EDITORIAL: Getting it wrong (08/15/99)

EDITORIAL

Getting it wrong

It's amazing, with all the historical resources available, that somebody could get something so wrong - especially a general readership publication such as U.S. News & World Report, which this week published a double issue dedicated to "The Year 1000: what life was like in the last millennium."

In the section called "Heroes: fearless, devout and terrifying," the following caption jumps out: "In converting Kievan Rus, Vladimir made Russia what it is today."

Unfortunately, there's more.

The sidebar on Grand Prince Vladimir (referred to as "king" in another sidebar) is titled "A trader in theology; The mercantile origins of Russian orthodoxy"; it incorrectly notes that Volodymyr converted his subjects "to the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity" and in the next paragraph informs readers that his "choice was by no means a foregone conclusion" as "there were Catholics among Vladimir's ancestors."

Don't the magazine's editors know the distinction between Rus' and Russia? Doesn't anybody at the newsmagazine know history or know how to consult good historical sources? Doesn't anyone realize that there was no Orthodoxy or Catholicism yet, that Volodymyr the Great adopted Christianity before the schism?

A timeline in the first millennium issue gives the following information: "980 - With the help of Vikings, Vladimir establishes the first Russian dynasty in Kiev." And then there is a fold-out map that identifies what should properly be called Kyivan Rus' as Kievan Russia, followed by the description, in parentheses, "Viking descendants," leading one to think there were no people on those territories before the Vikings arrived. A fact box on "Viking Kingdoms" notes that the Vikings "went ... east to settle in Russia."

Oh, boy. Kind of makes your head spin, doesn't it? This, unfortunately, is what passes for history on the pages of our magazines. There's just no way this can be considered educational, or informative, or even useful. Furthermore, such "reporting" can only be perceived as a disservice to readers.

And, there's more.

Next we took a look at the on-line version of the magazine, which included lists of sources for more information - all of them, you guessed it, Russian: the Russian Embassy in Washington, the Russian Studies Program at Bucknell University (which is linked to the site of none other than the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church), something called Russia.Net., and others. Need we say more?

We thought we'd fought this battle back in 1988, when Ukrainians around the world marked the Millennium of Christianity in Kyivan Rus', the first state of the Eastern Slavs, located on the territory of present-day Ukraine. Now, 11 years later, comes this reprehensible article in a major U.S. newsmagazine. It's as if there were no Ukrainian connections to Kyivan Rus', as if there were no Ukrainian sources (what about the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute's Millennium Project?), almost as if there were no Ukraine. In fact, the only reference to Ukraine is this snippet: "Even today citizens of Kiev, now the capital of independent Ukraine, make pilgrimages to a monument commemorating Vladimir's deed."

Our advice: Save your $3.95 (that's the newsstand price), borrow a copy of the August 16-23 issue of U.S. News & World Report from someone, go to the library or check it out on line (www.usnews.com). Read it, get angry, and write letters to the magazine for getting so many things so wrong and, most importantly, incorrectly attributing the history of Rus' to Russia. The address of the editorial offices: U.S. News & World Report, 1050 Thomas Jefferson St. NW, Washington DC 20007-3837; e-mail: [email protected]

Maybe, just maybe, they'll get it right in time for the next millennium.

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