Завдання № 1

Read and translate orally the chapters of the book on Ukraine: “The Battle of Poltava”, “Haidamaka Uprising”. Write out the meanings of the following words from the dictionary and memorize them:

to abolish

to advance

to defend

to capture

to relieve

to surrender

to exile

defeat

retreat

rebellion

oppression

estate

serfdom

shelter

revolt

failure

abuse

harsh

precarious

petty

Завдання № 2

Match the years with the events, as shown below, and translate each sentence in a written form:

1700 – The Great Northern War began.

1709 –

1721 –

1734 –

1750 –

1768 –

Завдання № 3

Put the verbs in brackets into Past Simple, Present Perfect or Past Perfect (Active or Passive):

1. By that time the situation of the Swedish army in Ukraine (to become) precarious.

2. The Great Northern War (to finish) in 1721.

3. The haidamakas (to capture) already several towns.

4. The Museum of the History of the Battle of Poltava (to open) before the end of the 20^th century.

5. The haidamakas and their uprisings (to preserve) in the collective memory in the form of legends and folksongs.

Завдання № 4

Answer the following questions on the text:

1. When did the battle of Poltava take place?

2. Why did I. Mazepa begin secret negotiations with the king of Sweden?

3. Why did the situation of the Swedish army in Ukraine become precarious in 1708?

4. Why did Charles decide to capture Poltava?

5. Whom was Poltava defended by?

6. When were the Swedes routed?

7. What was the position of the Swedish 16,000 army after Charles, Mazepa and Hordiyenko with 3,000 Swedes and Cossacks had fled into Turkish-occupied territory?

8. What caused eighteenth century Haidamaka uprising in Right Bank Ukraine?

9. What was the largest and the bloodiest uprising in Ukraine?

10. How have Haidamaka and their uprisings been preserved in the collective memory of the Ukrainians?

Завдання № 5

Translate in written form marked in the text passages:

The Battle of Poltava

The Battle of Poltava is the turning point in the Great Northern War (1700-21) between Sweden and Russia. When Hetman I. Mazepa learned that Tzar Peter I intended to abolish the autonomy of the Hetmanate, he began secret negotiations with Charles XII of Sweden. After the main Swedish army entered Ukraine, Mazepa openly sided with Charles against Peter.

Because of the harsh winter of 1708-9 and series of military defeats the situation of the Swedish army in Ukraine became precarious. The assistance Charles expected from Turkey and the Crimean Khanate did not materialize. Charles's only success at that time was enlisting the support of Otamari K. Hordiienko and his army of 8,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks in April 1709. Semiencircled by the Russians, Charles chose to advance to the Vorskla River and thence on to Moscow via Kharkiv and Kursk. Several fortified cities on the way encumbered Charles's advance. One such city was Poltava. It was defended by a garnison of 4,300 Russian soldiers and 2,600 Ukrainian volunteers commanded by Gen A. Kelin.

In early May 1709 Charles decided to capture Poltava. Having failed to take it by storm, he besieged and bombarded the hungry city. Peter arrived to relieve Poltava and decided his army of 42,500 soldiers and 102 cannons would attack the Swedes on 10 July. Cossack forces loyal to Peter under the command of Hetman I. Skoropadsky cut off possible Swedish retreat to the Dnieper between Pereiaslav and Kremenchuk. Charles had 31,000 men but only 4 cannons. Mazepa's small force was held in reserve to protect the Swedish western flank and ensure that Kelin would not attack from the fortress.

When Charles learned, during the night of 7 July, that a Kalmyk army of 40,000 would arrive to reinforce the Russians in two days, he decided to act first and destroy the Russian encampment in a lightning blow. At 5 AM on 8 July the Swedish infantry advanced on Russian positions but was repelled by cavalry. The Swedish cavalry-was forced to retreat under heavy fire. The Swedish infantry attacked once more and captured two Russian redoubts, but fail to hold them. Prince A. Menshikov's troops encircled them and inflicted heavy casualties. Panic ensured in their ranks, but they managed to retreat into the nearby Budyshcha forest.

At around 9 AM Peter and Charles ordered their troops to advance. Intense Russian artillery fire again created chaos in the Swedish ranks. By 11 AM the Swedes had been routed. Over 9,300 died, and nearly 2,900 were taken prisoner. The Russian army suffered 1,345 dead and 3,290 wounded. Charles, Mazepa, and Hordiienko and a contingent of 3,000 Swedes and Cossacks crossed the Dnieper and fled into Turkish-occupied territory. The army of 16,000 was forced to capitulate and surrender to Menshikov. According to the fifth provision of the capitulation agreement Cossacks under Swedish command were handed over to the Russians. Most of them were executed on the spot, and the rest were exiled to Siberia.

The Battle of Poltava resulted in Russian military rule in the Hetmanate and increasing curtailment of its autonomy. The Museum of the History of the Battle of Poltava was opened at the battle site in 1950.

Haidamaka Uprisings

Haidamaka uprising (Haidamachchyna). Eighteenth-century popular rebellions against the social, national, and religious oppression of the Polish regime in Right-Bank Ukraine.

As the abuse of power by Polish magnates and nobles and their Jewish stewards in Ukraine increased, disaffection among the common people grew; serfs, other peasants, impoverished Cossacks, artisans, petty burghers, and agricultural colonists fled from their oppressors into the steppes or forests. There they formed bands of haidamakas, which moved swiftly from one area to another to attack their unwary enemy and disappeared again into the wilds. Zaporizhian Cossacks played leading roles as organizers of the rebel bands, which plundered and burned towns and nobles' estates, killing Roman Catholic and Uniate clerics, nobles and their agents, Jewish stewards, innkeepers, and money lenders. The Poles reacted by further repressing the peasantry. Haidamakas who were captured were tortured and cruelly executed. Yet the haidamakas' call for a free land, for the abolition of serfdom, and for the free exercise of the Orthodox faith found sympathy among the peasantry and many Orthodox monks, who often provided them with shelters, supplies, and hiding places.

The first general insurrection broke out in 1734 during the war for the Polish throne after the death of Augustus II. The haidamakas captured several towns, including Vinnytsia, Brody, and Zbarazh, and penetrated as far as Kamianets-Podilskyi and Lviv. The uprising was crushed by the intervention of Russian troops.The second major uprising broke out in 1750. Having organized themselves on the territory of the Zaporizhian Cossacks, the haidamakas captured Uman, Vinnytsia, Chygyryn, and other towns before uprising was suppressed by the Polish forces. Failure of the revolt can be attributed to the lack of co-ordination among the various haidamaka detachments, of a general plan of action, and of a common leader.

The largest and bloodiest, haidamaka uprising, known as the Koliivshchyna, broke out in 1768 in the Kyiv and Bratslav regions and spread to Podilia, Volhynia, and even Subcarpathia. The main leaders of the uprising were the Zaporizhian Cossack M. Zalizniak and the captain of the Uman Cossack militia, I. Gonta. Many towns were captured by the rebels, and their Polish and Jewish inhabitants were slaughtered. The Poles managed to crush the uprising only with the help of Russian troops.

After 1768 haidamaka uprising in Right-Bank Ukraine declined. Such later revolts as that led by U. Karmaliuk, however, were not unlike the earlier ones. The haidamakas and their uprisings have been preserved in the collective memory in the form of legends and folksongs.

ВАРІАНТ № 8