Battle for Ukraine. Historical front.

 

Some years ago, during my conversation with one foreigner on the historical topic, I heard a rather strange question: what is Ukraine, where did it come from, it had never existed. For now, I do not remember those few standard phrases of my answer, I do not remember whether my interlocutor was satisfied or not, but I exactly know that I was dissatisfied myself. Since then, I began my way to find out the answers in numerous books, scientific works, and articles, but instead of gaining a clear understanding, I found only new questions and new problems. I realized how deeply "sacralized" is a lot of questionable events and historical figures underlying the basis of our history. I have overcome a long and difficult way of understanding the history of the Ukrainian people. And today I would like to share the results of my search to tell you what it looks like – my own Ukraine.

I would like to emphasize that my research is far from complete, it has many white spots, and there may be misinterpretations of some episodes. Even more, I can say frankly, I would hardly have started this story right now, if it was not for the dramatic events that our country experienced today, if it was not the war and once more, the hard struggle for our freedom and independence. Lessons from our history are very important today. I am completely convinced that the well-known formula army, language, and faith is the basis, but it will never fully work without the fourth component - history. Without a correct understanding of our past, we will never realize the present and will not be able to build the right strategy for the future. On the other hand, unity is extremely important for us today - the unity of all Ukrainians all over the world, regardless of when and why they left their homeland. I am completely sure that the natural human desire to know the past of his ancestors could be a strong unifying factor for every person who considers himself a Ukrainian at heart, regardless of the color of his passport. This battle in the conditions of the XXI century is unique because for the first time in history could unite Ukrainians all over the world.

Today in our struggle for the truth there necessarily must be a historical front. We must once and for all destroyed centuries-old layers of lies and together with the reconstruction of our new Ukraine, restorative its material, the visible world we have to rebuild the world of our spirituality. We must do everything not to betray the memory of millions of heroes from all times who gave their lives in the struggle for Ukraine. We must clearly understand that hundreds of generations of Ukrainians were born, received some education, grew up, and passed away under the conditions of total falsification of history. However, there were also those who somewhere at the genetic level felt the truth, felt this unbearable pain for Ukraine, and could not accept the terrible injustice. They were constantly fighting with the much stronger enemy, fighting in all possible ways: someone by the power of words, someone by a sword on the battlefields, someone hardly working on the fields to provide food for others, someone with other possible and impossible methods. It is exactly due to their titanic work Ukraine has survived and obtain the chance not just to survive but also to shine and illuminate its way to the future. Today is the time for our generation to take the symbol of this struggle into our hands, and struggle for the Ukrainian future on all fronts. And as I think here on the field of history must be the "great ruin" ass well to build on the ashes of lie a new strong foundation of our true history.

Now we have the war, our towns and villages have been destroyed, and millions of innocent Ukrainian people were killed and wounded, but from all of this, a new Ukraine must emerge. We all understand that we will never be the same again. As I think, something similar should happen on the historical front. For a huge period, Ukrainians were deprived of the basic right to pronounce to their descendants from the depths of the ages. That is why our history in many documents could only be read between the lines of the text. And very often if you want to get closer to the Ukrainian past through written historical sources, you need to look carefully at the white background of the paper.

If it is God's will, step by step, as far as possible, we will talk about different topics, but all this will constantly revolve around the main core, which is my vision of Ukraine's past. I am going to talk about the world that has no material dimension, but for a correct understanding of contemporary events, understanding our past in its close relationship with the present and future is extremely important. Who we are, where are our roots, and why do the key moments of our history remain without an answer even now? Probably these and many other questions constantly worried every conscious Ukrainian. We all must understand that the tree of our state can receive life-giving energy and rise high to the sky only under one condition - if it will be strongly tied to its roots. I sincerely hope that the project I launched today will help us get closer to understanding the historical processes that took place at different times in Ukraine. I would like once more to emphasize that we will build a lot, however, at the same time, we will not be able to avoid a great ruin. Otherwise, we simply will not be able to see the truth.

Undoubtedly, during the short period of independence, our historians, who sincerely wanted to show the real Ukrainian past tried to amend Ukrainian historical annals, but for me, it looks like we are repairing the roof not paying attention to the bad conditions of its walls and complete absence of the foundation. Roof repairs are also important, but this measure is temporary and sooner or later we will have to go down to lay a strong foundation for our construction, and only then brick by brick build a complex structure with the name of "Ukrainian History". This process will not be easy, but it is necessary for the formation of a Ukrainian state. In my opinion, the main problem of our historical science is its strong connection with the works that have been written for centuries under the dictation of various censors. In this way, thousands, of books have been created with many false interpretations that we accept today as the truth. However, it is probably time to break this chain and not be afraid to break the lie, no matter how deeply it penetrated our minds.

We all clearly understand that history has never had a conditional way or two different scenarios. Everything that happened in the past happened according to one single scenario, which, of course, should be shown by experts. What do we see instead? I'm not going to go into detail right now just say only about three, in my opinion, the pillars on which our history are standing - the Slavs, Russ, and the Cossacks. Can our history today clearly explain the origin of at least one of them? I may surprise someone, but the answer will be no. Concerning the Cossacks, we have now more than ten theories of the origin of this phenomenon, which means that there is no clear answer. If there is no clear answer among the professional historians how ordinary people could understand the realities of the past? In my version of the Ukrainian history, there will be no different interpretations, each historical plot will have a single script, a single clear and understandable version of events, which fits into the general context of the history.

My view through the ages will be completely different from the so-called "generally accepted standard" recorded in many historical books. I am aware that someone may have a different position, but we live in a democratic country, where every citizen has the right to his own opinion and the possibility to publish it. I am ready for a constructive discussion, ready to correct mistakes because I understand very well that in many moments I will step into the unknown.

Ukrainian people have a truly unique history and it is our duty today to clean this diamond carefully and place it in the most visible place for the public survey. There should not be a person who does not know what Ukraine is anymore or such a Ukrainian who would not know about the greatness of his own people's past.

It happened so that in times of mortal danger, the whole burden of hard struggle was always undertaken by common Ukrainian people. It is exactly ordinary people who have preserved our language, culture, customs, and rituals that have preserved everything that today identifies us as a separate nation and what we are proud of,  preserved in most cases contrary to numerous ruling regimes. And today, these people are simply obliged to write and to know their history.