The History of the Reunification of Rus'

Panteleymon Alexandrovich Kulish (1819—1897), a writer, poet, ethnographer, translator, and historian, was one of the most prominent figures of Ukrainian enlightenment, the "master of thoughts" of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. In terms of popularity and influence, he was not inferior to Taras Shevchenko. Kulish is the author of the concept of "village philosophy"; the creator of "kulishovka" — one of the early versions of the Ukrainian alphabet; and the main author of the first complete Ukrainian translation of the Bible. He was a typical Ukrainophile, glorifying the Cossack past and mythologizing the hetmanate and Cossack elder ranks as defenders of Orthodoxy against Catholicism and Islam. But this was in his youth. Everything changed with the publication of P. Kulish's fundamental historical work "The History of the Reunification of Rus'" and its continuation — "The History of Ukraine's Breakaway from Poland". Kulish did a tremendous amount of work, step by step, debunking historical myths related to the activities of the Zaporizhian Sich and its hetmans based on documentary evidence. The historian concluded that it was the Russian autocracy and Orthodoxy that played the main role in the historical process of the development of the Ukrainian nation and the preservation of its culture. Undoubtedly, Kulish realized that a book written in this vein would provoke outrage among his like-minded individuals. The rethinking of views, a completely different vision of the past of his people became a challenging stage for both Kulish himself and his supporters. As the famous French philosopher Denis Diderot said: "In the history of any nation, one can find many pages that would be magnificent if they were true." Many succumbed to such temptation and composed "magnificent pages," but Panteleymon Kulish chose a different path, recognizing only one argument in history — the truth, for in his conviction, "for a historian, the word of truth must be more valuable than the goodwill of readers"...