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Ukraine. The Land and its people. View from early 20th century By Vitalii Usenko @VitaliiU Aug 01, 2015

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Ukrainians near map of Ukraine from 1919

An interesting short reference “Ukraine, Land and its People” (“Die Ukraine. Land und Volk”) from 1918 can be found in the Austrian National Library .

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The book under the title “Ukraine, Land and its People” was published in New York in 1918. Book on Demand, Miami, republished this book in 2015. The book is available in Forgotten books too. Author of the book Stephen Rudnitsky, Privatdozent of Geography at the University of Lemberg (now Lviv). In Austro-Hungarian Empire this book was published in Vienna under the title “Ukraina. Land und Volk” in 1916. New York edition is English translation from Austrian one.

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“Ukraine, Land and its People” Translation from Ukrainian, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1916

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“Ukraine, Land and its People” Translation from German, New York, USA

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Ukrainian scientist Stephen Rudnitsky (1877–1937) made major contributions to social geography, domestic political geography and geopolitics: geopolitical specifics revealed Ukraine’s position as justified its place among the nations of Eurasia and the world showed necessity of the Baltic-Black Sea Union countries with the participation Ukraine. His ideas and concepts have not lost their relevance.

Stephen Rudnitsky was invited to Soviet Ukraine and moved from Prague to Kharkiv in 1926. Since 1927 he has been head of the department of topology and cartography of Kharkiv geodesic institute.

The map of ethnic settlement of Ukrainians in early 20th century according to materials of Sanct-Petersburg (Russia) Academy of Sciences, 1914. Current borders of Ukraine marked with red line.

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Map with overview of Ukrainian lands. Complied by Stephen Rudnitsky in Vienna in 1920. This map was stored at department of cartography in the library of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences

The invitation of Stephen Rudnitsky was in line with the policy of “Ukraininization” introduced by Joseph Stalin in 1923–33. The aim of Ukrainianzation was to enhance the national profile of state and Bolshevik party institutions and thus legitimize Soviet rule in Ukrainian eyes.

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Modern language division of Eastern Slavs. Russian historical atlas. Moscow. 1928. Green line shows lands where the Ukrainian language was used that time. Red line shows lands where the Russian language was

used that time .

Ukraininization has been smashed once Bolshevik started industrialization and collectivization in agriculture. This resulted in Holodomor (Famine-Genocide) of Ukrainians 1932–1933. Ukrainiazation was reversed, Joseph Stalin started purges of Ukrainian elites. Stephen Rudnitsky was arrested in 1933 and received 5 years prison term. In 1937 when repressions increased in their cruelty and scale, he was sentenced to death by Russian NKVD (secret police) and executed in Crimea on November 3, 1937.

The similar map of Ukraine presented by Ukrainian delegation on Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

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The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors – United States, Great Britain, France and Italy following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers (German and Austro – Hungarian and Ottoman Empires) following the armistices of 1918. The major decisions of the Conference were the creation of the League of Nations and the five peace treaties with defeated enemies, including the Treaty of Versailles with Germany. One of the goals of the Conference was also setting new boundaries in Europe after WWI.

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A comparison of current territory of Ukraine with the territory in 1919 map

The government of the Directory of the UNR (Ukrainian People’s Republic) sent a delegation to lobby for admission to the Paris conference, recognition of Ukraine’s independence, the withdrawal of Polish, Rumanian, and Allied forces from Ukraine, and support for its war against Soviet Russia. Unfortunately, that time Ukraine strive for independence was ignored by allied victors – United States, Great Britain, France and Italy. Although national self-determination was one of the basic principles, the Paris conference did not officially recognize the Ukrainian delegations or Ukraine’s independence, but favored instead (under Russian anti-Bolshevik and American influence) the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Empire.

It did not undo the occupation of the Western Ukrainian lands by Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, although it tried to put an end to the Ukrainian-Polish War in Galicia 1918–19, Ukrainian-Soviet War 1917–21, and Russian civil war. Under pressure from the pro-Polish French and American delegates the Paris conference Treaty of Versailles sanctioned the Polish occupation of Galicia and Volhynia. The Kingdom of Romania stayed the Bukovyna province. Czechoslovakia secured former lands of the Austria-Hungary, Uzhhorod and Mukachevo. The remaining central and eastern Ukrainian provinces were left to Russia.

On 18 March 1921 Poland, Soviet Russia, and Soviet Ukraine signed the Peace Treaty of Riga, which ended the Soviet-Polish War and established the Soviet-Polish border. The agreement ceded Galicia as well as Polisia and western Volhynia (formerly within the Russian Empire) to Poland. Post-WWI dismembering and division of Ukraine between its neighbors was completed. Among the factors contributing to this outcome were the disagreement between Ukrainian elites, many parties fighting for Ukraine’s independence, often hostile and antagonistic to each other, and civil war in Russia in 1917 – 1921.

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Eastern Europe after the Treaty of Riga, 1921

The map where ethnic Ukrainian lived was made by Lancelot Lawton, an English journalist who presented in a Committee Room of the UK House of Commons a lecture The Ukrainian Question on May 29th, 1935.

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Ethnographic map of Ukraine was published in the Ukrainian general encyclopedia in Kviv-Stanislav-Koloimyia, 1930 – 1935 and was republished in USSR in 1949.

Ethnographic map of Ukraine, 1930 – 1935

Borders of modern Ukraine were finally formed only after WWII. 11

European borders in 1991 after disintegration of USSR. Economist.com graphic

All these maps and history of early XX century do not mean that Ukraine will reclaim from Russia lands which were shown in the maps and mentioned in historic books. The story shows that Russian claims against Ukraine on Crimea and Novorossiya (“New Russia”) are fully unjustified and unsubstantiated. Ukraine simply strives to restore its territorial integrity in 1991 borders.

Post-Scriptum

In 17th century (in 1639) Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan (c. 1600 – December 6, 1673), a French-Polish cartographer, engineer and architect created the first “descriptive” map of Ukraine. Beauplan served as artillery captain for the army of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland between 1630 and 1648. He wrote Description des contrés du Royaume de Pologne, which was published in 1651. It was renamed Description d’Ukranie, when the second edition was released in 1651. Two more editions of the book were published in 1660 and 1861. Description d’Ukranie included geographical and economic information about Ukraine, describes the Ukrainian peasantry and other social classes, and gives a detailed description of the Dnipro Rapids.

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Beauplan’s map of Podilia, Kyiv and Bratslav voivodeships was re-issued in 1680 (at 30 years anniversary of Galicia). Interesting fact that instead of Russia you can see Moskovia. The word Rus (Russiya) used for Galicia.

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Beauplan’s map of Podilia, Kyiv and Bratslav voivodeships re-issued in 1680

Written by: Dr. Vitalii Usenko, MD, MBA, expert of the Center of Military-Political Studies in the sphere of psychology of communications and Dmytro Usenko, graduate of Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Download links

1. “Ukraine, Land and its People” published in New York in 1918: https://archive.org/details/ukrainelanditspe00rudnuoft

2.”Ukraina. Land und Volk”, Wien, 1916: http://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/5623/file.pdf

Books on the Ukrainian history

1. Borderland: A Journey through the History of Ukraine by Anna Reid (2000)

2. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder (2012)

3. History of Ukraine – 2nd, Revised Edition: The Land and Its Peoples by Paul Robert Magocsi (2010)

4. Ukraine: A History by Orest Subtelny (2009)

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5. The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy (2015)

6. Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust by Miron Dolot (1987)

7. The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine by Robert Conquest (1987)

8. A History of Ukraine by Michael (Mykhailo) Hrushevsky

9. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, hosted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies

10. Description d’Ukranie by Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan (Ukrainian translation)

11. Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Volume VI, Number 4, December 1982 (pdf)

12. Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Volume XIV, Number 1/2, June 1990 (pdf)

13. Description de l’Ukraine in light of De Administrando Imperio: Two Accounts of a Journey along the Dnieper by Lukasz Rozycki (Poznan). Revue internationale des Etudes Byzantines 1-2/2014

14. Apokrif Maps of Ukraine (in Russian)

15. Ethnic borders of Ukraine in early 20th century. Etnosvit. Ukraine. August 4, 2015 (in Ukrainian)

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