CIUS Newsletter 2009 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies 4-30 Pembina Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H8 CIUS Helps Restore Baturyn, the Capital of Cossack Ukraine Since 2001 the Kowalsky Program for the Study of Eastern Ukraine at CIUS has sponsored archaeological excavations in the town of Baturyn in the Chernihiv oblast of Ukraine. From 1669 to 1708 Baturyn was the capital of the Cossack state and one of the most prosperous and densely populated towns in Ukraine. Its inhabitants sup- ported the rebellion of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687–1708) for the liberation of Left -Bank Ukraine from Muscovite rule. Tsar Peter I dispatched a Russian army to seize the insurgent town. On 1 November 1708 it unsuccessfully stormed the sturdy Baturyn fortress. On the following night, the attackers unexpectedly broke into the stronghold Th e Church of the Resurrection and the hetman’s chancellery on the grounds of the seventeenth- through a secret passage disclosed by century citadel in Baturyn (2008 reconstruction) a traitor. Th e Muscovite troops wiped and-earth fortifi cation practised in the metres. In 2008, restorers made use of out the Cossack garrison and the resi- Middle Dnipro region. Th e fortifi ca- our archaeological data and graphic dents of the hetman’s capital—about tions, consisting of a moat, a rampart, reconstructions of the citadel to rebuild 14,000 people in all—and plundered log walls, towers, and a gate, were these fortifi cations in somewhat re- and burned the town, destroying even burned down in 1708. duced and simplifi ed form. churches and monasteries. A letter Last summer, archaeologists ex- Inside the citadel, architects re- from Peter I has been preserved order- cavated the citadel’s moat, revealing constructed three buildings that were ing the complete annihilation of Batu- that its walls were lined with oak logs burned in 1708: the tripartite tim- ryn in order to punish the “traitors” for for reinforcement of the defences. A ber Church of the Resurrection, the their “resistance” to tsarist forces and footing of four rows of log frameworks hetman’s one-storey brick palace, and to “set an example” for other Ukrai- was unearthed at the rampart’s base. the state treasury. Th ey were evidently nian towns that supported Mazepa’s Th ree outer lines of oak frameworks erected by Hetmans Ivan Samoilovych uprising. Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky were rammed with clay and protected (1672–87) and Ivan Mazepa in the (1750–64) restored Baturyn, but aft er the citadel from shelling. Th e inner Ukrainian baroque style. Th e hypo- his death in 1803 it declined. line provided storage for munitions or thetical reconstructions of the architec- In 2008 the Canada-Ukraine expe- accommodated guards. On the top tier ture and decoration of these buildings dition fi nished excavating the remain- of the log wall was a battlement covered in the citadel are based on the fi ndings ing fortifi cations of the seventeenth- with a wooden roof. Its exterior walls of excavations and analogous extant century citadel of the Baturyn fortress. were fi tted with loopholes for muskets monuments of the Hetmanate. Th ey were constructed by local builders and cannon ports. Th e rampart and Last summer, the researchers un- using traditional techniques of wood- wall rose to a height of more than 10 continued on page 3 CIUS Newsletter 2009 1 From the Director Pursuing Academic Excellence in the Global Recession In reviewing the activities of CIUS, sian interpretations in popular media one can see that it has indeed been and purportedly academic publications another year of academic excellence and conferences. Most recently, these and achievements: the Institute has eff orts were focused on the Mazepa continued its long-term support of the era, particularly on Baturyn and the excavation and restoration of Batu- Battle of Poltava. CIUS activities high- ryn, Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s capital; lighted in this Newsletter areare doingdoing it has initiated an agreement with much to counter these measures and the Kyiv Mohyla Academy National thus assisting the work of historians in University; it has sponsored and its Ukraine who are developing their own Th is allows CIUS to use the money scholars have attended major confer- historical narrative. now rather than draw only the interest ences in Ukraine; it has managed four While the Institute’s pursuit of allocated by the university. I am also long-term and fi ve short-term visits academic excellence remained con- trying to match sponsors with particu- of scholars from Ukraine; and it has stant, its ability to deliver programs has lar programs in order to ensure multi- organized the visit of musicians from been challenged by a fi nancial crisis year program funding. In this regard, Kyiv. At the same time, CIUS was able of unprecedented scale. Th e impact of we are particularly encouraged by the to publish four books, deliver an issue the global recession has been particu- commitment of the Alberta Ukrainian of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies, larly severe on CIUS, for it is primarily Heritage Foundation to fund Ukraini- continue to hold its usual array of dependent on university endowment an-Canadian studies and by the Cana- seminars and lectures, and distribute funding, which has sustained major dian Foundation of Ukrainian Studies undergraduate, graduate, and post- losses. In fact, the magnitude of the for its steadfast support of the Internet graduate scholarships and grants. loss has been so severe that it might Encyclopedia. I am actively seeking Other noteworthy events this year have necessitated the elimination of such sponsorship for other programs, included celebrating the 60th birth- essential programs and personnel. such as publication of the Journal of day of Professor John-Paul Himka, In response to this crisis, CIUS initi- Ukrainian Studies. Individual donors director of the Research Program on ated stringent cost-cutting measures, are encouraged to sponsor books or Religion and Culture at CIUS, while including the elimination of several even Encyclopedia entries. Dr. Volodymyr Mezentsev and I were staff and graduate-student positions, Ultimately, however, only a substan- honored by President Yushchenko for reduction of travel and conference tial infusion of new funds will allow our contribution to the Baturyn proj- funding, and cutting back on the num- CIUS to recover its fi scal position. As ect. Also, we are delighted to welcome ber of telephones to a bare minimum. a result, Mykola Soroka, the CIUS de- Iryna Fedoriw, our administrative We also requested that the university velopment offi cer, and I have produced offi cer, back from maternity leave and provide special bridge funding to the CIUS Development and Fundraising to thank Andriy Chernevych for his carry us over until endowment income Strategic Plan for 2009–2012. Its main services during her absence. recovers. Fortunately, the university re- features include: 1) intensifi ed steward- Th e role of CIUS as an academic sponded positively, and this assistance, ship of donors, 2) enhancing the image leader assumed even greater impor- combined with our cost-saving mea- and visibility of CIUS, 3) locating new tance this year in the wake of the Rus- sures, will give us several years’ time to sources of funding. A key element of sian government’s assault on academic adjust programs and obtain additional the strategic plan is to enlist the help freedom and on any attempt to develop funding. of the newly established CIUS support an alternate or distinct sense of his- In order to maintain academic organization, the Alberta Society for tory and identity in Ukraine. Offi cial excellence in the global recession, I the Advancement of Ukrainian Studies. Russian measures include the denial of have adopted several strategies. In the Th e Society, under the able leadership the Holodomor as genocide, a law that short term, I am encouraging donors of Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky, professor would criminalize any deviation from to allow us to place their gift s into the emeritus at the University of Alberta, is its interpretation of World War II, and spending allocation rather than into already actively supporting the Insti- the sponsorship of pro-imperial Rus- the principal of endowment funds. tute’s scholarly and educational pro- 2 CIUS Newsletter 2009 Lead Article grams and projects. We are also greatly CIUS Helps Restore Baturyn mounted on square pedestals. Th e inte- encouraged by the generous decision of Continued from page 1 rior walls were supported by pilasters. the Honorable John Yaremko and Dr. In all likelihood, this cathedral Maria Fischer-Slysh to sponsor partic- represented a rare type of church that ular volumes of the Hrushevsky Trans- blended features of a baroque Ro- lation Project. It is only through the man Catholic triple-naved basilica generosity of such people that CIUS with a transept and an early modern will weather the global recession and Ukrainian Orthodox fi ve-domed emerge stronger than ever to pursue its cruciform church with an exonarthex. mission of academic excellence. Th is unusual hybrid design may have been invented by Mazepa’s creative Zenon E. Kohut, Director architects in the course of his intensive construction of ecclesiastical buildings Program director John-Paul Himka (L) and of both Ukrainian and Western types. Jars Balan (R) at the Sanctuary conference In outline and parameters, the Trin- ity Cathedral in Baturyn most closely resembled the lost cathedral of the Canadian Institute of Ascension Monastery in Kyiv (1705). Ukrainian Studies Th e Belarusian Mahilioŭ Chronicle attests that while razing Baturyn in 4-30 Pembina Hall 1708, the Muscovite troops bombarded University of Alberta Mazepa’s cathedral and then looted and Edmonton, AB Dr. Volodymyr Kovalenko (Chernihiv Uni- T6G 2H8 destroyed it.