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Vsevolod Holubovych
© Alexander Serbin 2008
IB Student of Pechersk International School Kyiv Ukraine
Who would believe, that in far away Australia, the roots of my family would lead me back to Ukraine, to the period where its first Independence was proclaimed. Recently my mother, Dana, has given me the diary of my great grand father Alexander Kochanowsky, who wrote about his uncle a well known Ukrainian, engineer, publisher, a loyal member of the Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary party, Vsevolod Holubovych. In spite of disinterests by a previous generation, my mother maintained the family history which her grandfather Alexander Kochanowsky had told her about. This was an ordinary family history, with the members living normal lives. However, one of these family members, Vsevolod Holubovych, he fought for theIndependenceof Ukraine during the National Liberation Revolution (which occurred between 1917-21). After familiarising myself with the genealogy, biography, family archives, correspondence, which were kept by Alexander Kochanowsky (nephew of Holubovych), I totally changed my attitude toward successive historical events.
Alexander Kochanowsky like many of his relatives was an engineer. However, this was not only a vocation, he also loved his job. A loyalty to engineering in this family was something more than an adherence to traditions, which he was very proud of. It was as if engineering was encoded within the genetic code of the male gender of this family.
Engineers have also been known to become distinguished politicians and influence history. In world history it is very rarely read that President George Washington put an end to slave labour in the United States of America and with the Declaration of Independence, created the country’s constitution whilst being a qualified engineer.After becoming the thirty- first president of the United States of America, engineer Herbert Hoover brought his country out of the 1930s depression.It only took the Australian engineer, Francis Ford, eight days to have his Cabinet endorse Australia’s role in the United Nation’s long-term battle with Nazism in World War Two. History has witnessed that not one blood - thirsty dictator, or occupier, starting with Napoleon or Bismarck and ending with Stalin or Hitler were engineers.With the declaration of independence, the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), engineer Vsevolod Holubovych became head of the state government and did everything possible to make Ukraine internationally recognised.
By his own temperament, intelligence and personality engineer Alexander Kochanowsky could follow the path of George Washington, and maybe even his own uncle Vsevolod Holubovych. But it wasn’t meant to be. His biography is documented by his own handwritten speeches in the Donbas region, which were written while he was working as an engineer at various electricity stations, and later in the cultural centre, Heidelberg as well as community gatherings in Sydney. His articles were widely published in English and Ukrainian. Alexander Kochanowsky was a member of the Ukrainian Society of Engineers and the Institute of Engineers of Australia, for many years, both these organizations have documented his presentations. There are a few skimpy lines about Alexander Kochanowsky in the encyclopaedia directory “Engineers-Ukrainians in the Diaspora” [2, page 107]. It states: “electrical engineer, Kharkiv Technological Institute. Knowing the English language he was immediately employed as an engineer for the electricity commission of NSW, where he held a high position, as well as fulfilling the role of a consultant engineer. He was a member of the Institute of Engineers of Australia. His academic works were published in Australian technical journals.” In his article ‘Talent and Work’, published in the newspaper ‘Morning’ on the 9th of July 1949, Alexander Kochanowsky reminds us of the importance of the experiences encountered by liberal-democratic circles within the period of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR). These experiences influenced English conservatives who were lead by Winston Churchill. “All attempts to create a clear organisational philosophy for the formation of clear work program, to mould an army of organisers for the building of the Ukrainian nation’s future. They oppose (as they did during the 1917 times) a resounding phrase about talented improvisation. Yes, talent - a big thing, this wonderful God’s gift, which is given to people and nations, as an amusement and assistance in tough times of history. Those who want to build their life with the hope of a miracle, without applying some toil, own intellect and own hands in building, without creating organizations and plans, will only create grief for a nation and its individuals. It wasn’t geniuses – improvisers, like Alexander Macedon, Napoleon, or Hitler who created nations, but hard ‘ant-like’ self-organising workers of a number of generations. And there was an inadequate supply of self-organised work within the Ukrainian nation: that is why it took so long to become a nation, which is why a State still hasn’t been created. There have been more than a few talented improvisers in our history, many were in overabundance” – wrote Alexander Kochanowsky from 'Talent and Work'. Engineers know how to create; they know the importance of accuracy. They know how to draught a sketch and the importance of placing the dot in the right position, when to place the full stop and when to place emphasis on an event which is historically significant.
Alexander Kochanowsky was born on the 25th of May 1904 in the Winnica, Podilya region, to a family of teachers; he was the grandson of an orthodox priest. His birthday parties traditionally became a time for friends to gather, always turning into evenings of remembrance, where the guests would recollect childhood years, lost hopes about the fate of Ukraine and its offended nation. During these gatherings A.Kochanowsky would read his poems:
Alexander Kochanowsky’s poetry is dominated by gloomy and even mournful tones. And this is understandable: the basis for the happiness in his life would only be lit by single stars, which would glimmer and die. His poems cannot be seen as pessimistic, decadent or waning, because within them there is a live light and an indestructible hope, a belief in a better life. Kochanowsky’s personality can be recreated by the recollections of those who knew him: authors Paul Hubenko (Ostap Vyshni), Claudia Folz, Vasyl Domazar, specialists in children’s literature Professor Mykola Levytsky, Professor of Ukrainian Language, Professor Holovaty, engineers Vasyl Shevchenko (Melbourne), Ohorodnikov and Landysh (Canada), Baron Nirod (Germany), artists Vasyl Krychevsky, Michael Kmit, Eugenia Kozolkowsky and Michael Sadowsky. This material is rather fragile, frail and subjective. Most of it is not published.
Alexander Kochanowsky (Kharkiv, 1928)
The Kochanowsky family prided their lineage, but they did not like to speak about this amongst people, especially amongst their friends, because even after many years living overseas they were still sure that “walls had ears”. Luckily, a few years before his death Alexander Kochanowsky managed to write an article “The Origins of the Ancestors”. From this article I read about the testimonies of his contemporaries, searching for the image, of an epoch within which he lived. He wrote very little and with reservation about himself within this article, there is no mention of many episodes in his biography.
Vsevolod Holubovych (Kharkiv, 1928)
It is not surprising, that Holubovych was seen as a repulsive figure within monographs and encyclopaedic references, which were published in the former Soviet Union. Within this era, it was necessary to keep quiet, or forget (or not even mention in passing) such a repulsive figure as Vsevolod Holubovych. His name branded him as an enemy and a traitor, sometimes he was talked about in an openly offensive and scornful manner. This ‘repulsiveness’ created by the anti-independent political forces were so influential that it was difficult to disperse this myth in the West. To date, there is no evidence that influential western academics specialising in Ukrainian studies, intend to present a balanced and unbiased picture of Holubovych’s persona. As such, romantic fictitious novels about Holubovych (written in the West) are being treated as the only reliable academic source. There has been a movement which has monopolised research about this political figure. The following poem written by A. Kochanowsky, depicts this in allegories, it is easy to see the connection between the life experiences and the talent of the poet. In anticipation of the realization of a social transformation, Alexander Kochanowsky writes in a style that shows his inexhaustible activeness and inextinguishable energy.
As a result, historians have obliterated an entire layer of Ukrainian culture and its most important representatives.Amongst these representatives, Alexander Kochanowsky writes about one of his colleagues Mykola Mihnovsky, who was a member of the Ukrainian political party “postupisty” within the Poltava region, which wanted the autonomy of Ukraine to be developed in collaboration with Moscow. M.Mihnovsky was the leader of the Ukrainian Military Club in the name of Pavlo Polubotko. A. Kochanowsky writes: “Mykola Mihnovsky – a well known fighter for Ukrainian independence, gentlemen, essentially a nationalist, during the times of the revolution who was temporarily thrown into the province. His appearance gave one the impression that he was constantly rubbing the soot out of his pipe. Not long after Mihnovsky moved to Kyiv, where he came under pressure from the Governmental Political Department (DPU) and ended his life killing himself. It was as if he stopped under an apple tree, leaving with his final words being “I wish to die by my own will.”" [4]. Other than that, Mihnowsky was a lobbyist, supporting activities, which promoted the declaration of Ukrainian independence. He wrote: “The Muscovite workforce is strange, anarchistic, Bolshevik…. Merchants are Muscovite and Jewish, Nobility is Muscovite or totally influenced by Moscow. For all of them Ukraine, the Ukrainian nation is not only a strange sound. Oh no! For them Ukraine, the Ukrainian nation, is the most terrifying, horrifying apparition of material and even physical death” [3, page 74]. Engineers know everything about punctuation and the importance it plays not only in drawing, but in life. Punctuation plays an important role in this article. One needs to bear in mind the break in the thematic lines, or the moment of contact between the author and the reader, between the speaker and the listener, when the first reader stops and the second one needs to continue the unspoken word. M.Mihnovsky knew when to place a full stop on his life and with this he immortalised himself. Here are a few examples from Alexander Kochanowsky’s poems:
In A. Kochanowsky’s article “The Origin of the Ancestors” there is a short description of Kursk, where he lived as a young boy with his parents. He begins his description claiming that Kursk was not a provincial city, which bordered on the ethnographic borders with Ukraine. Alexander Kochanowsky's description of Kursk was not a citation from a geography textbook, which would be accepted with superficial reading. Within his description, there are deep comparisons of impressions formed by a young person about Kursk in 1913, as a place for trying-out the Ukrainian elite. 
[Alexander Kochanowsky with his sister Halia in Kursk 1916.] 
[ Alexander Kochanowsky’s membership card with the Ukrainian group in Kursk]
During this time in western-Ukrainian lands the Russian occupied powers were destroying any show of Ukrainian cultural life. Prior to WW1 Russian occupied western Ukrainian territories destroyed Ukrainian cultural life in its entirety. Ukrainian educational establishments were closed, including 'Prosvita' and the Academic Society in the name of T.Shevchenko, libraries and museums, as well as, publishers of Ukrainian journals. Thousands of Ukrainians were deported to the East of the Russian Empire. Even the representatives of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and worshippers were persecuted and deported, with the forced infiltration of Russian orthodoxy. Here is another commentary from the author’s article “The Origin of the Ancestry”: "With the start of the war, the Russian army occupied Western Ukraine and interned many Ukrainian activists, including Archbishop Andriy Sheptytsky, who was deported to Kursk under police surveillance. On my way to school, one morning, I remember, meeting a tall man in black gown being escorted by a policeman, wearing a sword. This was really frightening! Undoubtedly, I did not know the political significance of this.”- writes Kochanowsky.[4]This was Kochanowsky’s first meeting with Archbishop Andriy Sheptytsky and it had a real, unforgettable influence on his respectful attitude to religion, which he managed to maintain to his death. With feelings of great responsibility and respect to the entrusted work given to him, he translated prayer books from the Old Church Slavonic language into Ukrainian. A.Kochanowsky felt this was his responsibility, as he knew that there were biblical translations into this language. Attempts to do this in Ukraine brought cruel prohibition. The Kamianets Podilsk Bishop Parfeniy Levytsky was sentenced to Siberia for requesting permission from the “Holy Synod” to translate the Holy Gospels into Ukrainian. Panteley Kulish was sentenced to Siberia for translating the holy Gospels into Ukrainian without permission.
Kochanowsky was rather emotional when he remembered episodes of his childhood, especially those periods of time, when his family lived in the village of Humene, Podilya region. Here is another episode from that period in his life “I remember that the railway line to the village Humene which went through the forest and made a huge loop, here the train would brake and my father would put me on his shoulders, jump of the moving train. He would then run with the moving train picking a large bouquet of flowers for my mother. We would wait for the train to return before jumping back on it. This still takes my breath away and fills me with emotions. This was a big event!” [4]. This scene of bringing flowers for his mother is like a lyrical poem, describing a sincere gratitude for her tactfulness and sincerity. Many people loved her and especially her students, but for her, something that stood higher than love was respect, there was no room for unceremonious behaviour and there was always the feelings of distancing one. In the lines of the poem “Last Night” depicts Kochanowsky's love for his mother, which probably was kept with him to his last days.[Family Kochanowsky (Humene, 1907)]
[Zina Holubovych- Moscow (1895).]
In A. Kochanowsky's memoirs he remembers how his father Volodymyr Kochanowsky, while finishing military school, married the young teacher Zina Holubovych. He met Zina prior to her departure to Moscow to study at the Institute of Deportment for Noble Ladies and wrote to her while she was studying there.Their distant romance brought her back to Podilya after finishing her studies. She had fixed viewpoints about life and was able to support him while he was doing his final high school exams and entrance to the mathematics faculty at Kyiv University. Unfortunately, due to being active in the students’ revolutionary movement, the Russian reign excluded him from the University with a right of return after one year. This year became the year in which Zina Holubovych and Volodymyr Kochanowsky married. As such a new shoot appeared on the family tree, this was presented in the article, “The Origin of the Ancestors”:
The wedding of Zina and Volodymyr went ahead with only family members present. But everybody remembered the bright and informative presentation given by her brother, Vsevolod Holubovych, who at that time was a student at the Kyiv Politechnical Institute. Vsevolod was a young, intelligent person; he had a sense of humour and strength of freedom, which gave him the opportunity to encourage others to do everything, to follow him. His high levels of spirituality, being well read and having a love of literature made him stand out in student circles. He came to the wedding with one of his friends –Ivan Nemolovsky, they were united by their active community life and both belonged to the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP). Ivan Nemolovsky’s was very proud of his family background, as his mother was the cousin of Lesya Ukrainka (a famous Ukrainian poet).Vsevolod would often give his older sister various inexpensive gifts (such as necklaces, rings or earrings, or something else), while away from home, which were always seen as some thing which brightened her life. A number of these items, were left for the inheritance of Dana Serbin, the great grand daughter of Z. Holubovych. She attempted to give these items as gifts to museums in Kyiv, after the declaration of Ukrainian independence, however a large number of these items were confiscated by the Boryspil customs. Zina Holubovych’s wedding gift from Vsevolod was symbolic and characterised what was a valuable item during the time of the wedding. A wall clock was a gift from her brother, which she kept despite her forced resettlement, which was brought on by the persecution and immigration.Listening to the ticking of this wall clock and watching the hands turn she called the “biggest gift of her life”.
[Wall clock]
This clock is still showing the time of that epoch and is found within the building where the daughter of Alexander Kochanowsky resides –Iryna Prudnyk. The sentimental meaning of this gift for Zina Holubovych was based on the fact that it symbolised the hard and painstaking work her husband achieved for student rights after the year break. Thankful for their consolidated achievements he completed his studies first-class honours in 1908. Later in his poem “Squaw” Alexander Kochanowsky refers to the comparison of the clock to a person’s life.
Alexander Kochanowsky’s clock became a soulful image, which he often used as an allegory of life.
The Holubovychs and Kochanowskys were united by similar social family backgrounds, while residing in the same town Tulchyn, in the Bratslavshtyna region. Both from similar clergy backgrounds, their attitudes to education, rearing of children and career development were the same. However, the Kochanowsky family was wealthier, which placed them on a higher social class, of a fine noble lineage. They had their own small house with a straw roof, which was later covered with tin. It was the first house in Tulchyn to obtain electricity. The Holubovych family was connected with poorer circles within the Uniat communities, they didn’t have their own house; they rented a home from a Jewish family and half of it they gave away to students from the ecclesiastic seminary. This brought them a lot of respect and support. Within this Ukrainian environment, the inhabitants were German, Muscovite and Jewish. The different nationalities were neighbourly with each other but they didn’t integrate. The psychological and national-ethnic boundaries existed calmly and naturally.
[The city of Tulchyn.]
The inhabitants of Kamianets-Podilsk do not onlyrememberHolubovych as a student of thePodilsk spiritual seminary but also carefully keep his memory alive because hisname is connected with the history of the city. This is the place where he studied, lived and worked. This is the place where he published the periodical “The Working Community”. In the twenties, he was a member of the committee, which opened the technical faculty in the existing Kamianets-Podilsk University.During their studies in the Podilsk Spiritual Seminary, both Vsevolod Holubovych and Volodymyr Kochanowsky dissipated their illusions as to the church’s religiousness. However, they kept a great spirituality, which they interpreted from Ancient Rus manuscripts. As seen from the educational programs, the native language was not studied in the seminary. The native language was excluded from the programs of educational institutions and was a result of the anti-Ukrainian Valuyev Decree which bound every educational institution, in every city. By excluding the native language from the programs of educational institutions, the Russian government intended to disengage young people from their Ukrainian identity. This only evoked a natural rebellion held within their spirits. Holubovych would often love to quote different sources of Ancient Rus manuscripts, but his heart and mind ‘belonged’ to engineering. These were the reasons behind him enrolling in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the faculty of road building, where he was a perfect student. His political activeness began in 1903, when he became a member of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Party. During this time Holubovych was not aware that for his activities in the first Russian revolution in 1905 he would be arrested. Iryna Ovsiyevna Holubovych didn’t have a chance to improve her health after the death of her husband; she worried when her rebellious son was excluded from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. However, she tried to understand the strong feelings and passions of the youth, helping him to overcome his trials in life. She utilised her influence and the authority of herdead husband'sfriends who held high positions, to help her son. His mother Iryna, managed with much pleading and payment to have her son released from interrogation. Afterwards, the institute’s administration reviewed her son’s case and decided to charge him with an administrative warning and this allowed him to complete his studies at the Kyiv Politechnical Institute during WW1 in 1915. Despite this warning he continued his revolutionary activities with his colleague Ivan Nemolovsky who had returned from Belgium. Together they formed an underground group of Ukrainian social revolutionaries, long before its official recognition and legalisation in 1917. Immediately after this, the party attained widespread popularity throughout Ukraine and soon the members allowed them to represent the party at the General Secretariat of the Central Rada. 
The completion of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute by Holubovych coincided with the start of World War One. After completing his studies as a professional railway engineer, in 1914 he worked as assistant manager of the station (which is now found on the territory of Kharkiv region). In 1916 –1917 he was sent to work for the Odessa management of Railroads. Here he showed a great responsibility toward the work given to him. He would examine the state of each rail crossing in all branches by handrail. After three years he became one of the best engineers on the south-western railway. A certificate of employment of V.Holubovych shows him as the assistant of the south-western railway division (with a pay of 1500 roubles and a living allowance –375 roubles).
As a young building engineer for the railway network, he initially worked as the manager of the railway division. Then in September 1917 he was the manager for the water, rail and earth networks at the Romanian front. In spring 1917, whilst working for the railway services of the Romanian front, Vsevolod Holubovych created a branch of the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party (UPSR) amongst the railway workers of the Odessa network; from thereon he was elected as the head of the Odessa Branch of this party. After his years as a student, V.Holubovych searched for answers as to how to make the world a better place. The rebellious spirit and irresistible thirst for justice, real freedom made him turn to the secret group of the social-revolutionaries and create a sincere admiration for the research works of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. The creation of ties with the pioneer of social democracy in Ukraine develops an unchanging (for his entire life) attraction to the grandness of research in the Ukrainian battle for freedom. The road, seemed simple, straight and one sided. However, this was a road of searching, a conscious choice of taking an unyielding moral humanistic position. Besides, he recognized that a socialist revolution was the most optimal movement forward for a highly organised society. V. Holubovych did not become a “rivet” of a rather powerful and influential political organization in the pre-Revolutionary period – UPSR. The highlight of V.Holubovych social political activities was his election as the Head of the Odessa City Council (Duma), he then became a member of the All Russian and Ukrainian establishment, in the name of whom in April 1917 he turns to the Temporary Government of Kerensky demanding territorial autonomy for Ukraine. During the next meeting of the party Holubovych is included in the membership of the Central Committee in the UPSR and is elected as a member of the Small Council.
Vsevolod Holubovych’s fate was decided by the creation of the Ukrainian party of socialist revolutionaries, to which he became its member and later the secretary of the Central Committee. Taking an active part in the party was one of the main reasons behind him being promoted up the party ranks to a faction of the party in the Central Rada.In September 1917 Holubovych was elected as the member of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly from the 4th Hereson elections district. He was a representative from the Rada Peasantry Deputies, Ukrainian Socialist revolutionary party and the Jewish socialist party. He was a member of the first Ukrainian government – General Secretariat. During a meeting of the Small Rada on the 15th of July 1917 V.Holubovych is elected as the General Secretary of roads. However, his energies and overload of work on the Romanian front meant that he could only commence work as secretary in October. During the critical period of the break down of the Central Rada, Holubovych was the head of the Ukrainian government; he always remained on the cutting edge of resolving general Ukrainian issues. He continuously led the way in answering the most contentious political problems; he constantly proposed his own longstanding contemplated ideas which were realistic and carried a achievable, desired aim. That is the reason why he rarely took an individual position and without fear, confronted authorities, which forced him to justify his arguments and thoughts.
Meanwhile, Alexander Kochanowsky was in Kursk at the beginning of the First World War, where his parents taught and took an active part in liberal intelligentsia. They like their friends moved towards radical societal change and therefore watched the movement of the revolutionary processes through the “rose coloured glasses” of social democracy. During meetings they would read and discuss articles and declarations within the russian language journal “Ukrainskaya Zhyzn” which was sent to them from Moscow by Symon Petliura, who was the editor of the journal at that time. Ukraine was jammed between two opposing sides: the Austro-German and the Russian it was during this time that social –democratic groups were formed. (The head of one group was Dmytro Dontsov, the head of the other Symon Petliura). They both represented Ukrainian interests and prophesized social democracy. However, they both attained their support from their own politically aligned states. During the first days of the war against Russian tsarism, Symon Petliura published an article in which there was apacifistsplea requesting Ukrainians to fulfil their community responsibilities honestly, aiming to peacefully and without bloodshed live harmoniously. In response to this Zina Kochanowsky wrote in her diary: “Nationalists cannot be beaten, like a conscience: you can make it sleep for a short time, but you cannot destroy it. There is a need to create a new barrier between Russia and its ambitions a third element, which would serve as a guarantee. The war against Russia should be a war for freedom against despotism; a young nation needs to occupy Moscow tsarism”. A. Kochanowsky’s parents expressed their skepticism that Russia's victory, would lead to the unification of Halychyna and Bukovyna which would reflect true Ukrainian interests. Not surpassing that, they remained sceptical about the declaration of the social democracy of that time and would at times announce opposing points of view even after discussing them in family circles. A. Kochanowsky stressed the importance of an alliance which was a more liberal point of view. On the whole they were both blinded by a desire for positive change in societal development.
[Volodymyr Kochanowsky teaching at a school in Kursk (1918)]
Symon Petliura was a good acquaintance of the Kochanowsky family; he became acquainted with them during the wedding of Vsevolod Holubovych and the Kiev gymnast Tetiana Kardinalowska (the daughter of the Czarist general who was killed during the war). The wedding took place in the church of the Kyiv Cadet School. Petliura sensed that Holubovych was a person of great scope, who was capable of creating great deeds. He moved A. Kochanowsky’s mother with his oratory skills and his ability to carry the wedding with great solemness and brightness. It was a marriage of convenience with both partners having no common interests. Ivan Nemolovsky saw the wedding in the family of Kochanowsky as a sad union. This was evident, by the great age difference between the couple (the age difference being 13 years) as well as the differences in education levels and erudition. There were barriers such as mistrust and dissimilar interests. Tetiana was more interested in the long, boring gossip and small talk about high society. This was especially evident in political discussions, which totally sent the engaged fiance and later wife of Holubovych out of conversational circles. Within these circles she became the subject of laughter. She became used to this image and enacted the role of a jovial character. She wasn’t a part of serious conversations because she did not know how to speak in Ukrainian. Her brother Aleksey was a fanatical monarchist and was one of initiators of the newspapers “The Russian Thought” which was against the forced “Ukrainisation” of the South-western lands (that is what Russophiles called Ukraine). By marrying Tetiana Kardinalowska – the daughter of a wealthy, highly positioned military general and combining her long-lived accumulation of capital in her family, V. Holubovych used this to finance his revolutionary activities. The life experience of Vsevolod’s mother, Iryna Ovsiyivna, was a reminder for her that the young couple should ‘grind together’. She decided not to interfere in any misunderstandings between them. Instead she decided to move to Kursk and live with the Kochanowsky family with her younger daughter Tania (whose fate is not known). The only things we know are that she died in Kursk 1960's as a widow.
[Tania Holubovych with her mother Iryna Holubovych. ]
However the marriage between Tetiana and Vsevolod was not long lasting and they separated after two years. The settlement of the divorce proceedings were long and gave Vsevolod a lot of grief for many years to come. This grief led Vsevolod to immerse himself in his publications and academic work. This broken marriage didn’t eliminate Vsevolod’s sensitivities, which were preserved by his companion and wife Frida Vitichnowska. Alexander Kochanowsky met Frida in Kharkhiv once in 1924. This meeting left Alexander with a positive impression of an intelligent woman. Throughout A. Kochanowksy’s poems flows a generous, loving, sensitive, fine soul:
Together with his engineering work A. Kochanowsky loved to make up a poem impromptu when getting together with friends. These poems would be in line with the conversations being held at the time. Those present would immediately understand the meanings of the poems. He did not like to explain those things, which he wrote and cherished deeply how each individual understood his poems. He wanted to see how each individual experienced life through his poetry and never imposed his own visions and thoughts. Liberalism was accepted with enthusiasm by those who enjoyed being with him. However he was a conservative Ukrainian catholic. With permission, by those present he would recite separate paraphrases of his new poem and would ask him: “Alya, what happened next?” In everything it was evident that A. Kochanowsky wasn’t one to try to publish his poems in various publications. The reasons behind this were his very high expectations of his writings. From here he showed creativity in the sentences he wrote, which portrayed the picture, which the artist created. It’s worth noting, that A. Kochanowsky’s first attempts at writing poetry were in the years before the war. His first collection of lyrical poems entitled “Printed by the Sun” was published in 1924 in Novopavlivka.
This collection of poems the author dedicated to himself “the sun, which lit my fire and the water which extinguished it”. Here are a few poems from the first collection.
[First Publication of a Poetry Collection by A. Kochanowsky]
Your eyes are like a silk star,
Like stars within grey diamonds.
I am saddened, I am heavy despair,
- The salvation of talents, in your grins.
My days like rough waves,
The stars reflected in their waters.
I was on in my last challenges
My grief went to the strugglers.
We met in life accidentally,
Like two boats in rough seas,
And under the singing of the lullaby
We competed in the last efforts.
On me, from the high cliff
The dirt from rocks collapsed accidentally…
And what is it to me… from the no earthly oomph…
I’ll die under the boisterous frenzy.
**
You shook your grey eye…
I knew nothing about this,
Because in the grey sea, it the deep sea bed
Lies an expensive pearl precious
Of my first coil
This is not a mosquito in the sunset
That flew into the grey eye…
It’s in the stormy sea, which is disobedient,
Here, where I lost my liberty.
Don’t be angry grey-eyed destiny,
Though I’m the only one to blame here,
Because with despair in the grey sea
I threw away my year.
**
In this blue evening, in this last night:
About the morning window so much, so greatly
I wanted to tell you this twilight.
I wanted to tell you about the burning effort,
About candles the tall like high poplars…
But for you, my star, it is not meant for you to appreciate
That, which you would like to tell us.
And I did not tell you, I did not tell you some words,
Only the wind and moon in a quiet wood,
Only the star like lamps, only the scent of flowers
I said that what I wanted to say to you
And I told your grey eyes I would be happy to tell.
How the starry world would deceive me in the break of day,
If my word in this last nightfall
You would give to mockery my wooden empathy.
My lady, I would tell you a word, my flower,
When the heart would be able to hear my word…
So now I have told it to the mountains and river
The Flowers, moon, sky and the stars scattered.
Kochanowsky worked on his poetry, even after the war years, his articles and poems were published in immigration newspapers in Germany, and later in Australia. So the presentation of A. Kochanowsky’s poetry and thoughts in this publication is not done by chance but meant to be. The real recognition of his literary contribution is still to be made. The literary inheritance of A. Kochanowsky is not restricted to poetry. A large number of additional articles, which he left to my family, have been widely published in Ukrainian and in English. He showed himself to be a good publisher, community member and a talented researcher in the engineering field. He approached the Ukrainian émigré communities about the problems surrounding the training of technically qualified workers in Ukraine. In the newspaper “Ukrainian Worker” on the 30th of January 1947, A. Kochanowsky wrote: “Songs –wonderful things, poems- fantastic things, history- a learning thing, religion – a spiritual thing, but economics and industry are needed and necessary. Maybe for you, this is seen as boring and not interesting, but in reality it is essential to:
Another Time-Another Place
By Alexander Serbin
Finalist of the Young Writers writing competition, Warringah.IB Student of Pechersk International School Kyiv Ukraine
Alexander Kochanowsky like many of his relatives was an engineer. However, this was not only a vocation, he also loved his job. A loyalty to engineering in this family was something more than an adherence to traditions, which he was very proud of. It was as if engineering was encoded within the genetic code of the male gender of this family.
Engineers have also been known to become distinguished politicians and influence history. In world history it is very rarely read that President George Washington put an end to slave labour in the United States of America and with the Declaration of Independence, created the country’s constitution whilst being a qualified engineer.After becoming the thirty- first president of the United States of America, engineer Herbert Hoover brought his country out of the 1930s depression.It only took the Australian engineer, Francis Ford, eight days to have his Cabinet endorse Australia’s role in the United Nation’s long-term battle with Nazism in World War Two. History has witnessed that not one blood - thirsty dictator, or occupier, starting with Napoleon or Bismarck and ending with Stalin or Hitler were engineers.With the declaration of independence, the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), engineer Vsevolod Holubovych became head of the state government and did everything possible to make Ukraine internationally recognised.
By his own temperament, intelligence and personality engineer Alexander Kochanowsky could follow the path of George Washington, and maybe even his own uncle Vsevolod Holubovych. But it wasn’t meant to be. His biography is documented by his own handwritten speeches in the Donbas region, which were written while he was working as an engineer at various electricity stations, and later in the cultural centre, Heidelberg as well as community gatherings in Sydney. His articles were widely published in English and Ukrainian. Alexander Kochanowsky was a member of the Ukrainian Society of Engineers and the Institute of Engineers of Australia, for many years, both these organizations have documented his presentations. There are a few skimpy lines about Alexander Kochanowsky in the encyclopaedia directory “Engineers-Ukrainians in the Diaspora” [2, page 107]. It states: “electrical engineer, Kharkiv Technological Institute. Knowing the English language he was immediately employed as an engineer for the electricity commission of NSW, where he held a high position, as well as fulfilling the role of a consultant engineer. He was a member of the Institute of Engineers of Australia. His academic works were published in Australian technical journals.” In his article ‘Talent and Work’, published in the newspaper ‘Morning’ on the 9th of July 1949, Alexander Kochanowsky reminds us of the importance of the experiences encountered by liberal-democratic circles within the period of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR). These experiences influenced English conservatives who were lead by Winston Churchill. “All attempts to create a clear organisational philosophy for the formation of clear work program, to mould an army of organisers for the building of the Ukrainian nation’s future. They oppose (as they did during the 1917 times) a resounding phrase about talented improvisation. Yes, talent - a big thing, this wonderful God’s gift, which is given to people and nations, as an amusement and assistance in tough times of history. Those who want to build their life with the hope of a miracle, without applying some toil, own intellect and own hands in building, without creating organizations and plans, will only create grief for a nation and its individuals. It wasn’t geniuses – improvisers, like Alexander Macedon, Napoleon, or Hitler who created nations, but hard ‘ant-like’ self-organising workers of a number of generations. And there was an inadequate supply of self-organised work within the Ukrainian nation: that is why it took so long to become a nation, which is why a State still hasn’t been created. There have been more than a few talented improvisers in our history, many were in overabundance” – wrote Alexander Kochanowsky from 'Talent and Work'. Engineers know how to create; they know the importance of accuracy. They know how to draught a sketch and the importance of placing the dot in the right position, when to place the full stop and when to place emphasis on an event which is historically significant.
Alexander Kochanowsky was born on the 25th of May 1904 in the Winnica, Podilya region, to a family of teachers; he was the grandson of an orthodox priest. His birthday parties traditionally became a time for friends to gather, always turning into evenings of remembrance, where the guests would recollect childhood years, lost hopes about the fate of Ukraine and its offended nation. During these gatherings A.Kochanowsky would read his poems:
With a glass of sweet sorrow
Sometimes you would come to us.
On clear May nights you may borrow
Bright stars would contemplate us.
They would fall and shine and glisten
In the wise waters of the turbid waterway.
And the bald moon, jealous of the poor children
That perceived happiness from this play.
The barely heard piano, which was tired,
Carried echoes through the bottomless sky.
During the days of May, which are so remembered
And the memories will never die.
Sometimes you would come to us.
On clear May nights you may borrow
Bright stars would contemplate us.
They would fall and shine and glisten
In the wise waters of the turbid waterway.
And the bald moon, jealous of the poor children
That perceived happiness from this play.
The barely heard piano, which was tired,
Carried echoes through the bottomless sky.
During the days of May, which are so remembered
And the memories will never die.
Alexander Kochanowsky’s poetry is dominated by gloomy and even mournful tones. And this is understandable: the basis for the happiness in his life would only be lit by single stars, which would glimmer and die. His poems cannot be seen as pessimistic, decadent or waning, because within them there is a live light and an indestructible hope, a belief in a better life. Kochanowsky’s personality can be recreated by the recollections of those who knew him: authors Paul Hubenko (Ostap Vyshni), Claudia Folz, Vasyl Domazar, specialists in children’s literature Professor Mykola Levytsky, Professor of Ukrainian Language, Professor Holovaty, engineers Vasyl Shevchenko (Melbourne), Ohorodnikov and Landysh (Canada), Baron Nirod (Germany), artists Vasyl Krychevsky, Michael Kmit, Eugenia Kozolkowsky and Michael Sadowsky. This material is rather fragile, frail and subjective. Most of it is not published.
Alexander Kochanowsky (Kharkiv, 1928) Through the blue smoke of my pipe
I see someone I like
I don’t know whether I can fuse
This love together in unsuccessful prose
I don’t know whether I can fuse
This love together in unsuccessful prose
The Kochanowsky family prided their lineage, but they did not like to speak about this amongst people, especially amongst their friends, because even after many years living overseas they were still sure that “walls had ears”. Luckily, a few years before his death Alexander Kochanowsky managed to write an article “The Origins of the Ancestors”. From this article I read about the testimonies of his contemporaries, searching for the image, of an epoch within which he lived. He wrote very little and with reservation about himself within this article, there is no mention of many episodes in his biography.
Vsevolod Holubovych (Kharkiv, 1928)
It is not surprising, that Holubovych was seen as a repulsive figure within monographs and encyclopaedic references, which were published in the former Soviet Union. Within this era, it was necessary to keep quiet, or forget (or not even mention in passing) such a repulsive figure as Vsevolod Holubovych. His name branded him as an enemy and a traitor, sometimes he was talked about in an openly offensive and scornful manner. This ‘repulsiveness’ created by the anti-independent political forces were so influential that it was difficult to disperse this myth in the West. To date, there is no evidence that influential western academics specialising in Ukrainian studies, intend to present a balanced and unbiased picture of Holubovych’s persona. As such, romantic fictitious novels about Holubovych (written in the West) are being treated as the only reliable academic source. There has been a movement which has monopolised research about this political figure. The following poem written by A. Kochanowsky, depicts this in allegories, it is easy to see the connection between the life experiences and the talent of the poet. In anticipation of the realization of a social transformation, Alexander Kochanowsky writes in a style that shows his inexhaustible activeness and inextinguishable energy.
In the people’s tavern of “drunken unhappiness”
Wine flows on like the bullets of darts
We searched for carefree adolescence,
And found maliciousness, which burnt hearts.
The supple smoke from pipes drinking heavily
Amongst completely funny cigars
We wanted a little bit of destiny
To taste a delicious piece of the tart.
We recognized a little mouse,
Who peeped into the future hours
And the fortune tellers turned to the house
Who laid in the darkness of the towers
With her on a bench near a drunkard,
Who drinks his own blood from a bottle
Black cat’s eyes were narrowed,
Ready for death with the battle.
The cat sticks his tongue as a predator,
As a flower, which is extinct
Licking the hands of the spectator
The black cat in that is sceptic.
We searched for carefree adolescence,
And found maliciousness, which burnt hearts.
The supple smoke from pipes drinking heavily
Amongst completely funny cigars
We wanted a little bit of destiny
To taste a delicious piece of the tart.
We recognized a little mouse,
Who peeped into the future hours
And the fortune tellers turned to the house
Who laid in the darkness of the towers
With her on a bench near a drunkard,
Who drinks his own blood from a bottle
Black cat’s eyes were narrowed,
Ready for death with the battle.
The cat sticks his tongue as a predator,
As a flower, which is extinct
Licking the hands of the spectator
The black cat in that is sceptic.
As a result, historians have obliterated an entire layer of Ukrainian culture and its most important representatives.Amongst these representatives, Alexander Kochanowsky writes about one of his colleagues Mykola Mihnovsky, who was a member of the Ukrainian political party “postupisty” within the Poltava region, which wanted the autonomy of Ukraine to be developed in collaboration with Moscow. M.Mihnovsky was the leader of the Ukrainian Military Club in the name of Pavlo Polubotko. A. Kochanowsky writes: “Mykola Mihnovsky – a well known fighter for Ukrainian independence, gentlemen, essentially a nationalist, during the times of the revolution who was temporarily thrown into the province. His appearance gave one the impression that he was constantly rubbing the soot out of his pipe. Not long after Mihnovsky moved to Kyiv, where he came under pressure from the Governmental Political Department (DPU) and ended his life killing himself. It was as if he stopped under an apple tree, leaving with his final words being “I wish to die by my own will.”" [4]. Other than that, Mihnowsky was a lobbyist, supporting activities, which promoted the declaration of Ukrainian independence. He wrote: “The Muscovite workforce is strange, anarchistic, Bolshevik…. Merchants are Muscovite and Jewish, Nobility is Muscovite or totally influenced by Moscow. For all of them Ukraine, the Ukrainian nation is not only a strange sound. Oh no! For them Ukraine, the Ukrainian nation, is the most terrifying, horrifying apparition of material and even physical death” [3, page 74]. Engineers know everything about punctuation and the importance it plays not only in drawing, but in life. Punctuation plays an important role in this article. One needs to bear in mind the break in the thematic lines, or the moment of contact between the author and the reader, between the speaker and the listener, when the first reader stops and the second one needs to continue the unspoken word. M.Mihnovsky knew when to place a full stop on his life and with this he immortalised himself. Here are a few examples from Alexander Kochanowsky’s poems:
My sad life, my sorrowful time
It’s in love with a stormy juncture
And dreams far away at maritime.
A ray, which burns to puncture.
My Life-that dark poker,
That whimsically fine tale.
From the arms of the strong worker
Snatches five cards in a fan trail.
In anger there’s no ambitions,
No case for the worried at heart,
Many changes of combinations
Fate on shoulders a fight not to start.
The secret cards are supernatural,
A lesson to us not known
A beautiful couple which is special,
The Spades and Joker not alone.
The cards clench the hands with respect
The partners look with no ache,
As if the silent fish without neglect
Think within the hidden lake.
Another round continues the game,
The days replace each other.
No horseshoe – for my luck in name,
I need a queen not any other.
She knows the jokes and is cunning,
Not known of, and cannot see,
The cards we keep on shuffling,
Bluffs the feeling of guilty free.
A proper poker holds my years
Five cards laid slipshod fashion
In cold, cruel cards they hide the fears
Played out through fan-faired passion.
It’s in love with a stormy juncture
And dreams far away at maritime.
A ray, which burns to puncture.
My Life-that dark poker,
That whimsically fine tale.
From the arms of the strong worker
Snatches five cards in a fan trail.
In anger there’s no ambitions,
No case for the worried at heart,
Many changes of combinations
Fate on shoulders a fight not to start.
The secret cards are supernatural,
A lesson to us not known
A beautiful couple which is special,
The Spades and Joker not alone.
The cards clench the hands with respect
The partners look with no ache,
As if the silent fish without neglect
Think within the hidden lake.
Another round continues the game,
The days replace each other.
No horseshoe – for my luck in name,
I need a queen not any other.
She knows the jokes and is cunning,
Not known of, and cannot see,
The cards we keep on shuffling,
Bluffs the feeling of guilty free.
A proper poker holds my years
Five cards laid slipshod fashion
In cold, cruel cards they hide the fears
Played out through fan-faired passion.
In A. Kochanowsky’s article “The Origin of the Ancestors” there is a short description of Kursk, where he lived as a young boy with his parents. He begins his description claiming that Kursk was not a provincial city, which bordered on the ethnographic borders with Ukraine. Alexander Kochanowsky's description of Kursk was not a citation from a geography textbook, which would be accepted with superficial reading. Within his description, there are deep comparisons of impressions formed by a young person about Kursk in 1913, as a place for trying-out the Ukrainian elite.
[Alexander Kochanowsky with his sister Halia in Kursk 1916.] Alexander Kochanowsky’s father saw his transfer as a teacher of mathematics to a school in Kursk as banishment. This disillusionment was never elaborated. However, further on in the article the author mentions, that in the time between the First World War and the beginning of the Russian revolution, Kursk was mostly inhabited by Cossacks of Russian nationality, who used the word “traitors” to refer to banished Ukrainians sent there. This forced Alexander Kochanowsky to join the Ukrainian apprenticeship circles, where together with his friends, he started a critique of the “anti-Ukrainian brochure”. Alexander was an active member of this group till the time of his family’s sudden departure to Kyiv in the winter of 1916.
[ Alexander Kochanowsky’s membership card with the Ukrainian group in Kursk] During this time in western-Ukrainian lands the Russian occupied powers were destroying any show of Ukrainian cultural life. Prior to WW1 Russian occupied western Ukrainian territories destroyed Ukrainian cultural life in its entirety. Ukrainian educational establishments were closed, including 'Prosvita' and the Academic Society in the name of T.Shevchenko, libraries and museums, as well as, publishers of Ukrainian journals. Thousands of Ukrainians were deported to the East of the Russian Empire. Even the representatives of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and worshippers were persecuted and deported, with the forced infiltration of Russian orthodoxy. Here is another commentary from the author’s article “The Origin of the Ancestry”: "With the start of the war, the Russian army occupied Western Ukraine and interned many Ukrainian activists, including Archbishop Andriy Sheptytsky, who was deported to Kursk under police surveillance. On my way to school, one morning, I remember, meeting a tall man in black gown being escorted by a policeman, wearing a sword. This was really frightening! Undoubtedly, I did not know the political significance of this.”- writes Kochanowsky.[4]This was Kochanowsky’s first meeting with Archbishop Andriy Sheptytsky and it had a real, unforgettable influence on his respectful attitude to religion, which he managed to maintain to his death. With feelings of great responsibility and respect to the entrusted work given to him, he translated prayer books from the Old Church Slavonic language into Ukrainian. A.Kochanowsky felt this was his responsibility, as he knew that there were biblical translations into this language. Attempts to do this in Ukraine brought cruel prohibition. The Kamianets Podilsk Bishop Parfeniy Levytsky was sentenced to Siberia for requesting permission from the “Holy Synod” to translate the Holy Gospels into Ukrainian. Panteley Kulish was sentenced to Siberia for translating the holy Gospels into Ukrainian without permission.
Within his poem “Beyond Pontius Pilate”, published in the newspaper “Time” on the 2nd of May 1948, Alexander Kochanowsky intends to create a plain and light, sincere and open narrative. His intentions are to paint a full-blooded picture of his visions:
It is within this poem, which is written like a prayer, a lyrical epistle, depicts the righteous Christian faith. One can easily feel where there is genuine sincerity and where imitation clearly exists.Being a professional engineer, A. Kochanowsky understood well the complexity of technology and its influence on people. That is why he turned to the Bible as his one and only unchanging symbol of faith, in times of scientific and technological progress. He engages the reader with the feelings of the purity in faith, the search for faithfulness, the angst of encountering human double standards and the choice of what to remember, whilst still being creative. All of this is presented within this poem.The following poem “Mother of Mercy” sounds like a prayer:
Everyday,
In the Holy Liturgy presentation
The symbol of Faith was read.
This is not denigration.
The whole church prayed:
How God sent his Son into our lives,
How he was born, how he dies,
Resurrecting his soul and body to the skies.
Within this book we have none
Names of criminals, but there were some-
No one remembers the murderer’s name,
Who are the children of darkness which pray
They begged all the Gods, to please,
Shut down the lights on earth.
Within it the faith layer
No hiring the name of a betrayer,
That doesn’t dirty the holy prayer.
A name, a betrayer, a mention, no need.
Those who betray, once in your deed,
You can cross from your list,
Won’t forget them with your fist.
But there is one name,
Which is worth the myth game?
History gives us all his fame.
Pilate-educated by a patrician,
A person with the Law of ambition,
A worthy representative of many,
Who elected him, a worthy entity?
To learn, how to resolve all uncertainty.
That quiet one, attempted with humanity.
All was done, to rescue Christ,
To prove, the innocent were right.
He washed his hands ’til the Son had died.
And hands were washed but not dried,
He couldn’t wash the Blood of Truth
The honour, dirtied and uncouth.
The ages went by to eternity,
With heroes forgetting their dignity,
Daily, churches were swarmed with certainty
Reading Faith symbols with Continuity:
- In Pilate’s time this all happened
Where crucified truth and peace was hampered,
Patricians honoured death now dampened.
In the Holy Liturgy presentation
The symbol of Faith was read.
This is not denigration.
The whole church prayed:
How God sent his Son into our lives,
How he was born, how he dies,
Resurrecting his soul and body to the skies.
Within this book we have none
Names of criminals, but there were some-
No one remembers the murderer’s name,
Who are the children of darkness which pray
They begged all the Gods, to please,
Shut down the lights on earth.
Within it the faith layer
No hiring the name of a betrayer,
That doesn’t dirty the holy prayer.
A name, a betrayer, a mention, no need.
Those who betray, once in your deed,
You can cross from your list,
Won’t forget them with your fist.
But there is one name,
Which is worth the myth game?
History gives us all his fame.
Pilate-educated by a patrician,
A person with the Law of ambition,
A worthy representative of many,
Who elected him, a worthy entity?
To learn, how to resolve all uncertainty.
That quiet one, attempted with humanity.
All was done, to rescue Christ,
To prove, the innocent were right.
He washed his hands ’til the Son had died.
And hands were washed but not dried,
He couldn’t wash the Blood of Truth
The honour, dirtied and uncouth.
The ages went by to eternity,
With heroes forgetting their dignity,
Daily, churches were swarmed with certainty
Reading Faith symbols with Continuity:
- In Pilate’s time this all happened
Where crucified truth and peace was hampered,
Patricians honoured death now dampened.
It is within this poem, which is written like a prayer, a lyrical epistle, depicts the righteous Christian faith. One can easily feel where there is genuine sincerity and where imitation clearly exists.Being a professional engineer, A. Kochanowsky understood well the complexity of technology and its influence on people. That is why he turned to the Bible as his one and only unchanging symbol of faith, in times of scientific and technological progress. He engages the reader with the feelings of the purity in faith, the search for faithfulness, the angst of encountering human double standards and the choice of what to remember, whilst still being creative. All of this is presented within this poem.The following poem “Mother of Mercy” sounds like a prayer:
Mother of the crucified,
The stealer of all is unhappy,
The hope of all those agonized
And sentenced to casualty.
Help for poor and inconsolable
Those who are still ill, recovery.
Strength for the sinners, feeble,
Pray for us, Virgin Mary.
In a small stable, without guidance and neglected
In far away Bethlehem on a night holy
Over the child bowed.
Help us, Mother of Mercy.
You left your home, your homeland,
You were poor, faraway, on foreign property,
So as to save your child.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
The pain from the unspeakably compressed heart of the mother’s,
Son for you searching was the wicked enemy,
When Herod killed babies
Help us Mother of Mercy.
You were lost through the heartache and tears of the roads
You had to be amongst non- carers
Looking for your son amongst the crowd.
Help us Merciful of Mothers.
Of your blinded people
Towards your son is hatred and mockery
You have to within your life convene.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
There is no harder sadness; there is no harder misery,
As you felt that dark night single-handedly,
When they took your son away.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
With unspeakable terror of seeing dead eyes
You looked at the long smoky way,
Which your son walked without terror to his loss
Help us Mother of Mercy.
Who knows the pain which you felt,
When the body of your Son was slaughter
They started to nail Christ.
Help us Merciful Mother.
What was impossible, happened at this time
Your loving son died, you’re only
The people crucified him.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
But the faithful one to the highest, was sure and stood up
Unyielding under Him you stood.
For all the suffering, which you accepted
Help us Mother of Mercy.
From all sins, protect us Mother,
From insults from the poor, calm us when we are in distress
God’s will from the mutter
Throw away the bad thoughts and unfriendliness,
From the sentence of the courts on judgement day Help us Mother of Mercy.
The stealer of all is unhappy,
The hope of all those agonized
And sentenced to casualty.
Help for poor and inconsolable
Those who are still ill, recovery.
Strength for the sinners, feeble,
Pray for us, Virgin Mary.
In a small stable, without guidance and neglected
In far away Bethlehem on a night holy
Over the child bowed.
Help us, Mother of Mercy.
You left your home, your homeland,
You were poor, faraway, on foreign property,
So as to save your child.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
The pain from the unspeakably compressed heart of the mother’s,
Son for you searching was the wicked enemy,
When Herod killed babies
Help us Mother of Mercy.
You were lost through the heartache and tears of the roads
You had to be amongst non- carers
Looking for your son amongst the crowd.
Help us Merciful of Mothers.
Of your blinded people
Towards your son is hatred and mockery
You have to within your life convene.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
There is no harder sadness; there is no harder misery,
As you felt that dark night single-handedly,
When they took your son away.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
With unspeakable terror of seeing dead eyes
You looked at the long smoky way,
Which your son walked without terror to his loss
Help us Mother of Mercy.
Who knows the pain which you felt,
When the body of your Son was slaughter
They started to nail Christ.
Help us Merciful Mother.
What was impossible, happened at this time
Your loving son died, you’re only
The people crucified him.
Help us Mother of Mercy.
But the faithful one to the highest, was sure and stood up
Unyielding under Him you stood.
For all the suffering, which you accepted
Help us Mother of Mercy.
From all sins, protect us Mother,
From insults from the poor, calm us when we are in distress
God’s will from the mutter
Throw away the bad thoughts and unfriendliness,
From the sentence of the courts on judgement day Help us Mother of Mercy.
Apparently Maupassant once said that nothing in literature exists without putting the full stop in the right place. Kochanowsky, a community member knew when to place a full stop, maybe he learnt this from being an engineer. The skill of knowing when and where to stop advertently was what George Washington and Vsevolod Holubovych knew how to do as politicians. Being able to do this successfully allowed Holubovych to become a talented publisher and journalist whilst editing the newspapers “Workers Republic” and “Workers Community”. His nephew Alexander Kochanowsky inherited this success. As such, being a person who needed few words, he always stressed: “Less in history, less in writing, less in songs and speaking – by the time that the Dogs of Beliony are barking, the Muses are silent!” [5, page 2]. During visits with people, he knew how to actively listen to all, he didn’t interrupt and wouldn’t undermine anyone. For this, his conclusions and final explanations were always so original and concise to everyone who spoke to him. Silence has its own language in literature and politics. This doesn’t concern Kochanowsky's memory of his childhood, where he remembered that he 'disclosed all of his cards’. His childhood memories were always emotionally intrinsic. He did not like pomposity but did not accept unceremoniousness either. Apparently, even his close colleagues and friends called him “Alya”. Within this poem Kochanowsky is filled with thoughts, which float in the world of his dreams, memories about his habits, emotions, and worries:
You’re probably again in the Tobacco Store,
Where I buy my toxic tobacco.
I know, you always have in store
A match and a sharp word, like a harpoon.
I know, its warm there, smoky and dirt-free
In the small store, where between the cigars
You can find me
In your heart, a quiet part.
In every smoker there is tobacco wonder,
She draws in the smoke forcing you to forget
So, that not even, he, who is, called Alya,
Feelings even appear from hurt.
The tobacco is not the one to blame here, though without misgiving
He would be different from inform,
But with this, dear sovereign,
“The queen of capstan”, you are a little to blame.
7.12.1932
Where I buy my toxic tobacco.
I know, you always have in store
A match and a sharp word, like a harpoon.
I know, its warm there, smoky and dirt-free
In the small store, where between the cigars
You can find me
In your heart, a quiet part.
In every smoker there is tobacco wonder,
She draws in the smoke forcing you to forget
So, that not even, he, who is, called Alya,
Feelings even appear from hurt.
The tobacco is not the one to blame here, though without misgiving
He would be different from inform,
But with this, dear sovereign,
“The queen of capstan”, you are a little to blame.
7.12.1932
Kochanowsky was rather emotional when he remembered episodes of his childhood, especially those periods of time, when his family lived in the village of Humene, Podilya region. Here is another episode from that period in his life “I remember that the railway line to the village Humene which went through the forest and made a huge loop, here the train would brake and my father would put me on his shoulders, jump of the moving train. He would then run with the moving train picking a large bouquet of flowers for my mother. We would wait for the train to return before jumping back on it. This still takes my breath away and fills me with emotions. This was a big event!” [4]. This scene of bringing flowers for his mother is like a lyrical poem, describing a sincere gratitude for her tactfulness and sincerity. Many people loved her and especially her students, but for her, something that stood higher than love was respect, there was no room for unceremonious behaviour and there was always the feelings of distancing one. In the lines of the poem “Last Night” depicts Kochanowsky's love for his mother, which probably was kept with him to his last days.[Family Kochanowsky (Humene, 1907)]
Your time has come, my dear son
And together you will forget all your hurt,
And you suffered your last bit of clout,
You worked your hands toil-hardened.
So rest, lower your head
To mother’s faithful cuddle,
Even there she will be the defence,
Where God’s praises are unruffled.
Sleep, Sleep, relinquish that trouble,
I will lull you and caress you till you’re peaceful,
Don’t blame, that your life is not operational,
That you accepted few pleasures in this individual,
The shovel of people’s forgetfulness absorbs everything,
Not staining luck in the washing.
Don’t blame, that your days were wasted
They went by with a bright placard,
Those who are asleep, your love awaken,
Your death will- strengthens.
And you suffered your last bit of clout,
You worked your hands toil-hardened.
So rest, lower your head
To mother’s faithful cuddle,
Even there she will be the defence,
Where God’s praises are unruffled.
Sleep, Sleep, relinquish that trouble,
I will lull you and caress you till you’re peaceful,
Don’t blame, that your life is not operational,
That you accepted few pleasures in this individual,
The shovel of people’s forgetfulness absorbs everything,
Not staining luck in the washing.
Don’t blame, that your days were wasted
They went by with a bright placard,
Those who are asleep, your love awaken,
Your death will- strengthens.
Alexander Kochanowsky thought that his mother Zina Holubovych was a lady, who he wrote: “Grew up feeling confident”. The creed in her life was a political battle for women’s voting rights. In Podilya, during her childhood, she moved in famous circles, having known famous names such as Simon Paliy and Justine Karmeliuk. She was brought up with rigid national and social viewpoints.
[Zina Holubovych- Moscow (1895).]In A. Kochanowsky's memoirs he remembers how his father Volodymyr Kochanowsky, while finishing military school, married the young teacher Zina Holubovych. He met Zina prior to her departure to Moscow to study at the Institute of Deportment for Noble Ladies and wrote to her while she was studying there.Their distant romance brought her back to Podilya after finishing her studies. She had fixed viewpoints about life and was able to support him while he was doing his final high school exams and entrance to the mathematics faculty at Kyiv University. Unfortunately, due to being active in the students’ revolutionary movement, the Russian reign excluded him from the University with a right of return after one year. This year became the year in which Zina Holubovych and Volodymyr Kochanowsky married. As such a new shoot appeared on the family tree, this was presented in the article, “The Origin of the Ancestors”:
The Holubovych –Kochanowsky Family Tree.
The wedding of Zina and Volodymyr went ahead with only family members present. But everybody remembered the bright and informative presentation given by her brother, Vsevolod Holubovych, who at that time was a student at the Kyiv Politechnical Institute. Vsevolod was a young, intelligent person; he had a sense of humour and strength of freedom, which gave him the opportunity to encourage others to do everything, to follow him. His high levels of spirituality, being well read and having a love of literature made him stand out in student circles. He came to the wedding with one of his friends –Ivan Nemolovsky, they were united by their active community life and both belonged to the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP). Ivan Nemolovsky’s was very proud of his family background, as his mother was the cousin of Lesya Ukrainka (a famous Ukrainian poet).Vsevolod would often give his older sister various inexpensive gifts (such as necklaces, rings or earrings, or something else), while away from home, which were always seen as some thing which brightened her life. A number of these items, were left for the inheritance of Dana Serbin, the great grand daughter of Z. Holubovych. She attempted to give these items as gifts to museums in Kyiv, after the declaration of Ukrainian independence, however a large number of these items were confiscated by the Boryspil customs. Zina Holubovych’s wedding gift from Vsevolod was symbolic and characterised what was a valuable item during the time of the wedding. A wall clock was a gift from her brother, which she kept despite her forced resettlement, which was brought on by the persecution and immigration.Listening to the ticking of this wall clock and watching the hands turn she called the “biggest gift of her life”.[Wall clock]This clock is still showing the time of that epoch and is found within the building where the daughter of Alexander Kochanowsky resides –Iryna Prudnyk. The sentimental meaning of this gift for Zina Holubovych was based on the fact that it symbolised the hard and painstaking work her husband achieved for student rights after the year break. Thankful for their consolidated achievements he completed his studies first-class honours in 1908. Later in his poem “Squaw” Alexander Kochanowsky refers to the comparison of the clock to a person’s life.
Little restless people energetic, get to toil-
Chattering one after the other.
They, like people, can live until,
Until the heart deceives no one.
The clock heals not only the happy day,
Sentimentality, money and fury.
We will settle in our new colony
And will live a multitude of days.
Chattering one after the other.
They, like people, can live until,
Until the heart deceives no one.
The clock heals not only the happy day,
Sentimentality, money and fury.
We will settle in our new colony
And will live a multitude of days.
Alexander Kochanowsky’s clock became a soulful image, which he often used as an allegory of life.
High heels on frozen tar
The single lady’s in high boots.
Cold heart-credited goods in her-
Severe and disharmonious.
The heal hits the tact samey,
Which synchronizes with her heart,
Across frozen puddles as if icy
Miss where are you going so quickly?
Who’s waiting for you in this cold world?
Your old sweater won’t balmy,
When your heart becomes unaccompanied.
The clock heals the crown of age,
Beating to the well behaved beats of moment-
Is that Mrs Death walking on the passage?
A black Poppy as a present
Be careful, the Lady stoped!
The heart lives don’t impede-
Your selection that the carver carved
Don’t bloodstain.
Lady it’s best that you listen to the wind,
The battle of the of the sick heart in the empty city,
The yellow lantern, the only one in the world,
That sways with an old sound creaky.
The ticking of the clock in the icy sky
Are sounded out by the steps of the ignore,
They change turns between good and iniquity,
The forgotten years disappear.
The single lady’s in high boots.
Cold heart-credited goods in her-
Severe and disharmonious.
The heal hits the tact samey,
Which synchronizes with her heart,
Across frozen puddles as if icy
Miss where are you going so quickly?
Who’s waiting for you in this cold world?
Your old sweater won’t balmy,
When your heart becomes unaccompanied.
The clock heals the crown of age,
Beating to the well behaved beats of moment-
Is that Mrs Death walking on the passage?
A black Poppy as a present
Be careful, the Lady stoped!
The heart lives don’t impede-
Your selection that the carver carved
Don’t bloodstain.
Lady it’s best that you listen to the wind,
The battle of the of the sick heart in the empty city,
The yellow lantern, the only one in the world,
That sways with an old sound creaky.
The ticking of the clock in the icy sky
Are sounded out by the steps of the ignore,
They change turns between good and iniquity,
The forgotten years disappear.
The Holubovychs and Kochanowskys were united by similar social family backgrounds, while residing in the same town Tulchyn, in the Bratslavshtyna region. Both from similar clergy backgrounds, their attitudes to education, rearing of children and career development were the same. However, the Kochanowsky family was wealthier, which placed them on a higher social class, of a fine noble lineage. They had their own small house with a straw roof, which was later covered with tin. It was the first house in Tulchyn to obtain electricity. The Holubovych family was connected with poorer circles within the Uniat communities, they didn’t have their own house; they rented a home from a Jewish family and half of it they gave away to students from the ecclesiastic seminary. This brought them a lot of respect and support. Within this Ukrainian environment, the inhabitants were German, Muscovite and Jewish. The different nationalities were neighbourly with each other but they didn’t integrate. The psychological and national-ethnic boundaries existed calmly and naturally.
[The city of Tulchyn.]
If you visit Tulchyn today you can probably notice the guides will tell you about theestablishment of the Southern Russian Army during WW2; you will also find out that the city became the centre of the southern association of Decabrists (a group of intelligentsia who were against the russian monarchy), the place of residency for Count Pototsky (the deputy of a russian Tsar). However, very few know, that close to the city (in the village of Moldavka), more than 120 years ago, Holubovych was born. He lived in revolutionary times, fighting for national emancipation in 1917-21. So the question arises: how could a quiet provincial town at the end of the twentieth century form the future leader of the Ukrainian government? Everything will be understood, when one examines the historical significance of Tulchyn, which can be seen as a “sleepy province”. First impressions, which show Tulchyn to be quiet, patriarchal and village-like are false. Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky holds the crest of Bratslavshtyna. A well-known Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky found the following recollections about Tulchyn: “Kryvonis in a few sources, names the leader of attack near Tulchyn, and adds, that the profits from Nemyrov and Tulchyn were sent to Khmelnytsky” [1, page 6]. The social life in Tulchyn was busier than in many large cities. The courtier poet Alexander Pushkin grabbed the opportunity to meet the Decabrists, so as to have the chance to discuss the possibility of forming a constitutional monarchy on the basis of 14 nations and two provinces of the Russian empire. The idea of federalism was discussed in Tulchyn many years before Holubovych was born. When other cities of Bratslavshtyna were being quickly infiltrated by Moscow – Tulchyn dignifyingly protected itself from the influence of big Russia, remaining a multicultural centre for its multi nation inhabitants. Tulchyn heraldry, Tulchyn industry and art productions were Ukraine’s greatest pride.
The talents of Vsevolod Holubovych were formed in Tulchyn in the family of clergy. Toward the end of his life Reverend Alexander Holubovych was blind and impoverished. Despite spending alot of money on medication his sight still deteriorated. No matter how difficult it was for him to continue church sermons, he continued preaching. The parishioners pleaded with him not to retire, as the parish would be given away. His wife Iryna, would lead him around the church during the service, however his acknowledgement of church laws would not allow her to lead him beyond the iconostasis. One day, representatives of the church hierarchy arrived in Tulchyn with the aim of auditing the church operations, the parishioners turned to them, so as to support Reverend Holubovych and to praise his good preaching within the church. The parish community managed to convince the church representatives to allow him to remain as their parish priest. The Holubovych family were rather poor. Zina and Vsevolod inherited their father’s commitment to living life to the fullest and their mother’s goodness and spiritual sensitivity. Alexander and Iryna Holubovych had three children (Zina, Vsevolod and Tania). This was a friendly family with strong Ukrainian traditions, where proper behaviour was cherished, hard work, integrity, adherence to traditional festivities and religious traditions were upheld. They loved to sing church and folk songs. The father, noticing his son’s good temperament and intelligence, wanted him to become a priest and continue his work.
[Seminarian Vsevolod Holubovych with his father Rev.Alexander Holubovych.]
Alexander Kochanowsky's father and uncle were both brought up to be priests. Vsevolod Holubovych and Volodymyr Kochanowsky were both the children of priests and both obtained their education from the Podil Spiritual Seminary in the name of Ivan Bohoslov which was located in Kamianets –Podilsk. The reasoning behind giving them such an vocation was based on the fact that this type of education was free for these impoverished families. Though Alexander’s father was not an atheist, he would remind him that, in those times, spiritual seminaries were good schools for atheism. He would often describe how “cramming” and inconsistency in the learning process did not bring about an understanding with the bureaucratic circles of the Russian orthodoxy, but forced him to drop the middle course of the seminary and join the military school. Despite his misunderstandings with the church bureaucracy, Volodymyr remained a believer in God. Even though his father dropped the seminary his uncle Vsevelod completed the spiritual seminary with a medal. However, V.Holubovych's real interests were in engineering. His mentor in the spiritual seminary was Volodymyr Chexovsky. It was within this seminary that the two future prime ministers of the UNR met each other. The teacher was older than his student by ten years and thanks to their joint efforts one of the first decrees of the government of the UNR was the signing of the UNR decree about the Autocephalic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (January 1, 1918). When Vsevolod Holubovych came to power he placed a great importance on the development of a National Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The head of the Council for an Independent Clergy was Bishop Vasyl Lypkivsky, whose appointment was endorsed byVsevolod Holubovych and supported by a Podilya bishop, Alexander Marichev. The UNR government gave the council a number of functions they included: the governance of Ukrainian orthodox churches, the synod, the appointment of representatives which would maintain communication between parishioners and the council. The government supported the renewal of church liturgies which were translated from Church Slavonic to Ukrainian, recognising the white monks. These monks were allowed to marry. The government supported other aspects of church liberation.[9. p 2 ]Vsevolod Holubovych took a direct involvement in the all-Ukrainian church synod, which took place in Kyiv on the 28th of January 1930 and at which the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church was liquidated. As believers, Vsevolod and Volodymyr suffered from the fate of Ukrainian orthodoxy, they awaited a similar fate, which was forming from the hellish circles of the DPU, leading to their imprisonment, banishment and death.
The talents of Vsevolod Holubovych were formed in Tulchyn in the family of clergy. Toward the end of his life Reverend Alexander Holubovych was blind and impoverished. Despite spending alot of money on medication his sight still deteriorated. No matter how difficult it was for him to continue church sermons, he continued preaching. The parishioners pleaded with him not to retire, as the parish would be given away. His wife Iryna, would lead him around the church during the service, however his acknowledgement of church laws would not allow her to lead him beyond the iconostasis. One day, representatives of the church hierarchy arrived in Tulchyn with the aim of auditing the church operations, the parishioners turned to them, so as to support Reverend Holubovych and to praise his good preaching within the church. The parish community managed to convince the church representatives to allow him to remain as their parish priest. The Holubovych family were rather poor. Zina and Vsevolod inherited their father’s commitment to living life to the fullest and their mother’s goodness and spiritual sensitivity. Alexander and Iryna Holubovych had three children (Zina, Vsevolod and Tania). This was a friendly family with strong Ukrainian traditions, where proper behaviour was cherished, hard work, integrity, adherence to traditional festivities and religious traditions were upheld. They loved to sing church and folk songs. The father, noticing his son’s good temperament and intelligence, wanted him to become a priest and continue his work.
[Seminarian Vsevolod Holubovych with his father Rev.Alexander Holubovych.]
Alexander Kochanowsky's father and uncle were both brought up to be priests. Vsevolod Holubovych and Volodymyr Kochanowsky were both the children of priests and both obtained their education from the Podil Spiritual Seminary in the name of Ivan Bohoslov which was located in Kamianets –Podilsk. The reasoning behind giving them such an vocation was based on the fact that this type of education was free for these impoverished families. Though Alexander’s father was not an atheist, he would remind him that, in those times, spiritual seminaries were good schools for atheism. He would often describe how “cramming” and inconsistency in the learning process did not bring about an understanding with the bureaucratic circles of the Russian orthodoxy, but forced him to drop the middle course of the seminary and join the military school. Despite his misunderstandings with the church bureaucracy, Volodymyr remained a believer in God. Even though his father dropped the seminary his uncle Vsevelod completed the spiritual seminary with a medal. However, V.Holubovych's real interests were in engineering. His mentor in the spiritual seminary was Volodymyr Chexovsky. It was within this seminary that the two future prime ministers of the UNR met each other. The teacher was older than his student by ten years and thanks to their joint efforts one of the first decrees of the government of the UNR was the signing of the UNR decree about the Autocephalic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (January 1, 1918). When Vsevolod Holubovych came to power he placed a great importance on the development of a National Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The head of the Council for an Independent Clergy was Bishop Vasyl Lypkivsky, whose appointment was endorsed byVsevolod Holubovych and supported by a Podilya bishop, Alexander Marichev. The UNR government gave the council a number of functions they included: the governance of Ukrainian orthodox churches, the synod, the appointment of representatives which would maintain communication between parishioners and the council. The government supported the renewal of church liturgies which were translated from Church Slavonic to Ukrainian, recognising the white monks. These monks were allowed to marry. The government supported other aspects of church liberation.[9. p 2 ]Vsevolod Holubovych took a direct involvement in the all-Ukrainian church synod, which took place in Kyiv on the 28th of January 1930 and at which the Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church was liquidated. As believers, Vsevolod and Volodymyr suffered from the fate of Ukrainian orthodoxy, they awaited a similar fate, which was forming from the hellish circles of the DPU, leading to their imprisonment, banishment and death.
The inhabitants of Kamianets-Podilsk do not onlyrememberHolubovych as a student of thePodilsk spiritual seminary but also carefully keep his memory alive because hisname is connected with the history of the city. This is the place where he studied, lived and worked. This is the place where he published the periodical “The Working Community”. In the twenties, he was a member of the committee, which opened the technical faculty in the existing Kamianets-Podilsk University.During their studies in the Podilsk Spiritual Seminary, both Vsevolod Holubovych and Volodymyr Kochanowsky dissipated their illusions as to the church’s religiousness. However, they kept a great spirituality, which they interpreted from Ancient Rus manuscripts. As seen from the educational programs, the native language was not studied in the seminary. The native language was excluded from the programs of educational institutions and was a result of the anti-Ukrainian Valuyev Decree which bound every educational institution, in every city. By excluding the native language from the programs of educational institutions, the Russian government intended to disengage young people from their Ukrainian identity. This only evoked a natural rebellion held within their spirits. Holubovych would often love to quote different sources of Ancient Rus manuscripts, but his heart and mind ‘belonged’ to engineering. These were the reasons behind him enrolling in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the faculty of road building, where he was a perfect student. His political activeness began in 1903, when he became a member of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Party. During this time Holubovych was not aware that for his activities in the first Russian revolution in 1905 he would be arrested. Iryna Ovsiyevna Holubovych didn’t have a chance to improve her health after the death of her husband; she worried when her rebellious son was excluded from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. However, she tried to understand the strong feelings and passions of the youth, helping him to overcome his trials in life. She utilised her influence and the authority of herdead husband'sfriends who held high positions, to help her son. His mother Iryna, managed with much pleading and payment to have her son released from interrogation. Afterwards, the institute’s administration reviewed her son’s case and decided to charge him with an administrative warning and this allowed him to complete his studies at the Kyiv Politechnical Institute during WW1 in 1915. Despite this warning he continued his revolutionary activities with his colleague Ivan Nemolovsky who had returned from Belgium. Together they formed an underground group of Ukrainian social revolutionaries, long before its official recognition and legalisation in 1917. Immediately after this, the party attained widespread popularity throughout Ukraine and soon the members allowed them to represent the party at the General Secretariat of the Central Rada.
The completion of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute by Holubovych coincided with the start of World War One. After completing his studies as a professional railway engineer, in 1914 he worked as assistant manager of the station (which is now found on the territory of Kharkiv region). In 1916 –1917 he was sent to work for the Odessa management of Railroads. Here he showed a great responsibility toward the work given to him. He would examine the state of each rail crossing in all branches by handrail. After three years he became one of the best engineers on the south-western railway. A certificate of employment of V.Holubovych shows him as the assistant of the south-western railway division (with a pay of 1500 roubles and a living allowance –375 roubles). [ Vsevolod Holubovych in Odessa, 1916]
As a young building engineer for the railway network, he initially worked as the manager of the railway division. Then in September 1917 he was the manager for the water, rail and earth networks at the Romanian front. In spring 1917, whilst working for the railway services of the Romanian front, Vsevolod Holubovych created a branch of the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party (UPSR) amongst the railway workers of the Odessa network; from thereon he was elected as the head of the Odessa Branch of this party. After his years as a student, V.Holubovych searched for answers as to how to make the world a better place. The rebellious spirit and irresistible thirst for justice, real freedom made him turn to the secret group of the social-revolutionaries and create a sincere admiration for the research works of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. The creation of ties with the pioneer of social democracy in Ukraine develops an unchanging (for his entire life) attraction to the grandness of research in the Ukrainian battle for freedom. The road, seemed simple, straight and one sided. However, this was a road of searching, a conscious choice of taking an unyielding moral humanistic position. Besides, he recognized that a socialist revolution was the most optimal movement forward for a highly organised society. V. Holubovych did not become a “rivet” of a rather powerful and influential political organization in the pre-Revolutionary period – UPSR. The highlight of V.Holubovych social political activities was his election as the Head of the Odessa City Council (Duma), he then became a member of the All Russian and Ukrainian establishment, in the name of whom in April 1917 he turns to the Temporary Government of Kerensky demanding territorial autonomy for Ukraine. During the next meeting of the party Holubovych is included in the membership of the Central Committee in the UPSR and is elected as a member of the Small Council.
Vsevolod Holubovych’s fate was decided by the creation of the Ukrainian party of socialist revolutionaries, to which he became its member and later the secretary of the Central Committee. Taking an active part in the party was one of the main reasons behind him being promoted up the party ranks to a faction of the party in the Central Rada.In September 1917 Holubovych was elected as the member of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly from the 4th Hereson elections district. He was a representative from the Rada Peasantry Deputies, Ukrainian Socialist revolutionary party and the Jewish socialist party. He was a member of the first Ukrainian government – General Secretariat. During a meeting of the Small Rada on the 15th of July 1917 V.Holubovych is elected as the General Secretary of roads. However, his energies and overload of work on the Romanian front meant that he could only commence work as secretary in October. During the critical period of the break down of the Central Rada, Holubovych was the head of the Ukrainian government; he always remained on the cutting edge of resolving general Ukrainian issues. He continuously led the way in answering the most contentious political problems; he constantly proposed his own longstanding contemplated ideas which were realistic and carried a achievable, desired aim. That is the reason why he rarely took an individual position and without fear, confronted authorities, which forced him to justify his arguments and thoughts.
Meanwhile, Alexander Kochanowsky was in Kursk at the beginning of the First World War, where his parents taught and took an active part in liberal intelligentsia. They like their friends moved towards radical societal change and therefore watched the movement of the revolutionary processes through the “rose coloured glasses” of social democracy. During meetings they would read and discuss articles and declarations within the russian language journal “Ukrainskaya Zhyzn” which was sent to them from Moscow by Symon Petliura, who was the editor of the journal at that time. Ukraine was jammed between two opposing sides: the Austro-German and the Russian it was during this time that social –democratic groups were formed. (The head of one group was Dmytro Dontsov, the head of the other Symon Petliura). They both represented Ukrainian interests and prophesized social democracy. However, they both attained their support from their own politically aligned states. During the first days of the war against Russian tsarism, Symon Petliura published an article in which there was apacifistsplea requesting Ukrainians to fulfil their community responsibilities honestly, aiming to peacefully and without bloodshed live harmoniously. In response to this Zina Kochanowsky wrote in her diary: “Nationalists cannot be beaten, like a conscience: you can make it sleep for a short time, but you cannot destroy it. There is a need to create a new barrier between Russia and its ambitions a third element, which would serve as a guarantee. The war against Russia should be a war for freedom against despotism; a young nation needs to occupy Moscow tsarism”. A. Kochanowsky’s parents expressed their skepticism that Russia's victory, would lead to the unification of Halychyna and Bukovyna which would reflect true Ukrainian interests. Not surpassing that, they remained sceptical about the declaration of the social democracy of that time and would at times announce opposing points of view even after discussing them in family circles. A. Kochanowsky stressed the importance of an alliance which was a more liberal point of view. On the whole they were both blinded by a desire for positive change in societal development.
[Volodymyr Kochanowsky teaching at a school in Kursk (1918)]Symon Petliura was a good acquaintance of the Kochanowsky family; he became acquainted with them during the wedding of Vsevolod Holubovych and the Kiev gymnast Tetiana Kardinalowska (the daughter of the Czarist general who was killed during the war). The wedding took place in the church of the Kyiv Cadet School. Petliura sensed that Holubovych was a person of great scope, who was capable of creating great deeds. He moved A. Kochanowsky’s mother with his oratory skills and his ability to carry the wedding with great solemness and brightness. It was a marriage of convenience with both partners having no common interests. Ivan Nemolovsky saw the wedding in the family of Kochanowsky as a sad union. This was evident, by the great age difference between the couple (the age difference being 13 years) as well as the differences in education levels and erudition. There were barriers such as mistrust and dissimilar interests. Tetiana was more interested in the long, boring gossip and small talk about high society. This was especially evident in political discussions, which totally sent the engaged fiance and later wife of Holubovych out of conversational circles. Within these circles she became the subject of laughter. She became used to this image and enacted the role of a jovial character. She wasn’t a part of serious conversations because she did not know how to speak in Ukrainian. Her brother Aleksey was a fanatical monarchist and was one of initiators of the newspapers “The Russian Thought” which was against the forced “Ukrainisation” of the South-western lands (that is what Russophiles called Ukraine). By marrying Tetiana Kardinalowska – the daughter of a wealthy, highly positioned military general and combining her long-lived accumulation of capital in her family, V. Holubovych used this to finance his revolutionary activities. The life experience of Vsevolod’s mother, Iryna Ovsiyivna, was a reminder for her that the young couple should ‘grind together’. She decided not to interfere in any misunderstandings between them. Instead she decided to move to Kursk and live with the Kochanowsky family with her younger daughter Tania (whose fate is not known). The only things we know are that she died in Kursk 1960's as a widow.
[Tania Holubovych with her mother Iryna Holubovych. ]
However the marriage between Tetiana and Vsevolod was not long lasting and they separated after two years. The settlement of the divorce proceedings were long and gave Vsevolod a lot of grief for many years to come. This grief led Vsevolod to immerse himself in his publications and academic work. This broken marriage didn’t eliminate Vsevolod’s sensitivities, which were preserved by his companion and wife Frida Vitichnowska. Alexander Kochanowsky met Frida in Kharkhiv once in 1924. This meeting left Alexander with a positive impression of an intelligent woman. Throughout A. Kochanowksy’s poems flows a generous, loving, sensitive, fine soul:
The snow is thrown onto the window sheet
The wind in blowing in the chimney
We got together fast
to remember the old day.
We’ll have a smoke, drink an assault,
The red blood is brutal,
Whatever happens-it not merit,
Forgetting about it is irresistible.
***
Cards, jokes, mug of pint
Like an old Cossack worth-
In an old cloak, in the pocket
A handful of tobacco we clothe.
The smoke in the tavern forms a grey ring
It hangs heavily over the table
In the oak keg
The charming friends swallow.
You can’t find them the black underside
Until the heart is bitter
Magically will come childhood
Miss spring will even adore.
A land will come with jokes, happy
Souls and mugs emptying,
In the smoke filled tavern someone is impatient with the harmony,
And someone will put the dishes missing.
The wind in blowing in the chimney
We got together fast
to remember the old day.
We’ll have a smoke, drink an assault,
The red blood is brutal,
Whatever happens-it not merit,
Forgetting about it is irresistible.
***
Cards, jokes, mug of pint
Like an old Cossack worth-
In an old cloak, in the pocket
A handful of tobacco we clothe.
The smoke in the tavern forms a grey ring
It hangs heavily over the table
In the oak keg
The charming friends swallow.
You can’t find them the black underside
Until the heart is bitter
Magically will come childhood
Miss spring will even adore.
A land will come with jokes, happy
Souls and mugs emptying,
In the smoke filled tavern someone is impatient with the harmony,
And someone will put the dishes missing.
Together with his engineering work A. Kochanowsky loved to make up a poem impromptu when getting together with friends. These poems would be in line with the conversations being held at the time. Those present would immediately understand the meanings of the poems. He did not like to explain those things, which he wrote and cherished deeply how each individual understood his poems. He wanted to see how each individual experienced life through his poetry and never imposed his own visions and thoughts. Liberalism was accepted with enthusiasm by those who enjoyed being with him. However he was a conservative Ukrainian catholic. With permission, by those present he would recite separate paraphrases of his new poem and would ask him: “Alya, what happened next?” In everything it was evident that A. Kochanowsky wasn’t one to try to publish his poems in various publications. The reasons behind this were his very high expectations of his writings. From here he showed creativity in the sentences he wrote, which portrayed the picture, which the artist created. It’s worth noting, that A. Kochanowsky’s first attempts at writing poetry were in the years before the war. His first collection of lyrical poems entitled “Printed by the Sun” was published in 1924 in Novopavlivka.
This collection of poems the author dedicated to himself “the sun, which lit my fire and the water which extinguished it”. Here are a few poems from the first collection.
[First Publication of a Poetry Collection by A. Kochanowsky]
Accidental Sonnet
Pegasus won’t run, where the “pragmatists” jog,
Pegasus won’t run, where the “pragmatists” jog,
From battle songs my voice toughened harshly,
No, not for me it is not for me that the magical sonnets ring
And not for me the lovers sing gently
For her I’ll have all the laws broken,
For her, the queen in my ideas,
So don’t run Pegasus where the pragmatists run,
I did not lose myself through the battles.
Well we are not going to have regrets with no motivation
Faraway from life is my secret corner
Who would know the secret roads of continuation?
For us the fragrances of flowers would linger
And the eyes that burn actively,
Like a lamp in twenty five candles shimmering.
Under Grey Stars
Your eyes are like a silk star,
Like stars within grey diamonds.
I am saddened, I am heavy despair,
- The salvation of talents, in your grins.
My days like rough waves,
The stars reflected in their waters.
I was on in my last challenges
My grief went to the strugglers.
We met in life accidentally,
Like two boats in rough seas,
And under the singing of the lullaby
We competed in the last efforts.
On me, from the high cliff
The dirt from rocks collapsed accidentally…
And what is it to me… from the no earthly oomph…
I’ll die under the boisterous frenzy.
**
You shook your grey eye…
I knew nothing about this,
Because in the grey sea, it the deep sea bed
Lies an expensive pearl precious
Of my first coil
This is not a mosquito in the sunset
That flew into the grey eye…
It’s in the stormy sea, which is disobedient,
Here, where I lost my liberty.
Don’t be angry grey-eyed destiny,
Though I’m the only one to blame here,
Because with despair in the grey sea
I threw away my year.
**
Grey – eyed Lady
I wanted to say a lot to you my ladyIn this blue evening, in this last night:
About the morning window so much, so greatly
I wanted to tell you this twilight.
I wanted to tell you about the burning effort,
About candles the tall like high poplars…
But for you, my star, it is not meant for you to appreciate
That, which you would like to tell us.
And I did not tell you, I did not tell you some words,
Only the wind and moon in a quiet wood,
Only the star like lamps, only the scent of flowers
I said that what I wanted to say to you
And I told your grey eyes I would be happy to tell.
How the starry world would deceive me in the break of day,
If my word in this last nightfall
You would give to mockery my wooden empathy.
My lady, I would tell you a word, my flower,
When the heart would be able to hear my word…
So now I have told it to the mountains and river
The Flowers, moon, sky and the stars scattered.
Kochanowsky worked on his poetry, even after the war years, his articles and poems were published in immigration newspapers in Germany, and later in Australia. So the presentation of A. Kochanowsky’s poetry and thoughts in this publication is not done by chance but meant to be. The real recognition of his literary contribution is still to be made. The literary inheritance of A. Kochanowsky is not restricted to poetry. A large number of additional articles, which he left to my family, have been widely published in Ukrainian and in English. He showed himself to be a good publisher, community member and a talented researcher in the engineering field. He approached the Ukrainian émigré communities about the problems surrounding the training of technically qualified workers in Ukraine. In the newspaper “Ukrainian Worker” on the 30th of January 1947, A. Kochanowsky wrote: “Songs –wonderful things, poems- fantastic things, history- a learning thing, religion – a spiritual thing, but economics and industry are needed and necessary. Maybe for you, this is seen as boring and not interesting, but in reality it is essential to:
- Create a transfer of experience from older to younger specialists.
- Create real and active organizations of Ukrainian engineers and specialists in general (there is a “Union of Ukrainian engineers”, but it is engaged, mainly on placing wreaths on the graves of Ukrainians activists and giving speeches).
- Allocate a space in newspapers for the discussion of the perspectives in the Ukrainian economy.
- Establish Ukrainian schools of energy, mining and roads.
- Highlight the work of Ukrainian students in foreign technical schools.
For many years he maintained his stance in the preparation of highly qualified workers in exile for the building of an independent Ukraine. In his article “Educating a Ukrainian Builder”, published in the newspaper “Ukrainian Worker” on the 4th February 1949 he notes, that after attaining national independence he wanted to return to Ukraine for the realisation of his plan of “dual vision” – re-educating “Ukrainians” into being Ukrainians. He saw himself returning to Ukraine. With “ one, two – three hundred conscious Ukrainians - technicians, metallurgists, metal builders, transport workers, chemists, aeronautical engineers, military personnel, economists, that are to be placed immediately into managerial positions (where the milk on their lips had not yet dried!), or at least as controllers in the main areas of industry ” [5, page 3].
Alexander Kochanowsky aimed to be one step ahead of his time, writing about ideas, which are relevant even today. He understood that in new times, the idea of preparing the builders of the Ukrainian nation would need to be set concrete programmes. The deliverance of this program would reflect a current universal acceptance of his reality. With this conclusion one knows when enough is enough. However, this is not the time to stop as this would be a discontinuation of the emotional link formed between the reader and the history of the lives of many well known, however, forgotten contemporary figures. So let’s continue this link in another place and in another time. Its time for us to research so as to continue the vision of those memoirs, which were inherited by us from the leaders and witnesses, who lived through the nationalist – liberal revolution of 1917 – 1921 to the forced post war migration, such as was the fate of the family of Kochanowsky – relatives of Vsevolod Holubovych.
Alexander Kochanowsky aimed to be one step ahead of his time, writing about ideas, which are relevant even today. He understood that in new times, the idea of preparing the builders of the Ukrainian nation would need to be set concrete programmes. The deliverance of this program would reflect a current universal acceptance of his reality. With this conclusion one knows when enough is enough. However, this is not the time to stop as this would be a discontinuation of the emotional link formed between the reader and the history of the lives of many well known, however, forgotten contemporary figures. So let’s continue this link in another place and in another time. Its time for us to research so as to continue the vision of those memoirs, which were inherited by us from the leaders and witnesses, who lived through the nationalist – liberal revolution of 1917 – 1921 to the forced post war migration, such as was the fate of the family of Kochanowsky – relatives of Vsevolod Holubovych.
Literature:
SBS Radio about V.Holubovych
http://www20.sbs.com.au/podcasting/index.php?action=feeddetails&feedid=32&id=22110
Kyiv Institute of Ukrainian Studies
- Hrushevsky, M “History of Ukrainian Rus ” Vol. 8 p.6
- “Engineers –Ukrainians in the Diaspora”, (published in Ontario 1992, p.107)
- Krylach, C. “From Kyiv to Poltava in 1918” // Calendar “Dnipro”-Lviv, 1929, p.74.
- Kochanowsky, A “Talent and Work”, published in the newspaper “Ranok”, 9 July 1949, p.9.
- Kochanowsky, an “Educating Ukrainian Builders”, published in the newspaper “Ukrainian Worker”, 4 February 1949, p.2.
- Kochanowsky, A “The Origins of the Ancestors”. From the Family archives of Prudnyk, I - Sydney, 1970.
- Kochanowsky, a “Printed by the Sun”. June July 1924, Novopavlivka.
- Turchenko, F.H “Mykola Mixnowsky: Life and Word”. Kyiv, published in the newspaper “Geneza”, 2006, p. 110.
- Skortsov, D “Reverent Killing” Weekly2000,net.ua, 2007,p2.
SBS Radio about V.Holubovych
http://www20.sbs.com.au/podcasting/index.php?action=feeddetails&feedid=32&id=22110
Kyiv Institute of Ukrainian Studies
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Annotation. The article exposes political and government creation aspects in the period when Vsevolod Holubovych acting as a first legally elected Prime-Minister of Ukraine. Head of the government concerns about relocation all offices in the buildings in Kyiv. Unarmed government UNR; arrest and imprisonment of Holubovych; underground activities and dissolution of UPSR. Key words: historical achievements of the Holubovych’s government, judge falsification of the banker’s A. Dobryj case. |
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