What steps are needed to boost Ukrainians’ knowledge of the Mazepa era?

Volodymyr MORYNETS vice-president for academic studies, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:

“What we need is a meticulous study of our historical continuity on all levels of education. The image of our own history — the way the nation imagines it — is being created by state-sponsored programs and fundamental scholarship. As Professor Kristian Gerner from Sweden said, history is not simply a recorded fact. A fact can be interpreted. Besides, history is always linked with the present and, depending on the way it is interpreted, it also colors that fact. This establishes a certain train of thought. A brilliant example is Mazepa, who was interpreted in a certain vein by the Russian imperial authorities, and that was the end of it. In a nutshell, one should remember that history is not only what there was but also what there will be.”

Rev. Yurii MITSYK, professor, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:

“Scholars are already doing a lot. Unfortunately, the state is not doing much. There are certain political forces that once cursed Mazepa and Petliura, and still do not want to see an independent Ukraine. These are the communists, socialists, and, to a large extent, the members of the Party of Regions. Imagine: only two members of the latter party voted in favor of recognizing the Ukrainian Holodomor as genocide.

“There are also questions for the Ukrainian people. They were under foreign domination for about 300 years. The finest representatives of our people were being destroyed, while the rest were being raised as slaves. You know, a slave who had grown up in captivity in the Roman Empire was more expensive than a slave taken prisoner in a war. The Romans knew that the latter was prone to rebelling in captivity. So we were raised as slaves. It took God one day to take the Jews out of Egypt, but it took the Jews 40 years to squeeze Egypt out of themselves.”

Tetiana LIUTA, historian, director of the Institute of Ukrainian Valor, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:

“The public should know that next year is the anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. This should be an instructive and therapeutic measure because all the events of Mazepa’s reign can be easily extrapolated onto the current political situation: hesitation at the crossroads, various political reference points. And the average Ukrainian generally needs to know more about Hetman Mazepa and his time. As Yaroslav Dashkevych once said about Mykhailo Hrushevsky, ‘He was not right because he lost.’

“A similar situation befell Mazepa. Undoubtedly, everything that he did in the sphere of culture is important. But all the other events require absolutely sober study and argumentation. We know next to nothing about Mazepa because of tsarist policies from the times of Peter I until 1917, such as the proclamation of the anathema against Mazepa, etc. We are constantly rewriting some sources and adding what these sources do not always reflect. For example, a collection of the hetman’s decrees and a volume of his correspondence have just been published, but everything that is stored in the libraries and archives of other countries has yet to be uncovered.

“But history is an elitist discipline that needs to be funded, and our historians are poor. They cannot afford to spend several years in, say, the archives in Cracow. So, as long as the state does not help us, there will always be unexpected discoveries: somebody went somewhere and found something. There are no serious publications on this subject in Ukraine as opposed to Russia, where The Documents of Peter the Great were published under all circumstances and social changes — during the existence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, as well as in modern times.

“I can foresee that somebody might want to make a film about Mazepa. I would hope that it would be different from the existing movies about our hetmans. Incidentally, when a filmmaker is shooting a historical movie overseas, he invites experts. As far as I know, a film about Kalnyshevsky is being made. But we, academics, have still not received a single version of the script. But it is very important to show Ukrainians their heroes in a talented, capable, and intelligent way.”

Volodymyr PANCHENKO, professor, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:

“This conference was in fact organized only by Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Obviously, there should have been more organizers, such as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Education and Science. Unfortunately, the state’s participation is nominal. This is also clear from the way the organizing committee headed by Ivan Vasiunyk, which is preparing to mark the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, is functioning: there have been six abortive attempts to hold a session in Poltava in the past six months.

“The state has many institutions for conveying historical knowledge to the grassroots. The trouble is that scholars try to shape, in one way or another, certain conclusions and truths that eventually remain inside a closed circle of academics. But when it comes to historical knowledge on the level of society, this raises a lot of questions. In my view, the state is supposed to bridge this gap between academia and the masses. There are some well-known and time-tested levers for this, such as cinema, television, and other media, and all kinds of semi-popular publications.

“I remember a few years back, when Stepan Koval won the top award at the Berlin Film Festival for his animated film Streetcar No. 9. I read the comments of various experts: if this had happened in another country, a studio would have been set up for such a young and talented filmmaker to enable him to continue his artistic experiments, because it is a question of the cultural message that all countries should be conveying.

“This is an important question: what kind of cultural message is Ukraine conveying to the world, and what role does the state play in this? When I mentioned that Ukrainian animator, I meant that cartoons can also have a historical plot. I remember when I was a child that I was really thrilled to watch the well-known cartoon serial about some Cossacks who played soccer and helped the Three Musketeers. It does a brilliantly job of showing what is called national psychology. For instance, the French are doing their moves on the soccer pitch and the Ukrainians, too, are shown in their characteristic colors. Such things never escape a child’s awareness. At least they didn’t escape mine.

“I would also add the system of education to the above-mentioned levers of influence on society’s awareness. Things are a little better here because there are new textbooks as well as historians with a new vision, who are writing these textbooks.“