Text 6. Lutsk, Ukraine: Host to the First European Summit

By Serhiy KHARCHENKO

You didn’t know about this? Then read this excursion into history. The Iraq crisis and the European leaders’ endless summits related with it have reminded me about one important event for Ukraine. The records about this event are preserved only in the archives and in some few written information sources that are already almost 575 years old.

The congress of monarchs -the first in European history took place in 1429 in the city of Lutsk, Western Ukraine the Ukrainian capital of the Lithuanian-Ukrainian princedom at that time.

But why in Ukraine, one would ask? First of all, despite the skepticism of official Russian historiography, Europeans from the 14^th century perceived Ukrainians as full members of the community of the former. Second, at that time Ukraine bordered on a threatening Asia and, therefore, Ukraine was the most interested party in neutralizing the danger.

Thus, in January 1429 almost 10,000 guests gathered in Lutsk: monarchs, the political elite and state advisors. A German emperor, the kings of Poland, Spain, Denmark, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the Grand Master of the Livonian Order, Lithuanian-Ukrainian prince Vitold as well as Moscow prince Vasiliy the Second all took part in the congress. Only the French and British kings were absent from the summit – at that time France and England were entangled in the wasting Hundred Years’ War between each other.

And at the same time there was also another war going on in the Southern region of the Christian world. The war was against the most dangerous enemy of the European civilization – Turkish invaders. The resistance of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Croats, Greeks, and volunteers among the Italians, Poles. Ukrainians had not resulted in elimination of the Muslim threat at that time. The Balkans were flooded with blood. The capital of the Byzantium empire – Constantinopole – was soon about to fail under the attacks of the invaders from Asia and later would be renamed Istanbul – capital of Ottoman sultans.

Let’s imagine for ourselves, what emotions the participants spoke at the summit in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk. Most likely, one didn’t write minutes in the Middle Ages epoch and so we can’t read the political deliverances of the speakers. Only the final result of the discussions is known: discords, myopic selfish interests won during the participants’ estimation of the danger. And this meant that the European monarchs chose to fight «the common enemy» independently rather than as a unified force. Constantinopole, the Balkans as well as Ukraine were doomed.

Unlike the Balkan peoples, the Ukrainian ethnos, deprived of its own statehood, easily fell prey to the cavalry of the Crimean khan – a vassal of the Turkish Empire. Raids by the Crimean Tatars were totally devastating. Cities and villages burned down; thousands of Ukrainians were made slaves.

And then a phenomenal thing happened: in the middle of the 16^th century the Ukrainian people created – «from the lower part of the society» – its own armed forces from the number that became known as Cossacks. Having built their own fortress beyond the forbidding obstacles – «porohy» (in Ukrainian – rocks on the bottom of a river that make it impossible for a ship to pass) – on the Dnipro River, these free people assumed the function of defenders of the population. That is why Cossacks were called «Zaporozhtsi»–that is, those who live beyond «porohy».

In loss than a hundred years the army of Zaporizki Cossacks turned into one of the best armies in Europe. Cossacks made successful campaigns against the Crimean khanate. Cossacks stormed Turkish fortresses; Cossack light boats ran foul of Turkish multi-decker frigates. Cossack ships were even appearing near the walls of Istanbul. Except for the Cossacks, no one could dare to do this.

The Turkish invasion was expanding more and more in Europe. At the beginning of the 17^th century the Ottoman Empire decided to conquer Poland, and then later to stretch its reach to the Baltic Sea. Not only were the Moscow princedom and Sweden hostile towards Poland and refused to offer help to them, Poland’s allies – the Pope and the Austrian emperor – did the same. The latter two did not per­ceive the seriousness of the forthcoming danger.

Does this fact hint at some similar events in our 21^st century?

The final battle «for Europe» took place in the autumn of 1621 near the walls of the old Khotin Fortress (the place is near the current borders of Ukraine, Romania and Moldova). Only the Ukrainian Cossacks – «bitter enemies of Poland» – fought on the side of the Poles.

A 150-thousand man Turkish army and a 60-thousand man Tatar cavalry were defeated at Khotin Fortress in a battle that lasted for 40 days. This victory became a portent of the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Later researchers of the Khotin Fortress battle would unanimously agree that an outstanding hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks, Petro Sahaidachnyi, played the major role in gaining the victory. Humankind is such that it remembers the names of all political and military criminals, but doesn’t remember to thank its saviors. Isn’t it so that the expression «History doesn’t teach anything» is always topical?

Based on the information:

monograph of D. Nalyvaiko

«Reception of Ukraine in

Western Europe», publishing

house «Osnovy», Kyiv, 1998;

Newspaper «Stolytsa»,

20.02-20

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