Ivan Ohiyenko’s Thorny Path of Knowledge
This time my reporter’s luck held true. At eleven p.m. I was boarding the Kamyanets-Podilsky to Kyiv train when I overheard some passengers saying that a woman, a close relative of Ivan Ohiyenko, was also on that train. This writer and his fellow traveler, a noted scholar, spent quite some time debating whether it was proper to barge in on the lady that late. Finally, we mustered the courage, rehearsed our apologies, found the compartment, and knocked on the door.
Prof. Iryna Tiurmenko said that yes, she was Ivan Ohiyenko’s grandniece and that her great grandfather Vasyl was his brother.
Kamyanets-Podilsky entered a separate very interesting page in the life story of Ivan Ohiyenko, ranking with leading historic figures of the twentieth century. Every cobblestone in this town speaks of the eventful past. Ivan Ohiyenko recalled that “a great deal of the work of Ukrainization had been done and now the city has spawned a Ukrainian state university.”
The ceremony of unveiling the plaque commemorating Ivan Ohiyenko, the founder and the first Rector of the State University of Kamyanets-Podilsky, took place prior to the opening of an International Congress of Ukrainian Historians. Iryna Tiurmenko took the floor, stressing her distant relative’s special role in advancing the nation’s educational system.
“I visited that city by the Smotrych River for the second time. I had first visited it when taking part in a conference on Ohiyenko studies in 1992,” recalled Iryna Tiurmenko, who has a Ph.D. in history. “What I found disturbing was the city’s special aura; it had seen Petliura, Ohiyenko, Doroshenko...” She remembered the emotional turmoil she had found herself in, walking down a street now bearing Ohiyenko’s name, how she had tried to look at all those memorial sites through her celebrated relative’s eyes. “We were taken on a sightseeing tour. We saw the walls of the Old Fortress, the Turkish Bridge, the house that had once accommodate the UNR Ministry of Education and the City Hall. All of that left one unforgettable impressions.”
Ivan Ohiyenko’s first trip from Kyiv to Kamyanets-Podilsky (destined to become the last capital of the Ukrainian Republic) was at the Prosvita Society’s invitation. He visited as a professor with the Ukrainian National University. He addressed a packed audience at a local theater with a lecture on Ukrainian culture. Something unprecedented in local history. In the fall of 1918, Prof. Ohiyenko arrived in Kamyanets-Podilsky, acting on instructions from the Skoropadsky administration, to set up yet another Ukrainian state university. He felt in his element, putting his organizing talent in higher education to the best use. He had to find the premises and form a student body on a competitive basis. He had to shape the teaching staff and persuade leading scientists and scholars to join it. To him, the project meant the appearance of yet another temple of advanced knowledge, an event of nationwide cultural and political import in Ukraine.
“The university’s opening ceremony invitation card, signed by Ivan Ohiyenko, read, ‘This new university, being the closest to the advanced Western European culture by its very geographical position, will not be a conventional Eastern-style university; for the first time in the East Slavic World, the State Ukrainian University will accommodate a Department of Theology; in addition, its History and Philology Department already has two new national chairs, one of Polish and the other of Jewish Literature... Being true to the worthiest European university traditions, the new State Ukrainian University of Kamyanets- Podilsky will be aimed at continuous research to benefit our beloved Ukrainian culture,’” recalls current Kamyanets-Podilsky University Rector Oleksandr Zavalniuk.
Kamyanets-Podilsky was that magic window in Iryna Tiurmenko’s daily life, through which she glimpsed the fame and utmost respect conferred upon her celebrated relative, whose dedicated effort had made that gem of a town by the Smotrych River the venue of reviving the Ukrainian language and national culture. Ivan Ohiyenko invited prominent scholars from Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities to join the university teaching staff, among them Biletsky, Dmytro Doroshenko, Bidnov, Tymchenko, man of letters Samiylenko, and Private Docent Mykhailo Drai-Khmara. Shortly after, a railroad carload of books was sent from Kyiv to replenish the university library stock, including books from Ivan Ohiyenko’s private library. He managed to enlist the resources of the academic libraries of St. Volodymyr University [currently Taras Shevchenko National University], Theological Academy, and other Kyiv institutions of learning. For him, this was not enough. With his blessings, students and teachers set off on expeditions traversing Ukrainian towns and villages, returning with books. Kamyanets-Podilsky responded to Ivan Ohiyenko’s call, donating books to the university library, including truly unique ones.
Iryna Tiurmenko was on her way home with a copy of the newly released book titled Kamyanets-Podilsky: Past and Present. The authors, Oleksandr Zavalniuk and Oleksandr Komarnitsky, dedicated a separate chapter to Ivan Ohiyenko. They also described the opening of the university: “The ceremony turned into a very festive occasion. Everything was planned well, all those present were keenly aware of the special occasion, and many people were in attendance; the event was lent national religious colors. Good music, melodious songs, mass attendance, as well as the ethnic and religious coloration would make both the residents of, and guests to, Kamyanets-Podilsky remember the event long after. The presence of Jewish, Polish, and Russian cultural, academic, and religious figures was evidence that the newly-established institution of higher learning, its rector and teaching staff was supported by various local ethnic communities. The university began to function on November 1, 1918. The rector delivered a lecture on the history of the Ukrainian language at its largest Auditorium No. 1. Enrolment (trial) lectures at the two departments were delivered by all the newly appointed professors and private docents. With Prof. Ivan Ohiyenko’s permission they were attended by a number of individuals representing the Kamyanets-Podilsky public.”
Ivan Ohiyenko loved his child, the university, so much, he said no when offered the post of the Directory’s Minister of Education. Turning it down was very difficult. After painfully pondering the pros and cons, he explained that he wanted to remain rector of the University. Mykola Tymoshyk, author of the book Lyshusia Naviky z Chuzhynoiu [Remaining in a Strange Land Forever], quotes from an decree signed by Minister Ivan Ohiyenko, which he thinks most characteristic:
“1. As willed by the people of the Ukrainian National Republic, of January 1, 1919, Ukrainian shall be the official language to be practiced throughout Ukraine. Ukrainian, therefore, shall be the language of instruction at all the educational establishments of Ukraine, including higher, secondary, and elementary schools.
“2. I hereby order that all teachers having an adequate command of Ukrainian and being in the employ of the higher, secondary, and elementary schools commence instruction in Ukrainian as of the date of this decree coming into effect.
“3. Another language of instruction may be practiced at a higher school, as allowed by the Minister of Public Education; at a secondary school, as allowed by the Guberniya Commissioner, or at an elementary school, as allowed by the Provincial Commissioner...
“5. Schools with ethnically heterogeneous student bodies may practice such ethnic languages [as best serve the schooling process].
“[Signed] Ivan Ohiyenko, Minister of Public Education”
From November 1918 to July 1920, Ivan Ohiyenko had to combine his duties as rector and minister, while being Chief Representative of the UNR Government in Podillia, handling matters addressing the Polish military and civil authorities. O. Dotsenko, Simon Petliura’s Adjutant, recalled later: “Ohiyenko was the only one to man the UNR Chief Representative’s post in Kamyanets-Podilsky, in that heavy atmosphere... Who knows what the Poles would have done, but for Mr. Ohiyenko’s presence... Anyone else in his positions would have quit in two or three days and the Poles would have turned Kamyanets-Podilsky into yet another Polish town; there would have been no Ukrainian university and the Ukrainian political community would have been unable to function... Ohiyenko acted in Kamyanets-Podilsky ... with dignity, protecting the Ukrainian community and Ukrainian institutions from Polish encroachments... he did everything abiding only by the national interests.”
Elections of the rector of the Kamyanets-Podilsky University took place May 6, 1920. No one actually dared challenge Ivan Ohiyenko. He became the sole candidate and emerged spectacularly triumphant. Simon Petliura, Head of the Directory, signed an edict appointing Ivan Ohiyenko rector of the university, specifying that his term of office would expire on May 1, 1924. Ivan Ohiyenko could not serve his term and left Ukraine, on November 16, 1920 never to return.
“We thought it best never to discuss our family ties with Ohiyenko, even among ourselves,” points out Iryna Tiurmenko.
Prof. Tiurmenko spoke on the subject “Cultural-educational Life of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s-1930s” and could not but mention that Ivan Ohiyenko’s inspired effort was cut short in Kamyanets-Podilsky, when Volodymyr Zatonsky, Commissar of Public Education of the first Soviet government, addressed a telegram to all educational establishments in Ukraine, in September 1920:
IMPORTANT COLON PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION RE KAMYANETS-PODILSKY UNIVERSITY STOP LOCAL COMMUNISTS REPORTED STRONGLY INFLUENCED BY PETLIURA INTELLIGENTSIA STOP NO REAL FORCES TO MAINTAIN UNIVERSITY AT PROPER LEVEL IN KAMYANETS[-PODILSKY] STOP STUDENT BODY NEGLIGIBLE COLON UNEMPLOYED GIRLS AND YOUNG MEN FROM PRIESTS’ FAMILIES STOP SENILE SCHOLARS AND QUOTE PROMINENT SCHOLARLY FIGURES UNQUOTE LIKE LEBED-YURCHYK COMMA HETMAN’S LATER PETLIURA’S PURSER COMMA CURRENTLY TEACHING FINANCIAL LAW COMMA STILL DOMINATE SAID UNIVERSITY TEACHING STAFF STOP PROFESSORS SITTING PRETTY AT UNIVERSITY EXPENSE COMMA HOPING TO ESCAPE WEST STOP ALL THESE SHOULD BE FIRED STOP SAID UNIVERSITY IN ITS CURRENT CONDITION DISCREDITS SOVIET POWER END
Shortly afterward, Soviet authorities set up two higher schools in Kamyanets-Podilsky, the Pedagogic and the Agricultural Institute. Such was the irony of fate that the pedagogical one would bear the name of Volodymyr Zatonsky to the end. The Ukrainian authorities, after restoring the university status of this educational establishment, are still to give full credit to its founder.
“We formally asked Kyiv’s permission to name the State University of Kamyanets-Podilsky for Ivan Ohiyenko,” says Rector Oleksandr Zavalniuk, adding that the chapter he and his colleague Oleksandr Komarnitsky wrote for the book mentioned was meant as a “reply to the left orthodox and all those Soviet-made “candidates of science” still vehemently rejecting Ivan Ohiyenko’s role in Ukrainian state building.” The former point to those “blank pages” in Ohiyenko’s biography, saying that during World War II he “waged a pro-German policy through sermons and divine services.” Ohiyenko’s awakening to reality was hard and it took much courage. “Our nation expected help from the Germans in its losing battle against the Bolsheviks and [other] enemies of the Ukrainian national state, but, alas, we made the wrong choice,” was Ohiyenko’s own painful inference.
“Those supporting the old ideological doctrine continue to judge their fellow men by their persuasions, denying them the right to harbor views different from theirs,” Oleksandr Zavalniuk counters his opponents.
