People in Lutsk had looked forward to and got prepared for a meeting with The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna, sharing the few copies of Ukraine Incognita they had bought in Kyiv or Lviv. I know that among those attending the ceremony at the university library were not only professional historians and political scientists, but also people genuinely interested in Volyn history, who had somehow learned about the presentation. During the meeting they discussed topics raised in the book and how the book had been made a reality, obviously a very timely publication now that they were digging a foundation next to the national relic, Kyiv’s Hagia Sophia, and the campaign headquarters of the “beloved people’s elects” was on the cathedral premises (it is actually hard to say which of the two is more blasphemous), when Ukrainian living in different regions continued to misunderstand each other (something that Vyacheslav Lypynsky, statist ideologue, regarded as the source of the worst trouble for Ukraine), when Ukraine was for many not their Promised Land but terra incognita. Ukraine Incognita contains works on history, including the ancient period, that are much more topical than meets the eye. The fact was stressed by Hryhory Hurtovy, Volyn’s reputed teacher of history who created a unique local studies museum at the village of Torchyn and ran it for 45 years on a voluntary basis. He had read in the book about the Roman Road and reminded the audience that over a thousand Roman coins had been unearthed near Bilostok, a village in Volyn oblast, along with a legionary cemetery discovered by the village of Horzvyn. He had also read about the Tatar Trail and offered to take those interested to Torchyn old- timers who knew about the place from their grandparents.
Volodymyr Baran, Deputy Rector of Volyn University, stressed Ukraine Incognita’s value, that “while refuting old myths, it does not create new ones.” In his opinion, this presented a “mosaic” which, if you took a closer look, “does not claim the status of, or was planned as, a reference source or a textbook offering an academic interpretation of history; despite the great influx of literature, it fills a certain niche and is interesting for both those to whom Ukraine remains terra incognita and those knowing about it by virtue of training and professional standing.” The Day’s journalists visited the ceremony opening a Ukrainian cultural center in Surgut, bringing several copies of Ukraine Incognita. It transpired that for 200,000 ethnic Ukrainians forming that community in western Siberia, the copies were but the only genuine cultural product over the past couple of years. Larysa Ivshyna pointed out that, under the circumstances, Ukrainians would soon have to prove that there is still a country known as Ukraine. The thing is that Ukraine is not mentioned in the Russian textbooks. Vice president of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy National University Volodymyr Panchenko, one of the book compilers, cited examples of Russia ignoring Ukrainian history. This summer Prof. Panchenko was a member of the jury of an international teachers contest at the Artek rest camp in the Crimea. He read a lecture on Ukrainian culture in the Crimea, on Chersonesus, and Prince Volodymyr. And then he was posed a question by a scholar, author of a textbook included in the Russian grade school curriculum. He thought the question was rooted in genuine human interest, but what the man wanted to know was what Prince Volodymyr actually had to do with Ukrainian history. He also heard a straight A Russian student ask a straight A student from Zaporizhzhia about how Kyiv had come to be the capital of Ukraine, considering that city being “the mother of Rus’ cities.”
In a word, Ukraine Incognita had to appear in print; the time was ripe. It should not be a textbook kept on a bookshelf and taken down now and then for reference. In Larysa Ivshyna’s words, the book had to serve as an “argument to be used in intellectual debate, in shaping a new class that would make national history really effective, and who would find the book actually helpful.”
They say that history is a teacher. It does teach and so do books serving as an eye-opener on our history heretofore written by others. This is only one of the results of the presentation at Volyn University, marking an extremely important intellectual event in Lutsk.
