеппа (окончание, на укр. языке) // Український історичний журнал. 1999. № 3
• (In Russian) XX век — История одной семьи / Под ред. А. В. Попова. М., 2003. (Материалы к истории русской политической эмиграции. Вып. 7)
• (in Ukrainian) I. В. Верба, М. О. Самофалов. Iсторик Кость Штеппа: людина, вчений, педагог. Київ, 2010. ISBN 978-9668999239