informnapalm--2020-08-21--History of Ukraine: The Two Ukrainian Nationalisms.

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country ’ s Independence by George V.Pinchuk .
The Two Ukrainian Nationalisms .
Part 4 .
It is difficult for an amateur like me to write about the history of Ukraine of the 19th and the 20th centuries , because it becomes very eventful and highly branched .
I will try to highlight only a few most important personalities and movements .
After Kotlyarevsky , the Ukrainian literature – poetry , prose , and drama – continued to exist and grow , even though the literary Ukrainian language was not taught @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” part of the country and taught very little in parochial elementary schools in the “ Austrian ” part .
In the first half of the 19th century Ukraine was blessed by the person of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko , the nation ’ s most talented and prolific poet and almost legendary spiritual leader .
Shevchenko was born in 1814 , in a village of Moryntsi in central Ukraine , to the family of a serf .
( The children of serfs were themselves serfs by the law . )
His father died when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the young Taras ’ s mother .
The orphaned boy earned his daily bread by working for a local church deacon who taught a parochial school .
Taras was not a student at that school ; his duties included only cleaning and bringing water from a well .
Yet , he very soon learned to read and write , and amazed everyone by his talent for sketching and copying paintings .
As a teenager , he became a personal servant to a a rich aristocrat V. Engelhardt , who took him to St. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was ransomed from serfdom by a group of outstanding Russian artists , including N. Ge and K. Briullov .
Shevchenko was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts , and soon became a dandy with a reputation of a jovial drinker and lady killer .
Yet , all of a sudden , a book by Shevchenko ’ s poems , titled “ Kobzar ” ( “ a kobza player , ” kobza or bandura being a string instrument used by vagrant folk singers and storytellers ) , was published in 1840 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ poems were written in Kotlyarevsky ’ s real , living , breathing , beautiful Ukrainian language .
They were about the history of Ukraine , especially about the life and accomplishments of the Ukrainian Kozaks of the old days before the Sich was demolished ; about the beauty of the Ukrainian nature , and the fate of the Ukrainian peasantry .
The general tone of the “ Kobzar ” was much like the tone of the Western European Romanticism writers and poets .
Some of the poems included characters like mermaids or werewolves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by a long poem called “ Haidamaky , ” about the revolt in the “ Polish ” part of Ukraine in 1768 ; there , Shevchenko begins to soar above the particularities of history , reflecting on such eternal problems as the human sense of belonging , memory , gratitude to ancestors etc .
At that time , Shevchenko became a member of a secret society called the Brotherhood of St. Cyril and Methodius .
Other members of the society included writers and historians M. Kostomarov and P. Kulish .
The society was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizations that blossomed all over the Slavic world in the first decades of the 19th century , being especially strong where the Slavs had no state of their own – in Austria and in the Balkans .
The society members were uncovered and arrested in 1847 .
They were charged in separatism , although in fact their goal was a kind of “ federalization ” rather than separation of Ukraine from the Russian empire as a state .
All members except Shevchenko received rather mild punishments .
Shevchenko , however , personally infuriated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found in his apartment a manuscript of a poem titled “ A Dream.
” There , Shevchenko made an extremely grotesque portrait of the Russian royals , especially of the Tzarina whom he compared to a “ dried foam mushroom , faint and jumping on her long bony leg.
” The poem also characterized the Tzar Peter I and the Tzarina Catherine II like this : “ That ’ s the First – he who crucified our Ukraine , And that ’ s the Second – she who delivered the blow of death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shevchenko was sentenced to life in exile .
He was stripped of all his Academy privileges , made a private of the Russian army , and sent to a garrison in Kos-Aral in Central Asia , near the shores of the Aral Sea .
Tzar Nicholas personally wrote on Shevchenko ’ s file that “ this man must be under the strictest surveillance all the time , and it is strictly forbidden to him to write or draw anything.
” The first few years of the exile were not overly tough on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soldiers and officers as an artist , and also because of the friendship with a famous natural scientist Karl Ernst von Baer , who took Shevchenko to his voyages over the Aral Sea shores as a sketch artist and painter .
However , for the violation of the Tzar ’ s prohibition to draw , Shevchenko was transferred to a fortress ( essentially , prison ) in the mouth of the Syr Darya river .
There , his health was completely ruined .
He was pardoned and returned to St. Petersburg in 1857 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cirrhosis only three and a half years later , one day after turning 47 .
His last portraits show a very sick man who looked like he was in his late 60s .
In the exile , Shevchenko actually wrote poetry prolifically .
He wrote his famous long poems , “ The Caucasus , ” “ The Servant Girl , ” “ The Convict , ” “ The Neophytes , ” “ The Fool of God , ” and others ; a drama , titled “ Nazar Stodolya , ” a number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his heritage written in Russian ) , and a large collection of short poems , of which the most famous , perhaps , are “ If You Only Knew , You Children of the Nobles , ” “ I Have Grown Up in a Foreign Land , ” “ I Don ’ t Regret About my Golden and Dear Youth , ” and a number of poetic renditions of the Bible ( Isaiah , Hosea , Ezekiel ) .
My own favorite is perhaps his poem called “ To the Dead , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Are Not Yet Born , ” where Shevchenko bitterly writes about the unnecessary squabbles among Ukrainians who want to show each other how much they know of what their foreign spiritual leaders teach them .
He concludes the poem by a loud cry coming directly from his suffering heart : “ EMBRACE EACH OTHER , my brothers… I beseech you… I beg you !
” ( Not that Ukrainians ever listened .
Hardly any other nation in the world is so divisive and self-hating .
They say , “ where there are two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each with its own Hetman.
” ) Shevchenko ’ s work as a poet was continued after his death by Lesya Ukrayinka ( real name Larysa Petrivna Kosach ) in the “ Russian ” part of Ukraine , and by Ivan Franko in the “ Austrian ” part .
In parallel , the late 19th century witnessed the birth of the Ukrainian Nationalism , a huge and very complicated movement with large practical implications .
2.History of Ukraine : The Princes and the Kozaks Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 ) InformNapalm social media pages : Facebook / Twitter / Telegram

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country’s Independence by George V.Pinchuk. Taras Shevchenko or the first revival. Part 4. It is difficult for an amateur like me to write about the history of Ukraine of the 19th and the 20th centuries, because it becomes very eventful and highly branched. I will try to highlight only a few most important personalities and movements.
After Kotlyarevsky, the Ukrainian literature – poetry, prose, and drama – continued to exist and grow, even though the literary Ukrainian language was not taught at any school in the “Russian” part of the country and taught very little in parochial elementary schools in the “Austrian” part. In the first half of the 19th century Ukraine was blessed by the person of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, the nation’s most talented and prolific poet and almost legendary spiritual leader.
Shevchenko was born in 1814, in a village of Moryntsi in central Ukraine, to the family of a serf. (The children of serfs were themselves serfs by the law.) His father died when he was little, soon followed by the young Taras’s mother. The orphaned boy earned his daily bread by working for a local church deacon who taught a parochial school. Taras was not a student at that school; his duties included only cleaning and bringing water from a well. Yet, he very soon learned to read and write, and amazed everyone by his talent for sketching and copying paintings. As a teenager, he became a personal servant to a a rich aristocrat V. Engelhardt, who took him to St. Petersburg. There, the young prodigy was ransomed from serfdom by a group of outstanding Russian artists, including N. Ge and K. Briullov. Shevchenko was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, and soon became a dandy with a reputation of a jovial drinker and lady killer.
Yet, all of a sudden, a book by Shevchenko’s poems, titled “Kobzar” (“a kobza player,” kobza or bandura being a string instrument used by vagrant folk singers and storytellers), was published in 1840. It was like an explosion. All poems were written in Kotlyarevsky’s real, living, breathing, beautiful Ukrainian language. They were about the history of Ukraine, especially about the life and accomplishments of the Ukrainian Kozaks of the old days before the Sich was demolished; about the beauty of the Ukrainian nature, and the fate of the Ukrainian peasantry. The general tone of the “Kobzar” was much like the tone of the Western European Romanticism writers and poets. Some of the poems included characters like mermaids or werewolves. The “Kobzar” was followed by a long poem called “Haidamaky,” about the revolt in the “Polish” part of Ukraine in 1768; there, Shevchenko begins to soar above the particularities of history, reflecting on such eternal problems as the human sense of belonging, memory, gratitude to ancestors etc.
At that time, Shevchenko became a member of a secret society called the Brotherhood of St. Cyril and Methodius. Other members of the society included writers and historians M. Kostomarov and P. Kulish. The society was one of the many “Pan-Slavist” organizations that blossomed all over the Slavic world in the first decades of the 19th century, being especially strong where the Slavs had no state of their own – in Austria and in the Balkans. The society members were uncovered and arrested in 1847. They were charged in separatism, although in fact their goal was a kind of “federalization” rather than separation of Ukraine from the Russian empire as a state. All members except Shevchenko received rather mild punishments. Shevchenko, however, personally infuriated Tzar Nicholas I, because a search found in his apartment a manuscript of a poem titled “A Dream.” There, Shevchenko made an extremely grotesque portrait of the Russian royals, especially of the Tzarina whom he compared to a “dried foam mushroom, faint and jumping on her long bony leg.” The poem also characterized the Tzar Peter I and the Tzarina Catherine II like this:
“That’s the First – he who crucified our Ukraine,
And that’s the Second – she who delivered the blow of death to our widowed and orphaned motherland.”
Shevchenko was sentenced to life in exile. He was stripped of all his Academy privileges, made a private of the Russian army, and sent to a garrison in Kos-Aral in Central Asia, near the shores of the Aral Sea. Tzar Nicholas personally wrote on Shevchenko’s file that “this man must be under the strictest surveillance all the time, and it is strictly forbidden to him to write or draw anything.” The first few years of the exile were not overly tough on the poet because of his popularity among the soldiers and officers as an artist, and also because of the friendship with a famous natural scientist Karl Ernst von Baer, who took Shevchenko to his voyages over the Aral Sea shores as a sketch artist and painter. However, for the violation of the Tzar’s prohibition to draw, Shevchenko was transferred to a fortress (essentially, prison) in the mouth of the Syr Darya river. There, his health was completely ruined. He was pardoned and returned to St. Petersburg in 1857 but died of heart failure and liver cirrhosis only three and a half years later, one day after turning 47. His last portraits show a very sick man who looked like he was in his late 60s.
In the exile, Shevchenko actually wrote poetry prolifically. He wrote his famous long poems, “The Caucasus,” “The Servant Girl,” “The Convict,” “The Neophytes,” “The Fool of God,” and others; a drama, titled “Nazar Stodolya,” a number of short stories (the only part of his heritage written in Russian), and a large collection of short poems, of which the most famous, perhaps, are “If You Only Knew, You Children of the Nobles,” “I Have Grown Up in a Foreign Land,” “I Don’t Regret About my Golden and Dear Youth,” and a number of poetic renditions of the Bible (Isaiah, Hosea, Ezekiel). My own favorite is perhaps his poem called “To the Dead, and the Living, and to Those Who Are Not Yet Born,” where Shevchenko bitterly writes about the unnecessary squabbles among Ukrainians who want to show each other how much they know of what their foreign spiritual leaders teach them. He concludes the poem by a loud cry coming directly from his suffering heart: “EMBRACE EACH OTHER, my brothers… I beseech you… I beg you!” (Not that Ukrainians ever listened. Hardly any other nation in the world is so divisive and self-hating. They say, “where there are two Ukrainians, there are three factions, each with its own Hetman.”)
Shevchenko’s work as a poet was continued after his death by Lesya Ukrayinka (real name Larysa Petrivna Kosach) in the “Russian” part of Ukraine, and by Ivan Franko in the “Austrian” part. In parallel, the late 19th century witnessed the birth of the Ukrainian Nationalism, a huge and very complicated movement with large practical implications.
Read also:
1.History of Ukraine: The Beginnings
2.History of Ukraine: The Princes and the Kozaks
3.The Russian Captivity
By George V. Pinchuk
(for illustration used a reproduction of the oil painting Peasant Family by Taras Shevchenko, 1843)
Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0) InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Twitter / Telegram


informnapalm--2020-08-21--History of Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko

History of Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko


informnapalm--2020-08-22--History of Ukraine: The rise of nationalism in 19th century.

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country ’ s Independence by George V.Pinchuk .
The rise of nationalism in 19th century or two Ukrainian nationalisms .
Part 5 .
The second half of the 19th century in the “ Russian ” part of Ukraine was marked by a vicious attack on the Ukrainian language by the Russian imperial government .
In 1863 , after a failed revolt in Poland , the Minister of Education of the Russian Empire count Valuev issued a decree that made the use of the Ukrainian language illegal .
The decree denied the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dialect .
It said , “ There is no way a separate Small Russian dialect can even exist.
” The language of Kotlyarevsky and Shevchenko was humiliated all the way to being defined as a “ spoiled , ” illiterate , substandard Russian .
The Valuev decree criminalized printing of any literature in this “ spoiled ” language , as well as all theatrical performances in it .
( Later , an exception was made for one-act folk comedies , which were declared legal if preceded by “ serious ” drama in Russian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ II ( the most liberal of all Russian monarchs , the one who abolished serfdom in 1861 and started a radical judicial reform in the 1870s ! )
signed what became known as the Ems Ukaz , making the Valuev decree the law of the Russian Empire .
In addition , the Ems document forced two popular Ukrainian public figures ( M. Drahomanov and P. Chubynsky ) to emigrate to Western Europe .
These draconian measures , of course , were met with tough resistance .
First , the Ukrainian patriots established friendship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activists of the Ukrainian origin in the Austrian Empire , where publishing in Ukrainian was legal .
Over there , in the Hapsburg-ruled conglomerate of nations , some Ukrainians reached high positions , becoming members of the Austrian Parliament .
Ivan Franko , himself a genial poet and prosaic , one of the most colorful figures in the Ukrainian literature – a son of a poor peasant in the Carpathian Mountains – became one of the MPs .
Together with his friend M. Pavlyk , Franko helped Ukraine to become a nation with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ publication of tons of literature in Ukrainian , and the transportation of this literature between the “ Russian ” and the “ Austrian ” parts of the country .
So , the “ Austrian ” Ukrainians became aware of the works of Shevchenko , Lesya Ukrayinka , Panas Myrnyy , and others ; and the “ Russian ” Ukrainians became able to read Franko , V. Stefanyk , M. Shashkevych and other writers of the Western parts of Ukraine .
The Ukrainian theater continued to develop , too , in spite of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ M. Starytsky and actors like M. Sadovsky , P. Saksahansky , I. Karpenko-Karyy and Maria Zankovetska .
The Ukrainian music acquired its classics , Mykola Lysenko and ( later ) Levko Revutsky ( my distant relative ) .
In the late 1800s , the broad and complex movement known as the Ukrainian Nationalism was formed .
Perhaps its roots can be traced to the literary magazine “ Osnova ” ( The Foundation ) , which , in the 1840s and 50s , published works of the previously mentioned members of the Stt .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ P. Kulish , and T. Shevchenko .
In 1859 , a historian V. Antonovych founded in Kyiv a society known as “ Hromada ” ( The Community ” ) .
The society included a famous writer and playwright M. Starytsky , a prominent historian M. Drahomanov , a scientist ( biologist ) V. Kovalevsky ( the husband of the renowned mathematician Sofia Kovalevska ) , a popular writer I. Nechuy-Levytsky , a young poet P. Chubynsky ( the author of the current National Anthem of Ukraine ) , and others .
While the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ task of the organization primarily as bridging of the gap between intellectuals and the peasantry , others – notably , Drahomanov – viewed it as a tool for awakening the self-awareness of all social strata of Ukrainians as Ukrainians , members of the one particular nation regardless of their social status , education , profession , and even citizenship .
After the Ems law , of course , the Hromada was declared a criminal , separatist , subversive organization , but it continued to work either in the underground , or in emigration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of followers , among them the future leaders of the first Ukrainian independent non-Communist state , the Ukrainian People ’ s Republic ( M. Hrushevsky , V. Vynnychenko , S. Petlyura ) .
While Hromada represented a more or less “ left wing ” or “ democratic ” Nationalism , a different , right-wing trend in the Nationalist movement developed .
Its leader was Dmytro Dontsov , a prolific writer-historian and a philosopher .
Originally from Eastern Ukraine ( Tavriya ) , Dontsov became a Social Democrat and , after two arrests and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Austria in 1908 .
There , paradoxically , he severed all ties with Social Democrats with their “ Internationalism , ” graduated with a doctoral degree in law from the Vienna University and began to develop his own teaching , which today ’ s critics qualify as a kind of “ Integral Nationalism.
” Essentially , Dontsov taught that a true Nationalist is NOT an intellectual , because he or she is directed by instincts of “ blood ” rather than by any social theory .
The true Nationalist ’ s ONLY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his or her nation .
Ukrainians should recognize each other instinctively and be absolutely loyal to each other because of their “ blood relation.
” There should be no classes , no particular political views , no affiliation to any group other than one ’ s ethnic “ brotherhood.
” Any form of cooperation with people of other ethnicities is , in Dontsov ’ s opinion , absurd because different ethnicities fight each other for survival and prosperity .
“ Humanism ” is an illusion , a self-deluding road to nowhere .
Of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Dontsov ’ s version of Nationalism might seem crude , somewhat Nietzschean , and even resembling the teachings of the Italian Fascism and of the German Nazism .
However , Dontsov did not divide nations into “ superior ” and “ inferior ” – his only point was that for A PERSON , there exists his or her nation as the only real object of his or her care , and “ other ” nations that are competitors to be treated as such .
In this regard , he certainly was not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1910s-1920s , the followers of Dontsov did a remarkable job of consolidating Ukrainians both in the east and in the west of what is now Ukraine , and in other countries ( Poland , Czechoslovakia , Romania , Hungary , Germany ) .
General V. Zelinsky in Germany and Longin Tsehelsky in Austria ( both “ integral Nationalists ” ) helped organize the first modern Ukrainian army based on battalions of ethnic Ukrainian soldiers captured during the WW1 .
Mykola Mikhnovsky , a radical right-wing politician , the founder of the anti-Socialist “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Союз хліборобів-землевласників ” ) helped Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky to seize power and to implement many wonderful reforms in 1918 .
In the last years of his life ( he died in Canada in 1973 ) , Dontsov somewhat evolved toward Christian traditionalism and asceticism .
Yet , he remained deeply devoted to Ukraine , and sincerely believed that one day , his native land will be independent and free of ideological oppression .
Although I , personally , am more of a “ Humanist ” and “ to the left ” from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much appreciate his keen sense of “ us versus them , ” “ ours vs. theirs ” – the sense that when attacked by a clear-cut enemy who wants to destroy them , Ukrainians should unite regardless of their particular points of view on the political “ issues.
” Today , when Ukraine is at war with Russia , I think Dontsov ’ s heritage is very relevant .
Also , regardless of my personal take on issues , I regret that there are no right-wing political parties in today ’ s Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I still believe that the truth can only be found in free discussions between people of differing ideological positions .
2.History of Ukraine : The Princes and the Kozaks Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome !
( Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 ) InformNapalm social media pages : Facebook / Twitter / Telegram

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country’s Independence by George V.Pinchuk. The rise of nationalism in 19th century or two Ukrainian nationalisms. Part 5.
The second half of the 19th century in the “Russian” part of Ukraine was marked by a vicious attack on the Ukrainian language by the Russian imperial government. In 1863, after a failed revolt in Poland, the Minister of Education of the Russian Empire count Valuev issued a decree that made the use of the Ukrainian language illegal. The decree denied the Ukrainian language even the status of a dialect. It said, “There is no way a separate Small Russian dialect can even exist.” The language of Kotlyarevsky and Shevchenko was humiliated all the way to being defined as a “spoiled,” illiterate, substandard Russian. The Valuev decree criminalized printing of any literature in this “spoiled” language, as well as all theatrical performances in it. (Later, an exception was made for one-act folk comedies, which were declared legal if preceded by “serious” drama in Russian.) In 1876, Tzar Alexander II (the most liberal of all Russian monarchs, the one who abolished serfdom in 1861 and started a radical judicial reform in the 1870s!) signed what became known as the Ems Ukaz, making the Valuev decree the law of the Russian Empire. In addition, the Ems document forced two popular Ukrainian public figures (M. Drahomanov and P. Chubynsky) to emigrate to Western Europe.
These draconian measures, of course, were met with tough resistance. First, the Ukrainian patriots established friendship with writers, artists, and civic activists of the Ukrainian origin in the Austrian Empire, where publishing in Ukrainian was legal. Over there, in the Hapsburg-ruled conglomerate of nations, some Ukrainians reached high positions, becoming members of the Austrian Parliament. Ivan Franko, himself a genial poet and prosaic, one of the most colorful figures in the Ukrainian literature – a son of a poor peasant in the Carpathian Mountains – became one of the MPs. Together with his friend M. Pavlyk, Franko helped Ukraine to become a nation with a degree of self-awareness by coordinating the publication of tons of literature in Ukrainian, and the transportation of this literature between the “Russian” and the “Austrian” parts of the country. So, the “Austrian” Ukrainians became aware of the works of Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrayinka, Panas Myrnyy, and others; and the “Russian” Ukrainians became able to read Franko, V. Stefanyk, M. Shashkevych and other writers of the Western parts of Ukraine. The Ukrainian theater continued to develop, too, in spite of all the persecution, with its playwrights like M. Starytsky and actors like M. Sadovsky, P. Saksahansky, I. Karpenko-Karyy and Maria Zankovetska. The Ukrainian music acquired its classics, Mykola Lysenko and (later) Levko Revutsky (my distant relative).
In the late 1800s, the broad and complex movement known as the Ukrainian Nationalism was formed. Perhaps its roots can be traced to the literary magazine “Osnova” (The Foundation), which, in the 1840s and 50s, published works of the previously mentioned members of the Stt. Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood M. Kostomarov, P. Kulish, and T. Shevchenko. In 1859, a historian V. Antonovych founded in Kyiv a society known as “Hromada” (The Community”). The society included a famous writer and playwright M. Starytsky, a prominent historian M. Drahomanov, a scientist (biologist) V. Kovalevsky (the husband of the renowned mathematician Sofia Kovalevska), a popular writer I. Nechuy-Levytsky, a young poet P. Chubynsky (the author of the current National Anthem of Ukraine), and others. While the Hromada’s founder Antonovych saw the task of the organization primarily as bridging of the gap between intellectuals and the peasantry, others – notably, Drahomanov – viewed it as a tool for awakening the self-awareness of all social strata of Ukrainians as Ukrainians, members of the one particular nation regardless of their social status, education, profession, and even citizenship. After the Ems law, of course, the Hromada was declared a criminal, separatist, subversive organization, but it continued to work either in the underground, or in emigration. It educated and inspired many thousands of followers, among them the future leaders of the first Ukrainian independent non-Communist state, the Ukrainian People’s Republic (M. Hrushevsky, V. Vynnychenko, S. Petlyura).
While Hromada represented a more or less “left wing” or “democratic” Nationalism, a different, right-wing trend in the Nationalist movement developed. Its leader was Dmytro Dontsov, a prolific writer-historian and a philosopher. Originally from Eastern Ukraine (Tavriya), Dontsov became a Social Democrat and, after two arrests and imprisonments by the Tzarist government, emigrated to Austria in 1908. There, paradoxically, he severed all ties with Social Democrats with their “Internationalism,” graduated with a doctoral degree in law from the Vienna University and began to develop his own teaching, which today’s critics qualify as a kind of “Integral Nationalism.” Essentially, Dontsov taught that a true Nationalist is NOT an intellectual, because he or she is directed by instincts of “blood” rather than by any social theory. The true Nationalist’s ONLY goal in life is the prosperity of his or her nation. Ukrainians should recognize each other instinctively and be absolutely loyal to each other because of their “blood relation.” There should be no classes, no particular political views, no affiliation to any group other than one’s ethnic “brotherhood.” Any form of cooperation with people of other ethnicities is, in Dontsov’s opinion, absurd because different ethnicities fight each other for survival and prosperity. “Humanism” is an illusion, a self-deluding road to nowhere.
Of course, by today’s standards, Dontsov’s version of Nationalism might seem crude, somewhat Nietzschean, and even resembling the teachings of the Italian Fascism and of the German Nazism. However, Dontsov did not divide nations into “superior” and “inferior” – his only point was that for A PERSON, there exists his or her nation as the only real object of his or her care, and “other” nations that are competitors to be treated as such. In this regard, he certainly was not a Nazi. Also, in the 1910s-1920s, the followers of Dontsov did a remarkable job of consolidating Ukrainians both in the east and in the west of what is now Ukraine, and in other countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Germany). General V. Zelinsky in Germany and Longin Tsehelsky in Austria (both “integral Nationalists”) helped organize the first modern Ukrainian army based on battalions of ethnic Ukrainian soldiers captured during the WW1. Mykola Mikhnovsky, a radical right-wing politician, the founder of the anti-Socialist “Union of Land-Owning Grain Growers” (“Союз хліборобів-землевласників”) helped Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky to seize power and to implement many wonderful reforms in 1918.
In the last years of his life (he died in Canada in 1973), Dontsov somewhat evolved toward Christian traditionalism and asceticism. Yet, he remained deeply devoted to Ukraine, and sincerely believed that one day, his native land will be independent and free of ideological oppression. Although I, personally, am more of a “Humanist” and “to the left” from Dontsov, I do very, very much appreciate his keen sense of “us versus them,” “ours vs. theirs” – the sense that when attacked by a clear-cut enemy who wants to destroy them, Ukrainians should unite regardless of their particular points of view on the political “issues.” Today, when Ukraine is at war with Russia, I think Dontsov’s heritage is very relevant. Also, regardless of my personal take on issues, I regret that there are no right-wing political parties in today’s Ukraine. Not belonging to the right wing, I still believe that the truth can only be found in free discussions between people of differing ideological positions.
1.History of Ukraine: The Beginnings
2.History of Ukraine: The Princes and the Kozaks
3.History of Ukraine: The Russian Captivity
4.History of Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko
By George V. Pinchuk
(on photo members of Kyiv Hromada, 1873)
Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0) InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Twitter / Telegram


informnapalm--2020-08-21--History of Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko or the first revival

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country ’ s Independence by George V.Pinchuk .
Taras Shevchenko or the first revival .
Part 4 .
It is difficult for an amateur like me to write about the history of Ukraine of the 19th and the 20th centuries , because it becomes very eventful and highly branched .
I will try to highlight only a few most important personalities and movements .
After Kotlyarevsky , the Ukrainian literature – poetry , prose , and drama – continued to exist and grow , even though the literary Ukrainian language was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Russian ” part of the country and taught very little in parochial elementary schools in the “ Austrian ” part .
In the first half of the 19th century Ukraine was blessed by the person of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko , the nation ’ s most talented and prolific poet and almost legendary spiritual leader .
Shevchenko was born in 1814 , in a village of Moryntsi in central Ukraine , to the family of a serf .
( The children of serfs were themselves serfs by the law . )
His father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followed by the young Taras ’ s mother .
The orphaned boy earned his daily bread by working for a local church deacon who taught a parochial school .
Taras was not a student at that school ; his duties included only cleaning and bringing water from a well .
Yet , he very soon learned to read and write , and amazed everyone by his talent for sketching and copying paintings .
As a teenager , he became a personal servant to a a rich aristocrat V. Engelhardt , who took him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young prodigy was ransomed from serfdom by a group of outstanding Russian artists , including N. Ge and K. Briullov .
Shevchenko was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts , and soon became a dandy with a reputation of a jovial drinker and lady killer .
Yet , all of a sudden , a book by Shevchenko ’ s poems , titled “ Kobzar ” ( “ a kobza player , ” kobza or bandura being a string instrument used by vagrant folk singers and storytellers ) , was published in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
All poems were written in Kotlyarevsky ’ s real , living , breathing , beautiful Ukrainian language .
They were about the history of Ukraine , especially about the life and accomplishments of the Ukrainian Kozaks of the old days before the Sich was demolished ; about the beauty of the Ukrainian nature , and the fate of the Ukrainian peasantry .
The general tone of the “ Kobzar ” was much like the tone of the Western European Romanticism writers and poets .
Some of the poems included characters like mermaids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was followed by a long poem called “ Haidamaky , ” about the revolt in the “ Polish ” part of Ukraine in 1768 ; there , Shevchenko begins to soar above the particularities of history , reflecting on such eternal problems as the human sense of belonging , memory , gratitude to ancestors etc .
At that time , Shevchenko became a member of a secret society called the Brotherhood of St. Cyril and Methodius .
Other members of the society included writers and historians M. Kostomarov and P. Kulish .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pan-Slavist ” organizations that blossomed all over the Slavic world in the first decades of the 19th century , being especially strong where the Slavs had no state of their own – in Austria and in the Balkans .
The society members were uncovered and arrested in 1847 .
They were charged in separatism , although in fact their goal was a kind of “ federalization ” rather than separation of Ukraine from the Russian empire as a state .
All members except Shevchenko received rather mild punishments .
Shevchenko , however , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a search found in his apartment a manuscript of a poem titled “ A Dream.
” There , Shevchenko made an extremely grotesque portrait of the Russian royals , especially of the Tzarina whom he compared to a “ dried foam mushroom , faint and jumping on her long bony leg.
” The poem also characterized the Tzar Peter I and the Tzarina Catherine II like this : “ That ’ s the First – he who crucified our Ukraine , And that ’ s the Second – she who delivered the blow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ motherland.
” Shevchenko was sentenced to life in exile .
He was stripped of all his Academy privileges , made a private of the Russian army , and sent to a garrison in Kos-Aral in Central Asia , near the shores of the Aral Sea .
Tzar Nicholas personally wrote on Shevchenko ’ s file that “ this man must be under the strictest surveillance all the time , and it is strictly forbidden to him to write or draw anything.
” The first few years of the exile were not overly tough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the soldiers and officers as an artist , and also because of the friendship with a famous natural scientist Karl Ernst von Baer , who took Shevchenko to his voyages over the Aral Sea shores as a sketch artist and painter .
However , for the violation of the Tzar ’ s prohibition to draw , Shevchenko was transferred to a fortress ( essentially , prison ) in the mouth of the Syr Darya river .
There , his health was completely ruined .
He was pardoned and returned to St. Petersburg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and liver cirrhosis only three and a half years later , one day after turning 47 .
His last portraits show a very sick man who looked like he was in his late 60s .
In the exile , Shevchenko actually wrote poetry prolifically .
He wrote his famous long poems , “ The Caucasus , ” “ The Servant Girl , ” “ The Convict , ” “ The Neophytes , ” “ The Fool of God , ” and others ; a drama , titled “ Nazar Stodolya , ” a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of his heritage written in Russian ) , and a large collection of short poems , of which the most famous , perhaps , are “ If You Only Knew , You Children of the Nobles , ” “ I Have Grown Up in a Foreign Land , ” “ I Don ’ t Regret About my Golden and Dear Youth , ” and a number of poetic renditions of the Bible ( Isaiah , Hosea , Ezekiel ) .
My own favorite is perhaps his poem called “ To the Dead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those Who Are Not Yet Born , ” where Shevchenko bitterly writes about the unnecessary squabbles among Ukrainians who want to show each other how much they know of what their foreign spiritual leaders teach them .
He concludes the poem by a loud cry coming directly from his suffering heart : “ EMBRACE EACH OTHER , my brothers… I beseech you… I beg you !
” ( Not that Ukrainians ever listened .
Hardly any other nation in the world is so divisive and self-hating .
They say , “ where there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ factions , each with its own Hetman.
” ) Shevchenko ’ s work as a poet was continued after his death by Lesya Ukrayinka ( real name Larysa Petrivna Kosach ) in the “ Russian ” part of Ukraine , and by Ivan Franko in the “ Austrian ” part .
In parallel , the late 19th century witnessed the birth of the Ukrainian Nationalism , a huge and very complicated movement with large practical implications .
2.History of Ukraine : The Princes and the Kozaks Distribution and reprint with reference to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 ) InformNapalm social media pages : Facebook / Twitter / Telegram


informnapalm--2020-08-24--Servicemen of Russian 7057th Naval Aviation Base participated in annexation of Crimea

We continue to identify and publish information about Russian war criminals who took part in the special operation to seize Crimea in February-March 2014 .
Today we present the names of four soldiers from the 7057th Air Base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Armed Forces ( military unit 49311 based in the village of Kacha in temporarily occupied Crimea ) , who took part in the military aggression against Ukraine .
It should be noted that all the personnel of the air base were involved in the special operation and later awarded medals .
Sergei Sergeevich Chaikin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in Verhnocherensky village , Volgograd Oblast of the Russian Federation .
He was called up for military service in June 2013 .
He maintains his account on the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki under the nickname Prosto Seryoga but his full name is shown in the award certificate for the medal for the occupation of Crimea : The award certificate was signed by the commander of the 7057th Air Base , Colonel Anatoly Stepanov .
We wrote about him and his brother ( a former serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ participation of servicemen of this air base in the aggression against Ukraine In his comments to the photo of the medal , Chaikin says that the award was received by the entire military unit .
The Russian website https : //www.kchf.ru/ also writes about it .
Vasily Sergeevich Komarov , born on December 11 , 1990 .
He is a comrade in arms of Sergei Chaikin .
He also posted a photo with a medal for the occupation of Crimea .
He has two accounts on Odnoklassniki website .
On one of them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city of Taganrog , on the other as the village of Matveev Kurgan .
Both places are in Rostov Oblast of Russia .
A car from Vasily ’ s photo album has a license plate issued in Rostov Oblast .
Another comrade in arms of Sergey Chaikin has an account on the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki under the nickname ALEKSANDR KING .
He also posted a photo with a medal for the occupation of Crimea .
In the list of relatives , he indicated his mother , Elena Petrova .
Through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Russian occupier created under his real name .
The account has been inactive since 2011 , but in the Family section there is a link to mother ’ s account which confirms our finding .
This account gave us the real name of the Russian occupier : Aleksandr Petrov born on September 14 1994 , probably from Labinsk , Russia .
In the next photo , Petrov ( right ) is with his colleague Aleksei Nikiforov ( pictured left ) .
Aleksey Yurievich Nikiforov born on May 30 1987 , Cheboksary , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the aggression against Ukraine and also received a medal for it .
* If you are viewing the mobile AMP version of this article ( Accelerated Mobile Page ) , some photos and links to archives may not be displayed .
If you are interested in studying the materials of this publication in more detail , we recommend viewing the article from a computer .
Translated by Svitlana Kemblowski .
Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome !
( Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Twitter / Telegram

We continue to identify and publish information about Russian war criminals who took part in the special operation to seize Crimea in February-March 2014. Today we present the names of four soldiers from the 7057th Air Base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Armed Forces (military unit 49311 based in the village of Kacha in temporarily occupied Crimea), who took part in the military aggression against Ukraine. It should be noted that all the personnel of the air base were involved in the special operation and later awarded medals.
Information about the Russian occupiers
Sergei Sergeevich Chaikin (Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Чайкин), born on April 1, 1995, in Verhnocherensky village, Volgograd Oblast of the Russian Federation.
He was called up for military service in June 2013.
He maintains his account on the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki under the nickname Prosto Seryoga but his full name is shown in the award certificate for the medal for the occupation of Crimea:
The award certificate was signed by the commander of the 7057th Air Base, Colonel Anatoly Stepanov. We wrote about him and his brother (a former serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine) in the first investigation into the participation of servicemen of this air base in the aggression against Ukraine
In his comments to the photo of the medal, Chaikin says that the award was received by the entire military unit. The Russian website https://www.kchf.ru/ also writes about it.
Pages, photos and archives of Sergey Chaikin
https://ok.ru/sergey.chaykin (http://archive.is/meTvu)
альбом http://archive.is/cfugx
контакти http://archive.is/jx7lo
Vasily Sergeevich Komarov (Russian: Василий Сергеевич Комаров ), born on December 11, 1990. He is a comrade in arms of Sergei Chaikin. He also posted a photo with a medal for the occupation of Crimea.
He has two accounts on Odnoklassniki website. On one of them he indicated his place of residence as the city of Taganrog, on the other as the village of Matveev Kurgan. Both places are in Rostov Oblast of Russia. A car from Vasily’s photo album has a license plate issued in Rostov Oblast.
Pages, photos and archives of Vasily Komarov
https://ok.ru/vasek.komarov1 (http://archive.is/wgM24)
альбом http://archive.is/pOOe5
контакти http://archive.is/58IPx
https://ok.ru/profile/555844461560 (http://archive.is/O5byb)
альбом http://archive.is/Pwoqa
контакти http://archive.is/yel6m
Another comrade in arms of Sergey Chaikin has an account on the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki under the nickname ALEKSANDR KING. He also posted a photo with a medal for the occupation of Crimea.
In the list of relatives, he indicated his mother, Elena Petrova. Through her name we found an account of the Russian occupier created under his real name.
The account has been inactive since 2011, but in the Family section there is a link to mother’s account which confirms our finding. This account gave us the real name of the Russian occupier: Aleksandr Petrov (Russian: Александр Петров), born on September 14, 1994, probably from Labinsk, Russia.
Pages, photos and archives of Aleksandr Petrov
https://ok.ru/profile/570864955953 (http://archive.is/CZnUs)
альбом http://archive.is/sFt73
контакти http://archive.is/0lnyB
https://ok.ru/profile/511994590862 (http://archive.vn/8Xjvf)
https://ok.ru/profile/511994590862/friends (http://archive.vn/DvdTI)
https://ok.ru/profile/511994590862/photos (http://archive.vn/ss9D4)
In the next photo, Petrov (right) is with his colleague Aleksei Nikiforov (pictured left).
Aleksey Yurievich Nikiforov (Russian: Алексей Юрьевич Никифоров), born on May 30 , 1987, Cheboksary, Russia. He also took part in the aggression against Ukraine and also received a medal for it.
Pages, photos and archives of Aleksey Nikiforov
https://ok.ru/profile/290946961956 (http://archive.is/uUHSj)
альбом http://archive.is/51jpi
контакти http://archive.is/3kxfc
* If you are viewing the mobile AMP version of this article (Accelerated Mobile Page), some photos and links to archives may not be displayed. If you are interested in studying the materials of this publication in more detail, we recommend viewing the article from a computer.
Translated by Svitlana Kemblowski. Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0) InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Twitter / Telegram


informnapalm--2020-08-27--History of Ukraine: From Skoropadsky to Petlyura.

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country ’ s Independence by George V.Pinchuk .
From Skoropadsky to Petlyura .
Part 7 .
From the first days on his new job , Hetman Skoropadsky showed a colossal energy and capability as a statesman .
He quickly formed a new Ukrainian government .
In the first days of May , F. Lysohub , a millionaire-landowner and a descendant of the old Cossack aristocracy , was appointed Otaman ( Prime Minister ) .
Lysohub worked closely with the German military administration with the goal to stop anarchist seizures of property @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in that tumultuous time , the process of stabilization in rural areas did not always go peacefully .
Poor peasantry was still frustrated .
Much anger was caused by the Hetman ’ s decision to make landowners legal owners of the 1917 winter crops .
By the end of May , peasants in Yelisavethrad district of Central Ukraine revolted , soon to be followed by anarchist elements in Zvenyhorodka and Tarashcha near Kyiv .
The revolts were suppressed by Austrian soldiers who executed close to 200 rioting men by fire squads or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ January-February 1918 the Red Guards killed more than 10,000 “ counter-revolutionaries ” in Petrograd and Astrakhan , Russia , and in July 1918 massacred the entire population of the city of Yaroslavl and burned the city to the ground . )
Skoropadsky was a man of conservative convictions , and yet he disliked extremists .
He did not outlaw the leftist parties , such as the SR ( the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries ) ; moreover , a member of the SR , D. Doroshenko , was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ tried to be as peaceful as possible .
Ukraine made peace treaties with Bolshevik Russia on May 12 , and with the Don Cossacks – on August 7 , 1918 .
Importantly , the new Minister of Finanses , Rzepetsky , did a fantastic job creating a sustainable finance system .
The industries and trade began to work as never before .
Big cities all over Ukraine acquired electric lights .
Trains began to work on time .
The contemporaries were astonished when they traveled from Russia to Ukraine : in summer and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the land of the Russian “ Military Communism ” with its complete economic ruin and disorder , they suddenly would find themselves on a different planet .
In Ukraine , they saw electric lights , clean paved streets , stores and markets full of all kinds of goods , restaurants , theaters , cinema , symphony orchestras etc .
Two new Universities were founded where subjects were taught in Ukrainian , and hundreds of elementary , middle , and high schools .
The first Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was officially inaugurated in November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when the two major allies of the Hetman , Germany and Austria , were defeated in WW1 .
The German occupational army remained in Ukraine till December 1918 , but it could no longer patrol the Ukrainian cities and villages as the soldiers were eagerly waiting for the orders to return home .
Hetman Skoropadsky began to seek new allies , so he corresponded extensively with the leaders of the Entente and of the Russian White armies .
On November 14 , 1918 , he announced his decision to make the Ukrainian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ non-Bolshevik Russia , where the leaders on the Russian side would be Gen. Anton Denikin and other luminaries of the anti-Communist resistance .
Skoropadsky did not mean that he wanted to abolish the Ukrainian independence , seeing the future federative state as one giving Ukraine as much power and freedom as it would give Russia .
Yet , this decision caused a furious reaction of Ukrainian Nationalists , especially in the recently formed organization called Ukrayinsky Natsionalny Soyuz ( UNS ) , chaired by notorious V. Vynnychenko .
The UNS became the center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ headquarters in Bila Tserkva south of Kyiv .
Vynnychenko became the head of the so-called Dyrektoria , a small group of leaders with dictatorial prerogatives .
On November 18 , 1918 , the troops gathered by the Dyrektoria clashed with the troops loyal to Hetman Skoropadsky near Motovylivka railway station in the Vasylkiv district south of Kyiv .
Hetman ’ s troops included his personal bodyguards called the Serdyuks ( 200 mounted and 700 on foot ) , and 600 foot soldiers under the command of General-Major Prince O. Svyatopolk-Myrsky ( all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ army ) .
The Dyrektoria troops consisted of units of the Sichovi Striltsi – superbly trained and disciplined professional military men whom we already mentioned in our description of the Arsenal uprising of January 1918 ( see Part 5 ) .
The total number of the Striltsi was only slightly bigger than the number of troops loyal to the Hetman .
However , the Serdyuks had no military experience to speak of ; before that fatal date , they were used mostly for military parades .
The battle started at about 9 a.m. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were forced to retreat .
Unfortunately for them , they chose the route of retreat that included crossing of the railroad tracks .
During the crossing , almost all of them were killed by the machine gun fire from an armored train of the Sichovi Striltsi .
Almost all 600 men of the Svyatopolk-Myrsky brigade also perished under the sabers and bayonets of the Sichovi Striltsi .
After this tragic event – a massacre of Ukrainians by Ukrainians !
– Hetman Skoropadsky had no real military power .
On December 14 , 1918 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Dyrektoria became the new rulers of Ukraine .
The Dyrectoria formed a new cabinet headed by V. Chekhivsky , a Social Democrat , although Vynnychenko remained most active and influential .
Symon Petlyura , himself a member of the Dyrektoria , was appointed the new Defense Minister ( officially called the Holovnyy Otaman , i.e .
Commander-in-Chief , of the Armies of the Ukrainian People ’ s Republic ) .
On May 9 , 1919 Petlyura was made the Head of the Dyrektoria , thus acquiring all of the prerogatives of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biography is quite unusual .
In a way , being of low birth , he was an antagonist of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky .
He was born in Poltava , East-Central Ukraine , in 1879 .
His father , Vasyl Petlyura , was a cabbie , and his mother , Olha Marchenko-Petlyura , was from a long line of rural Orthodox priests .
Symon has three brothers and five sisters .
He was educated at a parochial school and then at an Orthodox Spiritual Seminary in Poltava .
Being a devout Orthodox Christian , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ passionate fan of the Ukrainian literature , especially of Taras Shevchenko .
When he was 20 and still a seminary student , he organized a celebration of the great poet ’ s 86th anniversary .
The keynote speaker at that celebration was the famous Nationalist M. Mikhnovsky .
Under the influence of Mikhnovsky ’ s speech , Petlyura joined an underground group called the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party ( RUP ) and took part in rallies protesting against the national oppression of Ukrainians in Tzarist Russia .
In 1902 , fearing arrest and exile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kuban , a region across the Kerch Straight from Crimea , traditionally populated by descendants of the Ukrainian Kozaks .
There , the young man became an enthusiastic collector of folklore , and a correspondent of the editorial board of a literary magazine published in Lviv by Mykhailo Hrushevsky .
In 1904 , Petlyura emigrated to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and settled in Lviv .
He became close to Hrushevsky and also to Ivan Franko , who noticed Petlyura ’ s passion and talent of a historian and ethnographer .
Next year , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the RUP .
The two men were ideological allies , and yet they became tough competitors .
Petlyura could not accept Vynnychenko ’ s Bohemian tendencies and doubted the Sci-Fi writer ’ s Ukrainian patriotism .
In 1906 , after the amnesty granted to political prisoners as a result of the first Russian revolution , the two rivals returned to the Russian Empire .
Petlyura lived in Kyiv , Moscow , and St. Petersburg , where he worked as an accountant ( to make a living ) and as a correspondent and editor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Ukrainian cause .
In 1910 , he married Olha Bilska , a teacher at a private boarding school for girls .
The couple had one daughter , Lesya Petlyura .
In 1912 , Petlyura became Editor of the literary magazine called “ Ukrainian Life.
” It is interesting that at that time , F. Korsch , one of the most prominent Russian scholars-philologists , wrote about Petlyura that “ … people do not really understand who this man is .
They think he is a Ukrainian patriot , a researcher , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all that is true .
But I tell you , Petlyura is the future leader of the Ukrainian nation .
He is just made of the material used to build great leaders , founders of dynasties , heroes .
That is his destiny.
” Being a civilian , Petlyura nonetheless became involved in the affairs of ethnic Ukrainians serving in the Russian army during WW1 , and , soon after the fall of the Romanov dynasty , was chosen as a delegate to the First Ukrainian Military Congress in Kyiv ( May 1917 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he became a member of the Central Rada and the Chairperson of the Secretariat of the Military .
There , he argued bitterly with Vynnychenko , who was of the opinion that the Ukrainian People ’ s Republic did not need a standing army but only a “ people ’ s militia.
” In December 1917 , Vynnychenko made a fiery speech where he accused Petlyura in “ Bonapartism.
” Petlyura resigned from his Secretary of the Military position and went to his native Poltava , where he became the Head of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) of Slobidska Ukrayina ( present-day eastern Poltava and Kharkiv regions ) .
It is just amazing how this “ ethnographer , ” a man with the appearance of a nerd wearing a pince-nez , personally led his Haidamaky to battle against the advancing Bolshevik troops near Hrebinka ( in the Poltava region ) and then near Kyiv in January and February 1918 .
Petlyura reacted very negatively to the enthronement of Hetman Skoropadsky on April 29 , 1918 .
He kept working as a leader of the Ukrainian “ Zemstvo ” ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-governing organs in rural areas ) , but he actually became one of the leaders of the radical underground preparing a revolt against the Hetman .
In July 1918 , Petlyura was arrested and kept at the Lukyanivska prison in Kyiv on the charge of treason .
However , thanks to his old connections with Social Democratic activists in Europe , he was released in November 1918 .
Hetman Skoropadsky felt that Petlyura was dangerous to him but yielded to pressure exerted by Social Democratic faction of the German parliament ( Reichstag ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released from prison , Petlyura went to Bila Tserkva , where he met with the commanding officers of the Sichovi Striltsi .
What followed was the above described battle at Motovylivka and the triumphant march of the Dyrektoria troops on Kyiv .
Of course , the main battles were still ahead .
2.History of Ukraine : The Princes and the Kozaks 5 .
History of Ukraine : The rise of nationalism in 19th century or two Ukrainian nationalisms 6 .
History of Ukraine : The first modern Ukrainian state .
Distribution and reprint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
( Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 ) InformNapalm social media pages : Facebook / Twitter / Telegram

Some trivia about Ukraine on the 29th anniversary of country’s Independence by George V.Pinchuk. From Skoropadsky to Petlyura. Part 7.
From the first days on his new job, Hetman Skoropadsky showed a colossal energy and capability as a statesman. He quickly formed a new Ukrainian government. In the first days of May, F. Lysohub, a millionaire-landowner and a descendant of the old Cossack aristocracy, was appointed Otaman (Prime Minister). Lysohub worked closely with the German military administration with the goal to stop anarchist seizures of property all over rural Ukraine. Of course, in that tumultuous time, the process of stabilization in rural areas did not always go peacefully. Poor peasantry was still frustrated. Much anger was caused by the Hetman’s decision to make landowners legal owners of the 1917 winter crops. By the end of May, peasants in Yelisavethrad district of Central Ukraine revolted, soon to be followed by anarchist elements in Zvenyhorodka and Tarashcha near Kyiv. The revolts were suppressed by Austrian soldiers who executed close to 200 rioting men by fire squads or hanging. (For comparison, in January-February 1918 the Red Guards killed more than 10,000 “counter-revolutionaries” in Petrograd and Astrakhan, Russia, and in July 1918 massacred the entire population of the city of Yaroslavl and burned the city to the ground.)
Skoropadsky was a man of conservative convictions, and yet he disliked extremists. He did not outlaw the leftist parties, such as the SR (the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries); moreover, a member of the SR, D. Doroshenko, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. In its foreign policy, the Hetman tried to be as peaceful as possible. Ukraine made peace treaties with Bolshevik Russia on May 12, and with the Don Cossacks – on August 7, 1918. Importantly, the new Minister of Finanses, Rzepetsky, did a fantastic job creating a sustainable finance system. The industries and trade began to work as never before. Big cities all over Ukraine acquired electric lights. Trains began to work on time. The contemporaries were astonished when they traveled from Russia to Ukraine: in summer and fall 1918, once they left behind the land of the Russian “Military Communism” with its complete economic ruin and disorder, they suddenly would find themselves on a different planet. In Ukraine, they saw electric lights, clean paved streets, stores and markets full of all kinds of goods, restaurants, theaters, cinema, symphony orchestras etc. Two new Universities were founded where subjects were taught in Ukrainian, and hundreds of elementary, middle, and high schools. The first Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was officially inaugurated in November 1918.
Things went south, however, when the two major allies of the Hetman, Germany and Austria, were defeated in WW1. The German occupational army remained in Ukraine till December 1918, but it could no longer patrol the Ukrainian cities and villages as the soldiers were eagerly waiting for the orders to return home. Hetman Skoropadsky began to seek new allies, so he corresponded extensively with the leaders of the Entente and of the Russian White armies. On November 14, 1918, he announced his decision to make the Ukrainian state a member of the Federation with non-Bolshevik Russia, where the leaders on the Russian side would be Gen. Anton Denikin and other luminaries of the anti-Communist resistance. Skoropadsky did not mean that he wanted to abolish the Ukrainian independence, seeing the future federative state as one giving Ukraine as much power and freedom as it would give Russia. Yet, this decision caused a furious reaction of Ukrainian Nationalists, especially in the recently formed organization called Ukrayinsky Natsionalny Soyuz (UNS), chaired by notorious V. Vynnychenko. The UNS became the center of the anti-Hetman uprising with its main headquarters in Bila Tserkva south of Kyiv. Vynnychenko became the head of the so-called Dyrektoria, a small group of leaders with dictatorial prerogatives.
On November 18, 1918, the troops gathered by the Dyrektoria clashed with the troops loyal to Hetman Skoropadsky near Motovylivka railway station in the Vasylkiv district south of Kyiv. Hetman’s troops included his personal bodyguards called the Serdyuks (200 mounted and 700 on foot), and 600 foot soldiers under the command of General-Major Prince O. Svyatopolk-Myrsky (all of them former officers of the Russian imperial army). The Dyrektoria troops consisted of units of the Sichovi Striltsi – superbly trained and disciplined professional military men whom we already mentioned in our description of the Arsenal uprising of January 1918 (see Part 5). The total number of the Striltsi was only slightly bigger than the number of troops loyal to the Hetman. However, the Serdyuks had no military experience to speak of; before that fatal date, they were used mostly for military parades. The battle started at about 9 a.m., and by 3 p.m. the Serdyuks were forced to retreat. Unfortunately for them, they chose the route of retreat that included crossing of the railroad tracks. During the crossing, almost all of them were killed by the machine gun fire from an armored train of the Sichovi Striltsi. Almost all 600 men of the Svyatopolk-Myrsky brigade also perished under the sabers and bayonets of the Sichovi Striltsi. After this tragic event – a massacre of Ukrainians by Ukrainians! – Hetman Skoropadsky had no real military power. On December 14, 1918 he officially resigned and emigrated to Germany. The Dyrektoria became the new rulers of Ukraine.
The Dyrectoria formed a new cabinet headed by V. Chekhivsky, a Social Democrat, although Vynnychenko remained most active and influential. Symon Petlyura, himself a member of the Dyrektoria, was appointed the new Defense Minister (officially called the Holovnyy Otaman, i.e. Commander-in-Chief, of the Armies of the Ukrainian People’s Republic). On May 9, 1919 Petlyura was made the Head of the Dyrektoria, thus acquiring all of the prerogatives of a dictator.
Symon Petlyura’s biography is quite unusual. In a way, being of low birth, he was an antagonist of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. He was born in Poltava, East-Central Ukraine, in 1879. His father, Vasyl Petlyura, was a cabbie, and his mother, Olha Marchenko-Petlyura, was from a long line of rural Orthodox priests. Symon has three brothers and five sisters. He was educated at a parochial school and then at an Orthodox Spiritual Seminary in Poltava. Being a devout Orthodox Christian, Petlyura as a seminarist was also a passionate fan of the Ukrainian literature, especially of Taras Shevchenko. When he was 20 and still a seminary student, he organized a celebration of the great poet’s 86th anniversary. The keynote speaker at that celebration was the famous Nationalist M. Mikhnovsky. Under the influence of Mikhnovsky’s speech, Petlyura joined an underground group called the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP) and took part in rallies protesting against the national oppression of Ukrainians in Tzarist Russia. In 1902, fearing arrest and exile or prison, he left Poltava for Kuban, a region across the Kerch Straight from Crimea, traditionally populated by descendants of the Ukrainian Kozaks. There, the young man became an enthusiastic collector of folklore, and a correspondent of the editorial board of a literary magazine published in Lviv by Mykhailo Hrushevsky.
In 1904, Petlyura emigrated to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and settled in Lviv. He became close to Hrushevsky and also to Ivan Franko, who noticed Petlyura’s passion and talent of a historian and ethnographer. Next year, he met Volodymyr Vynnychenko at a meeting of the RUP. The two men were ideological allies, and yet they became tough competitors. Petlyura could not accept Vynnychenko’s Bohemian tendencies and doubted the Sci-Fi writer’s Ukrainian patriotism. In 1906, after the amnesty granted to political prisoners as a result of the first Russian revolution, the two rivals returned to the Russian Empire. Petlyura lived in Kyiv, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, where he worked as an accountant (to make a living) and as a correspondent and editor of historical and literary magazines sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause. In 1910, he married Olha Bilska, a teacher at a private boarding school for girls. The couple had one daughter, Lesya Petlyura.
In 1912, Petlyura became Editor of the literary magazine called “Ukrainian Life.” It is interesting that at that time, F. Korsch, one of the most prominent Russian scholars-philologists, wrote about Petlyura that “… people do not really understand who this man is. They think he is a Ukrainian patriot, a researcher, a writer, an outstanding editor – and all that is true. But I tell you, Petlyura is the future leader of the Ukrainian nation. He is just made of the material used to build great leaders, founders of dynasties, heroes. That is his destiny.”
Being a civilian, Petlyura nonetheless became involved in the affairs of ethnic Ukrainians serving in the Russian army during WW1, and, soon after the fall of the Romanov dynasty, was chosen as a delegate to the First Ukrainian Military Congress in Kyiv (May 1917). By the end of May, he became a member of the Central Rada and the Chairperson of the Secretariat of the Military. There, he argued bitterly with Vynnychenko, who was of the opinion that the Ukrainian People’s Republic did not need a standing army but only a “people’s militia.” In December 1917, Vynnychenko made a fiery speech where he accused Petlyura in “Bonapartism.” Petlyura resigned from his Secretary of the Military position and went to his native Poltava, where he became the Head of the Haidamaky Kish (a Kozak-style regiment) of Slobidska Ukrayina (present-day eastern Poltava and Kharkiv regions). It is just amazing how this “ethnographer,” a man with the appearance of a nerd wearing a pince-nez, personally led his Haidamaky to battle against the advancing Bolshevik troops near Hrebinka (in the Poltava region) and then near Kyiv in January and February 1918.
Petlyura reacted very negatively to the enthronement of Hetman Skoropadsky on April 29, 1918. He kept working as a leader of the Ukrainian “Zemstvo” (a committee coordinating the work of local self-governing organs in rural areas), but he actually became one of the leaders of the radical underground preparing a revolt against the Hetman. In July 1918, Petlyura was arrested and kept at the Lukyanivska prison in Kyiv on the charge of treason. However, thanks to his old connections with Social Democratic activists in Europe, he was released in November 1918. Hetman Skoropadsky felt that Petlyura was dangerous to him but yielded to pressure exerted by Social Democratic faction of the German parliament (Reichstag). On the same day he was released from prison, Petlyura went to Bila Tserkva, where he met with the commanding officers of the Sichovi Striltsi. What followed was the above described battle at Motovylivka and the triumphant march of the Dyrektoria troops on Kyiv.
Of course, the main battles were still ahead.
Read also:
1.History of Ukraine: The Beginnings
2.History of Ukraine: The Princes and the Kozaks
3.History of Ukraine: The Russian Captivity
4.History of Ukraine: Taras Shevchenko
5. History of Ukraine: The rise of nationalism in 19th century or two Ukrainian nationalisms
6. History of Ukraine: The first modern Ukrainian state.
By George V. Pinchuk
Distribution and reprint with reference to the source is welcome! (Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0) InformNapalm social media pages: Facebook / Twitter / Telegram