■I THE UKRAINE AND THE UKRAINIANS
STEFAN RUDNITSKY, PH. D.
Privatdozent of Geography at the University of I^emberg
Translated from the German by
JACOB WITTMER HARTMANN, PH. D.
Assistant Professor of the German I^anguage and I^iterature
AT TH8 CoI,I<EGB OF THE CiTY OF NEW YORK
With three explanatory maps.
f\i,'m
' ' ^' A/VVw\/'v
Jersey City, N. J.
The Ukrainian Nationai< Council
1915
f^UlKK.*^
ERRATUM :
Page 8, line 10 (from above) for: 750.000 square kilo-
meters, read: 75.000 square kilometers.
THE UKRAINE AND THE UKRAINIANS
STEFAN KUDNITSKY, PH. D.
Privatdozent of Geography at the University oe Lemberg
Translated from the German by
JACOB WITTMER HARTMANN, PH. D.
Assistant Professor of the German IvAnguage and Literature
AT the CoIvI,ege of the City of New York
With three explanatory maps.
Jersey City, N. J.
The Ukrainian Nationai. Councii,
1915
CONTENTS.
Page
I. Prefatory 5
II. Geographical Extent of the Ukraine 5
III. The Ukrainian Nation lo
IV. Race ^4
V. Language lo
VI. History i8
VII. Culture 3i
VIII. Significance of the Ukraine 33
IX, Bibliography I
X. Maps:
1. Map of Central Europe V
2. Map Showing the Soils of European
Russia VI
3. Map Showing Position of Ukrainian
Territory VII
2107623
I. PREFATORY.
Ukraine — Ukrainian — are names that mean little
to inhabitants of Central and Western Europe. It is the
object of these lines to introduce these names to as wide
a circle as possible and to restore to them the importance
which they have long appeared to lack.
The Ukraine is a vast territory in the southern part
of Eastern Europe which is inhabited by the Ukrainian
people. As a rule the country is erroneously called "Little
Russia", "South Russia", "West Russia". And with just
as little reason its inhabitants are called "Little Russians",
"South Russians", or, in Austria, "Ruthenians", "Russins",
"Russnjaks". Unfortunately, the physical geography and
the anthropogeography of this land and people are almost
as little known in Europe as their history and their pre-
sent significance, which results in an utter absence of
correct judgement on these matters.
What is offered here is not a scientific anthropo-
geographical essay, but simply an extremely concise state-
ment of everything that seems important in the bearing
of this subject on the present warlike era. Much that
appeared indispensable from the scientific standpoint had
to be sacrificed to the educational purpose of this paper.
IL GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT OF THE UKRAINE.
The Ukrainian nation lives in a compact, unbroken
country, larger in area than any other European state,
Russia alone excepted. The Ukraine extends over 850,000
square kilometers, being therefore one and one-half times
as large as the present German Empire.
Its surface includes the southern part of the eastern
European plain, resting in the south on the arch of the
Carpathians, the Jaila mountains, and the Caucasus, as
well as on the shore of the Black Sea from the delta of
the Danube to the mouth of the Kuban. Its northern
boundary is determined by the great swampy forest of
the Polissje on either side of the middle course of the
Dnieper. The vast plain extending between these long
boundary-lines is the Ukraine, one of the richest countries
on this globe, because of its rich black soil and its depos-
its of coal, iron, petroleum and salt. And this fair land
is the domicile of a race that has suffered, during the
past ten centuries, a multitude of most severe trials, but
which has nevertheless been able, although sometimes
but weakly, to conserve its territorial and ethnographic
integrity.
The ethnographic boundaries of Ukrainian territory
are the following : the western boundary begins at the
Sulina section of the Danube Delta, the city of Ismail,
passes through Akkerman in Bessarabia, then along the
lower course of the Dniester, past Orgiejeff and Bielzy,
to Nowosielitza. In the Bukowina, the Ukrainian boundary
passes via Storozynetz, Wikow, Moldawitza, Kirlibaba
to the source of the Tsheremosh, after which it enters
northeastern Hungary. Here it follows the course of the
Visso and Theiss rivers, as well as the Gutlnge Mountains,
and then, by way of the towns of Ujlak, Beregszasz, Mun-
kacs, Unghvar, Bartfeld, and Lublau, it reaches the Poprad
River in Galicia. The boundary line in Galicia between
Poles and Ukrainians is indicated by the towns of Grybow,
Gorlice, Dukla, Sanok, and by the River San as far as Jaro-
slaw and Sieniawa. In Russian Poland, the western
boundary runs east of the towns of Zamosc, Krasnostaw,
Lukow, Siedlce, Drohiczyn, finally terminating in the
province (government) of Grodno, at the source of the
Narew, in the forest of Bialowiez.
The northern boundary of the Ukraine, in the
governments of Grodno and Minsk, passes along the
Jasiolda River and Lake Wygonoshtsh, to the Pripet,
which it follows until that river empties into the Dnieper.
The continuation of this northern boundary in the
government of Tshernigoff is indicated by the course of
the Dnieper as far as Lojeff, then by the cities of Rylsk,
Sudsha, Obojan, Korotsha, Oskol; in the government of
Voronesh, by the river Don at Ostrohoshk, and the town
of Novochopersk.
The eastern line runs, in the basin of the Don, along
the river Choper to its mouth, then follows the Kalitwa
and the Lower Donetz and the Don as far as Novo-
cherkask, and then, following the Sal past Lake Manytsh
and the city of Stavropol, it strikes the northern approaches
to the Caucasus. At this point the boundary becomes
rather uncertain, for a very active colonizing movement
has been drawing Ukrainian peasants into this region
for decades, and a thin line of Ukrainian settlements
already extends to the Caspian Sea. At any rate the terri-
tory along the Black Sea, north of a line drawn through
Piatyhorsk, Labinsk, Maikop, Tuapse, is Ukrainian.
If we enter these boundaries on a political map of
Europe, we shall note that two nations each enjoy
possession of a part of Ukraine. These are Austria-Hun-
gary and Russia. But their portions are very unequal.
Austria-Hungary controls but a very small portion of
the Ukraine (one-eleventh) ; Russia has the rest. The
boundaries of the provinces and governments, respectively,
of the two nations are entirely independent of the ethno-
graphic facts, and it is possible that a reading of the
following statistics may give the impression that the
Ukrainians have nothing but scattered settlements in
alien lands, as far as the outlying portions of the U-
kraine are concerned. That is not the case, however.
When we read, for instance, that the Ukrainians make
up 3670 of the population of the government of Voronesh,
this is a result of the fact that the southern portion of
this government is densely populated by Ukrainians (in
the Ostrohoshk District they are 94 ^r of the population,
Bohutshar District 83 ^c, Byrjutsh District yo^c, Waluiki
53%, etc.), while the northern part, ethnographically
speaking, lies entirely in Russian territory.
I am going to add some statistical data concerning
the Ukraine, as I cannot otherwise convey a clear idea
of the country. We shall for the present entirely omit
that portion of the country that is in the possession of
Austria-Hungary (Eastern Galicia, Northwestern Buko-
wina, Northeastern Hungary, together aggregating
750,000 square kilometers with a Ukrainian population
of 4,200,000). We shall devote all our attention to the
Russian Ukraine. Our statistical data are taken from the
official Russian estimates of 1910, the percentages indi-
cating the relative numerical strength of the various
nationalities from the first Russian Census, of 1897. It
will scarcely be suggested that any of these statistics
were made with a Ukrainian bias.
As v/e enter Russia, the first important Ukrainian
dominion is the government of Volhynia (71,700 square
kilometers, 3,850,000 inhabitants). Here the Ukrainians
form the basic elem.ent of the population: there are
70% of them; other races are: Jews, 13%; Poles, 6^0;
Germans, 6^c ; Russian, 3%; Chechs, i^L Adjacent to
this important Volhynian aggregation of Ukrainians, are
the western and northv/estern march-lands of the Ukraine:
the government of Cholm with 390,000 Ukrainian inhabit-
ants, particularly in the neighborhood of Hrubeshif
and Tomashif, the southern third of the government of
Grodno with 440,000 Ukrainian inhabitants, around Brest,
Kobryn, Bielsk, and the southern strip of the govern-
ment of Minsk v/ith 890,000 Ukrainians around Pinsk
and Mosyr.
The neighboring government of Podolia (42,000
square kilometers with 3,740,000 inhabiants) has 81%
of its population Ukrainian; Jews, 9%; Russian, 3%;
Poles 2'^r. This Podolian aggregation is contiguous with
the outskirts of the Ukrainian portion of the government
— 9 —
of Bessarabia, which, except in these Ukrainian north-
west and southwest portions of the province, is inhabited
chiefly by Rumanians (460,000 Ukrainians in the vicinity
of Chotyn and Akkerman). The third important Ukrainian
section is the government of Kieff (51,000 square kilo-
meters with 4,570,000 inhabitants) ; the Ukrainians here
constitute 79% of the population; Jews, 12%; Russians,
6%; Poles, a^o. The government of Cherson seems very
much more mixed as to the character of its population
(71,000 square kilometers with 3,450,000 inhabitants),
54% are Ukrainians, 21% Russians, 12% Jews, 5%.
Rumanians, \^o Bulgarians, 1^0 Poles.
The important Ukrainian provinces to the right of
the Dnieper have now been enumerated; those on the
left side of that river are also of great significance. In
the government of Chernihiv or Chernigoff (52.000 square
kilometers with 2,980,000 inhabitants), the Ukrainians
constitute 86% of the total population; in the government
of Poltawa (50,000 sq. kilometers with 3,580,000 inhabs.),
98% ; in the government of Charkiv (54,000 sq. km.,
3,250,000 inhabs.), 70%. The remaining inhabitants are
Russians and Jews. Contiguous with these almost purely
Ukrainian governments are strips of other governments
containing Ukrainians : in the southern part of the govern-
ment of Kursk are 670,000 Ukrainians; (around Putywl,
Hrajworon, Novooskol) ; in the southern part of the
government of Voronesh are 1,210.000 Ukrainians (around
Ostrohoshsk, Bohutshar, Byrjutsh, Valuiki) ; and in the
western part of the Don basin there are 980,000 Ukra-
inians (around Taganrog, Rostov, etc.).
The three remaining important Ukrainian govern-
ments (i. e., governments in which Ukrainians are either
positively a majority of the population or are, at least,
more numerous than any other national element) are:
Ekaterinoslav (63,000 sq. km., 3,060.000 inhabs.), with
69% Ukrainians, 17% Russians, 5% Jews, 4% Germans,
7.^0 Greeks, 1% Tartars, 1% V/hite Russians, 1% Poles,
Tauria (60.000 sq. km., 1,880.000 inhabs.), with 42% U-
— 10 -
krainians, 28% Russians, 1370 Tartars, sfo Germans,
3% Jews, 3% Bulgarians, 1% Armenians; the Kuban
district (92.000 sq. km., 2,630.000 inhabs.), with 47^0 U-
krainians, 44% Russians, 9% various Caucasian tribes.
In the district of Stavropol, Terek, Black Sea District,
which form the outskirts of the Ukrainian population,
there are 510,000 Ukrainians. All the sections named
after Tauria have, moreover, been for several years the
scene of an exceedingly active Ukrainian colonization
movement, so that it is a very safe assumption that the
percentages of 1897 are hardly applicable at present.
In addition to the above indicated territory, which
may be considered as on the whole compactly Ukrainian,
there are more than 600,000 Ukrainians in the following
governments along the southern course of the Volga:
Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara, Orenburg. Further evi-
dences of the vast colonial expansion of the Ukrainian
people may be found in the fact that there are 500.000
of them forming a thin chain of settlements through
Russian Central Asia and southern Siberia up to the
shores of the Pacific Ocean; there are 500,000 in the
United States, 200,000 in Canada, 60,000 in Brazil and the
Argentine. A grand total of all the Ukrainians on earth
in 19 10 would read thirty-four and one half milion, of
which 32,700.000 live in soKd Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainians therefore must be considered as
numerically the sixth race of Europe, the five above
them being, in order, the Russians, Germans, English,
French, and Italians.
III. THE UKRAINIAN NATION.
A host of questions must now assail the critical
reader: If this is the case, why is this great race, why
are these Ukrainians entirely unknown to the outside
world? Perhaps the Ukraine is merely an ethnographic
conception? Perhaps these Ukrainians are merely a tribe
— 11 —
of the great Russian race, as Bavarians or Saxons are
tribes of the German race? Perhaps they are Russians
who became partially polonized during the many years
of Polish domination? Or perhaps the ideas of "Ukraine",
"Ukrainians", are simply figments of the over-heated
brains of a band of enthusiasts, lost in contemplation of
a glorious past and a glorious future, who represent the
object of their ardent desires as a fait accompli?
and so forth.
To give a short and decisive answer to questions of
this nature is always very difficult, as must necessarily
be the case where the subject-matter is so entirely un-
familiar. Yet we shall give this short and decisive answer
at once, and shall prove its correctness with a series of
evidence.
The Ukrainians constitute a Slavic nation just as
clearly and sharply defined as do the Poles, the Russians,
the Chechs, or the Bulgarians. Their historic roots extend
as far back into the middle ages as do those of the Ger-
man, French, or English peoples. But, while the evolution
of these great European nations has been a steady and
uninterrupted process, the Ukrainian people, by reason
of their geographical location on the very threshold of
Asia, were held back in their development, their growth
finally being almost entirely stopped. The ancient U-
krainian state of Kieff was destroyed by Djingis Khan's
Mongolian hordes, after which the land, in a horribly
devastated condition, came under Lithuanian rule, later
under that of the Poles, but neither were strong enough
to defend the Ukrainians against the continued incursions
of the Tartars. These extended over a period of
more than five centuries, thus stunting absolutely the
growth of the Ukrainian people, who had at the same
time to defend themselves against Polish oppression. It
was the instinct for self-preservation that led this race,
at this dark stage of its history, to organize that wonder-
fully efficient belligerent instrument, the army of U-
krainian Cossacks (Saporogs). The Cossack body carried
— 12 —
on victorious wars against Poles, Tartars, Turks, and
Russians, and made possible the formation of a new
Ukrainian state centuries later (Bogdan Chmelnyzkyj,
1648).
By the Treaty of Perejaslav, the Ukraine was
ceded as a vassal state to Russia, with which it had been
affiliated by ties of religion (1654). But the latter country
managed to break the contracts of suzerainty and to
transform the rather loose dependence of the weaker
state into abject serfdom. Ukrainian autonomy and the
organization of the Cossack system were abolished. The
nation lost its upper classes, its aristocracy, its lesser
nobility, its wealthy burghers, through Polonization or,
later, Russincation. It had left only its minor clergy, its
lower middle class, and a completely downtrodden pea-
santry. Thus, at the end of the eighteenth century, it
seemed as if the last hour of the Ukrainian people had
struck.
But, trained by the misfortunes of a thousand years,
the vital energy of the Ukrainian people could not be
suppressed. The enslaved Ukrainian peasant had developed
an unsuspected faculty for colonization and began to-
ward the end of the eighteenth century, after Russia
had reduced the Crimean Tartar state» to occupy the vast
steppe regions along the Black Sea and the Caucasus,
and to add these districts to ethnographically Ukrainian
territory. The spiritual culture of the farmers, more
particularly the oral transmission of an exceedingly rich
body of popular poetry (Volksdichtung), made possible
a mighty flowering of Ukrainian literature in the nine-
teenth century. In spite of every variety of obstruction
on the part of the Poles and of the Russian government,
which used the most stringent measures in its opposition
to their progress, the ranks of the Ukrainian aristocracy
of brains grew more and more numerous; the literature,
the art, the science of the Ukrainian people, weakened
by ten centuries of suffering, attained remarkable heights.
Their actual accomplishment, considered absolutely, or
— 13 —
measured by Western European standards, makes their
record appear not very striking for a nation of thirty
millions, yet we must not overlook i) that the Ukrainians
are a Slavic race; 2) that they live in Eastern Europe; 3)
that they have a relatively small group of intellectuals.
Yet this little band of natural leaders for the millions
who constitute the masses of the Ukrain'an people, are
ianimated by a historical-political tradition of a thousand
years, and by a distinctly outlined national ambition.
We must therefore consider the Ukrainians to be
a "Kulturvolk" in the sense in which Kirchhoff uses the
word, and the immediate future will shov/ whether they
have the power of becoming a national race ("Staats-
nation"). In a way they have already proved their title
to such consideration by organizing two national govern-
ments.
There are two strong oppositions, hostile even to
each other, of the desire of the Ukrainian people for a.
realization of their national aspirations. They are the
hierarchic ambitions of tv/o states who once ruled, and
even nov%7 rule over Ukrainian territory, the „state ideas"
of Poland and Russia.
Both views coincide in emphasizing one statement:
"There is no such country as the Ukraine, there are only
Poland and Russia, only the Polish nation and the Rus-
sian nation". But then these two attitudes begin to
diverge. The PoLsh "state idea", the idea of a Polish
Empire extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, would
regard the Ukra'nian farmers as a portion of the Polish
peasantry, distinguished from the latter merely by their
religion and their dialect, a good material on which to
establish an expansion of Polish culture and political
pov/er. But in the Russian national plans, the Ukrainians
are called "Little Russians", a tribe of the Russian race,
differing a little from the great mass of the "compact
Russian nation", but only in their dialect. The present
Russian state is the only heir of the "ancient Russian"
state of Kieff, it has for centuries been rallj'ing the
— 14 —
"Russian" lands about its standard, and now has mani-
festly the duty of incorporating with the great Russian
Empire the only remaining "Russian" land, Eastern Ga-
licia, which is "groaning" under the foreign yoke, "There
never has been, is not, and never shall be a distinct
Little Russian language", said the Russian Minister of
Instruction in 1863. In other words, the Pan-Slavic, Pan-
Russian "doctrine of unity" considers the Ukrainians to
be Russians at heart, as much as are the inhabitants of
Moscow or Tula,
These two views of the Ukrainian situation have
until very recently prevailed in all the intellectual circles
of Europe, whether among scholars, publicists, statesmen,
or others. The rising scholarship and propaganda of the
Ukrainians were almost powerless to combat these er-
roneous conceptions. Things did not begin to show in
their real colors until after the opening of the present
century.
The following paragraphs can scarcely do more than
touch upon the outstanding facts. But even these slight
data will probably convince the attentive reader how
empty are the Polish and Russian pretentions in this
Ukrainian question.
The chief requirements that an independent nation
must fill, are the following, beginning with those least
important and ending with those most essential : common
anthropological indications, a distinct language, common
historical-political traditions (in the past) and common
aspirations (for the future), an independent civilization
and a compact geographical distribution.
IV, RACE.
First, as to the anthropological characteristics. To
set up such indications of national cohesion, to regard
them as Indicative of race, has been almost entirely given
up in Western Europe, For ceaseless racial blendings,
often capable even of historical proof, have almost enterely
— 15 —
eradicated the original anthropological distinctions in
Central and Western Europe. But the case is quite
different in Eastern Europe. As is well known, the
physical-geographical landmarks, in Western Europe, are
quite varied and interesting, as opposed to a great uni-
formity once we reach Ukrainian soil. The same uni-
formity, monotony almost, of racial traits is noticeable
in that territory also, as opposed to the great variety of
racial types west of the Ukraine. The foreign tribes pas-
sing through the Ukraine in historic times were ex-
clusively rather small bands of nomads, who devastated the
country without establishing themselves in it.
To be sure, even the Ukrainians are, anthropologi-
cally speaking, a mixed race, but the mixture is a peculiar
one, of exceedingly long standing, and entirely different
from the Polish or Russian blend.
Here are a few figures, showing how these three
races of Eastern Europe compare:
Ukrainians
Russians
Poles
Height
1670 mm
1657 mm
1654 mm
Chest
550.4
521.8
541.1
Length of arm
457
460
457
Length of leg
536
505
521
Cephalic index
83.2
82.3
82.1
Nasal index
67.7
68.5
66.2
Breadth of face
180
182
181
Facial index
78.1
76.7
76.3
8-, C ••
light
29.5 %
37 %
35 %
2 ß
medium
35 %
41 %
46 %
dark
35 %
22 %
19 %
^ -73 O
o c o
These figures, taken from the latest statistics of
Ivanovski and Volkov, should sufficiently answer the
contention that the Ukrainians are Polonized Russians
— 16 —
or Russified Poles. And they contradict equally well the
oft-made but erroneous statement that the Ukrainians are
a blend of Slavs with Mongolian nomad tribes. The
bodily traits of the Ukrainian people present absolutely
no traces of Mongolian influence, such as are well-known
to be quite pronounced in the case of the Russians.
A single glance at these data will show that the
Ukrainians show but very slight relationship with the
Russians or Poles. Deniker's division assigns the Ukrai-
nians to the so-called Adriatic (Binaric) Race, while
the Poles and the Russians are to be classified with the
so-called Interrelated Races, the Vistula or Oriental Race.
V. LANGUAGE.
An independent nation need not necessarily have
a language that distinguishes it sharply from other na-
tions, as is shov/n by the examples of the United States
and Switzerland. But even th!s m.eans of distinguishing
themselves from the surrounding peoples is possessed by
the Ukrainians. To be sure the view has been rather
widely circulated in Europe that the Ukrainian language
is only a peasant dialect of the Polish language, and
official Russia has hitherto maintained that it is nothing
m.ore than the "Little Russian dialect" of the Russian
language. But the philological investigations of Miklosich,
Jagic, Potebnja, Zytezkyi, Ohonowskyi, Shakhmatov,
Korsch, Stockyi, and others, have shown conclusively
that the Ukrainian language is by no means a mere
dialect of the Polish or of the Russian language, but
that it is an independent language equal to and distinct
from these two languages. Finally, even the Imperial
Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, in its famous
decision of 1905, expressed this view, distinctly emphasiz-
ing the independence of Ukrainian from Russian, and
adding, that the Russian language should not be forced
upon the Ukrainians, as the latter possessed a fully
developed language and literature.
The Ukrainian written language has a history of
fully a thousand years behind it. In the ancient Ukrainian
Kingdom of Kieff there arose the socalled Chronicle of
Nestor, the Epic of Igor, and other important monuments
of Ukrainian Literature. Their language has been built
up on the foundation of the Church Slavonic dialect, but
presents great linguistic departures, as early as the
eleventh century, from the literary v^^orks simultaneously
produced in the Russian territory to the North.
This promising beginning of the old Ukrainian Lite-
rature was almost completely crushed by five centuries
of Tartar barbarism. Not until the last years of the
eighteenth century did it come into its own again, a
change that was perhaps due to the introduction of the
pure popular speech in place of the Old-Slavic-Macaronic
hitherto used in literature. In the course of the nineteenth
century the history of Ukrainian literature has a number
of great poets and prose writers to show (Shevchenko,
Vovchok, Fedkovych, Franko, Kulish, Vynnychenko, etc.),
as well as a considerable number of lesser writers. Their
works are characterized by enormous variety and versa-
tility. And the second half of the century was also marked
by a very active study of the sciences, leading to the
founding of two learned bodies very much along the plan
of the socalled "Academies" (in Lemberg and Kieff).
In every branch of human knowledge the Ukrainians
can already point to publications, books, dissertations,
in their language.
The versatility and richness of Ukrainian literature
assure it a prominent place among the other Slavonic
literatures, thus furnishing proof, if any is needed, that
the Ukrainian language really is a language, and not a
mere dialect; it is a civilized language in every sense of
the word. And the testimony of Ukrainian scholarship
strengthens the case beyond all doubt. The roots of the
Ukrainian literary language in the speech of the common
people make clear that it will be an admirable means of
educating the race, in view of their wellknown intelligence.
— 18 —
into an enlightened and progressive nation. But the Rus-
sian government has been thoroughly aware of this fact,
and has left no stone unturned in its efforts to stop this
young literature in its growth, which efforts culminated
in the famous ukase of the Czar (1876), forbidding
absolutely the publication of any writ-
ings in the Ukrainian language. None but
a really living and significant literature could have
survived these thirty years (1876 — 1905) of repression.
And Ukrainian literature has stood this test!
VI. HISTORY.
The most important distinguishing characteristic of
a real nation is the fact that it possesses its
own historic o-p olitical traditions and am-
bitions for the future, thus furnishing the basis
for that constant plebiscite which E. Renan regards as
the thing makes a race into a nation.
It is their common historico-political tradition that
gives the Ukrainians their most important indications of
separate national existence. And if it had not been for
the dense ignorance that prevails in Western Europe
regarding the history of the eastern half of the continent,
and for the advertising carried on to this very day, by
Russian scholars, in behalf of their propaganda for "Rus-
sian" history, which has worked its way into all books
on Eastern European history, this real condition of affairs
could never have remained obscure so lang.
The ancient Kingdom of Kieff, which is called "Old
Russian" in all historical treatises, was in reality a state
organized by the Southern Slavic races of Eastern Europe,
the precursors of the present-day Ukrainians. This State
of Kieff was already in existence at the beginning of the
ninth century. With the aid of mercenaries from Scan-
dinavia (Varangians) this state grew stronger after the
middle of the ninth century, and during the tenth gives
— 19 —
evidences of a remarkable activity of expansion. The
Northern Slavic tribes, the forebears of the Russians of
today, were subjugated by the Kingdom of Kieff, the
nomadic tribes of the steppes were pushed back, com-
mercial and cultural relations were established with the
Byzantine Empire, which seem to have been actively
carried on, and in the year 9S8 the Great Prince of Kieff
(Vladimir the Great), together with all his people, ac-
cepted Greek Christianity from Constantinople, but with
Slavic rites. There ensued a great flowering of material
and spiritual civilization, which aroused the admiration
of travelers from Western Europe.
The fact that the ancient state of Kieff as v/ell as
its civilization was produced by Ukrainians is evident
not only from the circumstance that the most ancient
literary monuments of Kieff already show specifically
Ukrainian peculiarities of language. A still more important
bit of evidence is the constitution of the ancient King-
dom of Kieff. The power of the Great Prince v/as limited
not only by the influence of his retainers (Drushyna),
from which later the caste of the Boyars sprung, but
also by the General Assembly of all freemen (the socalled
Vitche). The original constitutional — sit venia
V e r b o — yea, almost republican rural government of
the Ukrainians had a tremendous influence, with the
result that, throughout the history of the ancient King-
dom of Kieff, Its Great Princes were engaged in a struggle
with the Boyars and the people, for the exercise of their
powers. This limitation of the monarchic power turned
out to be a disaster for the Kingdom of Kieff. By apply-
ing the practice of succession to the throne in accordance
with a principle known as that of "seniority", there result-
ed the formation of numerous petty principalities, all
rather loosely, perhaps only nominally, subject to the
authority of the Great Prince of Kieff. The Boyar caste
and the people were very persistent in their labors to
aid in the formation and maintenance of these petty
— 20 —
principalities throughout the southern portion of the
Kingdom of Kieff,
In the north, conditions were quite different; there
were the little principalities on the Oka, and Moscow.
Only the ruling dynasty came from Kieff, the people
were a mixture of northern East Slavonic tribes and the
aboriginal Finnish-Mongolian population. From this melt-
ing-pot the Russian nation takes its origin. The spirit
of the people, so different from that of the Ukrainians,
enabled the Russian petty monarch to crush the power
of the nobility as early as the twelfth century, and to
introduce an arbitrary form of government. That is the
germ from which the Russian Empire of the present
has sprung.
This young Russian nation, whose directing center
was first Vladimir and later Moscow, began waging a
series of bloody wars against Kieff, weakening that
country so lastingly, that the headquarters of Ukrainian
political life had to be shifted southward, in the 13th
century, to Halitsh on the Dniester.
In fact, the situation of this Kieff country was such
as to expose it also to continous invasions on the part
of the nomadic warlike hordes which infested the steppes
of the Ukraine. But the nation managed to hold them
in check during this weary term of warfare. When, how-
ever, the hosts of the Mongol potentate Djingis-Khan
appeared in the Pontian steppes, the resources of Kieff
and Halitsh were no longer equal to the pressure. In
the three days' battle on the Kalka (1224) their army
was annihilated, and in 1240 the city of Kieff was razed
to the ground. The principality (later kingdom) of
Halitsh survived it by almost a century, but could not
withstand the continued aggressions of the Tartars on
one side, and of the Poles and Lithuanians on the other;
in 1340 it was incorporated with Poland by right of
succession, and thus ended the first national organization
of the Ukrainian people. All the Ukraine, excepting the
- 21 —
forest regions in the northwest, had been completely
devastated.
The Polish-Lithuanian State treated the Ukraine
as conquered territory. Being now dissenters in the midst
of a Catholic State, the Ukrainian nobles were limited
in their prerogatives, and deserted their faith and their
nationality, in order to have a share in the "golden
freedom" of Poland. The burgher class was tyrannized
(as was the practice all over Poland), the peasant became
a serf. The splendid task of an ecclesiastical union with
Rome was solved (Florence, 143g; Brest 1596) in an
unsatisfactory manner and bore little fruit at the time.
Every Ukrainian was made to feel the Polish govern-
ment's iron hand, and their disaffection expressed itself
in numerous rebellions (Swidrygiello, Glinskyi, etc.).
And yet, the PoKsh-Lithuanian State was far too weak
to protect the Ukraine against the onslaughts of the
Tartars. Every year these hordes of riders issued forth
from the Crimea and pushed their invasions even as far
as Galicia and Volhynia, devastating the country and
depopulating it by seizures of slaves conducted in accor-
dance with a systematic plan. The victims of this slave
trade filled the markets of the Orient for centuries.
It was inevitable that this sorely tried nation should
be forced to defend itself. And its efforts were successful
in that they led to the formation of a new independent
state, but unsuccessful in that they exhausted its resources
and later had a tragical autcome.
The constant state of warfare on the Tartar bound-
ary line forced the Ukrainian population in those parts
to adopt a policy of continual "Preparedness". These
people of the marches led a hard life, but they had
access to the natural treasures of the virgin lands, and
the exploiting Polish officials did not dare venture forth
into these dangerous districts. These armed farmers,
hunters, fishermen, were very much like the American
backwoodsmen, they lived lives of independence and
called themselves "cossacks", i. e., "free warriors".
— 22 —
In the sixteenth century there arose among these
Ukrainian cossacks a military state organization, the
center of which was a strongly fortified place below the
cataracts of the Dnieper (the Saporog Sitch). This Ukra-
inian Cossack State was a democratic republic based on
absolute liberty and equality. All authority lay in the
hands of the general assembly, consisting of all the
fighting men, and their decisions were enforced by elective
officers. The liberty of the individual was very great, but
had to yield to the will of the whole. And in time of
war the chief official, the Hetman, had unlim'ted dicta-
torial power.
In the aristocratic state organization of Poland there
was no room for such a lawless democratic state as that
of the Saporogs was in Polish eyes. The entire Ukrainian
nation regarded the Saporog cossacks as their natural
defenders against the terrible Tartar peril, and likewise
as their sole hope as opposed to the oppression practiced
by the Poles. An ominous discontent prevailed throughout
the Ukraine, and after, the Poles had naturally taken
severe measures, a number of cossack revolts occurred
in rapid succession, beginning toward the end of the
sixteenth century and filling the first half of the seven-
teenth. In these revolts the cossacks were supported by
the oppressed peasantry. But the Polish Kingdom was
rather deficient, always, as far as its standing army was
concerned, and was obliged to appeal to the Ukrainian
cossack organization, which it could not possibly destroy,
to aid it in its v/ars against the Turks, the Russians,
and the Swedes.
Finally, in 1648, the Ukrainian cossacks, aided by
the entire people, from the Dnieper to the San, raised the
standard of rebell'.on, and under the leadership of Bogdan
Chmelnyzkyi, succeeded in annihilating the Polish armies.
This victory meant the establishment of an independent
Ukrainian state after three hundred years of a foreign
yoke.
— 23 —
The new state, surrounded by enemies on all sides,
needed calm and quiet to enable it to achieve the neces-
sary internal organization. Chmelnyzkyi negotiated with
all the surounding governments and peoples, with the
Poles, the Transylvanians, the Swedes, the Turks, and
finally in 1654, concluded the treaty of Pereyaslav, with
Russia, with which they were related by ties of religion,
This treaty provided that the Ukraine should retain a
complete autonomy, as well as their cossack organization,
the latter under the suzerainty of the Czar. The Hetman,
who was to be elected by the votes of the general assem-
bly, was even to retain the right of conducting an
independent foreign policy.
But Russia had no mind to respect the treaty that
bound it in dual alliance with the warlike Ukrainian
nation. The democratic form of government in the U-
kraine was an abomination to Russian eyes. To understand
the Russian attitude, we must rapidly trace its develop-
ment. The young Russian empire of the thirteenth century
had also suffered much from the Tartar invasions, but it
was rather remote from the southern steppes, in which
the Tartar Khans had pitched their tents. The young
Russian state was therefore not destroyed by the Tartars,
but simply forced to pay tribute. The Great Princes of
Moscow went so far, finally, as to solidify their absolute
authority under the protection of the Tartar Khans, and
in 1480, when the strength of the Tartars was at a rather
low ebb, they cast the Tartars out and declared them-
selves to be the Czars of all the Russias. They arrogated
to themselves the right to act as sole rightful heirs of
the ancient Empire of Kieff, although the two nations
v/ere entirely distinct, as were also their theories of
government. While the descendants of the ancient Empire
of Kieff were organizing the democratic cossack republic
in the Ukraine, the tyranny of Ivan the Terrible was
indulging in its frightful orgies in Moscow, ultimately de-
priving the nobility and the clergy of the last vestige of
— 24 —
their rights, an act in which the servile nature of the
Russian people fully supported him.
Once this cossack republic was under the control
of Moscow, the Russian government felt that no stone
should be left unturned to destroy this dangerous national
organism. Their machinations in the Ukraine were aided
by Chmelnyzkyi's untimely death (1657) and the incom-
petence of his immediate successors. The cossack generals
were inspired with prejudice against the Hetman, the com-
mon cossacks against their superior officers, and the com-
mon people against all yho were wealthy and in authority.
Huge sums of money were spent, and vast extents of ter-
ritory granted in fief, in order to bring about this desired
end. At every successive election of a new Hetman the
autonomy of the Ukraine was cut down, and in the Peace
of Andrussow (1667) with Poland, the country was
partitioned. Of the two sections, one, that nearest to
Poland, which had been dreadfully decimated and de-
populated, was ceded to that country, and this section
very soon lost its Ukrainian form of government and its
cossack organization. The section on the other side, the
left side, under its dashing Hetman Mazeppa, made an
effort, during the Scandinavian War, to throw off the
Russian yoke. Mazeppa made an alliance with Charles
XII, King of Sweden. But the Battle of Pultawa (1709)
buried all his hopes. Mazeppa had to flee to Turkey with
Charles XII, and the Ukrainian rebellion was put down
by Peter the Great with the most frightful atrocities, and
finally the guaranteed autonomy of the Ukraine was
abolished. To be sure the title of Hetman was again
introduced after the death of Peter the Great, but it had
but a wretched semblance of life. This shadow of auto-
nomy was destroyed in 1764; in 1775 the last bulwark
of the Ukraine, the Saporog Sitch, fell into the hands of
the Russians through treachery, and was destroyed by
them. The rest of the Saporogs were later permitted to
settle on the banks of the Kuban in the Caucasus; the
— 25 —
Kuban Cossacks are the only Russian Cossacks v/ho are
Ukrainian in origin,
Russia thus succeeded, in the course of about a
century and a half, in completely v^iping out the later,
second, Ukrainian state. The devious policy Russia was
simultaneously carrying on in Poland led also to the
latter's dov/nfall. In the successive partitions of Poland
(1772— 1795), the entire part of that nation v/hich was
inhabited by Ukrainians, with the exception of Eastern
Galicia and the Bukowina, which fell to Austria, became
the property of Russia.
But Russia was not satisfied with political domination
alone. Russia already understood, in the seventeenth cen-
tury, that the Ukrainians differed entirely from the Rus-
sians in language, customs, and views of life. The Russian
government therefore inaugurated a policy of rigid re-
pression of all these points of difference. As early as
1680, it prohibited any use of the Ukrainian language in
ecclesiastical literature. In 1720, the printing of any U-
kralnian books at all was forbidden. All Ukrainian schools
were closed. In the middle of the eighteenth century
there were in the province of Chernigov, 866 schools that
had been founded during the period of Ukrainian auto-
nomy. Sixty years later, not one of these was in existence.
This, together with the attempt to introduce the Russian
language v/hich none of them understands, is the cause
of the overv/helming percentage of analphabets among
the Ukrainians, The Ukrainian orthodox church, which
enjoyed absolute autonomy, with a sort of loose subordina-
tion to the Patriarch of Constantinople, was made subject
to the Patriarch of Moscow, later to the Holy Synod,
and became completely russified. The Greek-United faith,
which had many adherents in the Western Ukraine, was
completely suppressed by the Russian government, and
all v/ho professed it were obliged, by the most awful
persecutions, to "return" to the orthodox belief. The
Ukrainian people became completely estranged from
their former national church, v/hich now is a tool wielded
— 26 —
for purposes of russification, and consequently a new sect
— the so-called S t u n d a, a sort of Baptist denomination
— made great progress in the Ukraine.
But the russification of the Ukraine seemed to be
making very little headway. To be sure many educated
Ukrainians, for the sake of their own personal advantage,
or for other considerations, did renounce their nationality;
in fact some, like Gogol, became great lights in Russian
literature. Yet there always remained the feeling of na-
tional independence, together with a living historical tra-
dition. As early as 1791, Kapnist, an emissary of the U-
kraine, endeavored to move the Prussian government to
make war on Russia, in order to reestablish the autonomy
of the Ukraine. And when, after the beginning of the
nineteenth century, Ukrainian literature began to flourish,
the movement attracted some attention. The watchful
Russian government began to take repressive measures.
The Ukrainian Secret Society in KiefT was discovered
in 1847 and its members banished. The poet Shevchenko
was sent to Asiatic Russia in penal convoys and there
tortured almost to death. And as the Ukrainian move-
ment continued spreading in spite of everything, there
was issued the above-mentioned ukase of 1876, which
seemed likely to give the movement its final quietus.
But not even this unprecedented measure was able
to stop the spread of the idea. The literary and scholarly
phases of the movement were transplanted to Galicia,
and the youth of the Ukraine filled the ranks of Russian
nihilists and revolutionaries. Laboring under the delusion
that the liberation of the Ukraine would be best attained
by freeing all of Russia from the tyranny of the Czar,
the young men of the land sacrificed all their strength
for the general revolutionary tendencies of Russia. Only
after the Russian Revolution of 1905 did their views
become clarified, and then rather powerful progressive
national Ukrainian parties were formed, whose activities
had of course to remain subterranean. Their object is a
free Ukraine, established on democratic principles. There
— 27 —
is also a moderate independence party, but the great
mass of the educated classes in the Ukraine has until
very recently stood for the principle of an autonomous
Ukraine within the frame of the Russian Empire. Whether
this moderation has been caused by existing conditions,
that is, by the constant, absolute, and ruthless pressure
of the Russian government, it would of course be im-
possible to ascertain at this moment. In recent years the
"autonomists" have dv/indled considerably as compared
with the Independence Party. All that the Russian U-
krainians have succeeded in obtaining is the fact that the
Ukase of 1S76 is now no longer in actual enforcement
(since 1905), although the Russian government is
nevertheless doing everything in its power to obstruct
the development of Ukrainian literature and culture. The
Ukrainian language continues to be prohibited for official
and school purposes.
We must still devote some attention to the history
of the Ukrainians in Austria-Hungary. Incorporation
with Austria was an epoch-making event in the evolution
of the Ukrainian national movement, although only a
very small strip of Ukrainian territory has enjoyed the
advantage of this great piece of good fortune. For the
first time in half a millenium the Ukrainians once more
began to feel what it meant to have human rights and
to be on equal terms with other races. The love which
the Galician Ukrainians bear for Austria was magnificently
evidenced in 1848, and since then they have been known
by the honoring epithet of "the Tyrolese of the East". The
Constitutional Era was greeted with delight by the
Austrian Ukrainians. But its first fruits were very dis-
appointing. Under a constitutional government it was
impossible for a people like the Ukrainians, who, owing
to five centuries of Polish domination, consisted merely
of peasants and a small handful of cultured persons, to
offer any resistance to the Polish element of the popu-
lation, which possessed a very numerous aristocracy,, a
wealthy nobility, a middle class (even though it was a
— 28 —
small one), in short, a powerful caste of officials. In
addition, the Ukrainians v/ere very universally dis-
criminated against, and entirely lost their influence in
the administration of the country, in school matters, in
the Parliament, as well as in the Landtag.
By thus holding down the Ukrainians, the ground
was cleared for the Pro-Russian activities in Galicia.
Russia has never lost sight of the little bit of "Russian"
soil vvhxh had become Austria's. The first attempts to
sow Panslavic-Russophile notions in Eastern Galicia,
proved failures. But beginning v/ith the sixties of the
last centur}', Pro-Russianism began spreading among the
intelligent classes of the Ruthenians, chiefly as a reaction
against Polish oppression. This tendency was widespread,
but not profound, and was chiefly a matter of catchwords,
such as "the unity of the Russian nation, from, the Car-
pathians to Kamtchatka", of introducing Old Slavonic
as well as Russian words into the literary language, and
an adherence with stolid rigidity to the ancient, im-
practical, "thousand-year-cld" orthography, etc., etc. On
such ideological foudations a Russophiie Party arose, but
of course it never attained any serious political importance.
The Russophiie Party completely proved its in-
significance in the following decades. The rise of a U-
krainlan literature based on purity of the popular idion
found a ready echo in Galicia and in the Bukowina. The
Ukrainian national consciousness was awakened to
vigorous life among the Austrian Ukrainians, and from
being a mere handful of young enthusiasts, the Ukrainian
National Party was already an important one by the
end of the sixties. It at once entered into combat with
the Russophiles and carried away with it more and more
of the great mass of those who at first were indifferent.
This National Party, in the nineties of the nineteenth
century, already had possession of the entire cultural and
economic Tie of the Galician and Bukovinian Ukrainians,
the Russophiles retaining their importance only in the
political field, an importance which they owed in part to
— 29 —
pecuniary subsidies of Russian origin, in part to the pro-
tection of powerful Polish politicians, to whom the growth
of the Ukrainian national consciousness in Eastern Galicia
seemed far more dangerous than a "tame", "harmless"
Russophilism, which presented no new language difficult-
ies, and asked for no schools, gymnasia, or universities.
The danger which the Ukrainian movement involved
for Russia, forced the latter country to take active steps.
Since the nineties of the nineteenth century, vast sums
of money have been pouring into Galicia, in order to
halt the dissolution of the Russophlle Party. This money
was spent for printing russophile newspapers and pamph-
lets, thousands of copies of which were circulated free
among the common people, and for establishing educa-
tional institutions, in which the studious sons of the
peasantry were trained into violent agitators and partisans
of the russophile movement. When the first elections to
the Reichsrat in accordance with the universal suffrage
v/ere held, In 1907, in spite of great Russian subsidies,
they resulted in a decisive defeat of the Russophiles and
a brilliant victory of the Ukrainians; naturally the ex-
ertions made by the Russian government were even
further stimulated. The systematic manner in which the
russophile agitation was carried on is evident from the
history of the first few days of the present war: rus-
sophile agitation had been most active in the north-
eastern part of Galicia, in the country around Brody,
Lemberg, and Sokal, and there the progress of the Russian
armies v/as comparatively easy.
After 1907 the Russophiles adopted a new pose,
declaring themselves to be "Galician Russians", although
there are very few persons in the whole party who even
know the Russian language. The party consists today of
a number of lawyers and government officials, very many
priests, those who are provided with the most lucrative
livings, which have been thrown into their laps by the
great landed proprietors whose favorites they may happen
to be, a number of young men educated in russophile
— 30 —
institutions, and several tens of thousands of deluded
peasants. The latter cherish the false belief that the
Great White Czar speaks the same language as they do,
is a member of the same religious faith, and is only
waiting for a favorable opportunity to free them from
the oppression of Poles and Jews. The hatred the Rus-
sophiles bear the Ukrainians is a blind and senseless
one ; at every election they vote for the Polish candidates
merely in order to harm the Ukrainians, disperse Ukrai-
nian meetings, and boycott everything that is Ukrainian,
whenever an opportunity offers. And the immunity from
punishment on which they may safely count, redoubles
their activities along these lines.
But even this latest onslaught of Russophilism has
not been able to do lasting damage to the Ukrainian
cause in Austria. On the contrary, it resulted in a com-
plete ostracism of the Russophiles, who were considered
adherents of a hostile foreign nation, an ostracism that
has led even to the dissolving of ties of family and
relationship, and this fact has given a wondrous strength
to the Ukrainian movement. In noble emulation all the
Ukrainian political parties — the National Democratic,
the Radical, and the Social Democratic — worked together
for the realization of their national ideals. To uplift the
country people, great cooperative organizations were
founded and developed; to swell the ranks of the Ukrai-
nian cultured classes, private schools and private gym-
nasia were established, and a great fight was carried on
for years for the establishment of a Ukrainian university
in Lemberg, — unfortunately without success. Simul-
taneously the horizons of their political ambitions began
to widen. The Ukrainians were in the first ranks in the
struggle for the granting of universal suffrage ; now the
watchword of all parties is national autonomy. The
ideal of all parties now is a free Ukraine,
bounded by true ethnographic lines. To
realize this ideal, they founded Societies of Marksmen
(Schützenvereine) and Gymnasts (Turnvereine), which
— 31 —
have grown very rapidly in spite of the financial weakness
of the Ukrainians. The road they must travel to attain
their goal is clearly defined. The Ukrainians are
the only European people who will be
directly benefited by a defeat and ex-
haustion of Russia. Free Ukraine can only be
the outcome of a combat with Russia. Even the un-
trammeled development of the Ukrainian people, aside
from their national aspirations, can only proceed outside
of the limits of Russian jurisdiction.
VII. CULTURE.
When we speak of culture as a distinguishing
mark of a specific nation, we mean, of course, not culture
in the widest sence of the word, but those well known
cultural peculiarities which characterize every European
nation.
The Ukraine lies wholly within the confines of the
greater European cultural community. But its great
distance from the great culture-centres of Western and
Central Europe has of course not been without effect,
profound effect. The Ukraine is at a low stage of culture
and must be measured by Eastern European standards.
The culture of the Ukrainian peasantry is an ex-
tremely ancient culture of a purely agricultural people.
Ancient, even Pre-Christian cultural elements are at its
base ; their ancient pagan Weltanschauung had
to accomodate itself to Greek Christianity, when they
accepted the latter. Byzantine elements of considerable
importance must also be borne in mind, and of course
something must have percolated through from Western
Europe. This is the blend from which the socalled ethno-
logical culture of the Ukrainian peasantry sprang. It is
on an incomparably higher plane than Russian folk
culture and has managed to assimilate, Ukrainianize, if
one may say so, great bodies of foreign peasant settlers
— 32 —
in the Ukraine. The higher degree of culture of the U-
krainian peasant has protected him from russification in
his Asiatic colonies, even on the borders of the Pacific
Ocean. The character of the settlements, buildings,
costumes, and mode of life, of the Ukrainian country
people is such as to indicate a perfect adaptation to the
conditions of agricultural life, which places them on a
far higher plane than the Russian peasantry. It is hardly
to be wondered at that the Ukrainian peasants do not
intermarry with the Russian; in fact, they hardly ever
will consent to live in the same village with them. A
still deeper chasm is formed between them by their
spiritual culture, which, in the case of the Ukrainians,
in the wealth of their vast oral traditionary literature,
bears excellent witness to their depth of artistic feeling.
The philosophical and esthetic Lebensanschauung
of these illiterate peasants finds expression in thousands
and thousands of pregnant proverbs and parables; their
bloody but glorious past is celebrated in numberless epic
poems; an incomparable variety of artistically perfect
lyrics of love and religion beautifies their daily life. If
thousands of these products of popular genius had not
been collected — and these are daily supplemented by
the appearance of new ones never known before — no one
would believe that in this neglected race, oppressed for
tens of centuries, such pearls of true poetic inspiration
could be born. Their rich ethnological life (manners and
customs), their highly developed popular music and
popular art (particularly ornamentation), their tolerant,
profound religious feeling, so indifferent to mere externals,
a pronounced individualism in family life, a higher position
for women, and great power of collective activity when
on terms of absolute equality — these are the things
that distinguish the Ukrainian peasant, and much to his
advantage, from his Russian neighbor. There is therefore
every reason to believe that the gifted Ukrainian people
present an admirable basis for a great future flowering
of culture; the fact that they at present occupy a rather
— 33 —
low stage of culture, cannot be a source of surprise to
anyone. We know, for instance, what a disastrous effect
the Thirty Years' War had on Germany. And the U-
krainian people had five hundred years of the Tartars.
On the broad basis of a popular culture the Ukrai-
nian intellectuals have nov/ been developing their gifts
for a century. Long they vaccillated between Polish
and Russian cultural influences, but finally they had the
energy to strike out in independent I'.nes, in order to lead
the Ukrainian nation into the full blossom of civilization,
with the aid of cultural influences from Western Europe.
VIII. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UKRAINE.
We have nov/ to consider the last and most im-
portant matter in connection with the Ukrainians,
namely, a description of their country. Or, more pro-
perly, we are returning to this subject, for the size and
territorial boundaries have already been discussed in
Section II.
Of course no one will expect to find, in Eastern
Europe, a country with boundary lines as distinct and
final as are those of Spain, France or Italy. The Ukrai-
nian boundaries, with the exception of the swamps on
the north, are open, yet the country has distinct charac-
teristics that enable us to classify it as one of the clear-
cut national outlines of Europe, and it has them to a
more marked degree than have the other territorial units of
Eastern Europe. Such national distinguishing marks are:
the Ukraine is a broad hinterland of the Black Sea; it
has a uniform series of table-lands extending all the way
from the Vistula to the Don; in the Pontus a highly
intricate system of rivers and deltas; a peculiar climiate,
which led the famous French geographer E. de Martonne
to set ujo the climat oukrainien as a descriptive
epithet; a great variety of plant and animal life; a popula-
tion that is racially homogeneous.
— 34 —
Yet it is not our purpose to write a geography of
the Ukraine. It is our object merely to indicate the
great importance of this country.
Its most important strategic quality lies in the fact
that it is situated at the threshold of Western and Central
Asia. Russia's access to the Black Sea depends on her
possession of the Ukraine. Of all Russia's exports,
70% by weight or 65 7c by value, go by way of the Black
Sea. Of all Russia's commercial steam vessels, 42 7c of
the number or 52% of the tonnage are engaged in the
Black Sea trade. The tonnage of the river steamers
navigating the Dmeper, is alone as large as the entire
commercial tonnage of Austria-Hungary. It is only her
possession of the Ukraine that enables Russia to cast
envious eyes on the Balkans and the Straits, and to
threaten the security of Turkey and of the Mediterranean.
It is only through the Ukraine that Russian can control
the lands of the Caucasus, oppress the Persians, and seek
a short cut to the Indian Ocean. It must not be over-
looked that the Ukraine is in the path of the shortest
land route from Central Europe to the East Indies, and
that it includes a goodly portion of the way thither.
This fact may have tremendous importance even in the
immediate future.
The situation of the Ukraine is not more significant
than the volume of her natural resources. The
extremely fruitful black humus covers three-fourths of
the surface of the country, and the healthy, yet conti-
nental climate is very favorable to agriculture and cattle-
raising. In the following account we shall begin with the
simpler and more aboriginal modes of economic life.
In addition to a large annual amount of game, the
sea fisheries in the Black Sea and in the Sea of Azov
yield 24,500,000 kg of fish every year. Fresh water fishing
is also very profitable.
The Ukraine has 1 10.000 sq, km. of exploitable forest
lands.
— 35 —
Farming land in the Ukraine amounts to more than
45,000.000 ha, or 32% of all the farm land of European
Russia, while the total area of the Ukraine is to that of
Russia as 1:6, Of the total area of the Ukraine, 53%'
is farmed; in Europe only France has a higher per-
centage (567c). The annual production of the Ukraine
in wheat, rye and barley alone, in spite of very primitive
methods of exploitation, amounts to 150,000,000 q* an-
nually, or one-third of Russia's output. Other farm
products are just as generously abundant. The sugar beet
production of the Ukraine is five-sixths that of all Russia.
Of tobacco the Ukraine produces over 700,000 q a year.
It possesses the largest and finest orchards and vineyards
of Russia.
As to stock raising; the Ukraine has 30,000,000
head of cattle, one-third of all European Russia's; sheep,
goats, pigs and poultry are very numerous, in fact, in
this matter the Ukraine has 50% of Russia's supply.
These figures show the immense importance of the
Ukraine as the grain and meat producer of Russia. And it
is also true that the mineral resources of the country
play an important part in the economic life of the Rus-
sian Empire. Iron, chiefly in the government of Cherson,
in the year of revolution, 1905, was turned out to the
amount of 31,000,000 q, or 60 7c of the total output of
the entire Russian Empire; in 1905 this percentage had
been over 69. Of manganese the Ukraine furnishes one-
sixth the world's production, or 327p of Russia's pro-
duction. No other mercury is produced in Russia except
the Ukrainian (320,000 kg in 1905), The coal deposits on
the Donetz (23,000 sq. km.) produced 130,000,000 q hard
coal in 1905, or 757c of the total production of European
and Asiatic Russia; of anthracite coal, 99% of Russia's
output is from the Ukraine. Space forbids us to discuss
the other forms of the mineral wealth of the Ukraine,
such as petroleum, ozocerite, peat, phosphorite, kaolin, etc.
• 1 q (100 kg.) = 1 metric quintal ~- 220.46 lb.
— 36 —
Factory industries have already reached a fair stage
of development in the Ukraine.
Of pig iron, 17,000,000 q were made in 1905 (62%'
of Russia's production); of steel, 13,000,000 q (58%);
crude sugar (So^c); refined sugar (59%), etc. How
important the Ukrainan grain output is for the world's
grain trade, is evident from the figures given above.
Now what is the significance of all these figures?
They show that vv^e may just as well throw all our pre-
conceived notions concerning the geography of Eastern
Europe into our intellectual scrap heap. We were taught
to believe that the unity of Russia was the result of geo-
graphical conditions, that the grain-rich south needed
the industrial central section and vice versa. One
has only to consider the above data, to understand the
falsehood of that statement. We believe the above figures
show, not only that the Ukraine has nothing to gain from
its subordination to Russia, but on the contrary, that it
loses by being obliged to maintain out of its abundance
the really Russian provinces, which are very poor, and
whose industry it must patronize. The Ukraine does not
need Russia, but Russia needs the Ukraine very much.
At the end of our little book we may safely express
the belief that:
Russia has become what she is owing
to her possession of the Ukraine; the over-
whelming predominnance of Russia in Eu-
rope can only be broken by separating the
Ukraine from its connection with the Rus-
sia n S t a t e.
Vienna, September 9, 19 14.
LITERATURE ON THE UKRAINIAN QUESTION.
[Most of these books are to be obtained in the New York Public Librarj'.J
ENGLISH.
filisee Reclus : Universal Geography. Vol, I. pp. 269 —
317; 379—384.
Prof. Alfred Rambaud : History of Russia. Vol. I, chapters
XX, XXI, XXII. London 1879.
N. Bilashevsky : Peasant Art in the Ukraine. "The Studio",
Special Autumn Number. London 1912.
Steveni, W. Barnes : Things seen in Russia. Cap. Little
Russia, the Blessed. Button & Co. New York 1913.
G, Sands: Ukraine. Francis Griffiths, 34, Maiden Lane,
Strand, London, 1914.
Yaroslav Fedortchouk: Memorandum on the Ukrainian
Question in its National Aspect. Francis Griffiths..
London. 1914.
FRENCH.
£lisee Rechis: Geographie Universelle. V, pp. 442 — 558.
Les Annales des nationalites. Bulletin de I'Lnion des.
nationalites. Numeros consacres a I'etude de 1' U-
kraine. 41, Boulevard des Batif^nolles, Paris.
R. Sembratovycz : Le Tsarlsme et 1' Ukraine. Paris.
Prof. M. Hrushevsky : Le Probleme de 1' Ukraine. Revue-
politique internationale, 1914, pp. 289 — 328. Lausanne
1914.
Maurice Lair : En Galicie, Noblesse Polonaise et Paysans
Ruthenes. B. Annales des sei. polit. v. 18. p. 554 — 572,
702 — 717; V. 19. p. 185. Paris 1903 — 1904.
— I —
— II —
GERMAN.
Ludwig Kulczycki : Geschichte der russischen Revolution.
Verlag Friedrich Andreas Perthes S.-G. Gotha 1910 —
1914. Erster Teil. Siebentes Kapitel. VII. Zweiter
Teil. Drittes Kapitel. V. Zweiter Teil. Fuenftes
Kapitel. III. Dritter Teil. Siebentes Kapitel. XXIV.
Heimelt: Weltgeschichte. Band 5. Abteilung: Besonders
pp. 538 — 549. Bibliographisches Inst. Leipzig und
Wien 1915.
Brockhaus' Konversations-lexikon. 1902. Band X. Klein-
russen. Kleinrussische Litteratur.
Russen ueber Russland. Ein Sammelwerk. Litterarische
Anstalt : Ruetten und Loening, Frankfurt am Main
1906. Cap. "Die Kleinrussen".
Prof. Otto Hoetzsch : Russland. Cap. Die Ukrainische
Frage. Georg Reimers Verlag, Berlin 1913.
B. Yaworskyj : Das Urteil der europaeischen Kulturwelt
ueber den Ukas von 1876. (Durch welchen die u-
krainische Litteratur im russischen Reiche verboten
wurde). Wien 1905.
Kuschnir und Popowytsch : Taras Schewtschenko, der
groesste Dichter der Ukraine. Wien 1914.
R. Sembratowycz : Das Zarentum im Kampfe mit der
Zivilisation. Frankfurt 1905.
Romanczuk : Die Ruthenen und ihre Gegner in Galizien.
Wien 1902.
Sozialistische Monatshefte. Stuttgart 1908, Heft 10.
Karl Leuthner: Das Ende der polnischen Staatsidee. (Der
Verfasser meint ein polnischer Staat, der auch Li-
thauen, Bjelo-Rus' und Ukraine inbegriffe, laesse sich
nicht mehr denken). Der Kampf, Wien, 1914 Nr. i
Otto Bauer.
Dr. Stephan Rudnyzky : Ukraine und die Ukrainer.
Druck: "Vorwaerts". Wien V. Rechte Wollzeile 97.
Wien 1914.
— Ill —
George Cleinow : Das Problem der Ukralna. Die Grenz-
boten (nr. 45). Zeitschrift füer Politik, Lit. und
Kunst 1914, II. November. Berlin S. W. 11. Tem-
pelhofer Ufer 35 a.
SWEDISH.
Prof. Harald Hjaerne : Oestanifran. Cap. Den lillryska
nationalitetsroerelsens Ursprung (1879). Hugo Ge-
bers foerlag, Stockholm 1905.
Prof. Gustaf Steffen: Krig och kultur. Gap. HI. 9, 10.
Albert Bonniers foerlag. Stockholm 19 14.
Alfred Jensen : Ukrajnas nationalskad. Finsk Tidskrift
H. V. T. LXn. Helsingfors.
NORWEGIAN.
Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson : Artikler och taler, B. II. Utgivet
Chr. Collin. Christiania 1913.
RUSSIAN.
IIpo^. M. rpyineBCKift : HjUnocTpHpoBaHHaa ncropin YKpa-
HHLi. HsA- "npocBimenie". C. nexepöypr-L, 1913.
M. ^paroMaHOBi> : Coöpanie no;iHTHHecKHXT> coHHHeHiH.
ToMt I. I. IIcTopHiecKaa Uoji&ma h BejiHKopyccKan ;i;e-
MOKpaxin. 2. Onuxi, yKpanHCKOä nojiHTHKO-coi];iH;ri,HOÄ
nporpaMMM. Societe nouvelle de librairie et d'edition,
Paris, 1905.
MaxaHj-B IlexpoBHHi. ^paroManoB-t : Coöpanie no;iHTHie-
CKHXT, coHHHeHifi. Socictc nouvelle de librairie et
d'edition, 1905.
POLISH.
Leon Wasilewski : Ukraina i sprawa ukrainska. Wydaw-
nictv^o "Ksi^zka", Krakov^ 191 1.
Ludwig Kulczycki: Kwestya Polsko-Ruska. 1912 (1913).
— IV —
WacJaw Lipinski : Z dziejow Ukrainy. Ksiyga pamiatkowa
ku czci Wlodzimierza Antonowicza, Paulina Swi^cic-
kiego i Tadeusza Rylskiego, wydana staraniem dr. J.
Jiirkiewicza, Fr. Wolskiej, Ludw. Siedleckiego i Wa-
cJawa Lipinskiego. Krakow, 1913. Ksi^g. D. E. Fried-
leina.
Wadaw Lipinski: Szlachta na Ukrainie, Udzial jej w zy-
ciu narodu na tie jego dziejow. Krakow, 1909.
Pressburg . o - » > Wr,\ - - -^"""^ + + ^ ■'^J*%.\+ * XT * *Kis)i)nev ^ ^
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A 000 116 487
THE UKRAINIAN PERIODICAL
PUBLICATIONS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES:
IN FRENCH:
L' UKRAINE, Edition, publice par V. Stepankovsky.
Adresse de la Redaction de "L'Ukraine": Imprimeries
Reunies, S. A. Avenue de la Gare, 23, Lausanne,
Suisse.
LA REVUE UKRANIENNE, Mensuel edite par Arthur
Seelieb, Lausanne, Suisse, Mornex, 17.
IN GERMAN :
UKRAINISCHE RUNDSCHAU, Monatsschrift für Poli-
tik. XIII. Jahrgang. — Herausgeber und Redakteur Dr.
Wladimir Kuschnir. — Wien XVIII., Gersthoferstrasse
68.
UKRAINISCHES KORRESPONDENZBLATT.
Erscheint jeden Donnerstag. Wien, VIII. Josefstäd-
terstrasse 43 — 45.
UKRAINISCHE NACHRICHTEN. Wochenschrift. Wien,
VIII. Josefstädterstrasse 79.
IN RUSSIAN:
„yKPAHHCKAH ^H3Hb," ejKeMicHHHLifi acypHajit. Mo-
CKBa, B. ^MHTpOBKa, 14. ("Ukrainian Life", monthly
magazine, appearing in Moscow, Russia, since 1912).
N. B. Arrangements have been made for publishing a
Ukrainian periodical in ENGLISH, at Lausanne,
Switzerland.
BOOKS ON THE UKRAINIAN QUESTION
TO BE OBTAINED FROM:
THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL,
83 Grand St., Jersey City, N. J.
THE UKRAINE, reprint of a Lecture Delivered on Ukrai-
nian History and Present-Day Political Problems by
Bedwin Sands. London, 1914. (Illustrated). —
Net $0.50.
MEMORANDUM on the Ukrainian Question in its Na-
tional Aspect by Yaroslav Fedortchouk. Lon-
don, 19 14. — Net $0.50.
THE UKRAINE AND THE UKRAINIANS. By Ste-
fan Rudnitsky, Ph. D. (With three maps). Jer-
sey City, N. J.— Net $0.25.
THE RUSSIAN PLOT TO SEIZE GALICIA (Austrian
Ruthenia) by Vladimir Stepankovsky. Second
edition enlarged, (With portraits and maps). — Net
$0.25.
The following publications on the Ukrainian question are being prepared:
RUSSIA, POLAND AND THE UKRAINE by Prof.
Gustaf Steffen (translated from the Swedish).
A SYMPOSIUM ON THE UKRAINIAN QUESTION
by Edwin Björkman, Michael Hrushevsky, Prof. Otto
Hoetzsch and others.
N. B. Besides those books, there have appeared during the
present European war various publications on the
Ukrainian question : in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin,
Rome, Constantinople, and many capitals of neutral
states, in the following languages : English, German,
Russian, French, Ukrainian, Italian, Hungarian,
Bohemian, Roumanian, Bulgarian, Swedish 'and
Turkish.