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By Oleksandra KLIOSOVA<br />
Photos by the author<br />
and Natalia MYDLIAK<br />
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA<br />
This year, national-level centennial<br />
celebrations for the 1917-<br />
21 Ukrainian Revolution are<br />
continuing in Ukraine. Let us<br />
remind our readers that<br />
Den/The Day declared 2018 to be the<br />
Centennial Year of Hetman Pavlo<br />
Skoropadsky. Active citizens have<br />
held various events aimed at reviving<br />
the memory of the Hetman, such as a<br />
solemn prayer service honoring the<br />
centennial of Skoropadsky’s proclamation<br />
as Hetman and a march dedicated<br />
to the 100th anniversary of the<br />
Ukrainian State in Kharkiv. Meanwhile,<br />
history students enabled residents<br />
and guests of the capital to feel<br />
themselves transported to revolutionary<br />
Kyiv during the last weekend.<br />
On June 15 and 16, students<br />
from the faculty of history, Taras<br />
Shevchenko National University of<br />
Kyiv conducted dramatized Skoropadsky-themed<br />
tours, named<br />
“Night at St. Sophia. Hetmanate.<br />
1918” and hosted by the National<br />
Sanctuary “Sophia of Kyiv,” with the<br />
support of the Cultural Heritage<br />
Protection Department of Ukraine’s<br />
Ministry of Culture.<br />
“Conducting Skoropadsky-themed<br />
tours was a dream of my life! When<br />
competing in the All-Ukrainian Historians’<br />
Tournament as a ninth-grader,<br />
I had to answer a question about<br />
the hetman, so I started taking interest<br />
in his biography. He is superficially<br />
studied at school, but when<br />
you delve deeper into this topic, you<br />
understand the true scale of this figure,<br />
the concept of the Ukrainian<br />
Revolution. You are fascinated and<br />
because of it start to get involved in<br />
this process more and more,” we were<br />
told by Oleksii Rudenko, who leads the<br />
Night at the University Creative Association<br />
of Faculty of History Students<br />
at Taras Shevchenko National<br />
University of Kyiv.<br />
Rudenko created the Night at<br />
the University Creative Association<br />
in 2016, and it has become known due<br />
to its volunteer project of holding<br />
dramatized tours of various structures<br />
in Kyiv. This project is growing<br />
in popularity and attracting more and<br />
more spectators every time. Young<br />
historians have succeeded in moving<br />
beyond their alma mater, unlike most<br />
similar university associations, and<br />
they are confidently marching ahead<br />
as they vary the subject and scope of<br />
the events they hold. In the less than<br />
two years since the association’s establishment,<br />
the students have conducted<br />
a series of tours, in particular,<br />
presented the “NATO Night” project<br />
with the support of the NATO Information<br />
and Documentation Centre<br />
in Ukraine (Let us recall that The Day<br />
covered it in its No. 28 of May 8,<br />
2018).<br />
“We will travel today exactly<br />
100 years back in time. From now on,<br />
the only reality is that of the Ukrainian<br />
State of Hetman Skoropadsky!” the<br />
tour guide began. Although it is wrong<br />
to call this lad a tour guide, he is<br />
rather a guide into the world of Skoropadsky,<br />
a graduate of the Faculty of<br />
History and Philosophy of the University<br />
of St. Volodymyr and an ensign<br />
of the 1st Serdiuk Guard Regiment of<br />
the Ukrainian State Army.<br />
The events unfold quickly, actors<br />
unexpectedly pop out of the crowd, locations<br />
change, and red-faced visitors<br />
with enthusiastic looks run as they<br />
follow the guide in order to have time<br />
to see more. It seemed as if Bishop<br />
Nykodym had just blessed Skoropadsky<br />
in Sofiiska Square, but a moment<br />
later, people find themselves in the<br />
sanctuary. All of a sudden, everybody<br />
looks up at the belfry, from<br />
TOPIC OF THE DAY No.39 JUNE 21, 2018 5<br />
Night at St. Sophia.Hetmanate. 1918<br />
KYIV TARAS SHEVCHENKO UNIVERSITY’S HISTORY STUDENTS IN THE ROLES OF DIRECTORY LEADERS (LEFT TO RIGHT): VOLODYMYR VYNNYCHENKO, FEDIR<br />
SHVETS, SYMON PETLIURA<br />
PAVLO SKOROPADSKY AND SOFIA RUSOVA, A DEPARTMENT CHIEF AT THE<br />
HETMANATE’S MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, PLAYED BY KYIV TARAS<br />
SHEVCHENKO UNIVERSITY’S HISTORY STUDENTS<br />
where young men read out the Letter<br />
of the Illustrious Lord Hetman of All<br />
Ukraine to the Ukrainian People.<br />
There was also time for interactive<br />
experiences involving the visitors.<br />
All the present were recruited into the<br />
army and underwent a formation drill<br />
session led by a captain. In addition,<br />
anyone could hold a rifle for a time and<br />
try their hand in a saber fight. At the<br />
end of the training session, the captain<br />
named those selected for the army, and<br />
advised everyone else to work for the<br />
benefit of the Ukrainian State and the<br />
Illustrious Lord Hetman as civilians.<br />
Then the time travelers, that is,<br />
the visitors, went to Zvirynetsky Fort,<br />
where weapons and ammunition were<br />
stored during Skoropadsky’s reign. It<br />
was located on the territory of the present-day<br />
Hryshko Botanical Garden<br />
and took its name from one of the capital’s<br />
neighborhoods, called Zvirynets.<br />
The guide told them that on June 6,<br />
1918, the military depot in Zvirynets,<br />
holding 2 million shells, exploded and<br />
covered with debris Pecherskyi District,<br />
while the University of<br />
How<br />
creative<br />
history<br />
students<br />
from Kyiv<br />
have<br />
“revived”<br />
the past<br />
St. Volodymyr had even had its windows<br />
shattered by the force of the<br />
blast. Approximately 1,500 people<br />
became casualties, and 900 homes<br />
were destroyed. Panic started throughout<br />
the city, and Kyivites began to<br />
leave Kyiv in droves, thinking that the<br />
Bolsheviks had shelled it. Skoropadsky<br />
reacted instantly to this tragic event<br />
and set up a committee to assist the<br />
victims of the explosion. In addition,<br />
the residents of Kyiv actively participated<br />
in the collection of funds for the<br />
needs of the victims.<br />
“But not all people living in Kyiv<br />
were really worried about that matter.<br />
After all, speaking about the Hetmanate’s<br />
time, it is also important to<br />
understand that those people who did<br />
not imagine their life under new, revolutionary<br />
conditions were extremely<br />
pleased with this type of government.<br />
For them, the one-man government<br />
was much more understandable,”<br />
concluded the guide.<br />
A great deal of attention was also<br />
paid to the issue of autocephaly, which<br />
is now just as relevant as 100 years ago.<br />
The tour team explained to visitors that<br />
the All-Ukrainian Church Council,<br />
held in May 1918, elected Antonii, a<br />
man of outright Ukrainophobic views,<br />
as Metropolitan of Kyiv. At the same<br />
time, the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Assembly<br />
of Churches called for the convening<br />
of another council, which would<br />
consider the possibility of autocephaly.<br />
Autocephaly (that is, independence<br />
from the Moscow Patriarchate) enjoyed<br />
particular support from Skoropadsky<br />
and President of the Ukrainian<br />
State’s Council of Ministers Fedir<br />
Lyzohub. In July 1918, it was precisely<br />
St. Sophia that hosted the All-Ukrainian<br />
Church Council, which confirmed<br />
the election of Antonii as the new<br />
metropolitan, but most of the government,<br />
that is, everyone apart from<br />
Lyzohub, was not in favor of autocephaly<br />
or even mere autonomy of the<br />
Ukrainian church.<br />
The event turned out to be incredibly<br />
interesting and informative<br />
for adults as well as young members<br />
of the group, who may start wanting<br />
to become historians some day as<br />
well. Thanks to the creative students<br />
of the Night at the University Creative<br />
Association, visitors were able<br />
to “see” many of the famous figures<br />
of the time: Skoropadsky, his wife<br />
Oleksandra Skoropadska, Symon<br />
Petliura, Volodymyr Vynnychenko,<br />
Fedir Shvets, anarchist Marusia Nikiforova,<br />
actress Maria Zankovetska;<br />
join the military of the Ukrainian<br />
state; become “witnesses” of several<br />
murders and one of the attempts on<br />
the Hetman’ life, and ultimately, to<br />
touch history in person.