Through the Ages

    It is important to understand that Ukraine has a long history which is still not written in the books as a single unit. I mean, there are too many points of view as of which historical event which makes the process very difficult. First of all, some scientists believe Ukraine to be the Motherland of the Arians (or Indo-Arians), whose native language became the basis for all languages of the Indo-European language family (including Slavonic, Roman and Germanic, that is Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Slovak, English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Faroese, Italian, Latin etc.). This event seems to belong to the time between 5000 and 2000 BC. But even earlier existed the Trypillya Culture (it is named after the village near the Dnipro River where its traces were found). Maybe, they were living somewhat 10 000 BC, maybe, 8 000 BC or 12 000 BC. They were a settled tribe, they lived in the houses, they knew the writing. The last fact is the reason for the scientist’s admiration of this culture because in that time people living in the Europe were still wild animal-hunters only. And the signs found on the Trypillya (Tripillia, Tripolye) tableware and adornments are very similar to the runes found in Europe during the 1st milleniaum AD which appearance is under the shadow of secret.

The recognized history of Ukraine’s land starts in the 6th century AD, when Kyiv (Kiev) was founded by three brothers Kyi, Schek, Khoryv and their sister Lybid’ who are believed to be the the representatives of the Polyan tribe. This fact is not proved, mainly because the most of that time evidences are available thanks to the chroniclers’ work, especially to Nestor (Nestor The Annalist), the Kyiv Lavra monk who wrote the Story of the Passing Years (the Primary Chronicle, the Annals, the Russian Primary Chronicle). As you can see the state’s name in that time was Kyivan Rus’ (Kievan Rus’). You may imagine that this explains quite evidently the mutual history of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus but this is wrong. The State of Muscovy (the proper name for Russia) appeared in the 15th century AD only. And it took the name of Russia in the 18th century AD, during Peter the Great’s reign. He was trying to find the old roots for his state which traditions till that time had very little in common with those of Rus’ as they were full of Asian prejudices and even the Muslim elements. That is when the word Rus’ was stolen with its root “Rus”. Thus, the citizen of Kyivan Rus’ called himself Rus’kyi and the citizen of Russia names himself Russkyi, that is Russian. Therefore, there is no sense in naming Kyivan Rus’ the first Russian state.