Authors

Discussion

This paper deals with the idea of the Cumans’ memory loss in the 1100s and its influence on Ukrainian identity in the late 1800s – 1900s. By the year 1201(1205) Halician-Volynian chronicle begins with gloryfing Roman, the grand kniaz' of Kyiv, Halych and Volhynia (1199-1205). In this episode he is compared to his ancestor Volodymyr II Monomakh (1053-1125), the grand kniaz’ of Kyiv, and especially to his successful military campaigns against the Polovtsians, also known as the Cumans. Kniaz’ Monomakh is described as the one who forced the Polovtsians and their khan Otrok to migrate across the Iron Gate, to the‘Obezy Land’ (Kingdom of Georgia). They lost their memory there. However, following specific rituals, singer Or managed to revive khan Otrok’s memory. The Polovsian legend reappears in the 1800s. It was reinterpreted by Ukrainian authors such as Ivan Franko (1856-1916), Mykola Voronyi (1871-1938), Leonid Mosends (1897-1948), and Olexandr Oles' (1878-1944). 

Firstly, the episode about Polovtsians’ memory loss from the Halician-Volynian chronicle will be analyzed according to the Memory Theory. Secondly, this Polovtsian song, integrated in the medieval Rus’ chronicle,  will be studied as an integral part of Rus’-Polovtsian relations in the late 1090s-early 1100s in broader European context.

Finally, the same historical episode about Polovtsian memory loss became popular among Ukrainian intellectuals in the 1800s. They rediscovered events from the 1100s in their work. The story resonated with the Ukrainian national renaissance in the 1800s and with the formation process of Ukraininan identity at the time. The role of its impact on the process in the 1800s-1900s will be carried out in the context of the turbulent 1800s-1900s.