Doroshenko's Survey of Ukrainian Historiography • The Cossack Chroniclers

The period of Khmelnytsky and the unprecedented eruption of national and spiritual energy caused by it were recorded by a rather special category of historical works, the so‑called "Cossack Chronicles," which began to be written in the second half of the seventeenth century, although the versions that have come down to us date only from the eighteenth century. The central theme of them all is the time of Khmelnytsky, and some of them are devoted to it entirely, while others relate other events only by way of introduction. [. . .] Their sources include not only old Ukrainian, Polish and other foreign chronicles, but also official documents, diaries, journals and logbooks (which were kept in the Hetman's Chancellery) and even works of poetry. The most characteristic examples of the "Cossack Chronicles," which at the same time are very important works in the field of Ukrainian historiography, are the chronicles of Samovydets', Velychko, and Hrabyanka.

The unknown writer, who was later given the name of "Samovydets'" (Eyewitness), was the author of the book O pochatku i prychynakh voynu Khmelnyts'koho (The Beginning and the Cause of Khmelnytsky's War) which deals with the period from 1648 up to 1702. The author came from the Right-Bank Ukraine; during the "Ruin" he moved to Siveria, where he wrote this work. The actual writing was not begun until 1672, although preparation for it must have started earlier. It is very likely that the author came from a family of small gentry and was a Chancellery clerk, which made it possible for him to be well acquainted with the world of diplomacy. He describes the siege of Smolensk in 1654 and of Riga in 1655, of which he was an eyewitness. He was present at the Cossack Assembly in Chyhyryn in 1657, took part in the diplomatic mission during the time of Yuriy Khmelnytsky in 1660, and was one of the supporters of Somko. He also gives an eyewitness account of the election of Mnohohrishny in 1669, and we can assume that he must have lived for some time at Starodub, since from 1676 onwards he describes events around that town in great detail.

p45 Samovydets' is critical of Hetman Samoylovych, yet he is friendly to Mazepa, emphasizing his descent "from old Ukrainian gentry renowned in military history." He praises Somko and the Koshovyi Sirko (Chief of the Zaporozhian Host) and for various reasons dislikes Bryukhovetsky, Vyhovsky, and Doroshenko. As a devout Christian he does not approve of the alliance between Doroshenko and the Turks. A convinced monarchist, he shows great loyalty to Polish King and Moscow Tsar alike. Referring to the oath of allegiance to the latter, he writes that "throughout the Ukraine the people were eager to take it and there was a great joy among them." At the same time Samovydets' is champion of the nobles and the gentry; all his sympathies are on the side of the Cossacks living in townships, and not with those on the Sich. He is a great believer in enlightenment and science.

Samovydets' is as well acquainted with European affairs as he is with the Ukrainian; this is manifest in his references to the war between Austro-Hungary and Turkey in 1683‑1691. He is given to moralizing and likes to appraise historical personages and their actions from the viewpoint of his own religious, social, and political convictions. His Chronicle is written in fine Ukrainian showing marked affinity with the vernacular. It was first published by O. Bodyansky in Chteniya of the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities; it appeared also as a separate book in Moscow in 1846. A second edition was prepared by Orest Levytsky (Kiev, 1878) based on several copies of the chronicle, with a very valuable introduction by the editor.24

p46 The most interesting among the Cossack chroniclers is undoubtedly Samiylo Velychko, the secretary of the General Chancellery. We know that he began his career (1690) late in life by enrolling in the service of the Secretary General, Vasyl' Leontiyevych Kochubey. On various occasions he was entrusted with important official missions. In 1702 he took part in the campaign of the Ukrainian corps which was dispatched to Poland to help Peter I's ally, King August. Around 1704 he came to be employed permanently by the General Chancellery, where, as he himself puts it, he "was not the worst of those engaged in secretarial duties." In 1708 Velychko was dismissed from his post because of his close association with V. Kochubey, whom he always praises as a "kind, wise, and God‑fearing man," in contrast to Mazepa whom he calls a "Machiavelli," and a "sly fox." Later, after the Swedish War, Velychko found shelter in the home of the Kochubeys in Dykan'ka and lived there until his death, devoting himself to teaching and writing. Before his death, which occurred when he was very old, he became blind.

Velychko was a well educated man and knew Latin, Polish, and German. After completing his main historical work in 1720, he translated from the German into Ukrainian an extensive Cosmography (866 pp.), which was completed in Dykan'ka from his dictation in 1728. This translation was signed by Velychko who described himself as "a true son of Little Russia, of Khazar descent, and of all the servants of the Zaporozhian Host, the p47 humblest." An excerpt from this Cosmography dealing with the boundaries of the Muscovite State was printed by O. Levytsky in Ukrayina, in 1914.

Velychko's main work, which earned him a distinguished place in Ukrainian historiography, is known as Skazanie o voine Kozatskoi (or in full: The Tale of the Cossack War Against the Poles Begun by Zynoviy Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, Lasting for Eight Years; and for the Poles and Other States Lasting for Twelve Years. How He, Khmelnytsky, with the Help of Almighty God, Broke Loose with the Cossacks and Tatars from the Polish Yoke and Willingly Placed Himself Under the Rule of the Most Illustrious Russian Monarch, Aleksei Mykhailovych. Based on Works of the German Author, Samuel Puffendorf,25 the Cossack Author Samuil Zorka, and the Pole, Samuel Twardowski,26 who Described this War in Polish Verse in his Work entitled "Wojna domowa," this Account is Related Now in Historical Style and in Little Russian Speech as Composed by Samiylo Velychko, Former Secretary of the General Chancellery, in the Village of Zhuky in Poltava District, in the Year 1720).

This sizable work of Velychko has not come down to us p48 complete; there are gaps for the period 1649‑52, and 1700‑23. Apart from the sources mentioned by Velychko in the title, Kromer and Guagnini are also cited. The author is well acquainted with contemporary Polish and Ukrainian literature; he quotes poems, satirical verses, panegyrics, epitaphs, Gizel's Synopsis, and the works of Galatowski. He is also familiar with the constitution of the Polish Sejm and speeches delivered in the Sejm which were printed in Kraków in 1677, and he illustrates his work frequently with the help of quotations from poetry, epitaphs, and orations.

The manuscript begins with the continuation of the diary of Maciej Tytlewski about the Khotyn war of 1620. There follows the "universal" (proclamation) by Ostryanyn of 1638, a translation of Okolski's diary, a biography of B. Khmelnytsky and an excerpt from Puffendorf's account of the causes of the Polish-Ukrainian wars. The narrative goes on to describe the period of Khmelnytsky [. . .] the war between Poland and Sweden, and the time of "Ruin," and ends with the year 1700.

The author's point of view and his political and national orientation are best expressed in his preface, where he reveals the motives which prompted him to write his work and sets out his views on the task of a Ukrainian historian:

Is there anything so pleasant, kind reader, and so satisfying to the curious disposition of man, apart from his physical satisfactions, as the study of books and the knowledge of past events and human actions? . . . I myself learned this when, being worried, I devoted myself to reading, and having learned of various human mishaps and tribulations, I have come to bear my own troubles with patience, in accordance with the precept of the Bible. Moreover, having perused chronicles and histories of foreign nations, I saw in them glory that can never be darkened.

The chivalrous and heroic deeds of our Sarmatian Cossack ancestors, which equal those of foreign nations, have been left unrecorded by our writers and have been covered with a mantle of oblivion. And even if a Cossack writer wrote anything worthy, to preserve what he saw in his own time, he did this for the most part for his own use, in a few scanty words, without mentioning the causes or the results of what happened. If, in the writing of this old Cossack ancestor of ours there is anything praiseworthy, p49 then it comes not only from our own lazy historians, but from foreign, Greek, Latin, German, and Polish historians, who are difficult to translate into the Cossack language, and also impossible to obtain in Little Russia . . .

Hence, not because of idleness, but because I could not help following the old writers, I had not dared to write about the past glories of famous Cossack war leaders.

However, in the years when the mighty Swedish army was in Poland and Saxony . . . together with auxiliary Little Russian troops dispatched by the Poles against the Swedes, traversing the Little Russian Ukraine from Korsun and Bila Tserkva to Volynia and into the Rus′ Principalities as far as Lviv, Zamostya, and Brody, I saw many towns and castles empty and deserted, and the walls, constructed once by men to resemble hills, now serving as the homes and refuge for wild beasts. The city walls, such as I saw then in Cholhansk, Konstantyniv, Berdychiv, Zbarazh, and Sokal, as we passed them on our way, were but little populated, some of them quite abandoned, ruined, levelled to the ground and overgrown with weeds, only housing snakes, reptiles and worms.

Having looked once more I saw the wide Ukrainian fields and valleys, forests and orchards, the oak groves and the ponds and lakes overgrown with moss and wild bush. Not in vain, however, did the Poles, regretting the loss of the Ukraine, call this country a paradise, because before the war of Khmelnytsky it was like another promised land, flowing with milk and honey.

There I saw in various places many human bones, dry and bare under the naked sky and I asked myself: Whose bones are these? My answer was: The bones of all those who died in those wastes. My heart and spirits were oppressed, since our beautiful land — the Little Russian Ukraine, which before was so full in the blessings of the world, has now been turned by God's will into a desert, and our own famous forefathers have been forgotten. I have asked many old people why this has happened, for what reasons and by whom was this land of ours turned into ruin, but their replies were different and contradictory. Therefore, I found it impossible to learn from these various explanations the true reason for the downfall and destruction of our country.

In order to find an answer to these painful questions about the bitter fate of his country, Velychko turned to the historical works of Samuel Twardowski (Wojna domowa, Kalish, 1681), to Samuel Puffendorf (in Russian translation published in St. Petersburg in 1718) and to the diary of Samiylo Zorka, the p50 secretary to Bohdan Khmelnytsky,27 as well as to the "annals and records of the Cossacks," and used them as his main source of Ukrainian history. He thought his work very imperfect and at the end of his preface asked his readers to excuse and amend the errors in his book.

Velychko's work shows a serious attempt to combine pragmatic history with artistic writing. While depicting the destruction of the suburbs of Lviv by the Tatars in 1670, he borrows the description directly from Tasso's The Liberated Jerusalem. Equally artistic is his description of the devastation of the Right-Bank Ukraine under the rule of Doroshenko: "and the Ukraine fell like Babylon." In the opinion of Ikonnikov, the work of Velychko is a scholarly and well systematized history of the Ukraine. V. Antonovych has stressed the fact that the inclusion of many documents from the Cossack Chancellery and archives, such as hramoty, proclamations, letters, treaties, adds special value to this work. The most characteristic features of Velychko's style are his great sincerity, his warm feeling for artistic effects, and his sense of humor. The deep patriotism of Velychko places him with the Ukrainian chroniclers of the Kiev period, who also lamented the destruction of the Ukraine by the Mongols.

Velychko's Chronicle was published in 1848‑1864 by the Kiev Archeographic Commission, under the title Letopis' sobytii v Yugo-Zapadnoi Rossii v XVII v. (Chronicle of Events in South-West Russia in the XVII Century), published by the Vremennaya komissiya dlya razbora drevnikh aktov, Vol. I, Kiev, 1848; Vol. II, Kiev, 1851; Vol. III, Kiev, 1855; Vol. IV, Kiev, 1864.

The text of this edition was based on the copy belonging to M. Pogodin which, it can be assumed, corresponded with the original. Later, another copy of the Chronicle, which had belonged to H. Poletyka, was found in the library of M. Sudiyenko. Ten miniature portraits of the Hetmans were added to the original. The Chronicle was edited by M. Rigelman and I. Samchevksy. p51 The author's preface was followed immediately by the Skazanie and not the introductory chapters, which were printed in an Appendix in vol. IV. Velychko wrote in good Ukrainian which he called either "the Cossack tongue," or "the Little Russian speech. "28

Another prominent Cossack chronicler is Hryhoriy Hrabyanka, who also devotes the greater part of his work to the period of Khmelnytsky. Hrabyanka came from Hadyach; in 1686 he joined the Cossack forces, in 1717 was made regimental justice, and in 1723 he went with Polubotok to St. Petersburg and was imprisoned there. In 1730, owing to the intervention of Hetman Apostol, Hrabyanka was appointed the Hadyach Colonel. He lost his life in the campaign against the Tatars in 1738.

Hrabyanka was a well-read man and had a good knowledge of foreign literature. His work is entitled Deistviya prezelnoi brani (or in full: The Events of the Most Bitter War of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Zaporozhian Hetman, Against the Poles at the Time of the Most Illustrious Polish Kings, Vladyslav and Casimir, Begun in 1648 and Not Ended Ten Years After Khmelnytsky's Death, Composed from Many Chronicles, a Diary Written During that War, and Eyewitness Accounts by Hryhoriy Hrabyanka in Hadyach in 1710).

Hrabyanka's main sources, as he himself lists them, are the following: 1) "A diary of our soldiers written in camp," 2) "Church and lay chronicles," 3) Gizel's Synopsis, works of Kromer, Bielski, Stryjkowski, Guagnini, Kochowski,29 Twardowski, Puffendorf, and Hübner,30 4) official documents (privileges, letters, treaties, lists of Hetmans and colonels, and verses).

There are two editions of Hrabyanka's work: a) the earlier, p52 rich in Church Slavicisms and full of verses, published by the Kiev Archeographic Commission; b) the later, containing many Russianisms, without any verses, published by Tumansky in 1793. The popularity of Hrabyanka's work can be seen from the fact that about twenty copies of it have been preserved.

The Events of the Most Bitter War is primarily a monograph on Khmelnytsky, although it contains the history of the Ukraine from the earliest times to the election of Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky in 1708. However, the period of Khmelnytsky is treated in great detail while the events preceding it are summarized in an introductory chapter, entitled "The Origin of the Name of the Cossacks and a Short Summary of their Earliest History." In attempting to explain the origin and the name of the Cossacks, Hrabyanka polemizes with the Polish writers on the question of the name "Cossack." He disputes Kochowski's claim that the word is derived from "koza" since they (the Cossacks) were first occupied with the care of goats and later showed goat-like swiftness in battle." He also objects to Stryjkowski's assumption that "the word derives from the name of an ancient leader, Kozak, who defeated the Tatars on many occasions." Hrabyanka's own explanation is that "the word 'Cossack' comes from 'Kozar,' an ancient Scythian tribe, which descended from Homer,a the first son of Japhet." According to Hrabyanka, the Mongols, after having destroyed the Khazar Empire, began to call the Kozars, Cossacks.

The early history of Kievan Rus′ occupies very little space. [. . .] It is followed by an account of the Cossacks' retreat behind the Dnieper rapids, as a result of Polish pressure. The Church Union, the Polish oppression of Ukrainians and the injustice done to Khmelnytsky by Czaplinski are given as the causes of the Cossack rebellions. The events of 1648‑1655 are divided into twelve sections, which form the main part of the work. After Khmelnitsky's death, events are described only sketchily and become a mere chronological list. The ideal and the hero of the whole work is Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

An edition of Hrabyanka's work appeared in 1854, published by the Kiev Archeographic Commission and prepared by I. p53 Samchevsky using six different copies as a base, one of which used to belong to H. Poletyka. Several pages depicting the dissatisfaction of the Ukrainians with Moscow rule during the times of Bryukhovetsky were deleted by the censorship. They were printed in 1894 by O. Lazarevsky in Kievskaya Starina, XI. Lazarevsky expressed doubt as to the authenticity of Hrabyanka's Chronicle, but when a new copy of it from 1756 was discovered in Sorochyntsi, he accepted Hrabyanka's authorship (Kievskaya Starina, 1897, III).31

The writing, copying and compiling of chronicles was very widely spread in the Left-Bank Ukraine in the first decades of the eighteenth century. It was encouraged by the Cossack starshyna who were intensely interested in their past. Such chronicles were often written or compiled by men in high office. Apart from Colonel Hrabyanka's chronicle, we also have a Kronichka (A Brief Chronicle) (1452‑1715) written by Pavlo Polubotok,32 which was included in his diary by Yakiv Markovych.

In the thirties of the eighteenth century there appeared Kratkoe opisanie Malorossii (A Short Description of Little Russia) which is considered to be an attempt to change Hrabyanka's Chronicle into a didactic history of the Ukraine. Apparently with this aim in mind, the author of this chronicle tries to link the Kiev period with the Cossack period of Ukrainian history.33

His style is clear and simple, free from Hrabyanka's rhetoric. In the language there are traces of Church Slavic or Polish, although foreign words are very numerous and there is considerable Russian influence. Ukrainian is mostly manifest in phonetics. The Short Description was a very popular work, and Hetman Rozumovsky ordered a copy of it to be made and given to the p54 Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. It was first published by V. Ruban in 1777 (Kratkaya letopis' Malyya Rossii s 1506 po 1776 god, St. Petersburg, 1777), under the editorship of the former colonel of Kiev, Chancellor O. Bezborod'ko, who added to it his own account of the events from 1734‑1776, supplied as an "explanation of actual methods of government of Little Russia" and appended a list of the Hetmans and high ranking Cossack officers. The Short Description enjoyed its greatest popularity in the second half of the eighteenth century.34

It also provided material for another historical work compiled in 1742, Letopisets ili kratkoe opisanie (or in full: Chronicle or a Short Description of Important Events, and What Happened, and in What Year in the Little Russian Ukraine, on Both Banks of the Dnieper, and Who the Hetman Actually Was and When). The narrative continues as far as 1737. The author belonged to the Cossack starshyna who were elevated after the Swedish War.35 He has no love for Mazepa and writes that "Mazepa perished in Bendery, in the ninetieth year of his wicked life." Similarly, in his opinion, "the memory of the perjuror and traitor, Orlyk, has faded." However, he remembers with some sorrow the fate of Baturyn, and he is very dissatisfied with the establishment of the Little Russian Collegium. "This Collegium," he writes, "existed until 1728. Many worthy men were murdered, and all kinds of levies were imposed, and the poor people suffered from usurious practices. Such trickery was used by the members of the Collegium and no record was kept of bribes accepted in cash; they milked Little Russia thoroughly." [. . .]

The author, a well educated man, knew Latin, and his language, although full of Russianisms, is close to the spoken language. In his Chronicle he is reserved and modest; however, he does p55 not like the Zaporozhians, whom he accuses of robberies committed in 1663 and apparently condoned by Ivan Bryukhovetsky. His work was published by Mykola Bilozersky (Yuzhnorusskiya letopisi, Kiev, 1856); a second edition, based on a different version, was edited by V. Antonovych (Sbornik letopisei, Kiev, 1888).

Of the later Cossack chronicles, all dating from the middle of the eighteenth century, the following deserve to be mentioned:

Soon after the abolition of the Hetmanate in the Ukraine in 1764, there appeared other historical works which summarize, as it were, the periods of the independent, and later, autonomous Cossack Ukraine.

The author of the first of them is Petro Ivanovich Symonovsky (1717‑1809), [. . .] graduated from the Mohyla Academy in Kiev p56 and studied in Halle, Wittenberg, Königsberg, [. . .] He wrote in 1765 Kratkoe opisanie o kozatskom malorossiiskom narode (or in full: A Short Description of the Cossack Little Russian People and of its Military Exploits, Compiled from Various Foreign Sources: German — Büsching, Latin — Bezoldi, French — Chevalier;36 and Rus′ Manuscripts by the Staff Companion, Petro Symonovsky in 1765).

Apart from the sources mentioned, Symonovsky also used Hrabyanka's Chronicle. His work begins with the chapter on the "Explanation of the Name 'Cossack' " in which he gives a brief history of the Ukraine compressed into three pages, mentions the Cossack sea‑faring expeditions, and cites the letter of Sirko to the Sultan as a proof of Cossack bravery. The other chapters deal with the first Hetman, Ruzhynsky, Hetman Pidkova, Hetmans Nalyvayko and Khmelnytsky and other Hetmans. The chronicle ends with the description of the election of Hetman Rozumovsky in Hlukhiv on February 22, 1750. It is obvious that the author was not pleased with the abolition of the Hetmanate, since he believed "that the termination of the Hetman government was harmful to Little Russia." Symonovsky's Chronicle was edited by O. Bodyansky in Chteniya, No. 2, Moscow, 1847, and also appeared separately, Moscow, 1847.

Another writer of that period, Stefan Lukomsky, was a little older than Symonovsky. He was born in 1701 in Uman. His father, Vasyl', fought in the ranks of Paliy's army and then went over to the Left-Bank Ukraine. Stefan graduated from the Kiev Academy in 1730. In 1731, on orders from Hetman Apostol he was given a post in the office of the General Chancellery; later he became Colonel Quartermaster in the Pryluky regiment.

While still a captain at Pryluky, Lukomsky translated from the Polish the Diary of Okolski, O Ostryaninovoi voine z lyakhami p57 (Of the War between Ostryanyn and the Poles), supplementing it with his own account of the events between 1639‑1648. Later he translated from the Polish the notes on the Polish-Turkish war of 1620‑21 by Tytlewski, again adding to them much of his own material. Lukomsky designed both these translations as an introduction to his translation of Twardowski's poem Wojna Domowa. At the end of his life, in 1770, when already in retirement, he wrote Sobranie istoricheskoe (or in full: A Historical Compilation from the Works of Guagnini and Ancient Chronicles). It comprises the period from the time of Gedymin to the end of the sixteenth century. It was printed in 1878 as an appendix to the Chronicle of Samovydets'. Lukomsky's translation of Tytlewski was published earlier (1864) in the fourth volume of Velychko's Chronicle. [. . .] Lukomsky's autobiography was published by Orest Levytsky in Kievskaya Starina, IX, 1890.37

Bibliography

V. Ikonnikov, Opyt russkoi istoriografii, vol. II part 2, Kiev, 1908 (chapter: Malorossiiskiya letopisi, pp1560‑1900); M. Maksymowych, "O letopisi Grabyanki," "O yuzhnorusskikh letopisyakh," Sobranie sochinenii, vol. I, Kiev, 1876; O. Levitsky, "Opyt izsledovaniya o letopisi Samovidtsa," Preface to the edition of Samovydets' Chronicle, Kiev, 1878; K. Zaklynsky, "Ruskii letopistsy i letopisi XVII stolettya," Zorya, Lviv, 1880; V. Antonovych, Preface to Sbornik letopisei, otnosyashchikhsya k istorii yuzhnoi i zapadnoi Rusi, Kiev, 1888; P. Milyukov, Glavnye techeniya russkoi istoricheskoi mysli, Moscow, 1896; O. Zhytetsky, Eneida Kotlyarevskago i drevneiyshii eya spisok v svyazi s istoriei ukrainskoi literatury XVIII st., Kiev, 1900; A. Rogozinsky, "Kroynika Safonovicha i eya otnoshenie k Sinopsisu Gizelya," Izvestiya Otdeleniya russkago yazyka i slovesnosti Akademii Nauk, IV, St. Petersburg, 1910; I. Franko, "Studiyi nad ukrayins'kymy pisnyamy. Khmelnychchyna," ZNTSH, vols. XCVIII‑CXIII; V. Petrykevych, Litopys Velychka a Wojna p58 domowa, Ternopil, 1910; P. Klepatsky, Ohlyad dzherel do istoriyi Ukrayiny, vol. I, Kamyanets', 1920, pp96‑115; M. Hrushevsky, Istoriya Ukrayiny-Rusi, vol. VIII, part 2, Kiev-Vienna, 1922; M. Horban', Narysy z ukrayins'koyi istoriohrafii, ch. 1, Novyi spysok litopysu "Kratkoe opisanie Malorossii," Kharkiv, 1923; M. Voznyak, Istoriya ukrayins'koyi literatury, vol. III, part 2, Lviv, 1924; D. Bahaliy, Narys ukrayins'koyi istoriohrafii, II, Kozats'ki litopysy, Kiev, 1925; V. Romanovsky, "Khto buv Samovydets'?," Ukrayina, 1925, V, Kiev; M. Petrovsky, "Do pytannya pro pevnist' vidomostey Litopysu Samovydtsya y pro avtora Litopysu (Romana Rakushku-Romanov'koho)," Zapysky Nizhens'koho Instytutu Narodnoyi Osvity, vol. VI, Nizhen, 1926; O. Ohloblyn, "Do pytannya pro avtora Litopsyu Samovydtsya," Zapysky Istorychno-Filolohichnoho Viddilu VUAN, vol. VII‑VIII, Kiev, 1926; M. Petrovsky, "Psevdo-diyariush Samiyla Zorky," Zapysky Istorychno-Filolohichnoho Viddilu VUAN, vol. XVII, Kiev, 1928; A. Yershov, "Pro litopysni dzherela istorychnykh prats' Stepana Lukoms'koho," Zapysky Nizhens'koho Instytutu Narodnoyi Osvity, vol. VIII, Nizhen, 1928; M. Andrusiak, "Do pytannya pro avtorstvo Litopysu Samovydtsya," Zapysky Naukovoho Tovarystva im. Shevchenka, vol. 149, Lviv, 1928; A. Yershov, "Koly i khto napysav Hustynsky litopys?", Zapysky Naukovoho Tovarystva im. Shevchenka, vol. 100, part 2, Lviv, 1930, pp205‑211; M. Petrovsky, Narysy z istoriyi Ukrayiny. vol. I. Doslidy nad Litopysom Samovydtsya, Kharkiv, 1930; M. Hrushevsky, "Samovidets 'Ruiny' i ego pozdneishie otrazheniya," Trudy Instituta Slavyanovedeniya Akademii Nauk SSSR, vol. I, 1932, pp157‑193; L. Okinshevych, "Do pytannya pro avtora Litopysu Samovydtsya," Narysy z sotsiyal'no-ekonomichnoyi istoriyi Ukrayiny, VUAN, vol. I, pp1‑26, Kiev, 1932; M. Voznyak "Khto zh avtor t.zv. Litopysu Samovydtsya?" Zapysky Naukovoho Tovarystva im. Shevchenka, vol. 153, part I, Lviv, 1933; M. Hrushevsky, "Ob ukrainskoi istoriografii XVIII v. Neskol'ko soobrazhenii," Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1934, No. 3, pp215‑223; S. Narizhnyi, "Deystviya prezelnoy brani," Pratsi Ukrayins'koho Istorychno-Filolohichnoho Tovarystva v Prazi, p59 vol. II, Prague, 1939, pp149‑182; and separately, Prague 1938; D. Čiževsky, Istoriya ukrains'koyi literatury, vol. II, Prague, 1942; C. Borelius, Safonovičs Chronik im Codex AD10 der Västeraser Gymnasialbibliothek, eine sprachliche Untersuchung, Uppsala, 1952; O. Ohloblyn, "Hryhoriy Pokas ta yoho 'Opisanie o Maloi Rossii' " (1751), Naukovyi Zbirnyk, I, Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U. S., New York, 1952, pp61‑73; D. Čiževsky, Istoriya ukrains'koyi literatury, New York, 1956.

The Author's or the Editor's Notes:

24 During recent decades the Chronicle of Samovydets' has been the subject of many studies by Ukrainian historians. At first the question of authorship attracted the scholars. On the basis of research conducted by Vadym Modzalevsky on the life of the General Treasurer Roman Rakushka, a prominent public figure in seventeenth‑century Ukraine (cf. Modzalevsky, "Roman Rakushka, Odin iz deyatelei Ruiny," Trudy Chernigovskoi Gubernskoi Arkhivnoi Komissii, X, 1913; see also Modzalevsky, "Pershyi viys'kovyi pidskarbiy Roman Rakushka," Zapysky Istorychno-Filolohichnoho Viddilu Ukrayins'koyi Akademiyi Nauk, Kiev, vol. I, 1919, Vol. II‑III, 1920‑1922); several historians (V. Romanovsky, M. Petrovsky, O. Ohloblyn) came to accept Rakushka as the author of this chronicle. This supposition was also strongly supported by the monograph on the Samovydets' Chronicle by M. Petrovsky (Narysy z istoriyi Ukrayiny, I, Doslidy nad Litopysom Samovydtsya, Kharkiv, 1930) and was finally approved by Mykhaylo Hrushevsky.

However, in the 1930's Lev Okinshevich expressed the opinion that the author of the Samovydets' Chronicle was Ivan Bykhovets' ("Do pytannya pro avtora litopsyu Samovydtsya," Narysy z sotsiyal'no-ekonomichnoyi istoriyi Ukrayiny, UAN, Kiev, 1932), while M. Voznyak, ("Khto zh avtor t.zv. Litopysu Samovydtsya?" Zapysky Naukovoho Tovarystva im. Shevchenka, CLIII, 1933) tried to prove that the author was a Korsun colonel, Fedir Kandyba. Still earlier (in 1928) M. Andrusiak expressed the same opinion.

The most important contribution to the study of this Chronicle, apart from M. Petrovsky's work, is the article by M. Hrushevsky: "Samovidets 'Ruiny' i ego pozdneishie otrazheniya," Trudy Instituta Slavyanovedeniya Akademii Nauk SSSR, I, 1932.

25 Samuel Puffendorf (1632‑1694), a well known German historian and jurist. Author of Commentariorum de rebus Sueccicis libri XXVI (Utrecht, 1686), and De rebus a Carolo Gustavo Sueciae rege gestis commentariorum libri VIII (Nuremberg, 1696).

26 Samuel Twardowski (1600‑1660), Polish writer, participant in the Cossack wars, wrote a poem Wojna domowa z Kozaki i Tatary, Moskwą, potym Szwedami i z Węgry, . . . published in 1681. On the whole objective in its treatment of events, the poem was very popular among the Ukrainians. There were two Ukrainian translations of it, one by the secretary of the Lubny Regiment, Stepan Savytsky (Part I), another by S. Velychko (Part II and Part III). The poem was fully translated by Stepan Lukomsky, but this translation did not survive to modern times.

However, in M. Hrushevsky's opinion, Stepan Savytsky's Povest' o kozatskoi voine s polyakami, 1718, had an independent historiographic value, as one of the works created by "the famous class of military clerks of post-Mazepa time," together with the works by Velychko and Hrabyanka (M. Hrushevsky, "Ob ukrainskoi istoriografii XVIII veka. Neskol'ko soobrazhenii," Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1934, No. 3).

27 The question of the authenticity of Zorka's diary was hotly debated by Ukrainian historians in the 1920's. While P. Klepatsky defended the diary as being authentic, M. Perovsky declared it to be forged by Velychko.

28 The Archeographic Commission of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences under the chairmanship of M. Hrushevsky published Part I of Velychko's Chronicle (Kiev, 1926), as the first volume of Monumenta Litterarum Ukrainicarum, prepared by K. Lazarevska.

29 Wespazjan Kochowski (1633‑1699), participated in the Vienna campaign of 1683. Author of Annalium Poloniae ab obitu Vladislavi IV Climacteres, 3 vol. (Kraków, 1683, 1688, 1698) where he deals with the events of 1648‑1676.

30 Hübner, the rector of the Johanneum in Hamburg, (died 1731), was the author of Kurze Fragen aus der politischen Historia.

31 Hrabyanka's Chronicle was the subject of several studies in the 1930's. The most valuable of them is the article by M. Hrushevsky, "Ob ukrainskoi istoriografii XVIII v. Neskol'ko soobrazhenii," Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1934, No. 3). Symon Narishnyi in his article "Deistviya prezelnoi brani," Pratsi Ukrayins'koho Istorychno-Filolohichnoho Tovarystva v Prazi, vol. II, 1939, expresses doubts concerning Hrabyanka's authorship.

34 Kratkoe opisanie Malorossii was published as a supplement to the Litopys of Samovydets', Kiev, 1878.

35 P. Klepatsky published in the 1920's an article about this so‑called Lyzohub's Letopisets expressing the opinion that Yakiv Lyzohub, heneralnyi oboznyi (second in rank of Zaporozhian Cossack Army and Political Organization — and chief of its artillery) was its author.

36 Pierre Chevalier, Histoire de la guerre des Cosaques contre la Pologne. Avec un discours de leur origine, païs, moeurs, gouvernement et religion, Paris, 1663. An English translation of this work appeared in London in 1672: A Discourse on the Origin, Country, Manners, Government and Religion of the Cossacks [. . .] and the History of the Wars of the Cossacks Against Poland (translated by E. Brown).

37 Opisanie o Maloi Rossii, compiled in 1751 by the army clerk, Hryhoriy Pokas, also belongs to this group of historical works.

Thayer's Note:

a That is, in the original text of the Bible and subsequent translations into most languages, Gomer; g usually being pronounced h in Ukrainian.

p44 The Cossack Chroniclers

Bibliography

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