To the 130th anniversary of the encyclopedist Evgeny Onatsky

"The encyclopedia is a symbolic sign of a nation's presence in the world,

affirmation of her self-sufficiency and self-understanding..."

У січні 2024 Dr.. виповнилося 130 years since the birthday of Yevhen Dometiyovych Onatsky - the encyclopedist, researcher of Ukrainian culture, member of the Central Rada, representative of the OUN in Italy, editor of many foreign Ukrainian magazines. The figure of Yevhen Onatskyi is one of the most interesting in the group of the Ukrainian diaspora of the first half of the 20th century., and his scholarly activity is a bright layer of domestic diasporic Ukrainian studies. Along with that, Professor Onatsky remains an enigma for many of his compatriots. For a long time, his works were unavailable on the territory of Ukraine, books are published very sporadically and in small editions, and scientific activity has not yet been properly updated.

Yevhen Dometiyovych was born 1 (13 January) 1894 Dr.. in the city of Glukhov, Chernihiv province. The Onatski family came from the Poltava Cossacks. The boy's father is Domentii Hryhorovych (Sun. 1865 Dr.. on the Khomenkivskyi Cossack farm near the village of Birky, Hadiac district, Poltava province) - Ukrainian historian, краєзнавець, educator. Do 1886 Dr.. graduated from the Glukhiv Teacher's Institute. He worked as a teacher at the city school of Fedor Tereshchenko. In Glukhiv, Dometii Onatskyi married Tetyana Ivanovna Sysoenko, who came from a family of wealthy Gluhiv burghers. Two sons were born in the family - Oleksandr (1889 р.н.) and Eugene (1894 р.н.). Do 1904 Dr.. Dometii Onatsky was promoted and moved with his family to Kamianets-Podilskyi to the position of head of the city two-class school and history teacher. In August 1905 Dr.. the sons entered the local gymnasium - Oleksandr to the sixth grade, Eugene to the second.

Yevhen Onatsky wrote in his memoirs: "My father was a Ukrainian Nikodym and a loyal employee: knew Ukrainian history well, loved everything Ukrainian and felt like a Ukrainian, but he carefully hid his Ukrainianness from prying eyes". Dometii Onatsky had considerable achievements in local history research. Published in the magazine “Kiev Antiquity” and the newspaper “Kyiv Responses”. Agreed 1894 Dr.. and published a geography textbook with an appendix of three maps in Kyiv. 1913 Dr.. in Kyiv published the brochure "Podoliya: Brief historical sketch with points, historically important", addressed to a wide range of readers, who were interested in the past of Podillia.

Влітку 1915 р., during the First World War, under the threat of an Austrian offensive, the school was evacuated. The evacuation did not last long, however, after the school returned to Kamianets, the family left for Kyiv. Dometii Onatsky began to teach at the Glukhiv Teachers' Institute, of which he was a graduate. 1917 Dr.. he published several issues of the Ukrainian magazine in Glukhiv (the name of the publication has not been established). Yevhen Onatsky wrote a report from the All-Ukrainian National Congress for this magazine, which took place in April 1917 Dr.. In Kiev. From January 1919 Dr.. D. Onatskyi served as the librarian of the Kyiv City Historical Museum (now the National Art Museum of Ukraine). Died 1921 Dr.. from hunger in the village of Tripillia (now Obukhiv district, Kyiv region), where he is buried.

Love for the Ukrainian word will be in the family above all else. Over the years, Onatsky Jr. inherited his father's love for everything Ukrainian. Evgeny Domentiyovych after graduating from 1912 Dr.. Kamianets-Podilskyi Gymnasium with a silver medal, went to Kyiv and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the University of St. Vladimir. During his studies, he was a member of the Scientific Society named after. Т. Shevchenko, took an active part in social work in 1917–1918. became a leading member of the united leadership of all higher schools of Kyiv - the Main Student Council. 1917 Dr.. also joined the Ukrainian Central Council as a representative of Ukrainian students and was soon appointed to its Secretariat. Yevhen Onatsky took an active part in the All-Ukrainian National Congress, which was convened by the Central Council in Kyiv 17-24 April 1917 Dr.. Already at the age of 23, he started diplomatic work: on behalf of the leaders of the Ukrainian SSR, he went to the Don and the Kuban to negotiate an alliance with the Cossack governments. Subsequently, he participated in the development of IV Universal, signed the laws of the UNR government. У березні 1918 Dr.. Onatsky temporarily retired from political activity, but already 1919 Dr.. was part of the UNR government delegation at the Peace Conference in Paris, head of the press bureau at the UNR diplomatic mission in Rome.

After the defeat of the liberation movement, Onatsky and his wife moved to Rome, where he headed the press office of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission and edited its magazine "La voce del Ukraina". In the interwar period Yevhen Onatsky collaborated with the Ukrainian periodicals "Building the Nation" (being a leading employee of this main theoretical body of the OUN), "New Call", "New way", edited the "Voice of Ukraine" newsletter, was a correspondent of "Dilo" magazines, "Freedom", "New Time", "Ukrainian Voice" and others. 1929 Dr.. Onatsky, getting to know the Head of the OUN Branch, Colonel Yevhen Konovalts, became one of his closest employees and advisers and soon became a representative of the OUN in Italy. From that time Onatsky (pseudonyms "Dometenko", "Winemaker", "Ital", "Taras") becomes a permanent employee of the nationalist magazine "Building the Nation", which was published in Prague by Mykola Sciborskyi and Volodymyr Martynets. Від 1929 Dr.. one of the leading figures of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, member of the Parade of Ukrainian Nationalists. Employee of periodicals of the USA and Canada.

At first he lived in Switzerland, then moved to Rome, where he lived 28 years. There, Onatsky studied at the Rome Higher School of Economic and Political Sciences and defended his doctoral thesis. Do 1930-1940 рр. Onatsky worked as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature at the Naples Higher Oriental Institute, was a professor at the University of Rome. At the same time, he wrote the manual "Ukrainian theoretical and practical grammar for Italians" and "Ukrainian-Italian dictionary".

Because of his anti-Hitler articles in European publications, Onatsky was arrested in Rome. He was initially held in the Italian prison "Regina Cheli", and then in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, where there were many Ukrainian political figures. In the concentration camp, he had the opportunity to communicate with Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsk.

Professor of the Higher Oriental Institute in Naples and the University of Rome La Sapienza. Active member of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Historical Society.

In 1947 Yevhen Onatsky emigrated to Buenos Aires. There he got a job in the editorial office of the weekly "Nash klych" and the monthly "Dzvin". Within a few years, he was elected the head of the Ukrainian Central Representation - the Ukrainian coordination center. It was here that Yevhen Domentiyovych published a huge work - the "Ukrainian Small Encyclopedia". Вона складається з 8 томів (16 книжок). Due to the deterioration of his health, Yevhen Onatsky left public activities. 27 In October 1979, Yevhen Domentiyovych passed away. He had 85 years. A prominent Ukrainian was buried at the La Chacarita cemetery. In 1986, a Ukrainian cemetery was established in Monte Grande, soon Onatskyi and his wife were reburied in this largest Ukrainian cemetery in Argentina.

The professor's scientific heritage is preserved in London museums, at the Library of Congress (Washington) and the New York Public Library. There are streets in Chernihiv and Hlukhiv, named after him.

Hardly almost 70 років тому, starting in distant Buenos Aires to print the first book of a multi-volume encyclopedia, its author Yevhen Onatsky and publisher Fr. Boris Ariychuk hoped for a long fate and a future reissue already in Ukraine this, beyond any doubt, a unique creation of the Ukrainian encyclopedist. However, the project was successfully completed in 10 years. "UME" first gained recognition among the Western Ukrainian diaspora, and after Ukraine gained its independence, it was compiled in the Motherland as well.

Do 2016-2018 рр. two volumes of the updated four-volume edition of Yevhen Onatsky's Ukrainian Small Encyclopedia were published in Kyiv University Publishing House "Pulsary". The inspiration behind the reprint, compiler and scientific editor, and also the author of the foreword to the publication was a well-known modern Ukrainian scientist-encyclopedist, Unfortunately, the late Doctor of Historical Sciences Serhiy Bilokin.

In a concise preface to his work, Yevhen Onatsky wrote: "... my Encyclopedia is characterized by its subjective nature - there is nothing dogmatic in it, I do not impose my views on anyone in it, but still I pay as much attention as possible to that, to approach the treated topics from the point of view of Christian ethics, while presenting many slogans from social psychology, philosophy, religion and history of the Church, which were not treated at all in the previous two Encyclopedias. […] I did not intend to discuss all my topics exhaustively: wanting to give the reader more than just a useful textbook, in which he could find the most necessary data […], and an interesting book to read, that would stimulate his thoughts and encourage him to independently delve into the discussed topics , I deliberately avoided an exhaustive discussion of all the meanings of one or another interpreted slogan, limited to those, which seemed to me to be more essential for understanding Ukrainian spirituality or for emphasizing some more important for Ukrainians ethical, psychological or philosophical moment".

By its content (with a certain degree of convention, звичайно) all passwords are possible share on ethnological articles (in the broadest sense), materials for the history of the Christian church (biblical heroes and plots, religious holidays), biographical data about significant figures of Ukrainian history and information about foreigners, who in one way or another served Ukraine. Regarding the last two positions, that is. Onatsky issued a warning:

"In my Encyclopedia, relatively little space is devoted to the biographies of various of our politicians, cultural and public figures. ...I discuss the biographies of only those people from our history of the past (I will not bother contemporaries at all), that have already gained some symbolic meaning and that their life has little in itself ethical moments, worth defining, - in a positive or negative direction. An exception is made only for foreigners: I carefully wrote down all of them, who somehow showed this or that interest in Ukraine".

Many readers lacked just biography, but we must respect the author's right, who did not want to create a "biographical dictionary". Let's note, that in this area of ​​Ukrainian humanitarian studies E. Onatsky had brilliant achievements (it is worth mentioning only his "Portraits in profile") and considerable experience of practical work. Hence some of his biographical essays, which were included in the first volume can be considered a model: these are slogans about L. Глібова, M. Gogol, о. A. Honcharenko, B. Hrinchenko, M. Hrushevskoho, M. Drahomanova, С. Efremov. The same can be attributed to the sometimes sprawling, sometimes concise, but the proverbial slogans about "anti-heroes" - I. Bryukhovetskyi, Ekaterina Dru, Maxim Gorky, Fedora Gladkova. Russian Soviet writers interested Ye. Onatsky with his distinctly anti-Ukrainian instructions and dignified rebuff, that they were given B. Antonenko-Davydovych and V. Vynnychenko. Indeed, how convincing and relevant E's conclusion sounds today. Onatskoho: "From Patriarch Joachim to Gladkov - through Valuev - one simple line of Moscow chauvinism and imperialism".

We should also note peculiarity of putting together slogans Є. Onatsky: these are constant calls for Ukrainian authors, inputting their thoughts, ideas, catchphrases, more or less lengthy quotations into the fabric of an encyclopedic article. This approach gives texts an individual sound, strengthens their expressiveness and national character, зрештою, increases the presence of luminaries of Ukrainian culture in the encyclopedia, makes them co-authors of the compiler.

On the pages of the encyclopedia E. Onatsky paid a lot of attention local Chernihiv history and persons, which are related to Chernihiv Oblast birth and/or activity. In general, "UME" contains one hundred and twenty two biograms about prominent figures of the Chernihiv-Siver region. Conventionally, they can be divided into groups: essays about representatives of power structures, spiritual hierarchs, prominent representatives of the national movement, science and culture. The principle of selecting surnames reflects the author's goal - not so much to carefully reproduce the life path of this or that figure, so much to show the reader examples of life strategy on the basis of specific biographies, which aimed at selfless service to the native people and the country.

The Old Russian Age is represented by articles about Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, founder of the Chernihiv princely dynasty, connoisseur of books and builder of God's temples; a story about a brave warrior, who defended his land from foreigners, the hero of the famous literary work of Igor Svyatoslavych, and also his son Roman Igorevich, who tried at the beginning of the 13th century. defeat the Galician boyars and unite the scattered southern Russian lands under the wing of the Chernihiv Olhovychs. We also find here the names of the founder of monasticism, Antony Pechersky, a native of Lyubech; prince-monk Mykola Svyatoshi, who, to the surprise of his relatives, renounced all positions and material goods and, going to the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, chose one of the most difficult and ascetic Christian feats - asceticism. The famous hero of fairy tales and fairy tales is also mentioned, hero Ilya Muravlin (of Muromsky), that at the end of his full courage and chivalry journey, he became an ascetic-monk of the same monastery and lived in the cave of. Anthony and Danylo, the abbot of one of the local monasteries, which at the beginning of the 12th century, having made a journey to distant Jerusalem, prayed fervently in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for his native land, begging for peace and intercession for her.

Among the heads of regimental and hundred governments, the figures of the commanding hetman are highlighted, the authoritative Chernihiv colonel and fighter for the freedom of his native land Pavlo Polubotko; supporter for Ukraine and associate P. Doroshenka of the "Northern Hetman" Demyan Ignatovich (Many-sinful); of Starodub Colonel Mykhailo Myklashevskyi, that 1703 Dr.. personally conducted negotiations with Lithuanian magnates on the creation of a federation from Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania; the Zolotarenk brothers, whose policy was clearly anti-Moscow and Serdyut Colonel Dmytro Chechel – the hero of Baturin’s defense 1708 Dr.. quartered in Glukhiv.

It was not by chance that the first Chernihiv bishop of the first half of the 17th century was chosen from the representatives of the Chernihiv clergy. ascetic Isaiah Kopinsky; archimandrite of the Novgorod-Siversky Transfiguration Monastery, the rector of the local seminary, Varlaam Shischatskyi, who, being the archbishop of Mogilev, swearing allegiance to Napoleon, wishing for his victory over Muscovite and for this he was sentenced to life imprisonment; a famous polemicist and preacher, scientist, who reached the heights of education of the then Archimandrite of the Chernihiv Yeletsky Monastery Ioanikiy Galyatovskyi.

The Chernihiv dimension of the national liberation movement of the late 18th and early 20th centuries is widely presented. by the names of members of the Novgorod-Siver group of autonomists V. Cappnist, T. Poletics, T. Dolynsky, О. Lobysevych and activists of the community movement S. The nose, О. Konyskyi, In. Self-made, B. Hrinchenko, And. Шрага, representatives of Kulish families, Kotsyubinsky and Rusovy, up to the author of the first independence program of Ukraine, Mykola Mikhnovskyi, and the poet-fighter, who laid down his head for the will of the Motherland Hryhoriy Chuprinka.

Materials on the contribution of Ukrainians to the world and national treasury of culture are presented with particular pride. The reader, без сумніву, should be interested in essays about the little-known hieromonk of the Chernihiv monastery Tarasius Kaplonskyi, who was the first Ukrainian, який у 1697 Dr.. made a trip to the Italian city of Bar to worship the relics of St. Mykola and described in detail the European cities of that time; Ukrainian scientist of the 17th century., student of the university in Yevgeny, military engineer and author of the construction projects of the Trinity Cathedrals in Chernihiv and Baturin, Adam Zernikav; two Gluhiv residents: the first Ukrainian composer, pupil of the Bologna Academy, the author of the first Ukrainian opera Maksym Berezovsky and the greatest Ukrainian spiritual composer of world fame Dmytro Bortnyanskyi.

Attention is paid to individuals, whose contribution to the cultural process is an example of tireless work on oneself in order to reach the heights of creativity and professionalism. The author draws the attention of the readers to the remarkable work of the outstanding Ukrainian engraver, Archimandrite of the Krupytskyi Baturyn monastery, Ivan Migura, an unforgettable Ukrainian biker, the singer of wisdom and sincerity of his people, Leonid Hlibov, the great writer Mykola Gogol, whose writings "significantly influenced the national consciousness of the Ukrainian Russian intelligentsia"; the founder of Ukrainian impressionism in literature, Mykhailo Kotsyubynskyi; prominent Ukrainian writer, an unsurpassed translator of world-famous poets into Ukrainian, subtle literary critic, destroyed in the prime of his creative powers by Moscow chauvinists Mykola Zerov.

Essays on figures of the first half of the 20th century are valuable., whose names are forgotten by contemporaries. So, the author names two representatives of the higher clergy of the UAOC in Chernihiv Oblast: bishops of Ivan Pavlovsky (after,,uk,No. I-481,,ru,Toy-свистык "Цап",,uk 1921 р.) and Hryhorii Mozolevskii (1924 р.), who were the leaders of the UAPC and served in the Borysoglib Cathedral and were destroyed by the Soviet totalitarian regime for their religious beliefs 1936 р.. Provides unique information about the fruitful activity in the field of spreading the network of parishes of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church in Chernihiv Oblast in the second half of the 20s. ХХ ст. protodeacon from Sosnychchyna Vasyl Potienko, which during 1924–1936. headed the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Council.

Moreover, ten essays about the cities of Chernihiv-Sivershchyna were submitted in "UME".: Chernihiv, Любеч, Novgorod-Siversky and Oster in the context of significant influence on the historical development of the Left Bank, starting from the Old Russian era; Baturyn and Glukhiv are the capitals of the Hetman region; Konotop in the context of the victorious battle I. Vyhovsky 1659 Dr.. against the Moscow army, what happened according to the apt expression of E. Onatsky's "brilliant denial of Pereyaslav". Essay on the Srybnyan conflict - as an example of the inhuman cruelty of the Moscow army led by Sheremetyev against the peaceful Ukrainian population, about the Kruty station - as a symbol of the indomitable Ukrainian spirit.

So today we can rightfully say: the importance of UME is enormous, with, actually, through this kind of scientific production, Ukraine is regaining its right to independence and separateness, in a hard struggle wins a place in the family of European nations.

Senior Research Fellow,

candidate of historical sciences Olga Heyda