Kyiv honors its UNR warriors

Last Saturday a monument to the Kyiv-born officers of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) Army was unveiled. It is a big white cross, an enlarged copy of the Symon Petliura Cross Order, as is traditionally placed on the graves of UNR army veterans. This award was created by the UNR Army Colonel Mykola Bytynsky and approved in 1932 by the UNR State Center in exile. It was created to honor everyone who fought in the ranks of the UNR or among the insurgent troops for the independence of our country. Later the Petliura Cross came to symbolize UNR army veterans.

Yet the monument in Kyiv is more than a nameless symbol. The three memorial boards set on the granite plate at the cross’s pedestal list the names, surnames, dates of birth, and where possible dates of death of the Kyiv-born servicemen. Before the monument was erected a thorough study was carried out by several historians, including Yaroslav Tymchenko, Mykhailo Kovalchuk, and Andrii Lukas, who studied the army lists compiled after the UNR warriors were interned in Poland in 1921. The researchers succeeded in identifying the names of 34 Kyiv residents.

The monument itself is Pavlo Podobied’s brainchild. The parishioners of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of

God “The Burning Bush,” the Heroika Charity Initiative, and Kyiv-based Union of Ukrainian Youth joined him in his efforts. The unveiling ceremony was attended by representatives of the Nationwide Union of Veterans, the Military Reconstruction Club “The Intelligence Platoon of the 3rd Iron Division of the UNR Army,” the Homin Chorus, Taras Kompanichenko (an influential modern-day kobzar and soloist of the rock-folk band Karpatians), as well as the participant of the semifinal of Ukraine’s Got Talent Yaroslav Dzhus.

“Once I personally appealed to the dean of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God ‘The Burning Bush’ Rev. Viktor with the initiative to establish a plaque to commemorate the Kyiv-born warriors of the Ukrainian People’s Army on the church’s territory,” Podobied told The Day, “Not only did Rev. Viktor support the initiative, but he also offered to establish a monument. The money needed for this was raised by the parishioners of the church, and a Kyiv lawyer, who wanted to remain anonymous, also provided financial assistance in realization of this idea. Today it is extremely important that the value of the Ukrainian national-liberation movement in 1917-21 be reassessed and the participants of that struggle worthily honored by society. In our opinion, this is one of the ways to revive our statehood and patriotism.”

Although the unveiling ceremony was only attended by several dozens of people, as most Kyiv residents began to celebrate the Kyiv Days at the time, those who helped erect the monument are sure that “what we sow today does not grow immediately on the next day, yet we must make the efforts now nonetheless.”