There are still pages from the history of Ukraine that we still have not properly read or evaluated. Our descendents will avidly study the heroic movement of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, these true knights who were the forerunners of our independence and who played an invaluable role in the struggle to establish a united, sovereign Ukrainian State. However, it is clear that mere admiration, even if it is sincere, is not enough: we should learn as much as possible about those heroes.
The event that took place on Sept. 29 in the Kyiv-based Mykhailo Hrushevsky House Museum (9 vul. Pankivska) added to the body of knowledge about this renowned military formation. That day a new book entitled The Ukrainian Sich Riflemen was launched. This a truly unique publication in that it not only describes, with the aid of illustrative materials, the historical path of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, but also offers a penetrating analysis of the most important events of Ukrainian history in the early 20th century.
In his opening remarks the historian Ihor Hyrych, who is a well- known Hrushevsky scholar, noted that the choice of venue for the book launch, the Mykhailo Hrushevsky House Museum, was not accidental. The Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were arguably the most reliable support for Hrushevsky in the tragic and unforgettable months of 1918, when the fate of united and independent Ukraine was being decided, and people like Yevhen Konovalets and Andrii Melnyk were Hrushevsky’s brothers-in-arms in this joint struggle (regardless of the way they estimated the Central Rada’s legacy afterwards).
In his speech Academician Mykola Zhulynsky focused attention on the exceptional “spiritual current” in the history of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen whose “struggle for national ideals is conducive to creative work in a wonderful and explosive way.” As Dr. Zhulynsky underlined, the Sich Riflemen left a unique body of literature, including poetry (Roman Kupchynsky is a brilliant example) and songs, as well as beautiful paintings by talented artists, who are not well known in Ukraine today: Lev Hets, Yulian Bosmaniuk, Lev Perfetsky, Ivan Ivanets, Olena Kulchytska, and others. During the launch the renowned kobzar Taras Kompanichenko performed a selection of beautiful Riflemen’s songs, including “Is This a Storm or Thunder,” “It is Thundering in the Mountains,” and “There, in the Trenches in the Valley.”
The well-known art historian, Professor Dmytro Stepovyk, noted that the book’s release in today’s era of mainly visual perception of information has a special significance because “my generation barely knew who the Sich Riflemen were. If the Sich Riflemen, a brilliant and unique page from our history, had not been reflected in art, mainly by Galicians, we would have forgotten about them or remembered them only in the Bolshevik interpretation.”
Dmytro Stepovyk, Ihor Hyrych, and historian Vladyslav Verstiuk expressed their sincere gratitude to the people who contributed to this book: compiler Olena Fedoruk, patron Taras Lozynsky, and the Collections Institute at the Shevchenko Scientific Society. They helped shed light on the history of people who may be called without exaggeration Ukraine’s finest.
