A Few Pages from the History of Ukraine

Contents

Unit 1: History of Kiev

Unit 2: Establishment of Rus’

Unit 3: Literary Language of Kievan Rus

Unit 4: Old East Slavic Literature

Unit 5: Reign of Volodymyr and Christianization

Unit 6: Golden Age of Kiev

Unit 7: Rise and Apogee of Galicia-Volhynia

Unit 8: Zaporizhian Sich

Unit 9: Destructionn of Zaporizhian Sich

Unit 10: Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen

Unit 11: Ukrainian People’s Republic

Unit 12: Hetmanate

Unit 13: Directorate

Unit 14: Dmytro Yavornytsky

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to O. Necheporenko for his assistance in compiling this book.

Unit 1: History of Kiev

This theme is dealt with in a lot of historical sources. The following citation is to illustrate this:

“The History of Kiev, the largest city and the capital of Ukraine, is documented as going back at least 1400 years. The city is thought to have existed as early as the 6th century, initially as a Slavic settlement. Gradually acquiring the eminence as the center of the East Slavic civilization, Kiev reached its Golden Age as the center Kievan Rus' in the 10th–12th centuries. Its political, but not cultural, importance started to decline somewhat when it was completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240.

According to a legend, Kiev was founded in the 5th century by East Slavs. The legend of Kyi, Schek and Khoryv speaks of a founder-family consisting of a Slavic tribe leader Kyi, the eldest, his brothers Schek and Khoriv, and also their sister Lybid, who founded the city. Kiev (is translated as "belonging to Kyi".

The Primary Chronicle mentions Slavic Kievans telling Askold and Dir that they live without a local ruler and pay a tribute to Khazars in an event attributed to the 9th century. They were Varangian princes, probably of Swedish origin. According to Primary Chronicle, Oleg of Novgorod conquered Kiev in 882. He was a descendant of Rurik, a Varangian pagan chieftain, who was of Finno-Ugrian origin. From Oleg's seizure of the city until 1169 Kiev was the capital of the principal East-Slavic state, known as Kievan Rus' which was ruled by initially Varangian Rurikid dynasty which was gradually Slavisized. The Kievan Grand Princes had traditional primacy over the other rulers of the land and the Kiev princehood was a valuable prize in the intra-dynastic rivalry. In 988 by the order of the Grand Prince Volodymyr I, the city residents baptized en-masse in the Dnieper river, an event the symbolized the Baptism of Kievan Rus'. Kiev reached the height of its position of political and cultural Golden Age in the middle of the 11th century under Vladimir's son Yaroslav the Wise. In 1051, prince Yaroslav assembled the bishops at St. Sophia Cathedral and appointed Hilarion, the first native of the Kievan Rus', as metropolitan bishop, that the decision reflects an anti-Byzantine bias. The following years were marked by the rivalries of the competing princes of the dynasty and weakening of Kiev's political influence, although Kiev temporarily prevailed after the defeat of the Polotsk at the Battle on the river Nemiga (1067) that also led to the burning of Minsk. In 1203 Kiev was captured an burned by Prince Rurik Rostislavich. In the 1230s the city was sieged and ravaged by different Russian princes several times. Finally, the Mongol-Tatar forces led by Batu Khan besieged, and then completely destroyed Kiev on December 6, 1240. …”

The complete version of this text is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

Assignments

1) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

Capital, settlement, eminence, invasion, tribute, origin, pagan, princehood, rivalry, baptized

2) Give definitions to the following:

Golden Age, according to, pay a tribute, slavisized, intra-dinasty rivalry

3) Answer the questions on the text:

1. What can you say about the sources dealing with the history of Kiev ?

2. Who were, according to the legend, the founders of Kiev?

3. What happened in 988?

4. When did Prince Yaroslav appoint Hilarion as metropolitan bishop?

5. What can you say about the Golden Age of Kiev?

4) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

5) What can you say about this ancient building?

Unit 2: Establishment of Rus’

This theme is dealt with in a lot of historical sources. The following citation is to illustrate this:

“Kievan Rus' was officially founded by Prince Oleg about 880. The territory of his state was much smaller, compared to the state of Yaroslav the Wise. During the next 35 years, Oleg and his warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic and Finnic tribes. In 882, Oleg deposed Haskold and Dyr subordinating Kiev directly to himself and choosing it as the capital city. In 883, Oleg conquered the Drevlians imposing a fur tribute on them. By 884 he managed to subjugate the Polians, Drevlians, Severians, Vyatichs, and Radimichs while at war with the Tivertsi and the Ulichs. The latter were located in the area known among the Greek historians as the Great Scythia (lands of lower Dniester and Dnieper rivers). In 907, Oleg led an attack against Constantinople with 80,000 warriors transported by 2,000 ships, leaving Igor in Kiev. Oleg managed to impose a tribute upon Greeks of no less than one million grivna. In 912, he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire as an equal partner. After the death of Oleg later in 912, the Drevlians managed to break away, but were conquered again by Igor. In 914, Igor concluded a peace treaty with the Pechenegs, a nomadic tribe that was passing through Rus' towards the Danube River in order to attack the Byzantine Empire.

The new Kievan state prospered because it had an abundant supply of furs, beeswax and honey for export and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe: the Volga trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Orient, the Dnieper trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, and the trade route from the Khazars to the Germans.

Given the postulated pro-Scandinavian bias of the Rus' Primary Chronicle, some historians of Slavic studies have debated the role of the Varangians in the establishment of Kievan Rus', as not all Slavic tribes at first recognized the rule of Kiev. Even though by the reign of Sviatoslav I of Kiev (r. 945–972) Kievan rulers had adopted Slavic religion and names, their druzhina still consisted primarily of Scandinavians. Sviatoslav's military conquests were extensive: he dealt lethal blows to two of his strongest neighbours, Khazaria and Volga Bulgaria, both of which collapsed soon after his raids. …”

The complete version of this text is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

Assignments

1) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

Compared to, subdued, fur, subjugate, conquer, abundant, lethal blow, prosperity, tribe, beeswax

2) Give definitions to the following:

Tribute, peace treaty, nomadic tribe, trade route, bias, druzhina, military conquests

3) Answer the questions on the text:

1. What did Oleg do during his reign?

2. What tribes were conquered by Oleg?

3. Did Oleg try to attack Constantinople?

4. What trade routes were controlled by Rus’?

5. Who was Oleg’s successor?

4) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

5) What can you say about prince Svyatoslav?

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 792