Zakhar Berkut/Appendix
APPENDIX
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF UKRAINIAN HISTORY
by
THEODOSIA BORESKY
(Part of this material appeared as an article, “Ukraine the Forgotten Nation of Europe” in The Commonweal, August 25, 1939 issue)
To the majority of people not only of Western Europe and America, but also to political and intellectual circles, Ukraine is a “terra incognita”.
Many foreigners and Muscovites to whom the Tzarist regime taught a falsified history of Russia have come to believe that Ukraine as a political concept does not exist. Some have gone so far as to say that it was conceived by the Germans to mask their colonial aspirations. However, even before World War I, Ukrainians were averse to being confused with Russians. Ukraine possessed the name Rus (pron. Roosh) as early as the 10th century, while the Muscovite or (as it is called today) the Russian nation did not have its beginning until the middle of the 13th century. Although for more than 125 years it has been drilled into them by the Russian government and schools that they were Russian, the Ukrainian people never have lost their original identity.
Ancient Greek writers called the land “Rhos” and later Latin writers, “Rutheni”. In Ukrainian documents of old the land is called “Roos”, this being the name of the dynasty as for instance the name Hapsburg or Hohenzollern.
As early as the year 1187 we find the name “Ukraina” mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle in connection with the death of a Ukrainian prince, Volodimir.
It was when the Ukrainians lost their independence to Poland and Muscovy that these two countries forbade them the further use of the name of their homeland. Thinking to make their assimilation more complete the governments ordered their scholars and historians to disprove the origin of the name “Ukraina”. Thus between them a myth was fabricated that the name “Ukraina” meant a section or piece of Russian territory, a sort of borderland, and that in reality there was and had never been any such country as Ukraina nor any such people as the Ukrainians. This information was written into their encyclopedias and history books and taught to the whole nation, causing of course much misunderstanding of the problem of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian nation.
However, in the French National Library a map of the year 1580 has been found on which the land Ukraina is plainly indicated. On the map of H. L. De Beauplain of 1650 Ukraine is indicated by “Typus Generalis Ukrainie”. In another book of his, “Description d’Ukrainie” published in 1650 De Beauplain gives definite boundaries of Ukraina and identifies it as entirely independent of Poland and Muscovy. (The name Russian did not begin to be used until the second half of the 18th century).
Likewise maps of the Italian geographers Sancone and Cornetti of the years 1641 and 1657 have been found in which Ukraina is called “Ukraina a Paesa de Cosacchi” (Ukraine or the land of the Kozaks). In the same library there is a globe of Cornelius dated 1660-1670 in which Ukrainian lands are called “Ukraina”. Then there is an English map of Morden 1709 where also is found the name “Ukraina”.
Thus it can readily be seen that the name Ukraina was used from the very beginning of its history not only by the Ukrainians themselves but also by European scholars of that time. The very oldest folk songs of the Ukrainian people, still in existence today, indicate that the name “Ukrainian” was used by those clans occupying the land on which Ukrainians still live today.
Ethnographically the plains of Ukraine once stretched in a wide belt of about 600 miles along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, from the lower Danube and the Carpathian range in the west, crossing the rivers Don and Volga and reaching to the Ural mountains in the east. About 773,400 square kilometers, bordering upon the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, are under the U.S.S.R.; 132,200 square kilometers, consisting of East Galicia, the western section of Volhynia, Kholm, Pidlyashe and Polisya, are under Poland; 17,600 square kilometers, the provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina, are under Rumania; and 14,900 square skilometers (one third of which has now been given to Hungary), Podkarpatska-Rus, are under Czechoslovakia; which makes a grand total of 938,100 square kilometers of land occupied by the Ukrainian people under the various controlling governments. (Both these and the following figures were taken from a survey prepared by Prof. V. Kubiyovich and published in the Ukrainian General Encyclopedia (Lviw) Vol. III).
The number of Ukrainians under U.S.S.R. is estimated at 35,026,000; under Poland 6,257,000; under Rumania 1,100,000; under Czechoslovakia 569,000, making a total of 42,952,000. When to this is added the number of Ukrainians in the U.S.A., Canada and South America, a very conservative estimate of the total number of Ukrainians in the world is about 45 million people. Since most of these figures were based on an old census (1910) taken by foreign rulers in Europe and since many Ukrainian immigrants coming to America and Canada gave instead of their true nationality, the name of the ruling government, the figures may actually run as high as 56 million people.
It may seem not a little strange to one reading this article that such a large number of people have no independent nation of their own, until he learns something of the history, the oppressions suffered, and the evolution of the Ukrainian problem. By that time he can do naught but admire the courage of the people who have so successfully resisted every effort to be assimilated and to be discouraged from keeping their original identity, their culture and religion.
Proof that such a land as Ukraine and such a people as the Ukrainians have existed and still eixst today was fully demonstrated by the immediate seizure of the opportunity at the fall of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires in 1917 and 1918 to set up a government of their own according to the Wilsonian principle of self-determination, and by the formation of the Ukrainian National Republic, 1917-1919, consisting of all those sections and their population as mentioned above (with the exception of Podkarpatska Rus).
In July 1919, pressed from the west by the Polish army, attacked simultaneously on one side by the Russian Bolsheviki and by Denikin’s army on the other and from the southwest by the Rumanian armies, the Ukrainian forces were cornered in a “Quadrangle of Death”. The Ukrainians fought heroically for several months before their defense collapsed. An epidemic of typhus, lack of food and medical supplies finally wiped out the Ukrainian armies who suffered under the most horrible conditions of famine and disease. (Reports of this were vividly described by Col. Davison of the American Red Cross).
Once more Ukrainian lands became divided among foreign rulers, Russia, Poland, Rumania and Czechoslovakia, which governments continued to deny the existence of such a nationality as the Ukrainians and the recognition of their desires for self-rule.
For a while, in the recent division of Czechoslovakia, it seemed as though Carpathian-Ukraine might have a chance at last for self-rule. During the time of the formation of the Ukrainian National Republic, this section had from its beginning preferred to become an autonomous state under Czechoslovakia rather than join in with the new Republic and risk the danger of annexation by Poland or Russia. Czechoslovakia had promised Carpathian Ukraine (or Podkarpatska-Rus) self-rule which promise was never carried out. After a wait of 19 years, she was about to get complete autonomy, when Poland interfered by demanding that Ruthenia be divided between herself and Hungary. Since division of Czechoslovakia was based upon claims previous to the War, Poland had no right to demand any part of Ruthenia, since she had never occupied that section. But she firmly backed Hungary in this so that now one-third of Carpathian Ukraine comprising the most important cities and the most fertile land has been given to Hungary. Poland has been anxious that no part of Carpathian Ukraine be free as that might give the Ukrainian people a chance for a centralization of their forces to plot a successful revolution to gain back the other sections that once belonged to them and in which Ukrainian people have lived for centuries, such sections as Galicia, under Poland, the southern part of Russia, and Bukovina and Bessarabia in Rumania.
Thus from foreign domination of the Ukrainian people and the occupation of Ukrainian lands has arisen the Ukrainian problem and the Ukrainian Cause. To understand this problem and this cause completely one must become familiar with at least a brief sketch of Ukrainian history and the evolution of the Ukrainian problem.
The history of Ukraine like that of other nations begins with a semi-legendary or, as the Ukrainian historians call it, the “Scytho-Sarmatian” period, between 500 B.C. and 900 A.D. when the country was in a constant state of invasion, emigration, war and ceaseless turmoil until there evolved a blending of the different races of invaders with the original inhabitants into one people, called “Rhos” by the Greek writers and later “Rutheni” by the Latin writers.
The most romantic and prosperous period in Ukrainian history, between the 9th and the 14th century, was called the Golden Age. There existed a proud and independent kingdom, the largest, most highly civilized, richest and strongest of all its contemporaries in Europe. Whoever was responsible for laying the foundation of this great historic structure, whether it was founded by the Goths or developed gradually from the Scythian period in the 9th century A.D. we will never know for the first documents of the Grand Duchy of Kiev were forever lost in the confusion that marked the first period of Ukrainian national life. All we know is what Nestor the Monk, first Ukrainian historian, wrote in describing the princes of Kiev who gradually subdued and governed, from the seat of the Kingdom of Kiev, the tribes he calls “Ruthenian”.
The first Grand-Dukes or Ukrainian Knights mentioned in history (by Nestor) are the three semi-legendary brothers, Kyi, Schek and Horiv. It is said that the eldest of these was responsible for the restoring and building up of the ancient capital of Kiev, which in consequence was named after him.
These rulers were succeeded by Norsemen, Oskold (860-867) and Dyr (880). A Greek writer describes Oskold’s appearance as that of a typical Kozak, with heavy drooping mustache, shaved head and a tuft hanging down from the middle of it to his nose. Ihor, the terror of Byzantium, on whose gates he at one time fastened his shield, succeeded a popular prince called Oleh, who reigned after Oskold and Dyr. Then came Olga the Wise, wife of Ihor, and then King Sviatoslav.
Cunning, powerful and ambitious were these great Ukrainian rulers. However, the most romantic figures in Ukrainian history were King Sviatoslav and his successor-son Volodimir The Great or The Saint, who completed the amalgamation of the various Ukrainian provinces into one centralized state, the vast Grand Duchy of Kiev, whose power extended far, to even distant lands, to the Khazars of the Volga and the Finns of the North, whom he made pay tribute to Ukraine. Volodimir is often also called The Saint because he introduced Christianity into his realm. More than that, through Christianity (and the monks and priests who came there) the country became open to all the arts and learning of foreign lands and especially of Byzantium. He allied himself further with Byzantium through his marriage to Anne, daughter of the Emperor, which event he brought about by the most adroit maneuverings. He again restored and rebuilt Kiev into the most beautiful and the wealthiest capitol in Europe.
With so much conquered territory the Kingdom of Kiev came into command of all the land from the Viking to the “Greek”, as the Dnieper was called in those days. Sviatopolk, son of Volodimir succeeded his father to the throne. The first clash between Ukrainians and the Poles came during his rule. During his short reign he murdered his brothers fearing their rivalry as pretenders to the throne, for he was of illegitimate birth. Yaroslav (1019-1064), the compiler of laws, restored the prosperous days of Volodimir. Volodimir II “Monomachos” (1112-1125) was the last ruler in the Golden Era. He was married to Gytha, daughter of Harold, king of the Anglo-Saxons. (Many English historians recognize a Celtic strain in Ukrainians). He made treaties with the barbarians who pressed upon the frontiers of the Kingdom. At one time he took three hundred princes of various Mongolian tribes of Polovetzians prisoners. After “Monomachos” death the Steppe became the highway of the westward march of the nomad Tatar hordes of whom nothing was heard until then. Ukraine, unprotected by nature on her eastern frontier, suffered ceaseless invasion. Every effort was made at that time by the existing Ukrainian kings to stop this invasion, even though other problems became sadly neglected.
With the strength of the controlling government concentrated upon stopping invasions by the Tatar tribes, provincial ambitions rose within the empire, weakening the state so that soon the whole degenerated into an insecure zone and the center of national life was transferred to the better protected parts of Western Ukraine.
Kiev was thus deprived of its great prestige. Instead, the Viceroys of Galicia and Lodomeria demanded that the country look up to them as its national leaders. Because of the clashes with Kiev all they succeeded in doing was in preparing the whole section for easy devastation by the barbarians.
In 1169 Andrew Kitan, the prince of the newly formed Finno-Slavonic Duchy of Muscovy, stormed the ramparts of the Ukrainian capital and conquered it.
By 1240 the Tatars completed the devastation, begun by the Muscovites, of the Dnieperian Ukraine, so that it was turned into sparsely populated disunited provinces paying tribute to the Tatars.
Halich and afterwards Lviw (Lemberg) chief towns of Western Ukraine now took the place of Kiev.
The most celebrated rulers of the period were Roman (1199-1206) and his son Danilo. If it had not been for king Roman’s successful amalgamation of the provinces of Galicia, Volhynia (Lodomeria), Kholm and Podolia, the whole heritage of Volodimir the Great might have right then passed into the hands of the Tatars or the Muscovites. His dominions were still the largest, territorially, in all of Europe, stretching between the Carpathians and the Dnieper and reaching in the south as far as the shores of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube. Roman was the first of the Galician princes to be called “Lord of all Ruthenia”. For a brief period after his death reigned Hungarian and Polish princes who were related to the Galician dynasty.
Roman’s son Danilo (1228-1264) was the last of the rulers of ancient Ruthenia. His death spelled the end of Ukraine’s political independence.
Harassed by the Tatars, it was easy for Poles and Lithuanians to annex separately and independently the various parts of Ukrainian territory. While the Poles’ chief interest was in Galician and neighboring provinces, the Lithuanians centered their attention upon the lands lying between the latter and the river Dnieper. In 1568 they formed a federated state of which Ukraine was part. But the Poles were successful in eliminating the Lithuanians and taking exclusive control of former Ukrainian lands.
Although Ukrainian political life stagnated at this time, there was a new development in religion and literature. This period saw the establishment of the “Unia” and the rise of the Kozaks.
In 1596 a number of Ukrainian bishops formed a Council at Brest to proclaim their adhesion to the doctrine and hierarchy of Rome. This “Unia” strengthened Western European influences in Byzantinic Ukraine and was brought about by the close relationship with Poland.
In this period also came the rise of the Kozaks as a result of the social changes in the status of the conquered Ukrainian people. Many old aristocratic families of Ukraine allowed themselves to become Polonized and helped abet the Poles in oppressing the Ukrainian people. Such action provoked revolution. Although the Kozaks had been in existence since the Scythian and Cymmerian times, it was not until now that their ranks began to swell to a formidable number, as a result of the reduction of the Ukrainian people to a state of serfdom by Polonized and Polish barons. Many hundred thousands of freedom-loving Ukrainians fled slavery to join the ranks and seek the protection of their knights, the Kozaks.
As a matter of fact, the most important occurrence during the Polono-Lithuanian period was this organization and growth of the Kozaks. Their first great leader was Petro Konashevich (1602-1624) who proclaimed himself Hetman of Kiev Ukraine and of the whole army in the year 1618. By successful campaigning and through diplomatic action he brought about the union of various Kozak divisions and transferred them from a half-military, half piratic group into a well-trained and disciplined army that was successful in reviving part of Ukraine into a semi-independent state. The strength and influence of the Kozaks became so great that Ukraine called itself Kozakian.
Petro Mohila, the metropolitan of Kiev (head of the “Uniate” church) with the help of Petro Konashevich and his Kozaks’ protection founded the first Ukrainian University called the “Akademia” of Kiev. This period under the regime of the Kozaks is famous for the spread of general education, literature, art, the establishment of printing presses and the building of many beautiful churches.
Poland, alarmed at the growing strength of the Ukrainian state, made several attempts to resist Ukrainian separation. At first it was quite successful, but after each attack by the Warsaw forces the Kozaks continued to emerge ever stronger until the climax of these wars of liberation was reached when Bohdan Khmelnitsky became Hetman of Ukraine. He was successful in annihilating the enemy’s forces and freeing all of Ukraine from foreign domination. When he returned to Kiev he was immediately proclaimed the Hetman of Ruthenian Ukraine. It has often been said that Khmelnitsky made a grave error in not pushing the enemy further than Warsaw. In the resulting disintegration of the Polish state he could easily have then conquered all of Poland and thereby changed completely the history of the Ukrainian nation.
Poland, Muscovy, Turkey, Venice, Hungary and Sweden sent gifts with their envoys to Ukraine bidding for her alliance, but for ten years the Kozak Republic refused to ally itself with any foreign powers. Poland, missing the loss of so much valuable territory, plotted against the Ukrainian nation until she stirred up the enmity of her neighbors.
It was under these circumstances that the Hetman decided to enter into an alliance with Muscovy even though such an alliance was against the will of the people. This momentous treaty was completed in 1654 at Pereyaslav. From that time on the section of Ukraine which spreads beyond the Dnieper stood in uninterrupted connection with Muscovy. In 1667 Muscovy and Poland plotted the partitioning of the entire Ukrainian territory. The Dnieper was to be the boundary between Muscovite and Polish domination. The Ukrainians continued to resist both Muscovite and Polish treachery. Doroshenko, Hetman of Western Ukraine, was successful in repulsing both their armies. In Eastern Ukraine, Mazeppa, the elected Hetman, induced the Swedes to give their assistance, but he was not so fortunate. In the battle of Poltava the combined Ukrainian and Swedish armies were defeated by Muscovite troops. Since 1709 the history of Eastern Ukraine is one of gradual destruction of its independence. In 1764 the Hetmanian system of rule was abolished and a “Little Russian Board” was introduced in its place.
In 1775 the Zaporozhian Sitch (the Kozak organization) was forever outlawed by a treaty that still to this day remains in the Statute book of the former Russian Empire, the only reminder of a once powerful, independent, democratic state of Ukraine upon whose ruins the present great Russia has risen.
Western Ukraine underwent a long series of wars between the Poles and Ukrainians in which sometimes one ruled and sometime the other. Mazeppa’s unfortunate campaign affected the future of both Western and Eastern Ukraine so that it became a center for Russian and Polish intrigue, until it finally became partitioned by Poland, Russia and Austria-Hungary.
Thus the 19th century found a number of “governments” of Russia and the “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria” of the Austro-Hungarian empire in the place of the once independent nation of Ukraine.
A revival of Ukrainian literature, art, language and the “Uniate” religion in the Russian part of the country brought fierce persecutions during the 19th century. This national revival, however, soon spread over the whole territory including its Austrian part. It took root and grew tremendously in strength and power until the Ukrainian people once more proclaimed their will for independence during the World War by seizing the opportunity for self-determination in the formation of the Free Republic of Ukraine 1917-1919. New partitioning of Ukrainian territory (1919), new persecutions of Ukrainians for adhering to their language and their church in Poland, bloody purges of Ukrainian nationalist leaders in Soviet Russia, new re-partitioning of Carpathian Ukraine to Hungary (1938) has not solved the Ukrainian problem nor killed the will for independence. If for centuries between the time of the last independent Kozak state (1615-1654) and the formation of the Republic of Ukraine in 1917 the Ukrainian people were not assimilated and discouraged from grasping the first opportunity for self-determination, it stands to reason they will never be assimilated nor discouraged, especially when they have the moral support of their Americanized brother Ukrainians who have found a haven in American independence, for basically the spirit of the Ukrainian is freedom-loving, and he is anxious that his brothers in Europe should attain it.
In spite of all denationalization processes in Europe the Ukrainian people are keeping their identity intact by privately owned Ukrainian libraries and schools where they can continue to pass on to their children the Ukrainian heritage. Persecutions serve only to bring about fiercer tenacity to Ukrainianism until some day when the opportunity presents itself again, the Ukrainian people will rise again and claim the right for self-government.
Had not Poland interfered with the granting of full autonomy rights to all of Carpathian Ukraine, by her intrigue with Hungary in supporting her demands for Ruthenia, this section might have presented the opportunity for which the Ukrainians have waited, to make it a starting point for a revival of an independent Ukrainian state. Poland was much too wary and fearful that the sections under her rule would be the first to be taken away from her and that the minorities which form fifty percent of the Polish state might cause its disintegration.
If all ruler nations would cease from oppressing their minorities they would go far in establishing permanent peace. Why don’t they learn to take as an example the freedom America allows her citizens who form a vast, happy melting pot of nations?
The End