Thread by @theodorofkyiv

🧵. #Russia colonised #Ukraine in 18th century. Since then, they've been trying to exterminate ukrainian indentity and culture, to assimilate us into being russian. They appropriated a lot of our #culture, #history, achievements and personalities doing this. 1/ #twitterstorians

Foreword. Many of these examples might seem to you as insignificant or unconnected, but they all are evidence to the trend of generations of russians trying to unexist us as a nation, make Ukraine into what they think we are – "Little Russia" 2/

Let's get the obvious one out of the door. #Borsch is and always was Ukrainian. It got into russia with soviet diner menus. Now russians claim it's as intrinsic to russia as it is to us. Bullshit. 3/

They also stole our folk songs. For example, one of their prominent folk songs "Ой мороз мороз"/"Oh frost, frost" is a ripoff of a Ukrainian folk song done by Maria Uvarova in 1950s. Original: 4/ #folklore

Another important russian folk song "Любо, братцы, любо"/"Lovely, brothers, lovely" is a ripoff of Makhno rebel song. They claim it's a song of russian cossacks (they stole the cossacks from us too btw, worth a separate thread). Here's the original: 5/

Russian "Там вдали за рекой"/"Over there by the river" claimed to be a song about Budyonny's troops was stolen from Ukrainian "Розпрощався стрілець"/"Rifleman's farewell" sung by Ukrainian Sich Riflemen ten years prior. Original: #folklore 6/

These were the easy to find examples, but i'm sure there's far more than this. Let's proceed to classical music. 7/

Tchaikovsky was of Ukrainian cossack descent (from cossack family of Chaika which is Ukrainian for seagull the bird), visited Ukraine a lot, regarding it as his true motherland despite being born in ethnic russian territories. 8/

A prime example of this is his "Little Russian" symphony (№2, C minor, op. 17). It explores Ukrainian folk motives, and in the original notebook it was called "Ukrainian Symphony". Obviously, with russia's politics on ukraine it was later renamed. 10/

btw, google Valuev Circular and Ems Ukaz for more info on russian opression of Ukrainians. worthy of a separate thread. Shortly – they banned printing and importing books in Ukrainian because "Ukrainian language has never existed, does not exist and cannot exist " 11/

More on composers. There's this "Golden Trio" of Ukrainian classical music, comprising of Bortniansky, Berezovsky and Vedel. They are the pinnacle of the golden age of Ukrainian music (second part of 18th century). Founders of Ukrainian choir concertos. 12/

Deeply inspired by the works of Mozart and Haydn, they are our contribution to the musical era of Classicism. They show our deep connection to European culture, that Ukrainian culture develops in sync with European. Of course, they were the prime targets for appropriation. 13/

Let's start with Bortniansky. Ethnic Ukrainian of cossack descent. Born and studied in Hlukhiv, Ukraine. As a talented musician, he was noticed and moved to St. Petersburg (as many of talented Ukrainians were). So russians claim he's russian now. 14/

Berezovsky has basically the same story. Cossack descent, born and studied in Hlukhiv. Worked together with Bortniansky. Was critical to development of Ukrainian choir music. Now claimed by russia. 15/

Vedel worked with the previous two, though their paths diverged as Vedel chose a more ascetic way of life – stayed in Ukraine and joined Kyivo-Pechers’ka Lavra monastery after working with a bunch of choirs and serving in the army. 16/

Later, he was accused of conspiring against the emperor, declared mentally ill and was incarcerated in the monastery's asylum. I guess that's why he was the only one of the three to not be appropriated by russians. 17/

Dyletsky was a Ukrainian music theorist and composer. His "A Grammar of Musical Singing" was definitive for Eastern Europe, outlining wide knowledge previosly transerred orally. Linear notation, Partsong, Circle of fifths, etc. Stolen by russia. 18/

(offtop) Dyletsky works on choir music (Partsong) were quite unique and elaborate. He was a bit late to Renaissance, but still can be considered a valuable part of this cultural period. 19/

On to literature. Another elephant in the room we can't miss on this list is Gogol. As with many, same story. Ukrainian cossack descent, got moved into russia, visited Ukraine a lot, explored Ukrainian culture in his works. They claim he's russian. 20/

Another prominent face of russian culture was stolen from Ukraine too. Chekhov always declared himself as Ukrainian (малорос, little russian, if we use russian terminology). In fact, he got appropriated so fiercely that even most Ukrainians consider him a russian writer. 21/

also, in his autobiography Chekhov wrote that "I was born in beautiful Ukrainian city of Taganrog". Yeah, the whole Kuban area (bottom right on the map) was ethnic Ukrainian, then assimilated by russians in late 19th to mid 20th century. (maps from early 20th cent) 22/

(offtop) i got quite a laugh recently when I saw a tiktok by a girl from somewhere in Rostov Oblast doing a "if you know these words you are from Kuban" vids. THOSE WERE UKRAINIAN WORDS. hilarious. Also scary how people can forget their origins. tiktok.com/@tinasortingha… 23/

One of the other major faces of russian literature was Dostoevsky. Yeah, he's from Ukraine too. His family russified (his grandfather signed by Ukrainian name, as his father did before the war of 1812). He was ordered (разнарядка) to move to moscow as a bright student. 24/

He lived in Russia for the rest of his life. So yeah, we can say he was quite physically stolen. 25/

Literature, music... There's a category of arts we didn't mention yet – painting! Let's start with Repin. A defining realist, he explored Ukrainian motives a lot. And did a lot of great portraits. And yes, the meme one with cossacks writing the letter is his work. 26/

Repin was of Ukrainian origin too. As he admitted himself "I'm mostly Ukrainian". Though russians say he's not. A visible trend, isn't it? 27/

Another disputed artist is the master of marine art and battle scenes Aivazovsky. He comes from an Armenian family which lived in Galicia (the one in Ukraine, not in Spain), and moved to #Crimea. To be fair, i'd say Ukraine has at least as much claim on him as russia has. 28/

Levitzky was stolen from us too. (ukrainian Levytskyi). Born in Ukraine, moved to russia, did a lot of great portraits of russian aristocracy of the time. Image is his autoportrait. His work raised empire's art to the western level. 29/

But wait, there's more! Borovikovsky, Levytskyi's fellow after moved to st. petersburg, is Ukrainian. He was notable for his great work on portraits and and religious art, often explored miniatures and portraits of common people of Ukraine. Image: "Allegory of Winter" 30/

Losenko, the face of russian classicism and the founder of historic painting in russian empire was stolen from us too. Born in a cossack family in Hlukhiv. Moved (quite probably forcefully) to st. petersburg at the age of 7. Was an important art educator of the time. 31/

Kuindzhi was from a Ukrainian greek family living in a village now integrated into modern #Mariupol, the city now being leveled to the ground by russia. Lived and painted magnificent landscapes around the Empire and a bit of western Europe. Mostly in Crimea. 32/

Kuindzhi's museum in #Mariupol was destroyed by russian artillery. His works were evacuated, but there was a huge fund of work by other artists including Aivazovsky, Hlushchenko and more. The destiny of rest of the fund is unknown. 33/

Was in deep conflicts with empire's art fellowships. Died in Crimea. As he's not directly Ukrainian as was Aivazovsky, my bet here is Ukraine has as much claim on him as russia has. Though again russia claims him solely. Picture – "Evening in Ukraine" 34/

You know what. There's at least 5-10 more surnames of artists stolen from Ukraine i can easily find and name here, but i got really tired of artists and there's a lot more stuff to cover. Basically, most of Ukrainian artists from russian empire era of our nation... 35/

...were stolen from us. That is natural for an empire-colony relationship, severely amplified by linguistic and geographic proximity. Ukraine was really a cultural powerhouse of russian empire. Imagine what influence Ukrainian art could have on #Europe if we weren't colonised 36/

Culture is not alone. Ivan Poddubny was a legendary wrestler, coming from (yes, again) a family of cossack descent (didn't we say it in our anthem that we all are?). He always insisted on the Ukrainian writing of his surname – Piddubny. Russia stole him too. #wrestling 37/

There are a lot more athletes/sportspeople they stole from us during the years, but I'm not really into sports so i'll leave this topic to be explored by someone else. Piddubny is the symbol of all this tho 38/

They also stole a lot of our engineers, scientists and inventors. This was most prominent in the #Soviet era. As my father told me once, and I can confirm it by checking a bit of sources – basically if something was done in russia – it was called russian then... 39/

...but if it was done elsewhere in the soviet union (say, Kyiv or Tashkent, you get it) – it was proudly called soviet. And you sure know that in the west (and often in the ussr too) any soviet thing was and is subconsciously perceived as russian. 40/

Let's go science. #Biology, in fact. Ukrainian scientists contributed a fair bit to it. In particular, to #epidemiology. For example Danylo Samoilovych was the founder of this field of research in the russian empire. Ukrainian cossack family, though russians still claim him. 41/

Samoilovych worked with plague patients. A lot. His main breakthrough was that he has proven on himself that variolation (early method of vax using infected substance) worked not only on smallpox, but also on plague. Lots of biomedicine papers referenced him for next 30 years 42/

Mechnikov is a legendary person too, who made an insane contribution to immunology, gerontology, embryology, pathology and general biology. Nobel prize laureate for his work on immunology with Ehrlich. Also ukrainian and also stolen by russians. 43/

Mechnikov did a lot of great stuff. His biggest discovery was of Phagocytosis – key immunology mechanism for removal of pathogens and debris, this way he basically figured out how #vaccines work. He also was a great educator, sprouting a generation of prominent biologists. 44/

Both Ukraine and Russia have a lot of streets, hospitals, labs and medical universities named after him. The lab he founded in Odessa still functions – Mechnikov Ukrainian anti-plague research institute (Український науково-дослідний протичумний інститут імені І.І.Мечнікова) 45/

One of Mechnikov's students was Waldemar Haffkine. He invented world's first cholera and plague #vaccines. Was Ukrainian, politically opposed to russian empire, fled to France. Russians still claim he's russian tho. Too cool to give him up. Read more: bbc.com/news/world-asi… 46/

Other prominent Mechnikov's student was Gamalia (russian widespread version is Gamaleya). You may have heard of this fellow because russians stealing him didn't forget to name a lab in moscow he led after him. The one that made their crappy vaccine. 47/

Gamalia was one of the co-founders of Mechnikov's lab, where he researched Pasteur's rabies vaccine, proving it's worthiness and improving upon the formula to reach survival rate of 99.39%. He also made valuable contributions to research of typhus, cholera and smallpox. 48/

To other branches of science. Vladimir (Ukrainian Volodymyr) Vernadsky was born to Ukrainian family in st. petersburg and spent his childhood in Ukraine. Considered himself Ukrainian. Being 15 years old, on 29th of March 1878, he wrote in his diary (rough translation): 49/

"Ukrainians are terribly oppressed. They didn't let Dragomanov print Ukrainian in Austria. Russia has banned printing in my mother tongue too. I will devote my vacation to it [tongue]. In Kyiv, when they see a Shevchenko portrait in someones home – they take it away" 50/

Notes:
1. He describes the effects of Valuev Circular + Ems Ukaz, mentioned in tweet 11 of this thread.
2. Austria oppressed Ukrainian culture too.
3. Taras Shevchenko he mentions is that Ukrainian poet you probably know, and if you don't – i encourage you to read about him 51/

The level of outright lies one needs to perform to say Vernadsky is at least a little bit russian infuriates me. Though they still consider him so. Because he was quite a genius: he founded biogeochemistry and radiogeology, developed concepts of #biosphere and noosphere 52/

Contributed a lot to research of geochemistry, basically founding it's research in Ukraine, chemistry of atmosphere and hydrosphere, migrations of chem. elements across earth's crust and influence of radioactive elements on it's evolution, also mineralogy and crystallography 53/

Vernadsky also founded the V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute, the Biochemistry institute, the now National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and was the first head of it. His contribution to the development of science in Ukraine is immense, as it is to science in general. 54/

Sikorsky (the helicopter guy) is also Ukrainian. Will not elaborate on his achievements since he's widely known. But he's a complicated one, because he represents the tragedy of Ukrainian identity being integrated russian empite's one. As he wrote himself: 55/

"My family is from a village near Kyiv ... and is of pure ukrainian descent. Though, we consider ourselves russian out because this was a part of russia, and ukrainian nation was integrated into russia as much as Texas or Lousiana are integrated into the US" 56/

I feel so much pain reading these words. Though i am itching to tell you about another great person russia stole from Ukraine. 57/

Aleksandr Shargei was born near Poltava, and studied mathematics and physics in Kyiv Polytechnic. He then fled bolsheviks revolution with a new name -- Kondratyuk. 58/

He learned rocketry and space sciences by himself, and in one of his notebooks in 1920s described a trajectory of lunar landing, and an idea of separating the propulsion and landing sections of spacecraft. Precisely what Apollo-11 used. The trick is called Kondratyuk's loop 59/

#NASA has inducted Kondratyuk into International Space Hall of Fame in 2014. Though for him his story went horribly. He spent much of the 30s in labour camps (like most of educated people did) because NKVD called him a saboteur, and died in 1942 fighting Nazis near Kaluga. 60/

Sergei Korolev (unrussified family name is Koroliv) is a widely known Ukrainian rocket engineer, leading the soviet side of the space race. Widely regarded as the father of practical astronautics. Russians commonly choose to omit him being Ukrainian in their info. 61/

There are a lot of great articles about him, so instead i'll tell you a joke about him and many other less known Ukrainian engineers who made the soviet space program. "It's not russians sending the first man into space, it's Ukrainians sending the first russian into space". 62/

About that photo... NKVD imprisoned Korolev too -- for 8 years (lucky, lots of other people got 15), but as he was an engineer he was moved to RnD-prison, "Sharashka". Yep, those existed because ussr imprisoned a lot of smart people. 63/

Yangel, who was a Ukrainian rocket engineer, fellow of Korolev, founder and first head of Pivdenne Design Bureau, which still functions today and makes propulsion for European space agencies. He was of a family deported to Siberia by tsarists, and recalled that he .. 64/

.. and his brothers where ofter slurred as "hohols" (russian insult for Ukrainians). Though he retained his identity, and returned to Ukraine to live and work there. Russians stole him too, as they did a big list of other aerospace engineers originating from Ukraine. 65/

Hlushko was an important Ukrainian engineer too. Born in Odessa, imprisoned by NKVD in 38, worked in a Sharashka. After release headed the development and testing of first soviet rockets, including nuclear ballistic missiles. BTW, the first russian rocket was a Fau-2 clone 66/

Maths were target too. Chebotaryov has developed some interesting conjectures, has a couple named after him (I suck at maths so no explanation here). Was Ukrainian, stolen by russia. 67/

Ostrogradsky -- fellow of Euler, one of the leading mathematicians of 19th century was from Ukraine, and started himself in Kharkiv, another city under heavy fire right now. But in russian wiki he's somehow russian still. 68/

Alexander Pol was a bright Ukrainian businessman and archaeologist. Was the one who started it all in the one of the biggest iron ore regions in Europe -- Kryvbas. Also stolen by russia. /69 (nice)

Now some historians/ethnographs russians stole from Ukraine, and then we'll finish off the thread with stolen historical relics. #ethnography 70/

Antonovych was a prominent Ukrainian historian, archaeologist and archivist. One of the founders of modern ukrainian approach to history, he also played an important role in the process of Ukrainian national revival and started the "Kyiv school" of history, sprouting... 71/

...a whole generation of Ukrainian historians (some of them also claimed by russia), whose members would play an important role during the uprising of Ukraine in 1917 and in newly born ukrainian state which existed until the red army occupied Ukraine in 1921 72/

Bantysh-Kamenskyi was a Ukrainian historian, who played an important role in formulating Ukrainian history by connecting it's heritages to Kyivan Rus. He also was a major player in the upper echelons of russian empire, that's why they stole him from us too. 73/

An important historian, art critic and archaeologist Prakhov was Ukrainian too. He heavily researched ancient Ukrainian churches. 75/

Dubinskyi was a Crimean Ukrainian historian of (i think) tatar descent. He made a foundational contribution to archaeology of medieval Crimea, guarded Chufut-Kale through WW2 and excavated it's relics. They claim him as "Soviet" 76/

Pantusov researched Central Asia. Prominent for his research of folklore and linguistics, also made a significant contribution by sampling and researching Taranchi Uyghur dialect and #Uyghur folklore. Ukrainian, stolen by russia. 77/

Zakrevskyi. Born in Ukraine. Lived in Ukraine. Wrote fundamental works on history of Ukrainian cities and towns, also collected and organised a lot of Ukrainian ethnographic material. Fundamentally Ukrainian, stolen by russia. 78/

Ahatanhel Krymsky was a Crimean Tatar orientalist and linguist. Wrote a lot on general and specific history of muslim and arabic culture. Also researched Ukrainian history. Authored several books of poems and short stories. Died imprisoned by NKVD. Appropriated by russia too. 79/

Now to stolen relics. Scythian golden comb, stolen from Ukraine by russian archaeologist Beselovsky from the Solokha Kurgan is now the face of st. petersburg museum "Hermitage" along with the other findings from that place. 80/

hermitage has all sorts of stolen Ukrainian stuff. They also have the Pereshchepina Treasure, found near Poltava. Consists of around 800 various valuable artifacts. Most prominent of which is the sword of Kubrat, one of top posessions of hermitage. 81/

Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski medal, and a big treasure with rare coins and medals belonging to him. Despite Ostrogski had deep ties with Kyiv and the treasure being found in Kyiv Pechersk Lavra all this was stolen into russia and is now shown at hermitage too. 82/

Kyiv knyaz Monomakh was a pretty mediocre ruler, but now "his" Monomakh's Cap is proudly displayed in russia as the symbol of their so-called "historic continuity with Kyivan Rus". Also there is evidence this cap is an absolute fake, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomakh%… 83/

There are also two medallions, allegedly owned by Monomakh and his son Mstyslav, found near Chernihiv and the ancient Bilhorod (the one that was on Irpin river). Stolen, now shown in st. perersburg State Russian Museum. 84/

Sabatynivka ship was dug out from Pivdennyi Bug river muds in secret by the soviet government in 1937, and moved to st. petersburg. All witnesses were ordered to forget what they saw. 85/

It now resides in st. petersburg central naval museum as a "relic of ancient russian sailing" but dated in the exhibition as coming from 17th century, which is confusing. Other sources date it as somewhere from 1-2 millenium bc. They couldn't even steal it properly! 86/

It was also loaded with ceramics, which could provide valuable insight into prehistoric culture of the day it was made. Location of the treasure is unknown. 87/

Another stolen thing is the Borodino treasure, found in a village near Odesa. It has valuable items dated 2000 bc, made of gold, silver, as well as talc and nephrite. It provides a valuable connection between findings of Bronze age. Now kept at History Museum in moscow. 88/

Gogol's documents and autographed books were stolen from Kyiv and Odesa archives. Now kept at pushkin house in st. petersburg 89/

Mykhalkiv treasure, consisting of a number of items including diademas, fibulas, etc. Was kept at Lviv History Museum until soviets stole it to moscow somewhere between 1937 and 1940. Current location unknown. 90/

Dymytrii Solunskyi mosaic was made by some Bysantine master for what would become St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in 12th AD. Monastery was closed by communists, and the valuables from there were taken to russia, along with this mosaic, now shown at tretyakov gallery. 91/

St. Nicholas fresque from same monastery is at hermitage now. The more I research the more it seems half of hermitage was stolen from Ukraine. My father jokes that the other half was stolen from Germany. Though the more i think about the less it looks like a joke. 93/

Last (of those i could find in an evening) but not least is an example of Cossack Mamay, a common theme in folk painting, taken from Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum of Dnipro. Now exhibited at felitsyn museum in krasnodar, russia. 94/

As I was writing all this another nice fact popped up, so we'll finish off with what we started. Melody and general idea for The Sacred War, one of the most famous songs of soviet side of #WW2, is stolen from a Ukrainian 1910s-1920s rebel song! 95/

⬆️ I recommend to enable the subtitles. The lyrics are really powerful and moving. 96/

An afterword. This is a giant pile of evidence, rising up an issue that has been troubling my mind and irritating me for years. This list is far from being complete -- here is much more research to perform regarding lesser known names, lesser known songs... 97/

.. all these pieces of art and history that are now filling russian exhibitions. This is typical for an empire-colony relationship, as I told before. War that is happening now is the climax of the centuries long process of russians trying to get rid of us as a nation. 98/

Issue from 97 is "Why don't russians leave us alone?" Because empires enrich themselves and steal everything their hands can reach, not caring for actual people they colonise, or cultures, or whatever else than their wellbeing. And we've been near enough to be a simple target 99/

Russia is both a common and uncommon example of an empire. Common in the way they stole from us and uncommon in the way that they basically built their identity and culture around ours. They stole the name of our ancestors -- Rus, as well as it's history. 100!

(I will write a thread on how and why they did it later)
They invited (stole) the most prominent and bright of us to their capitals, using them to build their cities, science and culture. As many russian thinkers said themselves -- russia is not complete without Ukraine. 101/

But why now again? Why didn't russia just stay where they are with all their oil and gas and money? Firstly, they have never tried to rebuild their identity only around their history and their culture. They chose to continue the imperial way they had with their ... 102/

... "Triune Russian Nation" consisting of russians the "Big Russians"/"великороссы", Ukrainians as the "Little Russians"/"Малороссы" and Belarussians as the "White Russians". 103/

I tend to think about it as an identity crisis of sorts. They just don't know who they are anymore, and lack effort and willingness to find out, so instead they go the easy way -- invade neighbouring nations and kill people. Because fixing identity is HARD. 104/

Russians never did undergo a process similar to denazification of Germany. Their mainstream is chauvinistic, predatory of others. They never admitted to any of the atrocities they committed to Ukraine, to Georgia, to Kazakhstan, and more. 105/

To all of the lesser known "small nations" of russia, where they continue to exterminate their culture and identity. Tatar, Bashkir, Chuvashs, Avar, Mordvin, Udmurt, Yakuts, Tuvan, Komi and so so so much more. Many of those are in danger of cultural extinction. 106/

Most of them still think the soviet/russian empire way, and russian mainstream only works towards boosting this. Why? Also because instead of really building a new russian identity, spending money on improving people's lives and building good, comfortable... 107/

...environment for their citizens who live poor lifes in dirty, desolate and destroyed cities it's way easier and funnier to steal the money and provide people with emotional coping via an image of "Great and Powerful Russia That The World Is Afraid Of" on TV. 108/

All the while Ukrainians since 1991 were restoring the nation after all these years of occupation and assimilation. A prominent Ukrainian cultural figure Poderviansky was asked a question "What is the national idea of Ukraine?" 109/

"Just fuck off" he told in his answer. We just want russians to fuck off and LET US LIVE HOW WE WANT TO LIVE. 110/

P.S. If you want to use something from this thread or it inspired you to do something -- feel free to do so, no permission required, but please message me. I would just like to know about it. Tickle my self-esteem. End of 🧵. 111/

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