Ukrainian Culture under Poland-Lithuania

Poland was a Catholic country and it was interested in spreading Catholic faith and culture. Many Latin (Catholic) schools were opened in Ukraine. Orthodox religion was in a deep crisis (after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453) and many Ukrainian nobles decided to switch to a more prestigious Catholic faith. Besides, switching to Catholicism opened for them great opportunities for career growth. Polish culture was much more developed than Ukrainian culture as it was part of European Catholic culture. Polish university at Krakow (founded in 1364) was one of the most prestigious in Europe. Polish science, art, and literature were of high European standards. No wonder wealthy Ukrainians were eager to receive education in Polish schools. A number of Ukrainians continued their study at Krakow and other prestigious European universities. Some of them became noted professors.²⁵ Polish schools gave excellent education (a language of instruction, along with Polish, was Latin and that opened the way for graduates to continue their studies in any European university), but they also polonized and catholicized Ukrainians who studied there. Those Ukrainians who returned after studying abroad also brought with them a tolerant attitude to foreign cultures. In contrast, in Russian “closed” society xenophobia (hatred of everything foreign) was quite widespread.

Not all Ukrainian nobles and wealthy burghers changed their Orthodoxy for Catholicism. They did not want Ukraine to be catholicized. With this aim of protecting Orthodox faith they established organizations called bratstva (brotherhoods) at Orthodox churches. The brotherhoods were designed after similar Protestant organizations that appeared in Central and Eastern Europe (including Poland) in the 16^th century with the aim of protecting Protestantism. Bratstva published Ukrainian religious books, financially supported Orthodox churches, monasteries and hospitals, opened schools, and tried to defend Orthodoxy and the rights of the Orthodox believers by any legal means. Their schools gave good secondary education (their curriculum was designed according to European educational standards) and soon became competitors of Polish secondary schools. Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox schools competed with each other. They constantly worked at improving their quality to attract students and thus contributed to the raising of educational level in Ukraine.

One of the most prominent Ukrainian schools of the 16^th century was the so called Slavonic-Greek-Latin Collegium,²⁶ founded by Prince Kostyantyn Ostroz’ky in Ostrih in 1576. The name signifies that three languages (Slavonic, Greek, and Latin) were taught there besides other subjects. This institution, usually known as Ostroz’ka Akademia, played an important role in the development and spreading of Ukrainian culture. One of the most famous graduates of the school was the popular Cossack hetman Petro Konashevych-Sagaidachny. There was a publishing house in Ostrih where the first Ukrainian Bible (known as the Ostrih Bible) was published in 1581 by Ivan Fedorov. Unfortunately, after the death of its founder – Prince Kostyantyn Ostroz’ky (1608), the academy decayed and was transformed, by his catholicized descendants, into a Catholic school (1620).

Another famous Ukrainian Orthodox school of advanced learning was the Kievan-Mohyla Collegium (also known as Kievan Academy), founded in Kiev by metropolitan Petro Mohyla in 1632. Its curriculum was based on European standards, so the collegium attracted a lot of students from Ukraine and other Orthodox countries. In fact, it became the only Orthodox institution of higher education in Eastern Europe which produced skilled personnel for the entire Orthodox world. Latin was a language of instruction. (It was the rule for all European universities at the time). The collegium also had its own publishing house and published books on various subjects. Despite the fact that the Kievan-Mohula Collegium’s curriculum was based on European standards of higher education the Polish government refused to grant the collegium a status of academy because of its Orthodox character. The status of academy was granted by the Russian Tsar Peter I at the request of hetman Ivan Mazepa in 1701.

In general many Ukrainian historians assess the influence of Polish culture on Ukrainian culture positively. Poland was a developed European country and through it major cultural European currents (such as the Renaissance and the Reformation) penetrated into Ukraine and stimulated its cultural development. Ukraine was turned into an ordinary Polish province and enjoyed practically the same rights as other Polish provinces. Important cities had the so-called Magdeburg law (democratic self-government and court on the basis of an elective system), which contributed to the development of civil society in Ukraine and stimulated economy. The nobility could enjoy broad political freedoms. Though Poland promoted the dominant Catholic faith it could also boast of religious tolerance: there were Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Greek Catholic (a mixture of Catholic and Orthodox), and Armenian churches, as well as Jewish synagogues.

In contrast to Ukraine, Russia at the time was a backward and closed society with a very limited number of educated people and without secondary schools at all, to say nothing of universities.

Some historians however evaluate the Polish rule negatively. They place much emphasis on Poland’s attempts to eradicate Ukrainian culture and religion, which brought about many uprisings that eventually separated Eastern Ukraine from Poland. According to these historians Polish rule was destructive to Ukraine compared to the Lithuanian one (which was constructive). They stress that Poland tried to turn Ukraine into an ordinary Polish province by means of catholization and polonization. Thus, Ukrainian culture and uniqueness was under serious threat.

All in all we can assume that Polish rule had two sides: 1) it brought European culture and civilization to Ukraine; 2) it started denationalization of Ukraine by means of catholization and polonization.

An important role in Ukrainian history of the Polish-Lithuanian period played the Jews. At the end of the 15^th century Jews were expulsed from Spain, Portugal, most of Germany. Jews were also persecuted in England, Bohemia (Czechia), Hungary, and other European lands. This persecution forced the Jews to move into Poland and Lithuania on a mass scale. The Rzeczpospolita became an important centre of Jewish cultural and economic life. Nobles usually leased (rented) their estates to Jews for a certain amount of money. Jews could keep all the money they got above the amount they owed to the nobles. This leasing system encouraged Jews to squeeze from peasants as much as possible. Not surprisingly, Jews became symbols of oppression and exploitation in the eyes of the Ukrainian peasant masses and suffered a lot during peasant revolts. Besides leasing, the Jews were also engaged in various financial activities and thus stimulated the development of commerce in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.