The separatism of Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Ukraine’s economy is in deep crisis today, the country is on the verge of default. The question arises: "Why did the richest republic of the former Soviet Union become one of the poorest?" In the post-Soviet space, we can only compete in economic issues with Moldova and Tajikistan. How did we manage to squander the colossal economic potential? Maybe they went the wrong way? Maybe they chose the wrong guide? To answer the questions of today, you need to look back at historical way.Kievan Rus was a highly developed medieval state. The French queen Anna, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, left us written messages about how much her new French subjects were inferior to the ancient Russians in cultural and economic development. After the Nicene Council of 1054, world Christianity was divided into Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Kievan Rus - the cradle of the three fraternal Slavic peoples - fell apart into specific principalities, and therefore could not resist the Mongols in the East and the Lithuanians in the West. The Pope initiates not only the crusades to Palestine, but also contributes in every possible way to the besieging of the Teutonic and Livonian knightly orders at the borders with Orthodoxy. The task of the knights is to conquer the infidel Orthodox, to exterminate the stubborn, who remained to convert to Catholicism, and to put their lands in the service of the western Catholic civilization. Thus began the geopolitical struggle between the West and the East, which does not stop until today.
During this time, Ukraine managed to visit the “European Union” - Commonwealth, but for some reason, Ukrainians, who did not betray the faith of their ancestors, did not convert to Catholicism, were second-rate people. The Orthodox nobleman Bogdan Khmelnitsky became the first Ukrainian (although the concept of Ukraine did not exist then) a separatist who returned the Ukrainian people to the bosom of Slavic-Orthodox civilization. The relations of the Ukrainian hetman with the Russian autocracy were far from smooth and rosy, as Soviet historiography represented. But at that time it was the only right choice.
After the Pereyaslav Rada, the Grand Duchy of Moscow was transformed into a great empire, and the Ukrainians became an impregnating nation. Without an active political activity of such Ukrainians as Prokopovich, Bezborodko, Razumovsky, Skoropadsky, there would be no Russian Empire. And if you recall the Soviet empire - the USSR, the Ukrainians were the dominant ethnic group in the ruling class: the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, members of the Politburo, secretaries of regional committees, generals and marshals. What I mean is that some of my fellow historians in school textbooks tell tales of how “Muscovites” mocked the Ukrainians, hushing up the facts that repression and hunger concerned the whole huge country, and not only Ukraine.
After the death of Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Ukraine began the period of the Ruins. The successor of Bohdan - Ivan Vyhovsky - tried to return Ukraine to the Catholic "European Union", Yury Khmelnitsky tossed between Moscow, Warsaw and Istanbul. Peter Doroshenko was focused exclusively on the Turkish Sultan. It was mainly the common people who suffered from these rushing of the ruling elite, who from constant wars and a deep economic crisis were looking for a better life in the territories of Poland and Russia, settling in modern Slobozhanschyna. The second Ruin began after the October Revolution and the collapse of the Russian Empire. The third - after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It continues to this day. New hetman presidents pull Ukraine in different directions and are torn between Moscow, Brussels and Washington. Behind each of them stands the new Cossack officers - the modern oligarchs, and the very same Ukrainian people are suffering.
So what is the reason for our failures? Why do the Slav brothers look at each other today through the scope of various weapons? It is necessary to honestly admit that Ukraine has become a battleground for its geopolitical interests between the West and the East, between the USA and Russia. While Russia was rising from its knees after the collapse of the Union, Ukraine was not of particular interest to the West, and as soon as the Russians got stronger, Ukraine and other post-Soviet states began to shake all sorts of color “revolutions”.
The concept of the West on this issue was clearly formulated in his book “The Big Chessboard” by the American politician and scholar Zbigniew Brzezinski. He argues that Russia is doomed to be a minor Asian country until it integrates in the post-Soviet space — primarily with Ukraine. Z. Brzezinski appeals to all future presidents of the United States with an insistent desire not to let Ukraine into Russia's arms in order to prevent the “Russian Empire” as a great state from being revived, reasonably explaining that in this case the Americans will again have to share world leadership.
The American “son-in-law” - V. Yushchenko, who over the years 5 did not bother to draw Ukraine into NATO, despite the huge evergreen investments in his person, brought great disappointment to overseas politicians. The West had to reorient itself in its aspirations and hopes for a “lady with a scythe”. And then, you see, and the pro-Russian in the past, Yanukovych led Ukraine in the right direction - to associate membership in the European Union. Why did you lead without considering the economic consequences? Yes, because in the Ukrainian oligarchic regime, the country is not led by presidents and ministers, but by oligarchs. Over the years of independence, we have replaced 5 presidents and 19 governments, and only the oligarchs remain unshakable pillars of Ukrainian statehood. For their well-being, the European market is preferable to the Russian one, and their Russian colleagues, as richer ones, are dangerous competitors.
In order not to “lose” Ukraine, the United States, not only through its high-ranking officials, “fed” activists and organizers of the Maidan. During the 23 year of independence in Ukraine, a generation grew up that studied domestic history from textbooks written in the USA and Canada (O. Subtelny, D. Mayes). Every year, thousands of students visit the United States through various charitable organizations, and hundreds of Ukrainian military personnel improve their skills overseas; structures of Ukrainian civil society are being created for American dollars - all kinds of funds, centers, and media. If in the XVII century the Ukrainian foreman alternately kissed the cross on fidelity to the Polish king or the Tsar of Moscow, now he is ardently bending in the back in front of the American ambassador.
It is necessary to recognize nevertheless that the Ukrainian nation reached its greatest prosperity in close unity of the fraternal Slavic peoples. We are proud of the history of Kievan Rus, the Russian Empire, the USSR. We do not like to recall the Lithuanian-Polish, Tatar, Turkish, Austrian, Nazi occupation. That is why our business does not go, that at the birth of the state of Ukraine the godfathers were completely alien to us. Instead of a Christian cross, the pagan symbol of Prince Vladimir was hanged on the chest of Orthodox Ukraine. Having converted to Christianity in 988, he cruelly refused to accept pagan symbolism — he drowned pagan gods in the Dnieper and defiled pagan temples.
Swaddled "nenku Ukraine" in the flag of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Chairman of the Central Rada, Professor of History M. S. Hrushevsky, suggested that the yellow-blue flag be made a symbol of the new state to the UNR parliamentarians as a symbol of the new state from the considerations that in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, Russian regiments appeared under such banners. But the professor did not specify that the Russian regiments were represented only by the Galician-Volyn kingdom. The fact is that the coat of arms of the city of Lviv, which became the capital of the principality, and then the kingdom, is a golden lion on a blue background. Therefore, in order not to get lost in the army of thousands of representatives of different countries and nations, medieval Russian warriors raised yellow-blue banners above their heads (yellow color is on top, and blue is below).
An attempt to change the colors in some places was made by hetman P. Skoropadsky. The hetman was convinced that the yellow-blue colors have nothing to do with Dnieper Ukraine, that these are purely Galician symbols. The color of the banners of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, described in written sources, often changed, but the most preferred was crimson. Then, in order not to sew new flags (the treasury was empty), the hetman changes colors in places. He is credited with the idea of a blue sky and a gold field, in order to somehow legitimize these colors for the Dnieper region.
Speaking of history, it is impossible not to remember that the future state symbols of Ukraine — the emblem and flag — were used as elements of military uniforms of the SS division “Galicia” during the Second World War: a cockade with a trident and a yellow-blue sleeveless chevron. It was this fact that determined that not yellow-blue, but blue-yellow prapor got into the Constitution of Ukraine. Our Chinese friends from 1996 and still throw letters at the Ukrainian embassies, claiming that, according to Feng Shui, is blue above and yellow below is a road to a dead end.
And now about the lullaby - about the hymn. The poem "Ukraine has not yet died" was written by Pavel Chubinsky in the 60-ies of the XIX century, during the Polish uprising against the Russian autocracy. This was the answer-support of the Polish military anthem Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła. During his lifetime, P. Chubinsky recalled how this poem, which later became famous, was written. He argued that the idea to write such a poem arose at the youth party of the Ukrainian-Polish student intelligentsia. Then the details of the Polish uprising were vividly discussed, the youth admired examples of the heroism of the rebels and even sang their battle hymn.
After that, as P. Chubinsky recalled, he took a piece of paper and a pencil, wrote down the first line in which he expressed the thought that not only Poland, but Ukraine had not died yet and was ready to fight against Russia. The youth team, putting down the glasses of wine, joined together in the creative process. In the line “Zinnut our vorozhkі” means the Russians- “Muscovites”; “Ukraine vіd Syanu to Don” is the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth. When the poems banned by the government came to Pavel Verbitsky, he decided to put them on music, after removing a few lines, namely:
“Bogdane! Bogdane! Glorious our hetman!
Navi viddav Ukraine Muscovites trash? ".
It is quite natural that all the state symbols of Ukraine, drawn from history as anti-Russian, anti-Soviet (SS division "Galicia"), will contribute not to the establishment of friendship and mutual understanding between the fraternal peoples, but to the formation of hostility. With the same purpose, the cult of Hetman Mazepa was created in Ukraine. Not because he was a prominent military or political figure. His merit is that he betrayed the Russian Tsar. Ukrainian history textbooks are silent about the fact that he consistently betrayed the Polish king, right-bank hetman Doroshenko, left-bank hetman Samoilovich, princess Sofia, and even intended to betray the Swedish king Karl, but failed to agree on his forgiveness with Tsar Peter. Documents confirming these facts were published in the 19th century by the historian Panteleimon Kulish.
Euromaidan also contributed to stirring up anti-Russian hysteria. Let us recall that not only portraits of S. Bandera, but also all sorts of fascist and neo-Nazi symbols decorated the places of accumulation and overnight stay of the right radicals. But this is not important. It’s much worse that after Euromaidan, ordinary Ukrainians and prominent politicians began to shout in unison: “Glory to Ukraine! - Glory to heroes!". The words are wonderful, but the slogan itself is “delicate”. This slogan appeared in the middle of the 30-s of the XX century in the military structures of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. First, under these exclamations, Poles were slaughtered and killed, and in the 40s and 50s of the last century, teachers, agronomists, and land surveyors — young girls — were executed, all of which was to be sent to work Western Ukraine.
How to overcome another Ruin in our history?
1. Reload our state, symbols, foreign policy. Ukraine should become the center of the fraternal Eastern Slavic world and Orthodox civilization. Internationalism is the unbreakable principle of domestic politics.
2. Business must be removed from power.
3. The base for the official should be the salary of the school teacher. The president receives, for example, 5 salaries for teachers, the minister and deputy of the Verkhovna Rada - 4. No benefits.
4. To fight corruption, create an Anti-Corruption Committee, whose employees will not be appointed, but will nominate their best representatives to individual enterprises and institutions as the conscience of their team, and be responsible for their impeccable service. It is advisable to return the death penalty for repeat offenders and bribe-takers.
5. The decentralization of power and the consolidation of the subjects of the administrative-territorial structure. Donbass - 3 areas; Galicia - 3 area; Sloboda - 2 areas; Skirts; Dnieper, etc. This will reduce the cost of management staff.
6. Literate humanitarian policy. By all-Ukrainian referendum to determine our heroes, our traditions and holidays. Only a territorial community, and not a visiting group of revolutionaries, can decide which monuments should stand on its territory.
Political elites should remember that any interstate union is fraught with the loss of part of sovereignty, and the rejection of the national army, recruited through the recruitment of recruits, and the transition to the army on a contractual basis is possible only in the collective security system of a group of states.
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