 Capital bets By Serhiy KHARCHENKO |
The word 'unreliable', as in 'a security risk person' comes from the vocabulary of punitive action bodies. It appears now that this term used for people can also be applied to cities. Recently one important Ukrainian official said in passing that in Ukraine there are objects that are undesirable for restoration. In this particular case, the word 'undesirable' was used not as an argument against excessive expenses for restoration, but in the same semantic line with the words 'suspicious' and 'provoking'.
For various reasons many nations change their capitals. But most people equally respect both convenient modern capitals and capitals with architecture from the Middle Ages. I like how the Poles and the Japanese carefully treat their ancient capitals Crakow and Kioto.
Ukraine has had several capitals. Its tragic and interesting statehood was interrupted many times. Some of them are called 'hetman capitals' cities where hetmans, or Cossack rulers, had their residencies and these are still subject to political taboo.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the European press often mentioned the names of various Ukrainian cities: Pereiaslav, Chyhyryn, Gluhov and Baturyn. In these cities important documents were signed that were crucial not only for the fate of Ukraine, but for the whole Eastern Europe as well. Today those places are, as a rule, small provincial cities with ruined palaces and churches surrounded by uncared-for parks.
But all those cities are a part of the aptly named 'Golden Circle'. Picturesque landscapes, the unique history of the Zaporizhzhian Cossack state plus convenient infrastructure and active advertising could attract foreign tourists, making the whole project a good business.
But I am ready to make a bet. If some of you would like to try your hand as investors in this program, then you would certainly be offered the city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnitskiy as an option. It is a small city in Kyiv oblast, one of the few historical objects of Ukraine where even under Soviet rule foreign tourists were taken. Today, as in Soviet times, guests are plied with ideologically correct, hence incomplete, information. Several churches were preserved for this purpose in the city of Pereiaslav this is absolutely untypical for Ukrainian reality.
A tour guide will tell you that in 1654 the 'Pereiaslavska Rada' took place here and that all sections of the population took place in this meeting. Here Ukrainians decided to unite with their 'brothers in language and faith' the Russian people. As evidence, the guide will point out monuments in honor of the 300th (1954) and 325th (1979) anniversaries of the unification of Ukraine with Russia. According to the official version, Bohdan Khmelnitskiy himself, the great hetman of Ukraine, was the initiator of this act. His personality was immortalized not only in monuments (in Kyiv you can see one of the monuments in his honor), but in the name of the city of the 'historical meeting' itself. In 1943, during the very peak of WWII, the city's name was changed to Pereiaslav-Khmelnitskiy. At that time a military award for military commanders of the Red Army was the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitskiy.
But it is in vain to look for documents about this crucial event for Ukraine and Russia . In museums located in old churches you will be shown a diorama on the battle for the Dnipro River (1944), a collection of Ukrainian 'rushnyky' (towels with patterns) and Cossack weapons, and even a unique set of checkers dating back to the 4th century AD.
In general, Communist ideologists treated historical documents designated for museum purposes rather selectively.
The problem of providing documents for museum exhibits one can't imagine any museum without such documents even today still irritates many Ukrainian functionaries. At the Chyhyryn National Reserve I was told that scientists there are not offered the opportunity to photocopy different important historical documents that are located in archives in Russia, Poland, Great Britain or Sweden.
What is Chyhyryn? This is a spiritual center of Ukrainians, their Mecca. The Chyhyryn fortress was the capital during the rule of Bohdan Khmelnitskiy. From here he led Cossack troops and troops of peasants to fight in an endless series of battles with the Polish regular army. The most dreadful war for Ukraine lasted from 1648 till 1654.
Europeans have compared the peasant Cossack revolution with the fight for freedom in England, the Continent and the U.S.A.
Restoration of the hetman's palace is starting only now in Chyhyryn. The restoration is made possible with money provided by charity funds. A museum in the honor of Bohdan Khmelnitskiy should occupy the central place in this reserve. It is possible that after its opening we would finally find out about the great hetman's true plans regarding the fate of Ukraine, about the content of his correspon-dence with the Russian czar and also with the leader of the English Revolution, Oliver Cromwell. An original of each such document costs tens of thousands of dollars. Sponsors are the only hope. But even then there is no guarantee that Russia will provide some documents for any amount of money it needs Bohdan Khmelnitskiy in the status of 'a faithful brother'.
Some officials consider the town of Baturyn another hetman capital as a tragic city and what's more, a time-bomb in the process of bringing to life the 'Golden Circle' project. Baturyn poses not only a financial, but also a moral-ethical and even an interethnic problem. Troy, Carthagen, Jerusalem and Ninua experienced the same fate as Baturyn did. But the former cities are known all over the world, while the latter is an uncared-for town that is even crossed off of geographic maps (check for yourself!).
At the beginning of the 18th century Baturyn was the residency of hetman Ivan Mazepa. The palace of this magnate was comparable to royal palaces anywhere in Europe. Sacrificing his own reputation, in 1708 Ivan Mazepa decided to realize Khmelnitskiy's uncompleted designs. Mazepa sided with the Swedish king Karl the 12th against the Russians. In revenge, Peter the Great ordered Baturyn's destruction. French newspapers were full of headlines such as: "Dreadful massacre", "Women and children on the edges of sabres", "Rafts with crucified Cossacks are floating on the rivers",and "Ukraine is swimming in blood".
History students will remember that in 1709 the Russian army defeated Swedish troops and Cossack regiments headed by hetman Mazepa in a battle near the Ukrainian city of Poltava. But few foreigners know that the last Ukrainian hetman, Kyrylo Rasumovskiy, having at first in 1751 selected his residency to be located in the city of Gluhov, soon made 'rebellious' Baturyn the capital of Ukraine. This was a risky step. Ivan Mazepa had been anathematized in all churches of the Russian Empire and this damnation was indirectly addressed to the city of Baturyn as well. Razumovskiy's efforts were in vain, as the hetmanship was abolished in Ukraine two decades later.
Today the town of Baturyn has a yearly budget in the amount of five thousand dollars. About seven million dollars assigned to the town's restoration found 'other' homes. Local authorities are losing their hope that someday the hetman's palace will rise again on the place of ruins and grasslands for goats. I offer a bet regarding a more modest, but at the same time more humane project.
What do you think: will at least a chapel appear in Baturyn on the site of the haphazard burial of tens of thousands of innocently killed dwellers of this city?
Compare it with another example: mutual forgiveness was embodied in graveyards of Russian and Swedish soldiers in Poltava. They all died in the Poltava battle in 1709. On both graveyards there are honorary plates that say: 'For Swedes from Russians', 'For Russians from Swedes'. But in Baturyn in 1708 a real massacre by Orthodox people against Orthodox people occurred.
Recently Russia pompously celebrated the 300th anniversary of the establishment of Saint-Petersburg. So much was done in the honor of the founder of the city that I even felt that soon Peter the Great was going to be canonized. But, neither chapel nor sermons accompanying its opening are going to happen in Baturyn in 2004. Of course, on the common grave there won't be public speeches of politicians and scientists who will commemorate the tragedy of Baturyn. Most likely, in 2004 one more monument will appear in the city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnitskiy. This time it will be in honor of 350 years of unification of two brother peoples Ukrainians and Russians. Want to make a bet?
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More in the section:
Amazing country. Amazing people
Read also previous issue' articles:
A heat wave in Ukraine
"The Spirit of Hollybush" Comes to Donetsk
The new wave of Labor Migration
Home Discoveries
Asserting dignity
New Public Health for the New Ukraine
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