(Opinion article)

May 22, 2019. Andreas Kappeler, Professor of History from the University of Vienne, a famous friend of Ukraine, presented his new book ‘Unequal Brothers. Ukrainians and Russians from the Medieval Ages to Nowadays’ in Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (KUBG). The book presents  profound research of the uneasy Ukrainian and Russian relationships from an Austrian perspective.  It is based on a database and authentic sources taken from the leading libraries of the European Union. A part of reference literature is not in the circulation of the Ukrainian historians, still now, it is just unknown here. It is not surprising that after the warm greeting words, Academician V.I. Ogneviuk, Rector of KUBG, invited Professor A.Kappeler as well as his prominent disciples to take part in a number of scientific projects relating to the history of Ukraine.

It is not a secret that the present day history of Ukraine, not speaking about Russia, is clouded by the smog of the Soviet past. It has a lot of white spots and whitewashing forgery. The Soviet era did not spare the old documents and manuscripts so important for the contemporary Ukrainian generations. Volens-nolens, Ukrainian researches try to seek and process the new digitalized information from all acceptable resources. It relates to the leading libraries of the Western Europe, the USA and Canada.  

You are not supposed to be a professional historian in order to notice that almost any historic events connected with Ukraine are, at least partly, falsified.

The first official document describing the Battle of Poltava was published in 1791 by I.I.Golik. It is entitled as “Addition to the Actions of Peter I.” It appeared 82 years after the Russian-Swedish battle on the territory of Ukraine. All manuscripts, documents, and letters of the war participants, just disappeared…The captured flag of Karl XII, presenting three crowns, looks like one of the banners of Catherine II. Who knows, maybe, it is just a fake flag?

In the famous letter of Napoleon to Alexander 1, written just before the seizure of Moscow in 1812, the French imperator invites the Russian tsar to enter Moscow gates the first. The letter could be found out in Internet…

The Mongolian historians acknowledge that they had been told about Genghis Khan, Batu Khan and their capture of vast European, including the present day Ukrainian, territories just only in 1920s. They don`t have any legends and myths about these famous warriors. Marco Polo (1254-1324), the famous writer and explorer who travelled in Asia and met personally Khublai Khan, left a lot of portraits of the so-called ‘Mongolian’ leaders.  On his pictures, Gengis Khan looks like a European man with a large fair-headed beard. The same relates to Batu Khan. The image of the latter is often shot by Ukrainian tourists who go sightseeing in old Hungarian Cathedrals covered with frescoes of the XIII-XIV centuries.  Undoubtedly, the Ukrainian tourists, visiting Hungary, are deeply surprised by this discrepancy.

The historic heritage of the Communist past is still not thrown completely away from the modern Ukrainian school textbooks. It is high time to do it. The assistance of prominent Western historians in the restoration of true Ukrainian history could hardly be overestimated.  So, let`s say, “Thank you” to Professor A.Kapeller for his significant contribution in bridging the gaps in the real history of Ukraine.