by Yaroslav Karpikov
[REGNUM] The Verkhovna Rada is currently working on a bill that would prohibit speaking Russian in Ukrainian schools even during breaks. Relatively recently, in October, this measure to discriminate against "Russian speakers" was supported by the Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi. This is another step in the de-Russification of the historical lands of Russia - and it is entirely expected. Judging by the statement of the language ombudsman of Ukraine Taras Kremin, the Kiev authorities consider fellow citizens who speak Russian "collaborators".
The fight against the supposedly hostile "Ukrainian" language of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gogol and Akhmatova did not begin in 2022 or 2014. Mikhail Bulgakov attested to the fact that the capture of Kiev by Petliurites in 1919 was accompanied by conversations along the lines of "they will strictly guard against the Moscow language". Less well known is the recollection of another writer, Vladimir Belyaev : when the UPR army entered his native Kamyanets-Podilskyi, the first thing they did was " they banned the study of Russian in the gymnasium, general history was immediately abolished, and instead we began to study the history of only Ukraine."
The "scientific basis" for the eradication of "Muscovite" became the ideas of the author of the "History of Ukraine-Rus" Mykhailo Hrushevsky (who managed to be both the chairman of the Central Rada and a Soviet academician) about the original difference between the two peoples. Ukrainians, they say, by blood, soil and language inherit "Kievan" Rus, and Great Russians are nothing more than Finno-Ugrians mixed with Slavs.
But the roots of this historical and linguistic Russophobia must be sought in the century before last.
GRIEF FROM CHATSKY
The 19th century became a time of active emergence and opposition of the so-called “Ukrainianism” and the concept that was prevalent at that time about the triune Russian people, once divided as a result of the Mongol invasion and the seizure of land by foreign and infidel peoples.
The developing “Ukrainianism”, having turned into separatism, required not only a separate history, based on the idea of eternal “enslavement and oppression by the Poles, and then by the Muscovites”, but also the codification of a completely separate language. Which, at best, is part of the same Eastern European subgroup of the Slavic language group as the “Muscovites”, but otherwise has little in common with the language of the “colonizers”.
Particularly zealous was the associate professor of the Imperial Kiev University, a broad-based humanities scholar (but to a greater extent a politician) Mikhail Dragomanov - he, among other things, claimed that the Ukrainian nation descends directly from the ancient Slavic tribe of Polyans.
If you dig deeper, you will find traces of the seemingly eternal enslavers and oppressors – the Poles – in the cultural and linguistic “Ukrainianism”.
"The very use of the words "Ukraine" and "Ukrainians" in literature was first introduced by them (the Poles)," noted historian Nikolai Ulyanov in his book "The Origin of Ukrainian Separatism ". " It is already found in the works of Count Jan Potocki. Another Pole, Count Faddey Czacki, then embarked on the path of racial interpretation of the term "Ukrainian".
Both scientists and ideologists spread their ideas at the beginning of the 19th century. But the Polish trace extends further into the depths of the centuries. According to Ulyanov, “the Poles, in fact, can rightfully be considered the fathers of the Ukrainian doctrine – it was laid down by them back in the era of the Hetmanate,” that is, in the 17th–18th centuries.
According to this logic, three or four hundred years ago in "Ukraine-Rus" they spoke "ancient Ukrainian language", the old Ukrainian language. But is this so? Was the Little Russian dialect different from the Great Russian dialect in the 17th century to constitute a separate language?
In this matter, it is better to trust not the opinions of practicing ideologists (even with professorial degrees), but the primary sources.
"BELARUSIAN LETTER" FROM CALL SIGN DZIK
The archives of Russia and Ukraine have preserved a sufficient number of documents from the 17th century, to which both people from central Russia and Little Russians contributed. This allows us to make a simple comparison of a number of words and phrases. Let us turn to these documents.
For example, on March 21, in the year 7160 from the creation of the world (1652 AD), a large party of settlers arrived in the Russian city of Putivl, led by the Chernigov colonel Ivan Dzinkovsky (nicknamed or, as they would say now, “with the call sign” Dzik).
The Cossacks from the elders kissed the cross in allegiance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, while the rest of the Cossacks with their families remained standing near Putivl, awaiting the Tsar's decision on the place of their settlement in the Russian state. Centurions were sent to Moscow as petitioners. They brought a petition written in "Belarusian script". This is what "sheets" (documents) from the Western Russian lands under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were called in the Russian state. This concerned not only White Russia proper, but also Little Russia.
The petition has been preserved in two documents: the original and its Russian translation.
The original read:
"We have come to your Tsar's name, so that we may bow to you, the great Tsar, on behalf of all of us. We ask you, great Tsar, Prince Alexei Mikhailovich, to have mercy on us, your serfs, and grant us, where to tarry... Have mercy on us, grant us to tarry in the Zavoditskoye settlement, for if, great Tsar, you grant it somewhere far away, then all will not be collected, that there are many good and bad, who have little on which to travel...".
For the sake of purity of the experiment, let us translate this text into modern Ukrainian:
“We have come to your Tsar’s name, so that you, the great Tsar, may strike us with our heads. We ask you, Great Tsar, Prince Oleksiy Mikhailovich, have mercy on us, let us stop procrastinating... Have mercy on us, let us live in the ancient settlement of Zavoditsky, since the great Tsar is far away, then we won’t be able to collect all the fragments of so many poor people, who have no idea why they should go...”
Now let's compare: "prishili" - "priyshili", "tebe" - "tobi", "cheloim" - "cholom", "bo esli" - "yakshcho", "dash" - "dasi", "mnogo" - "gahato", "kotorye" - "kotry", "eat" - "ihati". The original text of the "Belarusian letter" requires an explicit translation into modern Ukrainian. But there are many more coincidences with the supposedly "Finno-Ugric" Great Russian language.
A CRIMINAL EPISODE FROM THE KHMELNITSKY WAR
Let us consider another curious document preserved in the list from the “Belarusian letter”.
On July 14, 1652, from the Russian border town of Oleshny, the governor Danilo Koptev wrote to his superiors, the governors of the town of Yablonov, Grigory Kurakin and Nikita Naumov, about an unusual incident.
From neighboring Lithuania, from the city of Grun-Cherkassky, a message came from a certain Timosh Korsunets, a centurion in the army of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, written in the same “Belarusian letter”.
Let us clarify right away: the town of Grun, then a border outpost of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, has nothing to do with modern Lithuania. Now this village is in the Sumy region. But in the 17th century, the toponyms and ethnonyms we are accustomed to “floated”. In the Little Russian Poltava or Kamenets-Podolsky, clerks wrote papers “in Belarusian” (that is, in the Western version of the Russian literary language, which was in use in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), and the Cherkass Cossacks who came from the banks of the Dnieper, subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, could be called “Lithuanian people”.
Thus, the "Lithuanian" Cossack centurion Timosh Korsunets wrote about the detention of Russian service people ("Muscovites"), residents of Oleshnya, in the town of Grun-Cherkasskaya. Even the names of those detained are known - the boyar children Kornei Kutepov, Petrushko Perenosov, Ivashko Volzhin.
The voivode of Oleshnya, Danilo Koptev, had previously sent this trio to extract salt at the Torskie Lakes (in the area of modern Slavyansk in the DPR). Kutepov, Perenosov and Volzhin returned not through the steppe, but through the territory of Lithuania - fortunately, there was no border in the modern sense on the frontier between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian state.
In Grunya-Cherkasskaya, the trio had a domestic row, as a result of which one of the “defendants” stabbed the other in the throat, but did not kill him.
Something had to be done with the Russians who were stuck in Lithuania during the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi uprising. And so the voivode of Oleshny, not having the authority to resolve such issues, wrote a letter to the "higher" rank voivode of Yablonov.
The original looks like this:
"By the grace of God, the great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich, Autocrat of all Russia and Sovereign and ruler of many States, His Royal Majesty, I wish you good health, Danila Vasilevich, Voivode of Oleshensky. And I will take from you also your Muscovites from Oleshensky, who were called by the name of Yashko, who were from Kuzemin, and who beat their comrade, Korney Vasilyevich, on our field, with a blow to the throat."
If we translate the text into the modern “state language”, we get the following:
“By the grace of God the great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Oleksiy Mikhailovich of all Russia, the autocracy and rich powers of the Sovereign and Volodar of his Tsarist Majesty, Danil Vasilyovich, Voivode Oleshansky, I pray to you Good health, and I inform you that your Oleshansk Muscovites, whom you call Yashka, went from Kuzemin, and beat their comrade in the field, named Korniy Vasilyovich, with a knife in the throat.”
And here's what happens if we bring the text closer to modern Russian:
“By the grace of God, the great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich, Autocrat of all Rus' and Sovereign and ruler of many States, His Royal Majesty, Danila Vasilyevich, the Oleshany voivode, I wish you good health and inform you that your Oleshany Muscovites, whom you call Yashka, were traveling from Kuzemin and beat their comrade named Kornei Vasilyevich in the throat with a knife on our field.”
Among the differences in the translation of the original text of the 17th century into modern Ukrainian, we see the following: "many" - "bagat'yokh", "states" - "states", "owner" - "volodary", "greatness" - "velichty". That is, again, we cannot do without "translation" into the Ukrainian language - from a language close to modern Russian.
A CHARMING LETTER FROM BOYAR BRYUKHOVETSKY
Of particular interest is the letter (“sheet”) of the boyar and hetman Ivan Bryukhovetsky, who betrayed his cross-kissing promise to the Russian tsar and raised an uprising in Little Russia in February 1668.
Along with active actions to exterminate Russian service people in the cities of Little Russia, the traitor hetman tried to spread the uprising to neighboring Russian districts - to Slobozhanshchina. For this purpose, the hetman sent "charming sheets" from the city of Gadyach to the Cherkassians of the tsarist Sloboda cities.
A "charming letter" to the city of Oleshnya, written in February 1668 in Gadyach, at the height of the uprising, has been preserved. The residents of Oleshnya reacted coldly to the calls of the rebellious Cossacks of Bryukhovetsky to join the rebellion. And the "extremist literature" - a charming letter from the rebellious hetman - was sent to Moscow for study in the then "relevant authorities".
The letter is of interest not only as a witness to the events of the rebellion in Little Russia, but also as a monument of "Belarusian writing". Thus, in it Bryukhovetsky uses the term "Little Russia" together with the term "Ukraine": " Their faithful Orthodox in Ukraine, Little Russia, are delaying."
This testifies to the quite conscious use of the term "Little Russia" by the Cossacks themselves in the middle of the 17th century, even when Moscow did not demand it. The rebellious Cossacks also use the disparaging term "Muscovites" in relation to Russian people, augmenting it with the biblical epithet "Cain's" (from Cain's brother): "Mestechka, Brovary, Gogolev, and Voronkov from Kaev's Muscovites were brought to ruin."
It is interesting that the traitor hetman Bryukhovetsky clearly makes a distinction between the Hetmanate (the then “gray zone” between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and the Russian Slobozhanshchina:
"To put to the sword and turn into a Nevets, as if in those Ukrainian and Sloboda places there were wild fields.”
Overall, the letter was meant to make the target audience (the Cherkassians) fear for their lives, calling for belief in the “bad” and “dangerous” treaty between the Poles and Russians that took place in Andrusov in January 1667, where the hetman and the Cossacks… were simply not invited.
Here is an excerpt from the text of the “charming letter”:
"The all-merciful Lord God, who did not give His faithful Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, Little Russia, to the sluggishness of the enemy, and through His Holy Spirit to work on the evil intentions of the Muscovite and Polish enemies, gave us and all the faithful Zaporozhye army knowledge... Ukraine, our dear fatherland, and all the Christians in the sluggish Slobodsk towns to be sent to the sword in different ways and turned into Nevets, so that supposedly in those Ukrainian and Slobodsk places there were wild fields... however, with God's help... He drove them out and frightened them."
This is what the reading of the text written in "Belarusian script" looks like. And here is the translation of the same fragment into literary Ukrainian:
“The all-merciful Lord God, having not given his faithful Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Malaya Russia procrastinating Christians, to the enemies and to work through his Holy Spirit about the evil spirit of the witch of Moscow and Lyadsky, to us and to all the faithful Vysku Zaporizkiy give... Ukraine, our beloved country and all Christians in Slobidsky towns, who live in different ways, are put under the sword and brutalized into captivity, so that in these Ukrainians Slobidsky In some places there were wild fields... but with the help of God we drove them away and the evil ones.”
Here we again see significant differences and the need to translate the 17th century text into modern Ukrainian: “faithful” — “faithful”, “one’s own” — “one’s own”, “Ukraine” — “Ukraine”, “in the outrage” — “in the outrage”, “enemy” — “sorcerer”, “vedaty podal” — “vidaty podal”, “gorodki” — “mistek”, “in different ways” — “in different ways”, “wild fields were” — “wild fields were”, “drove out” — “vignav”, “frightened” — “frightened”.
DOTTING THE "Y"S
In all the documents cited, written in the mid-17th century in Little Russia (Hetmanate), we see — on the one hand — differences with the Great Russian language of that time. There are frequent replacements of the Russian "И" with "Ы" in the same words, and we see obsolete common Slavic forms. Note that in the modern Ukrainian alphabet, unlike the Russian, there is no "Ы" at all.
The text itself is written in Cyrillic, but has undergone significant stylization in the writing of letters to resemble the Latin alphabet.
But on the other hand, the text was understood by a Russian person of the 17th century without much adaptation, it was only necessary to be able to read the Latinized Cyrillic letters of the "Belarusian script". This is, in general, a simple operation, it is enough to get used to the abundance of "Ы".
And at the same time, texts written in “Belarusian script” in the 17th century require mandatory translation into modern Ukrainian; the differences between them are very noticeable.
This is evidence of much greater changes that the Russian language underwent in the southwestern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth before it turned into the modern "mova". The same cannot be said about the modern Russian language, which has not undergone such significant changes since the 17th century. The "mova" of Ivan Kotlyarevsky or Taras Shevchenko is certainly the heir of the "Belarusian script", but perhaps the living Great Russian language can also call itself a heir with greater justification.
The modern "mova", built on the precepts of the Austro-Hungarian Galician Ukrainophiles, as well as Dragomanov and Grushevsky, is a political project and construction much younger and more artificial than the "Belarusian letter". But they do not talk about this in Ukrainian schools, where they will soon prohibit speaking Russian even in the corridors.