Harvey L. Dyck’s recent passing (11 January 2025) provides an opportunity to reflect on his life and legacy as a mainstay in the Department of History for more than thirty years.
Dyck was born in Winnipeg in 1934 to recent immigrants from Soviet Russia. He came to the University of Toronto after the completion of his doctoral studies at Columbia, and brief teaching assignments at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and Columbia itself.
Once in Toronto, Dyck quickly found himself at the centre of a thriving program in Russian and Soviet history, especially after the arrival of Professor John L.H. Keep in 1970. They were close colleagues for almost two decades, and formed an informal triumvirate with fellow historian Andy Rossos. Dyck’s History of Russia course became one of the most popular history courses on the St. George campus and established his reputation as one of the university’s premier lecturers.
Dyck’s earliest research focused on Russia and the Soviet Union as seen through the lens of the middle European powers. Of note was his work on the diplomatic relations between Weimar Germany and the Soviet Union (1926–33), and on the delicate political relationship of the Habsburg and Russian courts in the 18th century.
It’s hard to appreciate how dynamic the period of Dyck’s tenure at U of T was for the Russian history field, as he and his students witnessed firsthand the shift from the Cold War hysteria of the 1960s, to détente in the ‘70s, to the collapse of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev.
That very collapse opened vast new opportunities for Dyck, who threw himself into the sudden opening of archives located in a newly independent Ukraine. In short order Dyck had developed strong research ties at archives from Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipro) to Odesa (Odessa) to Zaporozhe.
His own scholarship flourished in a series of pathbreaking studies on Mennonites in southern Ukraine, and his mentorship led to the creation of a school of emerging scholars within Ukraine itself. He also founded and directed a research centre within what is now the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. That flurry of activity both preceded and continued well after his retirement from the University of Toronto in 1997.
Harvey leaves behind his wife of 68 years, Anne Konrad, three children and four grandchildren. He also leaves behind a legacy of strong teaching, mentorship, boundless energy and an almost insatiable intellectual curiosity.
This tribute was kindly provided by Professor Leonard Friesen of Wilfrid Laurier University.