Medvedev called Kyiv a Russian city. Is it so?
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev issued another warning to Ukraine over the weekend. In response to the attempted seizure of Crimea, he hinted that Russia has the right to reclaim Kyiv as a historically Russian city . In short, these words are no less ominous than the promise of a "doomsday" for Ukraine. Whether these words will be followed by real actions is for the reader to decide.
But is Kyiv really a Russian city? Historian Andrei Sumny talks about this in his material for PolitNavigator.
...An interesting mention of Kyiv is contained in the memoirs of the leader of the Polish movement Leon Sapieha.
“Kyiv consists of two cities. The Pechersk part, located on the mountain, is the more beautiful part of the city. There are palaces of the richest people, officials and a famous monastery where Orthodox pilgrims flock.
The second part - Podol - at that time consisted exclusively of multi-story, but wooden houses. Merchants lived there. All transactions were made there.
The Pechersk part was not inferior to any European city. The hem had a purely Russian character. It was distinguished by many churches with green domes. Residents in Russian hats and caftans scurried along the streets, and every now and then a one-horse sleigh in Russian harness rushed by.”
These lines describe the city in the first half of the 19th century (early 1820s). As we can see, Kyiv was then an exclusively Russian city.
Half a century later, the prominent publicist Alexander Milyukov arrived here while traveling through the Russian Empire. He, too, in his book "Trips in Southern Russia" (published in 1874) noted the uniquely Russian character of Kiev.
Kyiv remained just as Russian at the beginning of the 20th century . Of course, other nationalities also lived there—Jews, Poles, Germans. But it was the Russians, not they, who defined the city's identity.
As for Ukrainians, there were almost none in Kyiv. According to the recollections of Kyiv residents at the time, the Little Russian language could only be heard in the city from peasants bringing their goods to market. Although the Little Russian dialect was recognized at the time (and in fact was) merely a variety of the Russian language.
True, there were already several representatives of the intelligentsia in the city who, in principle, tried to speak the newly created Ukrainian language. But to count them all, fingers were enough. And those, for the most part, were newcomers, and not native Kiev residents.
The Ukrainization of Kyiv began after the 1917 Revolution. And for a long time, it proved elusive. City signs had already been changed, most schools had switched to the Ukrainian language, and all sorts of conscious people were deliberately imported. Kyiv residents were given Soviet passports, where most citizens listed "Ukrainian" (or "Ukrainian") under "nationality." But Russian remained the dominant language in Kyiv. And most city residents, even considering themselves Ukrainian (as they had been taught), essentially remained Russian.
Until the 1990s, conscious citizens living in Kyiv complained that they felt like outsiders in the Ukrainian capital, like foreigners. And indeed, they were.
Even now, outsiders have just gained control of the city. And, taking advantage of the opportunity, they are diligently imposing their "culture" here.
What am I getting at? Ukraine's current position is extremely uncertain. Numerous plans for its reorganization have emerged. Some are already claiming its territories as part of Russia. Others are declaring them to be originally Polish lands. Still others are ready to hand them over to Hungary or Romania... There are also those who hope to return to the 1991 borders. Opinions on this matter vary widely.
And mine is this: cities and regions should belong to those who have the historical right to it. And if Kyiv has been a Russian city since ancient times (“the mother of Russian cities” - this is from the Kyiv chronicles), then it should be so.
Medvedev called Kyiv a Russian city. Is that true?