FACES AND PLACES: Ostroh goes "national" (12/10/00)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Ostroh goes "national"

Participating in the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the settlement of Ostroh, President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine signed a presidential decree (No. 1170/2000) formally announcing that the University of Ostroh Academy is now designated a "national university."

It was a historic moment for the students and faculty of this prestigious Ukrainian institution of higher learning which is quickly earning a reputation as one of Ukraine's top universities. The designation was in recognition of the significant ethnonational role the National University of Ostroh Academy has played since Ukrainian independence.

In his remarks to the student body, President Kuchma emphasized how important Ostroh has been to Ukraine's national rebirth. "Your university is a credit to higher education in Ukraine," Mr. Kuchma declared. "As in the distant past, Ostroh is a citadel of higher education, a beacon for all to follow."

This year the National University of Ostroh Academy has a total of 890 students: 414 majoring in culture and humanities, 223 working for degrees in economics, and 223 enrolled in the law school. An additional 20 students are majoring in English.

The ancient town of Ostroh is situated in the Rivne Oblast, a picturesque region of Volyn. It was first mentioned in the Hypathian Chronicle under the year 1100. The region became the property of the Ostrozky family in 1386. The Ostrozkys built a castle and the Church of the Epiphany in the town.

By the 16th and 17th centuries, Ostroh was an important political, cultural, and educational center in Ukraine, considered by contemporaries to be the "Athens of Volynia". In 1576 Prince Konstantyn Ostrozky an ardent Orthodox noble of incredible wealth, funded the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, which later became famous as the Ostroh Academy. The initial purpose of the academy was to intellectually prepare Orthodox clergy and laypeople to resist the Jesuits, who were converting Ukrainian Orthodox to the Catholic faith in Volyn.

Patterned after Western universities, the Ostroh curriculum included Church Slavonic, Greek, Latin, theology, philosophy, medicine, natural science, as well as the classical liberal arts curriculum, the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (mathematics, astronomy, geometry and music).

Although Ostroh Academy didn't develop into a Western European-style university as Count Ostrozky had hoped, it did become the foremost Orthodox academy of its time, predating the Orthodox academy founded in Kyiv in 1632. Thanks to the efforts of two Ostroh Academy graduates, Y. Boretzky and Elisey Pletenetsky, the Kyiv academy came under the patronage of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla and came to be called the Mohyla Academy. Another famous Ostroh graduate was Petro Sahaidachny, who later became hetman.

The Ostroh Press was established in 1578 and in 1780-1781 Prince Ostrovsky underwrote the publication of the "Ostroh Bible", the first complete Church Slavonic edition of the canonical Old and New Testaments. With close to 1,400 headpieces, initials and tailpieces, the 628 folio-book remains one of the grandest examples of printing in late 16th century Ukraine.

Prince Ostrozky was committed to lay involvement in church affairs. He helped establish Orthodox brotherhoods and became a leader among those who opposed the 1596 Union of Brest, not because he was opposed to Catholic/Orthodox unity in Ukraine, but because he believed the union should have been an ecumenical process involving secular church patrons.

Once the Jesuits established a rival academy in Ostroh in 1624, however, Ostroh Academy went into decline. By 1636, it ceased to exist. It remained a pedagogical model for the many Orthodox Brotherhood schools that sprung up throughout Ukraine later in the century.

Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a group of Ukrainian patriotic intellectuals, such as Mohyla Academy President Dr. Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, and others came together to resurrect the ancient institution and to mold it into a premier institution of higher learning in modern Ukraine. It was not an easy task. Ostroh had become a rundown backwater town of some 13,000 inhabitants under Soviet rule with poor roads, a decrepit hotel and little industry. The idea was prompted by various local zealots who, beginning in 1994 were able to attract such outstanding scholars as Dr. Ihor Pasichnyk, a professor of psychology who became the school's reactor, and the renowned professor of history, Dr. Mykola Kovalsky.

During its short existence, the National University of Ostroh Academy has attracted international support for its programs. Professors from throughout Ukraine as well as the United States and Canada have lectured there. Northern Illinois University (NIU) established an exchange program with Ostroh university which permits American scholars to teach summer courses at Ostroh and Ostroh professors to study for their M.S.Ed. degrees at NIU.

NIU professors Jeff Mirel, David Ripley, Bill McCready and I have taught at Ostroh. Thus far, four professors - Natalia Lominska, now a vice-reactor at Ostroh, Vasyl Zhukovsky, Kateryna Roshchuk, and Victoria Kontsigir - have been awarded NIU degrees.

Today Ukraine suffers from a dearth of published works in the social sciences, especially in the fields of philosophy, education and history. Theses at NIU, therefore, are aimed at Ukrainian teachers as much as for American teachers. Prof. Lominska's thesis "Language Education and National Identity in Ukraine: An Historical Analysis" has been translated and published in English and Ukrainian by the Ostroh university press. Other theses being translated include "Moral Values Education in American and Ukrainian Schools, 1970-1998" by Prof. M. Zhukovsky, "Progressive Education in an Independent Ukraine, Two Perspectives: Francis Parker and Vasyl Sukhomlynsky" by Prof. Roshchuk, and "Character Education in an Independent Ukraine, Two Perspectives: Thomas Lickona and Hryhorii Vaschenko" by Prof. Kontsigir.

Over $20,000 has been collected by Ukrainians in North America for the National University of Ostroh Academy and the names of donors will be published in early 2001. Those who wish to donate and still take advantage of a tax deduction this year should make their checks out to the UNA Foundation/Ostroh Fund and mail them to this writer at 107 Ilehamwood Drive, DeKalb, IL 60115. The monies will be greatly appreciated in Ukraine.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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