NEWS AND VIEWS

Kyiv Mohyla Academy releases new encyclopedic publication

by Danylo Kulyniak

KYIV - The National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NUKMA), the first institution of higher learning established in Eastern Europe, is a bright page in Ukrainian history. So the release of the new encyclopedic publication, "The Kyiv Mohyla Academy of the XVII-XVIII Centuries by Name" is destined to become another golden treasure of Ukrainian culture.

This is truly a unique encyclopedia. It is the first time in the long history of NUKMA that the institution has made an effort to systematize information about itself and to give objective information on those who studied there.

It is axiomatic that the history of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy as it was know for centuries, and the history of Ukraine cannot be separated. For several centuries KMA taught Ukraine's intelligentsia, those chiefly responsible for formulating and promulgating the idea of nation. They were the wandering minstrels, the teachers who brought science along with the word of God to all levels of Ukrainian society. Thanks in large part to them, nearly all Ukrainians of the 17th and 18th centuries were literate.

These were also the people who taught the Moscow tsars, their children and the children of the nobility. It was KMA that fed the guardian and spiritual center of the Ukrainian nation, the Zaporizhian Host and the Ukrainian Kozak Brotherhood. After all, most of its students were the sons of Kozaks, although it must be noted as well that no small portion of its student body consisted of foreigners.

"Kyiv Mohyla Academy by Name" consists of 1,500 entries: hetmans, church leaders, Kozak officers, diplomats, professors, writers, doctors, composers, teachers, priests, Kozaks, clerks, translators and singers, as well as donors and supporters of the academy.

This is the first attempt to compactly and systematically give information on the life and works of renowned KMA graduates and academics of the 17th-18th centuries. It is the first, but not the last such publication. Already a second fuller and larger edition is in the works.

The book was made possible through charitable donations of those who are concerned about the history of Ukraine and its current situation. Its authors consist of several hundred specialists who gathered information for eight years. It is a limited-edition offering and already is in short supply.

A second printing is essential because not only should this be a "must have" for historians, but also for experts on Ukraine, teachers and students. In fact, this concentrated history of Ukraine by names should be in all libraries and in the possession of all those who yearn for knowledge of Ukrainian history.

NUKMA Rector Dr. Viacheslav Briukhovetsky led the authoritative collegium that put together Kyiv Mohyla Academy by Name. The editor is Dr. Zoya Khyzhniak. The encyclopedia was published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the reborn NUKMA.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 15, 2002, No. 50, Vol. LXX

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