First publication in Internet UKRAINE, PAST AND PRESENT
- andryslabinsky
- Nov 23, 2025
- 17 min read
Text and photographs By Nevin O. Winter The National Geographic Magazine, August 1918
The revolution in Russia has demonstrated to the world one fact long recognized by students of Russian affairs. It is that in the old Russian Empire there was little sense of nationalism or cohesiveness. While the racial homogeneity of the Slavs, the preponderant element of the population, has always been most pronounced, the term Russia meant little to the vast majority of the people. There was nothing that could compare with the love of the Anglo-American for the Stars and Stripes, of the Frenchman for his beloved France, of the Anglo-Saxon for Great Britain.
With the passing of the Czar and the authority of the church the only forces of cohesion disappeared. Were it otherwise it would not be possible for so many separations of large sections to follow without an apparent pang on the part of those still left or those going out for themselves.
It was but natural that Finland should revolt, for the Finns are not even Slavs. But in the case of Little Russia, or the Ukraine, there is a story that is worth telling.
What is Ukraine? This is one of the many questions that people are asking today. The Poles and the Lithuanians of a few centuries ago knew well this most turbulent section over which they attempted to rule, and Imperial Russia for a long time was greatly troubled by this very unruly part of her expansive domain. The Tatars and the Turks felt its proximity because of the many raids made upon them by the wild warriors of the steppes.
In recent years the Ukraine has quieted down, so that the casual students of today hardly realized that there was such a distinctive section left, living in the belief that the Slavs of Ukraine, or Little Russia, as it is better known, had become thoroughly amalgamated with the Great Russians of the Petrograd and Moscow sections. The events of the last few months, however, have revealed the real situation.
Ukraine has had a troublesome career. The wild Scythians helped to feed ancient Greece and her colonies from these same endless steppes whence Germany now expects to draw sustenance. A thousand years ago Kiev was already becoming an important place. When the Saxons still ruled England, in the long ago, the banks of the Dnieper were a meeting-place for many races, drawn thither by commerce. Religious differences had not yet arisen, for all were worshippers of idols. Even then a Slav people were safely established here, sowing and reaping their harvests and sending their surplus grain down the river to the Black Sea.
The name Ukraine means “border-marches.” For centuries it was the bulwark that protected Poland and Lithuania from the Tatars, Turks, and other migrating Orientals. As a result it has had cruel taskmasters.
The native population was largely Cossacks—a wild and unruly people at that time. They were not originally a tribe, but were men who went forth into the wilderness to find freedom. The vast steppes, covered with grass to the height of a horse, within which a multitude of game lurked, lured them on.
There were Poles and Lithuanians and Russians and even Turks among them. They became marvelous shots, riders, and swimmers; their horses were famous for their swiftness and endurance. Their differences gradually blended in a unity of purpose and principle.
PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT REPUBLICAN IN FORM
The name Zaporogians was applied to the community that was the heart and soul of the great Ukraine. Their government was crude, but very republican in form. Each year the old officers laid down their duties in the presence of a general assembly, even in that day called the Rada, and new ones were then chosen.
As any member of the tribe could be elevated to the highest office, it permitted each one to aspire to this dignity. The highest official was known as the “hetman.” If unpopular, he was sometimes choked to death—an effective, if cruel, displacement.
They carried on an intermittent warfare with Tatars on the east, stealing their cattle and occasionally sacking the unprotected towns. Again, their warring excursions would be directed against the Turks to the southeast, in the Balkans. When tired of this they turned northward to the Slavonic population.
These early Ukrainians were ever at war with somebody and for somebody. They fought with Poland against Russia, with Russia against Poland, with Poland against Turkey, with Turkey against the Tatars. They assisted in placing an unfrocked monk upon the throne at Moscow. They were simply natural warriors who rejoiced in that occupation. The warrior shaved his head except for a wisp on the crown, which was allowed to grow long enough to wind around the ears.
Although professing the Orthodox Greek faith, they were the brigands and the corsairs of Christianity. Though nominally subjects of Poland for a long time, the Ukrainians were constantly involving Poland in trouble with the Tatar and Turkish rulers. At times they even captured Polish peasants and sold them as slaves to the Tatars, who in turn passed them on to Persians.
CHMIELNICKI’S TERRIBLE REBELLION
The most serious conflict waged by Poland with her rebellious Ukrainians was during an insurrection under Chmielnicki, in 1649. The massacres and cruelties perpetrated by the half-civilized hordes from the Ukraine were as barbarous as those of the American Indians during the onward march of the whites.
The conditions existing here are vividly set forth by the famous Polish novelist, Henryk Sienkiewicz (who wrote many other splendid books besides “Quo Vadis,” for which he is best known among Americans), in his novels covering different periods in Polish history.
Upon the failure of his rebellion Chmielnicki offered the annexation of Little Russia to Moscow. This offer was accepted in 1653, when it came under “the suzerainty of that growing empire.” Always striving for complete independence, Ukraine was never quite able to achieve it. Two wars with Poland resulted from that action.
It was more than a century after its incorporation before the entire province was brought into complete subjection by the developing Russian Empire. The “hetman” was maintained for some time; but this office was abolished by the vigorous Catherine the Great, and under her it became an integral part of the Empire.
The Ukraine’s experiences with war and disaster would long ago have broken the spirit of a race gifted with less elastic temperament. There are elements in his temperament that enable him to stand much oppression without revolt. This characteristic may help the German in his attempts to make the Ukraine a subject nation.
Kharkov is the leading commercial city of the real Ukraine, for Odessa does not properly belong to the Little Russians, although it is now included in the bounds of the subject nation which Germany is trying to establish. Before the war, Kharkov was the administrative center of the great iron industry and coal mines of South Russia.
Ukrainians have worked hard and fought hard, and they have emerged a fairly united and still vigorous people. The population increases more steadily than that of “Great Russia”, as the people are greatly attached to home and do not care to wander far from their native villages. They are great lovers of the soil and cling to it with a passionate tenacity.
EXTENT OF UKRAINE
Ukraine includes southeastern Russia, with the exception of the province known as Bessarabia, which partakes of the character of the Balkan States and is peopled with Roumanians and Bulgarians. The great seaport of Odessa and surrounding country have been added to it under the new alignment.
Ukraine does not reach much north of Kiev or east of Kharkov, but it is a large State in itself, about as large as the German Empire, with some twenty-five or thirty millions of people living in it.
The largest city of the real Ukraine is Kiev, around which national life probably centers because of the deep religious associations in connection with the shrines and many holy places. It was at one time the capital of all Russia. Kharkov is the leading commercial town in it, unless Odessa, on the Black Sea, is considered.
About four million Ukrainians live in Austria, in the province of Galicia, and are there known as Ruthenians. They are exactly the same type of people as the majority of those living in Ukraine and would be classed with them ethnographically.
The Holy City of Ukraine is visited annually by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. It is the Jerusalem of the Ukrainians. The catacombs, where repose the bodies of saints and recluses, are among Kiev’s most sacred places, and here the pious ones kiss the shriveled hands laid out as hallowed relics by the monks. Contagion frequently spreads as a result of this practice.
THE LURE OF THE STEPPES
There is a lure about the limitless stretches of the steppes in Ukraine.
In wide, level spaces, or in gentle undulations, they reach out until sky and horizon meet in a barely perceptible line. Parts of it remind one very much of our own western prairies. In spring and summer it is an ocean of verdure, with the varied shades of green of the growing vegetation interspersed with flowers of many hues; later, in the autumn, after the crops are harvested, it becomes a brown waste of stubble and burned-up pastures; in winter it is a white, glistening expanse of snow.
The unending forest land of the north has disappeared—not suddenly, but by degrees. Most of it is treeless, however, and a feeling of sadness and almost depression involuntarily creeps upon one as he travels over the steppes for the first time.
There are not many old towns in Ukraine. Except in Kiev and Kharkov, one will hardly find a building more than a hundred years old. No old medieval churches built up by the toil of generations of devout hands, no old chateaux of the nobility, no palaces rich in pictures, will be encountered. The great majority of the towns are still big, overgrown villages.
The towns are separated from each other by enormous distances, with imperfect communication. The peasants plant their villages in the lee of some swell in the surface or by the edge of a stream in which they can water their flocks during the drought which may come.
WINDMILLS EVERYWHERE
The villages stretch down little valleys seemingly for miles instead of being compact, as in most countries. The only conspicuous feature will be a church or two and the many windmills on the horizon.
While the Kharkov district has developed greatly as a manufacturing and industrial center in recent years, the chief occupation of the population is agriculture. The breeding of sheep, cattle, and horses is also an important activity, and at the four great fairs held annually in Kharkov, before the war, thousands of horses were bought and sold.
Windmills are exceedingly common and dot the landscape on every hillside. Some will be still, while others, with their broad, far-reaching arms, furiously beat the air that blows over the steppes. Silvery gray they appear from age, as all are built of wood, and they are usually unpainted. Many of them seem ready to fall to pieces from age.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UKRAINIAN AND THE RUSSIAN
The general use of windmills is due not so much to lack of water, for they will be found near streams, but the flatness of the country does not give enough fall to allow the use of water-power. They are used to grind grain, and the farmers may be seen bringing their domestic grists to them, as they did to the pioneer water-mills in our own country.
In many ways can the dissemblances of the Ukrainians with their former Muscovite compatriots of the north and east be traced. They speak a dialect which varies considerably from that spoken to the north and northeast of them. Their language is said to be nearer the old Slavonic than that of the Russians.
The people are handsomer than the Russians. Better nourishment probably has something to do with this, or the natural distinction between a northern and southern people, but the admixture with other races has also left its trace. They are, in general, taller and more robust.
The natural brightness and vivacity of the Slav temperament, which one will also find exemplified in the Pole, has not been dimmed by the infusion of the more stolid and melancholic Finnish blood, as is the case with the Russian. They have a buoyancy of temperament which leads to a light-hearted gaiety of spirits, such as one does not find among the Muscovites.
With wide and well-paved streets, many of them bordered with trees, Odessa is one of the most beautiful as well as one of the greatest commercial cities of Russia. Situated on the shores of the Black Sea, 20 miles north of the mouth of the river Dniester, it has a population slightly larger than Baltimore. Before the war, the value of its exports averaged more than eighty million rubles annually. With Bucharest it shared the questionable distinction of being one of the gayest cities of Europe.
THE HOME OF RUSSIAN FOLKLORE
In so far as outside influences have affected the Slav temperament in Ukraine, it has been that of the Greek and the Tatar. The warm and bright colors of their costumes are somewhat reminiscent of the Orient. They are great lovers of beads, of which they will wear many strings, and the national costume of the women includes a wreath of flowers worn on the head.
A vein of romance and poetry runs through Ukrainians. It may not be very deep, but it is widespread. Lyrical ballad and improvised ballad still spring almost spontaneously from the lips of the peasants. Their nature is rather poetical, and they are very musical. The love songs of Ukraine are distinguished by their great tenderness. They have songs for all occasions, sacred and profane. They are also great lovers of flowers.
BRILLIANT COLORS MAKE NATIVE COSTUMES A DELIGHT TO THE EYE
The lover of peasant costumes will be in his glory here in Ukraine. Nowhere in Russia is there so much color in costumes as here, and the general effect is extremely pleasing. The market in Kiev or Kharkov is a study in color. Red is the prevailing color among the women, but there are many other bright bits.
The women of Ukraine are especially fond of bright colors, and one of the features of the native costume is the necklace of varihued beads. The industrial development of the Ukraine region has provided a cheap method of producing cloth, so that the home spinning-wheel and the loom gradually began to disappear a decade or more ago.
The costume is also extremely artistic. The red turbans of the women have embroidered borders, and their skirts also have a border which reaches almost to the knee. The women generally wear their skirts rather short, scarcely reaching to the ankles — a style becoming more and more popular the world over today.
The blouses are made out of pretty patterns, with unique and original designs worked into the material. Even the heavy coats, which they wear for warmth, have their own design, and all will follow practically the same pattern. Even the men have their little vanity, having their shirts embroidered in red and blue designs, and the younger men have quite a dandified look.
GO BAREFOOTED TO SAVE THEIR BOOTS
Both sexes wear coarse boots, many of them being made of plaited leather, if they are able to purchase them. In summer, many will come to the city barefooted, for in that way they save their boots; and leather boots, even in peace times, cost many rubles. In war times they are beyond the reach of the ordinary peasant.
On festive occasions many of the young women are wonderful to behold. They don highly colored dresses and have long bright pink, blue, and red ribbons tied in their hair, which stream behind them as they walk. Oftentimes they wear garlands of real or artificial flowers. Several strings of large and small coral or glass beads complete this pretty outfit; and many of the maidens, with their gypsy-like complexions, look very charming when attired in this manner.
These people have a great love for vivid colors in everything and even decorate their rooms with striped or checked red and white towels. The icon (holy image) shelf is sure to be decorated with these fancy towels and paper flowers. A guest of honor would be given a seat under this little domestic shrine.
KHARKOV, THE SECOND CITY
Kharkov is the second city of Ukraine and is almost two-thirds the size of Kiev. Its long, broad, and dusty streets, rather roughly paved, are flanked by houses of a nondescript architecture. They are usually two stories high, and in colors red, yellow, blue, and magenta stucco predominate.
Huge signboards prevail everywhere in the business section on the stores with samples of the goods sold therein painted upon them. The peasant who cannot read can understand the pictures at least.
The glittering domes of a number of large, flamboyant Orthodox churches give a semi-oriental general effect.
Kharkov’s importance is due to the fact that it is the center of a large agricultural district, one of the most fertile sections in all Russia.
There is a very large bazaar here, which draws thousands of visitors on several occasions during the year. It is a great distributing center for agricultural supplies and is also quite an educational center, with one of the greatest universities in all Russia.
ODESSA, CATHERINE THE GREAT’S CREATION
By the new alignment Odessa and the province of Kherson have been added to the Ukrainian Republic. This city of half a million is one of the newest cities in Europe. While Moscow can boast of a thousand years of history, Odessa is only a little over a hundred years of age. Its rapid growth will compare with the cities of the new world. It dates from 1794 and it owes its existence to Catherine the Great. Just a few years before that this territory had been ceded to Russia by Turkey. Her purpose was to establish a strong city as near to Constantinople as possible. A magnificent statue of the empress, representing her as trampling the Turkish flag scornfully beneath her feet, now adorns one square.
Odessa is not a typical Russian city. Mark Twain said that the only thing truly Russian about it was the shape of the droshkis and the dress of the drivers. One might add the gilded domes of a few churches. It is an attractive city in many ways and it has the reputation of being a very fast city. It has been in recent years a very important post.
The business of the city is largely in the hands of the Jews, who comprise a third of the population. There has not been the best of feeling toward them by the Orthodox population and a terrible massacre occurred in 1905. It has always been a stirring revolutionary center and has caused the imperial government much trouble in the past quarter of a century.
What the attitude of the Ukrainian Government will be in matters of religion is as yet conjectural. The revolutionary movement throughout Russia as a whole has been anti-clerical. The Russian peasant, however, is innately devout.
It was the vast, grass-covered steppes which first attracted the roving Cossacks to Ukraine. These same steppes, when put under cultivation, yield bountiful harvests of wheat. It was on Ukrainian grain that Germany expected to feed her millions after the treacherous treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was designed to dismember the Russian Empire and leave it helpless in the hands of the despoilers.
In centuries past there were magnificent forests of vast extent in the northern section of Ukraine, but the trees have gradually disappeared. Reforestation is one of the obligations resting upon these people when peace again comes to them.
KIEV, THE HOLY CITY OF UKRAINE
Kiev is the holy city of Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit it each year. The natural landscape is heightened at all times in its pictorial effect by the picturesque groups of pilgrims, staves in hands and wallets on backs, who may be seen clambering up the hills, resting under the shadow of a hill, or reverently bowing the head at the sound of a convent bell.
The villages of the Ukraine do not cluster about some feudal château or nobleman’s castle, as in many of the other countries of Europe; they are usually planted in the lee of some swell in the surface of the steppes, or beside a stream where the flocks of the peasants may find water in the dry season.
The characteristic big wooden yoke and low-hung shafts identify this vehicle at once as Russian. The undulating plains of Ukraine, once a pasture-land only, now yield bountiful crops of grain.
In summertime these countrywomen come to the city barefooted in order to save shoe leather, which is very expensive in a land that annually exports hundreds of thousands of hides in times of peace.
Here is the story as it is recently related by Russian chroniclers. A thousand years ago, or thereabouts, a very holy monk, named Anthony, came to Kiev and dug a cell for himself in the hill. The devout life of this monk soon drew other holy men around him, and all at first made their homes in the caves. It is said that many of the early monks never again emerged into daylight after they once entered the caves. Some shut themselves up in niches and remained self-immured the rest of their days, living on the food placed there each day by their brothers. When the food remained untouched, the monks knew that a saintly spirit had fled. The place was then walled in, and the niche remained the monk’s home after as well as before his dissolution.
KIEV’S GHASTLY CATACOMBS
The catacombs are indeed ghastly to visit, for there are rows upon rows of skulls in them. Access is had by narrow steps, and then through labyrinthine subterranean passages one descends deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth, winding hither and thither along a pathway. Finally there begins a series of niches, in which repose the bodies of the saintly recluses.
The pilgrims pass each holy tomb, reverently kissing the shriveled hands laid out by the monks for that purpose. They do not distinguish between the holy and the holier, but pay a tribute to each one impartially in order to conciliate all.
Much contagion must be spread by this unsanitary method of homage. No doubt many an infection, and possibly even a great pestilence, could be traced directly to this spot, where the indiscriminate osculation of church relics is observed.
ICON RECEIVES 100,000 KISSES A YEAR
The Cave Monastery, or Pechersky Lavra, is a large stone structure on the hill, at a little distance from the city, and is surrounded by a high stone wall. It is entered through a holy gate. Each monk has his own apartment, with a little garden attached. Several hundred monks live in the monastery, and a number of lay brethren are also allowed to dwell there.
The windmill is a landscape feature as characteristic of Ukraine as of Holland; but the mills of this region are not nearly so picturesque as those kept in perfect repair by the thrifty Dutch. Many of the Ukrainian structures seem ready to fall to pieces, and they are seldom painted. Their mission is to grind the grain in a country which is so flat that there is no such thing as water-power.
In the principal church is preserved a miracle-working icon, known as the Death of Our Lady. It was brought from Constantinople and has received no fewer than a hundred thousand kisses a year. It is painted on cypress wood, now black with age. Every line of the picture is marked by precious stones and each head has a halo of brilliants, while an enormous diamond glitters above the head of Christ.
The wealth of the Lavra at Kiev is enormous. Each successive Czar has visited it not infrequently and always gave a large donation.
The four million Ukrainians who live in the province of Galicia, under Austrian sway, are called Ruthenians.
What the attitude of the new leaders of Ukraine toward this monastery will be remains to be seen. The revolutionary movement as a whole has been anti-clerical and shows a revolt against the former influence of the church in Russia.
The monks do not live the ascetic lives of their ancestors, although the food still seems plain. Coarse bread is always served, fish frequently, but meat and wine are not unseldom. One monk always reads from the lives of saints while the others eat. The monks seat themselves on benches and they eat off pewter platters. There is an inn at which many stop who can pay, but the fare is too plain for most people. Then there is also a free lodging quarter, where the poorer ones can stop without charge. Sour black bread and boiled buckwheat groats is about the only food provided for this class of pilgrims.
According to legend, Kiev is “the mother of all the towns of Russia.” It was the capital of St. Vladimir, who, in the year 988, established the Greek church as the State religion. A monument to this ruler was erected in the city in 1853, representing him baptising the Russian people. Kiev has been a religious center since his day.
PILGRIMS SHARE THEIR FLEAS WITH ALL
Many peasants will travel on foot for days and spend almost their last kopeck for the sake of visiting this sacred monastery in the holy city of Kiev. Sienkiewicz makes one of his principal characters say when faced with danger: “I shall die and all my fleas with me.” These pilgrims certainly bring theirs with them to Kiev and share them freely with any one with whom they come in contact.
It would be difficult to find a larger or more varied collection of professional or casual mendicants anywhere than congregate here at Kiev during the pilgrimage period. Dressed in rags and wretchedness, these mendicants expose revolting sores and horrible deformities in order to excite sympathy. Some appear to enjoy vested rights in particular locations. Many might be classed as pious beggars and have an almost apostolic appearance, with their long beards and quiet bearing. All of them may be worthy objects of charity, but the Russian beggars are most importunate.
RUSSIAN PEASANTS EXTREMELY CHARITABLE
The Russians themselves are very charitable toward the unfortunate class. Poor peasants, themselves clothed in rags, will share their little with those poorer than themselves.
A foreigner, knowing the poverty of the people and the inadequacy of public relief, cannot but feel kindly disposed toward those who are really helpless. Here, as elsewhere, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the unworthy and the deserving.
Comments