Ukrayina Incognita: The View From Pryluky

THE BOOK’S INNER MEANING

Let me begin my reflections on the just-read book Ukrayina Incognita by quoting one of its authors, respected Professor of Philosophy Serhiy Krymsky, as saying that “the world is a book, and the book’s meaning is inside it” — a phrase I truly like. Having worked in a library for many years, I involuntarily realize that I perceive the world exclusively through the book. While I lose my bearings in the chaotic daily routine, I feel snug and comfortable in the world of books. I absorb the variety of events, delve into the contents, and heal my lightning- stricken soul.

Much to my chagrin, this book in unavailable in our library’s depository. Nor have I traced it in the advertisements of the publishing houses and booksellers I watch. I still cherish a hope to find it, and I am sure it would be of great use for our readers. For it contains rich area-studies material and mentions such well-known places as Kachanivka, Didivtsy, Hustyn, as well as the names of the famous people who visited Pryluky.

Strange as it might seem, I can still remember a college history exam and the examination card with a question on Petro Shelest’s book, Ukraine, Our Soviet Land. Having never read or laid eyes on the book, I nevertheless waxed eloquent about the author’s erroneous nationalistic views. I got a good mark and thus took a sin on myself, speaking out about what I had never read, understood, or seen. It is perhaps since then that I have taken it upon myself to tell my readers only what I know for sure, thus assuming moral responsibility for every word I say.

Unknown Ukraine... Yes, many find the history of Ukraine still hidden under a thick layer of indifference and oblivion. Even if we know something, we still take no pride in it, do not value what we have, and kowtow to foreign sanctums.

The book in question is unique not only because it is authored by prominent Ukrainian figures but also because it allows looking on the personalities of yesterday as our contemporaries. It allows readers to hear a confident voice of our own, not that of the faraway diaspora, it enables us to speak out from the bottom of our heart.

Still, as we are speaking about an unknown Ukraine, it is worth recalling the name of an individual who undoubtedly enjoys the incognito status in his own country. I have read more than one publication eloquently titled 100 Well-Known Ukrainians or so and all kinds of reference books on the history of Ukraine. None of them mentions the name of P. P. Biletsky-Nosenko, a belletrist and fable writer, translator, literary critic, linguist, ethnographer, artist and enlightener, author of the first dictionary of the Ukrainian language.

There was a time when his name was well known far outside Ukraine, but then the ashes of indifference and oblivion smothered the sparkle of great flame at the crossroads of history... And it is unbearably painful that, while we know Dahl’s dictionary (of the Russian language — Ed.), we have not even heard about the one who first ventured to create a dictionary of the Ukrainian language! But I relish the thought that this name will find the rightful place on the pages of such publications as Ukrayina Incognita.

There are many clever books, but, for some reason, when we read them, we fail to see what is written and are afraid to overcome certain stereotypes, so that new impressions do not throw our imagination and minds into confusion. Let us remember that the dream of reason produces monsters.

HIGH SKIES OF THE SOUL

A high sky... You can only perceive this height in yourself when you look deep inside. Serhiy Krymsky’s monologues about Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and the wisdom of being strike a high and beautiful chord in a human. All you want is to reread, memorize and quote these lines — they leave a brilliant thrilling sensation in you.

Man, personality, soul, wisdom of the universe, man’s harmony with nature — all this occurs in the monologues, this is what the professor reflects on and thinks through. Ukraine is not without reason called “a special region of the world.” We are special too. Perhaps we are not yet aware of what this statement means, we are still to understand that we are heirs to a great culture and wisdom if our capital has such a shrine as St. Sophia’s. Indeed, we can always neglect our soul and cultural achievements, but it is high time we overcame difficulties, went our own way, and got a better deal.

You will perhaps say, “Theses are nothing but fine words, but we are poor and hapless Ukrainians from a country nobody knows.” Why then, when you go through and read the unique book Ukrayina Incognita, you feel you are a person, you believe in the spirit of good, beauty, and the high skies of not only St. Sophia’s but also of all Ukraine? Because, as Prof. Krymsky says, “you can only take part in, not see, history,” and all we, Ukrainians (wise-hearted people), should do is live wisely and nicely, which we cannot do unless we respect and take pride in our past.

Another important factor is that Ukraine is a Christian, optimistically Orthodox, country (incidentally, according to Prof. Krymsky, the idea of ontological optimism was embodied precisely in St. Sophia’s). In Ukrainian culture, even “tragedy has always been interpreted in epic terms only.” This shows the uniqueness and inimitability of the Ukrainian soul, the great strength we have been historically vested with. So let us value our inner “high sky,” the one our ancestors have handed down to us.

It gave me a great pleasure to read your book Ukrayina Incognita. I would like to thank you and your colleagues sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, for the useful and indispensable job you are doing every day. This should be a household book for all Ukrainians. Both for those who have forgotten that they are Ukrainians and for those who have yearned for decades, for the hour when you can freely feel yourself a Ukrainian. To our deep regret, present-day intellectuals are not in a position to either subscribe to the periodicals they need or buy a book as irreplaceable as bread or air. We can no longer afford this kind of luxury. What is left for us is the boob tube which feeds us our daily share of blood bath from the United States, bare butts from Europe, and select four-letter words from Muscovy. That’s all. But so much about that.

I am one of those provincial (in the finest sense of the word) custodians of memory whom you mention in the preface to the book. I have been chief curator of sweet Pryluky’s ethnographic museum for more than three decades. I have been interested in and studying my native land all my adult life. My heart bled when I saw the lingering death of beautiful and majestic Cossack cathedrals and churches of Pryluky, monasteries of Hustyn and Aldan, luxurious manors and parks, once famous throughout Ukraine, such as those of de Balmain and Zhevakhov at Lynovytsia, of Volkonsky at Bilorichytsia, of Horlenko at Zayizd, of Miloradovic at Perevolochna and Kaliuzhnytsi, and of less known families, such as of Aleksandrovich in Bohdanivka and of Kysil in Didivtsy, plus a dozen of Pryluky’s own picturesque nooks and crannies.

All this causes the same acute pain today as it did before, when I hear sermons and prayers delivered in an alien language in our rebuilt churches, when I see Pryluky-born Ukrainians praying to the icons portraying Moscow Tsar Nicholas Romanov or the Riazan-based Bishop Vasily Zelentsov canonized by Moscow as recently as 1997 for his heroic struggle against the revival of the Ukrainian church. Word has it Ivan the Terrible and Peter I are next in line. Why not add Lenin and Stalin to this coterie? They are none the worse! The Ukrainians will put up with this, for they are docile and obedient; they will pray the way Big Brother says.

It pleases me that the book contains materials about the Udai area near Pryluky. I would like the respected Mr. Volodymyr Panchenko, author of The Enigmatic Kostomarov, to come to our place and see the condition of the Kysil mansion which our great historian once visited. This would prompt him to continue writing on the subject, which would in turn help preserve this beautiful monument.

In conclusion, I want to cordially wish you and your colleagues fruitful work, interesting finds, and discoveries. Be happy and well!