The following is an interview with a man whose social standing is known to most of us from history textbooks. His name is Mykhailo Karachevsky-Vovk, Grand Prince of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Karachevo (a small town not far from Briansk), and a descendant of the Riurik dynasty. He is 69, but looks youthful and athletic. He is very courteous. And he is a foreigner, because our country still shows little interest in princely families and has for the past several years denied him Ukrainian citizenship. Meanwhile, in most European countries, people descending from former royal dynasties or other noble families, being genuine aristocrats, appear to be playing important roles in the social realm, being involved with charity, upholding various cultural projects, paying for the restoration of old estates, castles, and fortresses. Most importantly, these people are evidence that the time is not out of joint in those countries and that they are not without kith or kin.
This author has not had much of an experience communicating with princes, especially grand ones, even less so of the Riurik dynasty (actually, it was my first such interview), so I asked how I was supposed to address him. He courteously informed me that “Prince Mykhailo” or “Your Highness” would be perfectly all right. It was hard at first, but then I got used to it. Our interview turned out a little muddled, we jumped from one subject to the next; there was so much I wanted to know, and he was eager to tell me even more. Every now and then the prince would jump up and dash to the shelves with archives, picking files, unfolding charts, so in the end I found myself buried under sheets illustrating family trees of noble families of the Russian Empire, including those in the province of Chernihiv, Polish aristocrats, and French certificates. All bore evidence of what His Highness said: his family came from St. Volodymyr and Yaroslav the Wise; more precisely, from Prince Mykhailo of Chernihiv (killed by the Golden Horde in 1246 and eventually canonized).
Back home, I made a futile attempt to analyze the Karachevsky- Vovk family tree (something I had never done before). Needless to say, I could figure out little in the documents I read. So I decided to address the following questions to His Highness through The Day, lest I impose on his time:
(1) How could your father, Prince Mykola/Nikolai, have been a “representative of the Russian Navy in Tunisia” during World War I, considering that he was born in 1901?
(2) According to the Karachevsky-Vovk family trees, kindly lent me by Prince Mykhailo, there ought to be numerous other descendants of St. Mykhailo of Chernihiv residing in Ukraine and Russia — e.g., the Massalskis. Zvenyhorodskys, Obolenskis, Yeletskis, et al. Do all of them have a right to claim accession to the Kyiv princely throne? After all, there must be offshoots of those old Riuriks ruling Kyiv, like Volodymyr Monomakh.
(3) This is a hypothesis, rather than a question: Could the Karachevsky family have descended from Karach Murza, a baptized Tartar of the White Horde (fourteenth-fifteenth cc.) who, so the documents say, was palatine of Karacheve? One is reminded of another baptized Tartar of the Godunov family [e.g., Boris Godunov]
Yet another remark for the reader’s benefit. Prince Karachevsky-Vovk was born, studied, and lived most of the time outside Ukraine. Therefore, it would be unfair to require from him a keen awareness of our current realities and problems — the more so that we are often overwhelmed by them ourselves. Thus one must rely entirely on the prince’s good intentions.
Has Your Highness, your family been always aware of its Riurik descent? If so, how has it affected your upbringing?
From early childhood, my brothers and I have been aware of our noble birth and lofty mission. We studied our family tree dating from the tenth century. We knew that in almost a millennium the blood running in our veins had received numerous admixtures — Russian, Polish, French, and Tartar. Just to think of the places people of the Karachevsky-Vovk family had lived: Chernihiv, Kyiv, the Golden Horde, ancient Karacheve, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Manchuria, Warsaw, and Paris.
We often discussed our family tree among ourselves, people living in different places, doing different things, what they had lost after the October Revolution. In the Ukrainian capital, you have the Kyiv Hotel built in place of our estate. And there is a piece of land where the princely mansion had stood, currently at 22 Hrushevsky Street (it was destroyed by a Nazi air raid during World War II.
How has your princely parentage influenced the family lifestyle, the relations between the parents and children?
Indeed, there was protocol to be observed even within the family. Every evening we would certainly approach father to kiss his hand. Woe on those he wouldn’t let do it. It meant that some one of us had done something terribly wrong. Going back on one’s word was considered an especially grave offense. Every Monday we would speak only English; every Tuesday Italian; every Saturday German, and so on. Studying at the Jesuit College of St. George in Paris was also important. It was an institution meant for students of noble birth, ОmigrОs from the former [Russian] empire: Ukrainians, Russians, White Russians, Lithuanians, Georgians, and so on. Such an international student body had a very positive impact on our education, cultivating tolerance and an interest in foreign cultures. The girls studied at St. Olga’s Finishing School. We would meet them once a week, talking, dancing, and singing. I still remember with pleasure our meetings with the three young Poliakov beauties: Maria (later known as Vlada) and her two sisters. Let me stress that studying at that Catholic college never meant abandoning the Orthodox faith. We studied God’s Law at an Orthodox church, under the able guidance of Metropolitan Afanayil.
Would you please enlarge on your personal occupation? How do you earn your living, being a prince? Do you have a rich legacy?
I have worked all my life, as a diplomat and attachО at embassies. At one time I represented a French pharmaceutical business in Moscow and Warsaw. In a word, I have been involved in commerce and still am. As for legacy, my father’s fortune — money and historical values — is stored at a Swiss bank. His last will, however, specifies that I have no right to take possession of it for as long as the Communist Party rules Ukraine.
Meaning you don’t even know how much you have inherited? Who did your father bequeath the family riches to?
I am the sole inheritor, although I’m the youngest of the four sons. The riches kept in the bank vaults are like those of Hetman Mazepa. Before his death, my father also gave me his princely signet ring and instructed me to make every effort to restore monarchy in Ukraine, princely rule.
But isn’t monarchy a somewhat archaic order that does not strictly answer the twenty-first century realities?
Not exactly, even if because such prosperous countries as Great Britain and Spain are monarchies. Remember what happened in Bulgaria recently? The former tsar became the head of government. In a civilized country, the monarch can discharge extremely important social functions, including the reconciliation and integration of different social strata. Monarchs take up charity, supporting important cultural initiatives and upholding traditions. They also closely follow government policy, careful to see it serves the people’s good. To sum it all up, the monarch is an intermediary between God (for he is the anointed sovereign) and the politician. For example, not all of us know that Vyacheslav Lypynsky was an ideologue of Ukrainian monarchy. Quite a few fathers of the Ecumenical Church, previous and latter-day, have believed that such notions as Orthodoxy and monarchy are inalienably interconnected. Patriarch of Constantinople Anthony wrote, “It is impossible for Christians to have a church but not have a king.” (We are only too familiar with such ideas, currently jealously professed by the right, most extremist wing of the Russian Orthodox Church — Author)
Could I consider your statement as a kind of political program? Does it mean that Prince Mykhailo intends to participate in the political life of Ukraine?
God forbid! Politics is a very dirty business. I think that events will take their course, God willing. The title of Grand Prince may be eventually reinstated and conferred, not on me but on my only son or on his son. I’m sure of one thing. My experience as a diplomat and an army officer (I fought in Algeria as a French legionnaire), and as a businessman, will come in handy for Ukraine in any case.
I could corroborate this by saying that very important people in power are planning to entrust me with settling religious problems in Ukraine, overcoming the rift in your Orthodoxy and forming a single Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Your Highness, with all due respect, you are embarking on an extremely trying mission. So many people have tried to do the same, at the highest of levels, and failed. It is a Gordian knot that none has succeeded in untying or even cutting. But to get back to matters dynastic, you are the founder and head of the Ukrainian Aristocratic Union. What are the UAU main fields of endeavor? Barring, of course, the painstaking efforts involved in the formation of a latter-day Ukrainian aristocracy, establishing historical facts and confirming one’s noble status? How many members does your union have? Which of prominent names could you cite as holding this enviable status?
Charity belongs to one of the UAU priorities: helping the elderly, large underpaid families, and children, of course. It includes aid to choirs and financing scholarships for gifted students. In a word, supporting Ukrainian culture in every possible way. In fact, this support figures high on the UAU priorities list. It’s just plans, for the time being, because our organization was officially registered only six months ago. We’re still trying to find premises, yet we have an agreement saying the UAU will be allocated several premises on the grounds of St. Andrew’s Church. The said premises are still occupied by the Theological Seminary of the Kyiv Patriarchate, despite the fact that the Ukrainian state formally allowed me to take possession of the princely Church of St. Andrew; I, for my part, transferred it to the Autocephalous Ukrainian Church. Well, it’s all a matter of time. (I must admit that, hard as I tried, I couldn’t figure out what the prince meant by having been allowed to take possession of St. Andrew’s Church — Author).
We have 150 UAU members at present, from various regions of Ukraine. I might as well mentions the names of Count Udovenko, a noted Ukrainian diplomat; Baron Hodas; Prince Oleksandr Hedroits of Kharkiv; Kyiv Count Oleksandr Razumovsky; Princess Vira Obolenska; Count Bilousov (Ukrainian embassy official in Poland), and Zinoviy Kulyk, a nobleman and editor of the periodical PIK. We have real experts doing archival research, among them Academician Voitovych, versed in the Riurik and Gediminas dynasties.
You have mentioned plans to unite the Ukrainian Orthodox community at large — this was what Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I dealt with himself not long ago. How do you propose to solve this problem?
The Patriarch of Constantinople (we are well acquainted, by the way), undertook to cope with a task not exactly in his domain; his prerogative is not to interfere in the domestic affairs of any local church. Such problems are solved by every such church and by every such country. I was approached by the president, premier, and foreign minister of Ukraine. They suggested that all the people of prominence and interested Ukrainian religious life combine their efforts and start the church unification process. We will start on the project in September, after the end of the summer vacations. We will cope with several problems at the same time. First, the formation of a single Autocephalous Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In addition, there should be a single Ukrainian Catholic Church, uniting the Roman, Byzantine, Armenian, and other rites. The third one will be a Ukrainian Protestant Church, attracting all the traditional adherents, among them Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, and so on.
Your Highness, don’t you think that all such plans sound a bit Utopian?
We are discussing important issues, and I have never undertaken any Utopian projects, so I might as well add that there will be two other religions in Ukraine: Islam and Judaism. Five major official churches in all. All the other sects are welcome to move to Moscow. They must be denied [official] registration. You will ask me about the constitutional freedom of conscience. One must simply remember that Ukraine has been a traditional Christian state since the times of St. Volodymyr.
Paraphrasing Rabelais, let us return to our Orthodox adherents. Are you aware that actually no one wants to unite with anyone here? For example, Metropolitan Mefody of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church to whom you have “transferred” the “princely church.” What will you propose to do if he refuses to join the Kyiv or Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church?
I am a descendant of a monarchic dynasty, by the Grace of God. This dynasty always concerned itself with church affairs. I will order him sent to a monastery, yet I think that he does understand what I want; there can be no foreign Orthodox church in Ukraine. After all, we must have our own indivisible and independent church. After we establish our single Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, the Patriarch of Constantinople will have its residence transferred to Kyiv. It is his cherished dream. Come to think of it, why should he have his see in an Islamic country and not in the age-old Orthodox Ukraine? (granted this is a quite interesting idea — Author).
Above all, let me tell you that I will be traveling abroad soon on two important missions. First, I’ll solve the problem of Ukrainian citizenship for Ukrainians living all over the world — there are about forty millions outside Ukraine. They and their money are still barred access to the native land. Considering the importance of the issue, I will have to act using the court of Strasbourg. Second, I will help prepare the Ukrainian diaspora for participation in electing the new Orthodox patriarch of the world Ukrainian community with a diocese in Kyiv.
I thank Your Highness for an extremely interesting interview.
