A History of Ukraine and the Cultural Heritage Lost to the War

Researchers view Ukraine as a political state and an ethnolinguistic region that expands beyond the country’s political boundaries. 603700 square kilometres is the size of this country, which is larger than any other country in Europe except Russia.

One irony of the ongoing attack by Russia on Ukraine is that the two largest countries in Europe have become parties to an unnecessary war, not to mention the cost of innocent human lives. 750800 is the area of Europe where Ukrainians live, and this territory extends outside the country of Ukraine.

Ukrainian communities live in Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, and Russia. Geographically, most of this ethnolinguistic group of people live either in the plains of rivers or sea coasts. Paul Robert Magocsi, in his book, ‘A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its People’, quotes a geographer from Ukraine, Stepan Rudnytskyi, saying, “Nine-tenths of Ukrainians have certainly never seen a mountain and do not even know what one looks like.” Of course, the Carpathians and the Crimean mountains line their borders, but only 5% of the Ukrainian region is protected by mountains, making the country vulnerable and leaving an open invitation to the invaders.

The Fertile Food Bowl and Its Tremendous Cultural Diversity

Ukraine is a land of rivers and hence one of the most fertile lands in Europe. Dniester, Southern Buh, Dnieper, Donets, Danube, Tyza, and Kuban, all mighty rivers capable of watering large territories, make the land of Ukraine a paradise of agriculture. The moderate temperature that prevails across the country is another blessing of nature that makes this country the food basket of Europe.

Stunning monuments, idyllic nature, and a centuries-old, lived culture are the real wealth of this huge country. The golden domes of the St. Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra with the interiors full of rich frescoes and mosaics, the breathtaking beauty of the Carpathian forests and the ancient cities like Lviv and Odesa looking as if they were plucked from the folk tales and placed anew on the streets of Ukraine – every monument, every landscape, is worth preserving for posterity.

However, the war has changed everything. Many precious monuments came under the Russian bombardment and are in ruins now.

The Story of Kyiv

Other than the Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Jews, Crimean Tatars, Moldovians, and Greeks, many more ethnic communities populate Ukraine. This country was conquered and appended by many empires – the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Kingdom and later, the Soviet Union, in a different sense. Paul Robert Magocsi observes the existence of many perspectives when it comes to defining Ukrainian nationality. “Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Soviet viewpoints” exist parallelly. Anyway, all these viewpoints trace back to a common narrative, the history of Kyiv.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica dates the human inhabitation of the region known as Kyiv to the late Palaeolithic era, which is 40000 to 15000 years ago. In 3000 BCE, this was home to the Neolithic people. Kyiv is supposed to be founded in the 6th or 7th century by the three brothers, Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv. The kingdom was named Kyiv after the elder brother, Kyi. By the mid-ninth century, the Vikings seized power in Kyiv. Under Slavo-Varangian (Vikings) rule, the early Slav townships flourished. The Eastern Slavic state of Kyivan Rus was soon established when Oleg, the ruler of Novgorod, captured Kyiv and made it his capital. However, continuous wars and scuffles raged between the rulers of Kyiv and the warrior tribes who inhabited the Steppe (the grasslands of Eastern Europe). The 12th-century Mongol invasion of Kyiv was devastating and resulted in the city's destruction and genocide.

In 1362, Kyiv, still in ruins, came under the rule of Lithuania. The Tatar tribe of the Steppe still came to attack this declining town frequently. In 1569, under a pact between Poland and Lithuania, Kyiv was handed over to Poland. The 17th century saw the dawn of Ukrainian nationalism against the rule of Poland. Zaporozhian Cossacks led this fight, but this war eventually led to the transfer of Kyiv to Russia, whereas Poland retained some parts. The Ukrainian nationalists continued their struggle against the Russian Tsars' rule. Gradually, this clash merged with the larger resistance in Russia against the Tsar Emperors.

The Soviet Era

The 1917 Russian Revolution under Vladimir Ilyanovich Lenin integrated Ukraine into the newly formed Soviet Union, as the Ukrainians were also part of the revolution. The Ukrainian Republic was formally established under the Soviet Union. This history emboldened the present Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to argue that Ukraine is not a sovereign nation and it never has been. Since the 1917 revolution, a group of Ukrainians had demanded an independent Ukraine. Stalin even blamed the Ukrainian nationalists for all the problems he was facing in the region.

Glorified imagery exists regarding the role of Ukraine in the communist revolution, and its culmination is the movie ‘Battleship Potemkin’ by Sergei Eisenstein, in which the sailors revolting against the authoritarian regime of Russia are depicted on the steps of Odesa, a coastal town of Ukraine. The martyrdom of common Ukrainian people on the Odesa steps turned into the iconic image of the Russian Revolution. Once the revolution was won and a communist government took over Moscow, the Soviet Union set out to take control of Ukraine's fertile land and turn the nomadic and agricultural communities of Ukraine into factory workers.

The small farmers lost control of their land and produce. When the transformation into collective farming resulted in poor production, Stalin blamed the people of Ukraine and seized food grains from Ukrainian farmers. Goods trains bound for Moscow left with coaches full of grains grown from the sweat and toil of Ukrainians. There was no grain left to feed the Ukrainian people, and they starved and died in thousands. The time was the early 1930s. 3.9 million people lost their lives to famine in Ukraine.

During the Second World War, the war zone was centred around Ukraine. The people of this region were the ultimate victims of the conflict's inhumanities. When Germany seemed almost to take control of the Ukrainian region, the Moscow leadership began to doubt the loyalty of Ukrainians. Afterwards, the Russianisation of Ukraine remained a pet project for the leaders of the Soviet Union. The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred in 1986. How the top leadership of the Soviet Union downplayed the disaster to save face did not go well with the Ukrainians who suffered from the radioactive fallout. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, a referendum was held in Ukraine which unquestionably reflected the aspiration of the Ukrainians for political independence.

The Cultural Cost of War in Ukraine

The Church of the Holy Mother in the village of Bohorodychne, Ukraine, is one of the many centuries-old monuments destroyed by Russian bombing. The Russian military allegedly targeted Ukraine's museums, churches, and historical monuments. The Church of the Ascension in Lukashivka has suffered great damage from the conflict. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Odesa; the Mariupol Drama Theatre; the Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, one of the largest libraries in Europe; the mediaeval and Bronze Age archaeological ruins in Irpin and Bucha villages; and the 11th-century brick-and-stone church in Odesa are a few monuments destroyed by the war.

The Ukrainian Steppe and the Black Sea that lines its shores have carried many invasions to the Ukrainian land. With great resilience, the people survived. Let us hope this beautiful land of natural abundance and cultural richness survives this crisis too.

References

A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its People, Paul Robert Magocsi, 2010.

History of Kyiv, Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Real and Imagined History of Ukraine, An Interview Between Noel King and Timothy Snyder published in Vox, Feb 25, 2022.