“We need an aristocratic trend”

Those present at the event included co-author of the book, Ph.D. in History, associate professor of Kyiv Mohyla Academy Ihor Teslenko, editor-in-chief of the Baltia-Druk publishing house Virginijus Strolia and rector of the National University of Ostroh Academy, professor Ihor Pasichnyk.

Let us recall that this year saw Ukrainians joining Lithuanians and Belarusians in celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Orsha, in which the combined army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, led by Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky, defeated the army of the Tsardom of Muscovy. However, The Ostrozky Princes’ significance is not confined to that event, as the book covers other members of that noble family as well, who occupied high administrative and military posts.

“The story of the Ostrozky princely line will excite not only our generation, but future generations too, because new major episodes of their lives and deeds will be revealed all the time. Thanks to good proofreading work, the book is easy to read, while apt illustrations act to reinforce the text’s message,” Pasichnyk remarked. According to Strolia, the purpose of this publication is to tell the world about Ukraine, because Ukraine’s only hallmarks so far have been the Cossacks and Taras Shevchenko, despite it being rich in other interesting personalities as well. “The illustrations of this publication are mostly unique, never before published in Ukraine. They include artworks from private collections and foreign archives as well as photos of Ostrozky memorials, both those within Ukraine and outside our country. As we worked on it, we discovered new bits of biographical information related to the princely family which have still not been covered by researchers,” Teslenko noted.

The publication includes historical documents and archival materials held by 26 museums in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. The historical study is illustrated with almost 800 photos. The authors plan to continue their work and publish a series of books dealing with the historical Ukrainian elite.

First deputy rector of the National University of Ostroh Academy Petro Kraliuk emphasized: “In his presentation speech, Strolia observed that there were just two Ukrainian trends, having to do with Shevchenko and the Cossacks, while no aristocratic trend was present, unfortunately. It looks like the Lithuanian-founded publishing house Baltia-Druk aims to fill this gap. By the way, I had a little chat with Strolia after the presentation. I told him that both the Lithuanians and the Ukrainians were peasant nations in the early 20th century. However, the Lithuanians, unlike our ancestors, were able to create an aristocratic mythology of their own. I see it as an important factor that helped the Lithuanians not only to achieve their independence, but also to join the EU. Let us hope that the Lithuanians will help us create an aristocratic trend of our own, and The Ostrozky Princes will be an important part of this effort.

“By the way, Den declared 2015 to be the year of Yaroslav the Wise, and I am quite positive on it. I think we need to explore more frequently the symbolic world of Kyivan Rus’, which our neighbors and fake brothers have stolen from us. It is no exaggeration to say that Kyivan Rus’ developed an interesting model of civilization that we have not fully grasped yet. Prince Yaroslav the Wise played an important role in the creation of this model.”