Viktor Horobets

For the nearly three centuries that have passed since Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s death, the state and political activity of the leader of the Ukrainian Hetmanate from 1686 to 1709 has been arguably the most controversial and contentious issue for both Ukrainian historians and the public at large. As...

The centuries-old history of the relations between the Zaporozhzhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars, their southern neighbors, contains the examples of relentless confrontation and enmity as well as of peaceful coexistence and even close cooperation. History also recalls the Crimean Khanate as a...

Each of the offices mentioned would undoubtedly have meant a high social status. It would have obviously been difficult to make a choice if fate had decreed to choose one of them. Kyrylo Razumovsky (1728-1803) faced no such dilemma, for he held the offices of both President of the Russian Academy...

It would be very difficult, if at all possible, to find another figure in Ukrainian history viewed by descendants at such different angles as Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Treachery and venality incarnate for some; profound love of his native land and being prepared to sacrifice his own life for its well-...

(Conclusion. See The Day Nos. 3, 5, 9) IV. THE MOSCOW TREATY OF 1654: PHANTOM OR A REALITY THAT DID NOT SUIT EVEN CONTEMPORARIES? The Moscow-Chyhyryn Bermuda Triangle of 1654, or when and where did the original of the Ukrainian-Russian treaty disappear? Even the liberal arts education...

(Continuation. See The Day of January 28 and February 11, 2003) III. THE “HOT” FEBRUARY OF 1654 The main lesson that Bohdan Khmelnytsky must have drawn from the Pereyaslav events of the early winter of 1654 was that one should be well prepared not only for war but also...

The President of Ukraine’s decree on proclaiming 2003 as the Year of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, along with the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the 1654 Pereyaslav Cossack Rada, has again drawn the attention of the public and diverse political parties. The attention directed towards...

This tale, which could almost qualify as a war or detective story was set in motion by that ill-famed hero of the Ukrainian Clio of the mid-seventeenth century, Prince Jarema Wiszniewiecki. As we know, Prince Jarema, uncrowned Ukrainian king, owned a long string of enormous estates in Left Bank...

It is, of course, quite difficult to find out today whether or not Peter I liked the taste of Ukrainian fatback and allowed it to be served to his dinner table. Conversely, it is not difficult at all to reconstruct the attitude of the Russian Empire’s architect to Ukrainian fatback in the political...

There seems to be nothing in common between fragile beauticians and gunners, the merciless servants of Mars. But if you read attentively the Kyiv guild of barbers charter approved at a general guild meeting in June 1767, you will see that, before applying for membership in the hairdressers’...