COSSACK CHRONICLES AS A SOURCE OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINIAN CULTURE

Abstract

In the article the Cossack chronicles of Samovodska, Gregory Hrabianka, Samilo Velichko are reviewed. They are important sources of Ukrainian culture history.

At the end of the XVIth and at the beginning of the XVIIth centuries some changes happened in the social and spiritual life of Ukraine. They led to the creation of a new social class – the cossacks, which did the most important tasks of the whole nation, played the main role in the its development.

The cossacks created an amazing, multifaceted, original culture, which occupied a special page of Ukrainian culture. The cossack chronicles are very important monuments among the achievements of cossack culture and valuable

sources for the study of Ukrainian culture history. They are historical and literary works of the second half of XVII – XVIII century, devoted to the cossack wars. That’s why they are called "Cossack" or "Lieutenant-colonel", but they differ from the traditional chronicles very much.

Nowadays we have only three famous cossack chronicle. They are Witness' Chronicle (devoted to the events of

the 1648-1702 years, probable author – Roman Rakushka-Romanov) Hrabianka Chronicle ((1710) about the period from the origin of cossacks till 1709) and Chronicle Family Wieliczka ((1720) events in Ukraine in the 1648-1700 years).

Witness' Chronicle is one of the greatest historiographical monument and one of the most reliable historical sources of the XVIIth century. In addition, it is a distinctive and original monument of Ukrainian language and literature.

The chronicle as a historical source, written by an eyewitness, contains important factual information about the

history of Ukrainian, Russian, Byelorussian, Polish and other nations in the second part of the XVIIth century. Most of it is unique. The first part of the work, devoted to the period from 1648 to 1677 years, is written mainly in a historical style.

The author follows the logical and causal consistency in the review of events. His historical stories have titles, consequences and are logically connected.

The second part of the chronicle ( till 1702) concerned the chronicle tradition. There are not any forestalls in this

work, because the author was a witness of that events and did not know their end. The author used the method of gaining information, which consists of the mechanical reproduction of historical facts, and the author's interpretation of those facts.

The central topic of Witness' chronicle is a national liberation war of Ukrainians in 1648-1654. There are economic, political and cultural characteristics of the country, the fact from the history of Russia, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Moldova, Turkey and other states in this chronicle.

Witness is more interested in the theme of wealth destruction, devastation, robbing of the most part of society by the "black" and external enemies. On the other hand, he condemns all people who shed the blood of people, tortured them and did tyranny, regardless of their social status.

As for the political views of Witness, he openly sympathized the monarchy – whether it was the king of Poland, or the tsar of Moscow. He did not think about Ukraine as an independent state. Witness historical worldview defined

categories of "earth" causality. In his work the theme of the Divine mostly meant traditional ethic formula. The author explained the causes of historical events by the circumstances of life and human motives.

Another famous cossack chronicle writer was Gregory Hrabianka, Gadyach colonel. His chronicle – one of the

brightest and most valuable works of Ukrainian chronicles. The author focused on the event of the liberation war in 1648-1654 and the vivid descriptions of cossack battles. Its first translation from old Ukrainian into modern language was done by H.Ivanchenko in 1992.

Chronicle is a typical example of rhetorical genre of historical literature such as narrative. The attention is particular paid to the description of extreme situations, heroic and moral lessons of a "historic drama." Its composition and subject is clear. It should be considered primarily as a literary work, not as historical. The author shows no documentary evidence and presents the literary-adapted history aimed to the public reading. First of all, he expects a

significant emotional impact on the reader. In the gradual loss of Ukraine's autonomy,the main tasks of Hrabianka was to remind about the old cossack glory.

The main object of his research is a history of cossacks. The central figure of Hrabianka’s chronicle is Bogdan Khmelnitsky. This is the main character of a work where the author units the features of a real historical figure and the ideal leader. In Hrabianka’s description, Bogdan Khmelnitsky remains an icon and a model for the next generations.

Family Wieliczko chronicle was the great stage in the history of the Cossack chronicles and the most outstanding Ukrainian historical-fiction memoir in XVII-XVIII centuries.

The chronicle is the first systematic exposition of the history of Ukrainian Cossack state where the author uses

many Ukrainian, Polish, German sources, a lot of the general military office documents. Writing the chronicle, Samuel Velichko used various sources: folk tales, other cossack chronicles, works of foreign historians, archival documents, letters, registers, etc. The authenticity of the many documents, listed in the record, is not discussed by historians; because some of them are known from other sources.

The chronicle consists of 4 parts. The first one – "Legend of the cossack war with the Poles caused by Zenoviy

Bohdan Khmelnytsky ..." describes the events of the 1648-1659 years, individual episodes dating back to 1620. The

second and the third parts, covered periods of the 1660-1686 and 1687-1700 years, are called "Chronicle story about

malorussian and other behavior which got and described there" contain a lot of Velichko’s observations based on the

documents of the Hetman's Office. The forth one contains the applications from different documents of the 17th century.

It was the first fundamental historical research where the author used systematically a great number of sources

on a special topic. As historian and ruled by the rhetoric of baroque art, Velichko wanted to create an impressive picture of military feats and tests, glory and betrayal, blinded heroes by their passions and immense human suffering, which the Ukrainian people met in a day of great social events – the National Liberation War and Ruin.

Velichko was a humanist and a democrat. He also was an admirer of the cossacks and considered them a real defenders of Ukraine and national and democratic "rights and liberties" of the Ukrainian people. The cossack chronicler rudely criticized internecine struggle for the hetman power and thought that it led to the ruin of his country, split Cossacks into hostile camps. This situation was used by Poland, Moscow and Turkey to establish their dominance in Ukraine.

S. Velichko tries to highlight the history of Ukraine in the context of the most important events in neighboring countries – Poland, Muscovy, Hungary, Moldova, Crimea, Turkey.

Certainly, the figure of Velichko is a decisive criterion for his work in general and the concept of baroque personality, because the author was such baroque person in his style of thinking and attitude.

Velichko’s chronicle became the favorite book for all our historians. Our best writers drew from it the materials and the spiritual energy. This is a really great book of the Ukrainian people. This is a feat life Samiylo Velichko.

According previous information, the author concludes that the cossack chronicles of Witness, Hrabianka and Velichko are important sources of research into the history of Ukrainian culture, and our national pride. They haven’t lost their artistic value, but also became the golden treasury of world culture. They glorified their creators.