VolChek

Death…

That is the word that wants to stand at the beginning of this story. Because that is the word circling in Yanik’s head. He lies on the bed, his black hair scattered to the sides like rays of sunlight, and stares at the ceiling, thinking. Death… Even him, someone completely immersed in various dark things, whether gothic music or gloomy stories from the internet, that word frightened.

“M-a-r-v…,” Yanik whispered to himself syllable by syllable in Breton. And after all, marv also means “dead”... In its very essence, this word is connected to death. It comes from the Proto-Celtic word *marwos, which meant “dead,” and from there from the Proto-Indo-European word *mr̥tós, with a similar meaning.

— *marwos… — Yanik whispers in such a gloomy tone that even the flower on the windowsill withered.

Yanik’s eyes closed. And then it seemed as if the whole world disappeared around him. I wonder whether such a state can be called death? You do not feel the bed, you do not feel your breathing; before you is only darkness. And you feel nothing. Only emptiness, the absence of sensation. No pain. No sadness. Just nothing. Is that what death feels like...?

Clearly not. Because the vibration immediately jolted Yanik out of this trance. Opening his eyes, he turns toward the phone vibrating from the alarm. He picks it up and looks at the time: 02:00… 02:01… Yanik’s brain is not working at all. It is as if something is sucking it dry, preventing him from properly analyzing the world. Still, gathering his strength, he tries to rise from the bed.

Even the Moon does not light the room, being on the other side. Yanik barely, clumsily pulls on his hoodie, finds the suitcase in the dark, and lifts it to his shoulder so the wheels will not make noise. Slowly he cracks the door open and goes out into the hallway. Nearby there was an open door, where, if you looked closely through the pitch-black darkness, you could see someone sleeping. Carefully placing the suitcase on the floor, the teenager goes into their room and looks at his sleeping parents.

Disgust. Disgusting people, with disgusting thoughts, with disgusting desires. At the sight of his father’s face, both his body and his mind remember all the pain he had felt from his hands and from his words.

Letting his parents keep sleeping, Yanik begins his journey through the house. From each place he takes one thing that somehow connected him to that place. His house keys. His gift to his mother—a box of cosmetics. An old wooden figurine that he made as a child with his father. He puts all of it into a small pouch, and with that pouch in one hand and the suitcase in the other, he leaves the house.

The street was silent. The birds did not sing. People did not walk. Cars did not pass. Only the Moon, with its glow, accompanied Yanik’s soul. He took a candle and matches from the same pouch, placed them on the ground by the house, and lit the small flame. After that, Yanik faced a road through empty streets. Moonlight was interrupted by streetlamps. There was absolutely no wind; the leaves did not rustle. Yanik saw not a single living soul around him.

Suddenly he stopped. He looked at the kindergarten that stood off to the side. The walls of the building were decorated with beautiful scenes of cute bears and kittens, evoking positive emotions in everyone who saw them. But it had all been simply destroyed by graffiti in the form of swear words, obscene and provocative symbols. Someone particularly “smart” had drawn a huge swastika, either thinking it was something brilliantly funny or expressing their “views.”

Poor children… They have to live in this realm.

Marv… Make me marv, so I can rest from this world.

The path led Yanik to the forest, and from there to the river. Here he looked at the pouch with the collected things, which had all this time been in his hand. He looked at it with disgust, repulsion, anger, as well as sadness and fear at having to go through such a step. He brings the pouch to his lips and whispers:

— *ne manyetor me-kʷe mene biwotūts...

And with a swing of his hand, he throws the pouch into the river. The pouch struggles, trying to stay afloat, but its fabric gets wet and soon the pouch sinks beneath the water, finally giving off a faint glow…

Yanik continues on his way. Now he is no longer afraid of the suitcase wheels making noise, because no one will disturb him anymore. Neither birds nor beasts, as if everyone except Yanik is afraid of this place and tries to get away as far as possible. And he comes to a small depression in the forest, which had once been a road from the days of Armorica, a road people had worn down so much that it sank into the earth. And then the road was forgotten.

— Damned spirits… — muttered the sleepy Yanik, seeing that a lot of work awaited him.

He began walking all through the forest, finding here and there neat little stones of the same size. Having gathered enough of them, and along the way growling many times when a stone could not be found or turned out unsuitable, he returns to that depression, once a road. There he sets the stones in two straight lines, and between them places another lit candle. Nearby Yanik finds a rock, on which he sits. He rummages through the suitcase again and takes out a neat musical triangle with a small emblem in the shape of a ship. Taking a metal rod in his other hand, Yanik inhales, closes his eyes, and strikes the triangle, producing a clear metallic ring.

It took a long time for the triangle to fall silent. Yanik sat there, dozing, when suddenly he heard the loud rumble of a train. Taking this as the signal, he rises from the stone and prepares the suitcase. Right then, out of nowhere, directly in front of the boy’s face, a ghostly train passes by. With an impassive expression, Yanik looks through the train, seeing the trees of the forest through it. The train came out of thin air and disappeared roughly the same way.

The train gradually slows down until a single door stops in front of Yanik. That door opens, giving the boy a path into deep darkness.

— Yanik Le Goff… — a frosty wind whispers in his face, making the boy half-close his eyes.

— Present, — he answers the wind calmly in Latin.

— I sense you… Come in, — the wind whispers, and Yanik obeys, stepping into the darkness.

Inside, there was dim twilight. It made you want to sleep. The smell of the forest lingered everywhere. The train was horribly old, as if no one had updated it since the nineteenth century. Finally, he hears voices: in one of the compartments other teenagers are talking about something; judging by the discussion of exams, they were upperclassmen, and somewhere he hears children’s excited words about their first school year.

Yanik aggressively tries to find a compartment where no one is. He grabs the handle, opens it, and sees a girl staring at him in surprise. He tries the next door, and there’s some group playing cards and drinking alcohol.

— Just don’t tell anyone… — they were about to say to him, but he closes the compartment again and goes on.

About "Hoppers" by Daniel Chong

An animated film that’s delightfully quirky. It’s a real treat to watch and gives you such a positive boost that you’ll want to carry that energy through the rest of the day. But at the same time, it’s a film with one of the strangest plots ever produced by Pixar. No, really. What would you think of the film if I described this scene: “A man is driving in a car with beavers who are holding him hostage and giving him orders via Google Translate, when suddenly a flock of seagulls flies in, intent on killing the man, and to do so, they dive into the water and pull out a huge shark that is supposed to eat the man”? Exactly.

A lovely film. Not a groundbreaking masterpiece, but still thoroughly enjoyable, and one that teaches you something worthwhile.

I am writing a book. Part 2

So here I return, dear readers—if any exist. Once again with a description of my book, which I continue to work on actively. This time, I really want to develop the setting in which the character lives: Poltava region in the 1820s, within the world of Ukrainian (Slavic) mythology. These past days have been dedicated to studying Ukrainian mythology—its cosmology, pantheon, and the beings that inhabit it. And now I want to present this world to you, to show what the world looks like in the mythology of my people, and to fully construct its structure for myself.

In Ukrainian mythology, as in many Indo-European mythologies, the world is divided into three realms: the heavenly, the earthly, and the underworld. They are all bound together by the World Tree, whose leaves reach into the heavens, whose trunk stands on the earth, and whose roots are hidden in the underworld.

The heavenly world, sometimes called Vyrij or Prav, is a paradise in the form of an eternal garden, located far across the sea or on the other side of the river. There dwell the gods, bright beings, and the souls of ancestors, and it is where birds fly in winter, carrying souls on their backs. They settle on the branches of the World Tree, waiting for winter to end in the earthly world.

The earthly world, also known as Yav, is our material reality where humans live. Here, the primary battles between order and chaos take place, and it is a crucial domain for the functioning of higher powers. Humans have a special role in maintaining cosmic order through taboos, rituals, and holidays to ensure that darkness does not consume this world.

The underworld, known as Nav, is a realm hidden in the roots of the World Tree. It is the world of the dead, forgotten souls, demonic beings, fears, and death. However, it is not a dark and evil place in the Christian sense. It also grants fertility and prosperity, being an eternally green realm. Here reside various souls of the dead and unborn, including unclean spirits.

The traditional worldview of Ukrainians also personifies the Sun, viewing it as a living being—possibly the deity Dazhboh—who rides across the sky in a chariot and descends into the underworld each night. The Moon and stars were also personified. The Moon was seen as either a partner or rival of the Sun, and the stars as souls of the dead or unborn.

Cycles are vitally important in Ukrainian mythology: the daily cycle, the yearly cycle, and the life cycle. Deeply sacred were the transitional, liminal moments within these cycles. These are the moments celebrated in festivals—like solstices, the transition from winter to spring, or birth, marriage, and burial.

Many elements of the world are mythologized and given roles: the winds are the children of Striboh and can be benevolent or malicious; thunder and lightning are created by Perun, whose name could not be uttered during storms, lest one be struck; water links the world of the living and the dead; and fire is both purifying and dangerous—its presence in the home hearth embodies the family line and must be treated with respect.

Certain animals also hold an important place in cosmology: birds represent souls of the dead; the stork brings children; the cuckoo knows the length of each person's life; and the owl predicts death. Snakes live in the underworld and, being cunning, are enemies of heroes and gods. Horses act as mediators between worlds and can carry a hero to another realm; bears are guardians of the forest.

The human soul is perceived as something immaterial. When a person dies, for forty days the soul remains near relatives in the form of a bird or insect, most often as a firefly. After this period, it passes into Nav, or possibly even to Vyrij. Funeral rites are designed to ease and accelerate the soul's transition into the other world.

The world is divided into the "familiar"—such as the home, hearth, yard, or village—and the "foreign," such as the forest, fields, or other nature inhabited by mythical beings. Boundaries like thresholds, bridges, or crossroads are sacred, as they are where worlds intersect. Rituals are performed in these liminal spaces.

Which deities belong to Ukrainian mythology? Not all Slavic gods are also Ukrainian—for example, Triglav or Svetovid are not. Here is a list of gods that are part of the Ukrainian pantheon:

Perun – The supreme deity, god of thunder and lightning, as well as the patron of warriors and rulers. He embodies order and is the king of the gods. Animal sacrifices were offered to him, especially bulls. A fundamental myth involves his eternal conflict with Veles, representing the struggle between order and chaos. With Christianization, he was replaced by the prophet Elijah.

Dazhboh – God of the sun, light, and fertility. A bright deity of joy who brings blessings to people. Eastern Slavs are considered his grandchildren. He travels across the sky in a golden chariot, moving the sun through the heavens. Possibly the son of Svaroh. With Christianization, he was replaced by Jesus Christ and Saint John the Theologian.

Svaroh – The creator of the world and laws. A blacksmith god who forged the world from fire. Fire, the hearth, and forges are his symbols and manifestations in this world. He is less documented than other deities.

Veles (or Volos) – God of livestock, abundance, music, magic, poetry, trade, the underworld, and the dead. Patron of shepherds, priests, and artists. A fundamental enemy of Perun, embodying chaos. With Christianization, he became Saint Blaise.

Mokosh – A female deity, goddess of the earth, moisture, fertility, women's work, fate, and embroidery. Protector of women and children. She is the archetype of “Mother Nature,” protecting her children. Possibly Perun’s wife. With Christianization, she became Saint Paraskeva-Friday.

Striboh – The grandfather of the winds, responsible for changes in the weather.

Khors – A mysterious deity of Iranian origin, associated with the sun or the moon’s nocturnal light and its cycles.

Simargl (or Semargl) – Also a mysterious deity, responsible for the fertility of fields. Sometimes depicted as a winged dog, a messenger between gods and humans.

Lada and Lel – Mother and son associated with harmony. Lada is the goddess of love, spring, harmony, and marriage, connected with the seasonal transition to spring. Lel is her son, the god of youthful love, beauty, and joy.

Zhiva (or Zhivana) – Goddess of life, nature, and spring. She is worshipped as the giver of harvest, health, and healing.

Rod and the Rozhanytsi – Fundamental deities. Rod is the embodiment of the world itself, family, and heritage. The Rozhanytsi are his assistants—female spirits who determine the fate of a newborn child.

Dolya and Nedolya – The final deities in the Ukrainian pantheon. These are goddesses of fate: Dolya represents a good fate, while Nedolya represents a bad one.

The bestiary of Ukrainian mythology is unimaginably vast. There are many spirits of the home, forests, and other places responsible for the well-being of those areas, and they must be respected. Animals also play significant roles, each fulfilling a unique function. I don’t want to describe all these beings—it would take too long. But in the book, you can definitely expect creatures like mavka, rusalky, lisovyk, and chort. I also want to integrate the domovyk into the story somehow.

The same applies to festivals. We simply have a vast number of holidays—from famous ones like Kupala to lesser-known ones like Obzhynky. I definitely want to incorporate Malanka into the plot—a native New Year holiday that may resemble Halloween to an American reader. I also want to try adapting other holidays into the narrative.

I am incredibly happy if you paid attention to this post. This is very important to me.

At the moment, I am a film student who very much hopes for a wonderful creative future. However, anxiety still follows me, more and more often saying:

“You have no future…”

So my brain started looking for a second option—to live specifically through creativity, because I cannot imagine myself in anything other than creativity. And what other alternative could there be for a film student if not literature, haha? No, well, to be fair, some teachers actually told me that I should try writing, so here I am.

So, what’s the point? The thing is, I lack control over my creativity, and that's why I decided that I will post here the process of developing my own book, hoping to receive your support as my first audience. In this post, I would like to share the development of the idea for my book and which elements I want to include in it.

I am a huge fan of ethnography and mythology, being a pagan myself by religion. So I would like to dedicate my creativity to this particular side of my soul, immersing my reader in mythical tales, with gods, legendary lands, and creatures. Being Ukrainian (you can read about my background at this link), I decided that I want to dedicate my first book specifically to Ukrainian mythology.

In principle, in our screenwriting classes, we had the following sequence for creating a plot idea:

Theme;

Idea;

Genre.

The idea of being an outcast screams most loudly in my soul. How a character feels like an outcast in their society, a society they are supposedly supposed to be a part of. And also, throughout the whole story in the book, the question should be asked: What should outcasts do?

I already have the idea for the book. It sounds like this:

“An outcast in his village sets off in search of the imprisoned god of the dead [Veles], but he will have to challenge order itself as a concept [Perun].”

As for the genre, I characterize this story as: a fairy tale, teen, ethnic fantasy, historical.

Now let’s break down the idea of the book!

Theme: Outcastness

This theme strongly resonates in my soul. I was often an outcast in the broader community and often feel as though this very community is trying to “destroy me.” The experiences I’ve had on this topic, as well as the answers I want to give to this problem, are what I want to embody in the book. Each of the main characters who should appear in the story embodies the status of an outcast and goes through their own arc:

Tykho Yakivych Pastukh – the protagonist of the book. A boy living in a village in Poltava region in the 1820s. He is an outcast due to his spiritual difference from the villagers. His behavior, dreams, and feelings make him separate from the rest of the society that lives by its own established rules. Tykho’s main talent is his skill in folk-style drawing, which inspires admiration in a small number of people. His antagonist is the aristocrat who owns their village (this is a serf village), who embodies the world itself, changing and transforming as if specifically to destroy people like Tykho. She falls in love with Tykho’s drawing style, but imposes academic form on him, thereby embodying how the world forces such people to give up on their desires and lose their values. Tykho must find the strength to resist the world and confidently follow what he believes is right. His journey for Veles is an interpretation of escapism.

Veles – god of the dead, wild nature, cattle, trade, and wealth. The trickster archetype in Slavic mythology. He already embodies those who fight the system, disrupting its stability. Those who have accepted their role as outcasts and are proud of it, expressing this pride in full-fledged war. His conflict with Perun, king of the gods, thunderer and embodiment of order, represents his justified struggle with the system that refuses to accept him.

Veselka, Radomyl’s niece – another character, who is also a love interest for Tykho. She is a mavka, who previously lived in the 6th century in a Slavic tribe of the Kyiv culture. She has two functions: being Tykho’s love interest, she embodies the ideal partner for an outcast, creating a place of comfort and confidence in one’s life; and, being a mavka, she embodies one of the worst outcomes for an outcast—suicide. Veselka’s antagonist is herself. Her arc is one of self-acceptance and realization of her life and the actions she committed back then.

And the last character embodying the theme of outcastness – Berehynia. She already represents outcasts who are seeking ways to integrate into a society that initially does not want to accept them. Being a pre-Indo-European goddess (according to some researchers), she has no role in the Slavic pantheon. Her antagonists are various legendary beings like rusalkas or mavkas, who try to convince her that she will never become part of the pantheon. Her arc represents the outcasts who are eventually accepted by society and made a part of it.

As you can see, each character shows different types of outcasts and how these outcasts deal with this status.

Idea: An outcast in his village sets off in search of the imprisoned god of the dead [Veles], but he will have to challenge order itself as a concept [Perun].

This is already the plot idea of the book. The thing is, one of the main Slavic myths is the tale of the struggle between Veles and Perun. Veles, invading the heavenly realm, steals cattle, a wife, or treasures from Perun, for which Perun starts to chase the trickster, causing rain and storm. In this book, I imagined the scenario: what if Perun catches Veles? And not just catches him, but completely subdues him to his will, imprisoning him in a monstrous form, so that no one in the heavenly kingdom would dare feel pity for him? Of course, except for our protagonist.

The events of this book take place in the Poltava region in the 1820s, at the height of the Romantic era. Every choice was made for a reason: Ukrainian culture is based on my ethnicity, the region is based on my mother’s origin, and the era was chosen to embody the ethnic aesthetics of the people. All the events are in some way based on Ukrainian mythology and even aim to guide the reader through the mythical world of Ukrainians.

Genre: fairy tale, teen, ethnic fantasy, historical

This genre selection plays different roles in the plot:

Fairy tale as a genre immerses the reader in a fantastical world with folk motifs, whose goal is to teach something. Through the example of the characters, the reader will understand outcasts, what paths exist out of outcastness, and how to find happiness in this difficult world.

Teen, defining the book’s target audience. The protagonist is a teenager, with teenage problems that will mostly resonate with teenagers. I want to dedicate all my creativity specifically to teenagers as an age group.

Ethnic fantasy, because this is a fantasy story (due to the presence of supernatural magical elements), entirely based on folklore.

Historical, immersing the reader in a not-so-distant historical era.

In principle, that’s all I wanted to describe. In the next three posts, I think I’ll come back with information recorded after extensive research into the following three topics:

Ukrainians;

Ukrainian mythology;

Poltava region in the 1820s.

At one point, I had a very deep conversation with my paternal grandmother and grandfather. I was very interested in hearing the story of my origins: who are we? where do we come from? why are we who we are? Both with my grandmother and grandfather, we would shut ourselves in a room alone, where I listened to their stories about the past of our family names. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to speak with my maternal grandparents, as they had already been dead for about a decade.

What my paternal grandfather told me:

My grandfather’s line belonged to the Kuban Cossacks—a cultural subgroup of Cossacks descended from the Zaporizhian Cossacks from modern-day Ukraine, who settled in the Kuban region (present-day Krasnodar Krai, Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, and parts of Stavropol Krai in Russia).

At one time, the lands of modern Ukraine were under the control of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—a powerful federal parliamentary elective monarchy of Poles and Lithuanians. Back then, they were inhabited by Ruthenians—the common ancestors of modern Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Rusyns. These people were direct descendants of the people of Rus, who had effectively become servants of the Polish aristocracy. Some Ruthenians fled south to a land then known as the Wild Fields (now Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, part of Mykolaiv, the south of Kirovohrad, Poltava, Kharkiv regions, Donetsk, southern Luhansk, Rostov region, southern Belgorod, and western/southwestern Volgograd regions). Most of them were peasants escaping their masters, discontent with the Polish-Lithuanian rule that imposed Polish culture and Catholicism—or simply adventurers seeking a free life. Thus, the Cossacks were born.

The Cossacks were the free population of the Wild Fields. Their name comes from Turkish and means “free warriors.” They formed an entirely autonomous society that didn't care at all about the commands of the Commonwealth. They pursued their own politics, centered on the Zaporizhian Sich, which existed as a Cossack republic. They fought their own wars and made their own alliances, serving both as a powerful weapon in the hands of the Poles and Lithuanians, thanks to their strength and fearlessness, and as their greatest obstacle—often sabotaging the Commonwealth’s efforts to control them.

At one point, a charismatic leader emerged among the Cossacks—Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Dissatisfied with the Commonwealth’s rule, he led a massive and successful Cossack uprising, which resulted in the creation of the Cossack Hetmanate—an elective military monarchy that became the first independent Cossack state. Unfortunately, it was destined for a grim fate, ending in its full annexation by the Russian Empire. The Russians had no need for “free warriors,” so they destroyed the Zaporizhian Sich, scattering the Cossacks.

Of particular importance to this story are those Zaporizhian Cossacks who later became known as the Black Sea Cossacks. They lived along the Black Sea coast, trying to maintain their traditions. Russian Empress Catherine II saw their usefulness to Russian imperialism and forced the Black Sea Cossacks to relocate to the North Caucasus. At that time, Russia was waging a bloody war against the peoples of the North Caucasus, and the Cossacks became an ideal weapon in this war. Becoming Line Cossacks, they served as both defenders of Russian conquests and as colonizers, founding settlements (stanitsas) in the conquered territories. This is how the Kuban Cossacks took root, while other Cossacks spread across other Russian lands.

The Kuban Cossacks were loyal to the imperial crown to such an extent that even the Russian emperor became part of their Orthodox religious identity. In return for their loyalty, the Russian Empire granted the Kuban Cossacks significant autonomy within the imperial army, which led to several conflicts with the latter. But the turning point for the Kuban Cossack society came with the Communist Revolution in Russia, followed by the Civil War. Most Kuban Cossacks sided with the White Movement, which aimed to restore the monarchy. However, some among them also began to promote ideas of independence or at least autonomy within either Russia or Ukraine. This gave rise to the Kuban People's Republic, which even aimed to unite with the Ukrainian People's Republic into a single state. But neither the Reds nor the Whites approved, so the Kuban People's Republic quickly disappeared. Later, under Soviet rule, the Kuban Cossacks became victims of the brutal "Decossackization" policy, which sought to completely destroy them as a social group.

My great-great-grandfather was a Kuban Cossack—and an important one. He was a respected starshina (a Cossack elite), with numerous imperial awards. My great-grandfather was a soldier in the Red Army who, as my grandfather said, “walked on foot from the Caucasus to Berlin, and later to Prague” during World War II. After that, my grandfather's family lived in East Germany. Unfortunately, that is where he died. Among the local officers, hunting small animals was a form of entertainment, and my great-grandfather took part in it. But tragically, he fell into a missile silo and died there. After this, the family moved to the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, where later my grandparents met.

What my paternal grandmother told me:

From her story, we cannot build as large an ethnic narrative, because my grandmother doesn’t know her exact ethnic group. The only people she associates with are the Volga Bulgars, and even then, only to fill an inner void. However, as she noted, people from Central Asian ethnic groups often mistook her for one of their own and would begin speaking to her in their languages—though she didn’t understand a word. Even my great-grandmother, my grandfather’s mother, upon seeing a photo of my grandmother, said: “What a beautiful Uzbek girl! Marry her.” I notice similar features in myself—especially my fairly narrow eye shape.

My grandmother’s grandfather was a wealthy merchant from the Volga region, somewhere in what is now Chuvashia. His main business was the production and sale of shoes, through which he amassed a substantial fortune. But then the revolution, civil war, and eventually Soviet power came to Russia. Officers came to the village where my great-great-grandfather lived to identify who should be dispossessed. They asked: “Who here exploits your labor?” One of the villagers pointed at my great-great-grandfather. “But I only taught you how to make shoes!” he protested. To which the man replied, “And you didn’t pay me for it!”

My great-great-grandfather hoped he wouldn't be dispossessed because he had done so much good for the village. But his wife immediately gathered the children and all their gold and fled to Uzbekistan. The officers eventually came, began seizing his property, and when he resisted—attacking one of them with a shovel—they sentenced him to the Gulag in Leningrad region.

But my great-great-grandfather was cunning. One of the villagers gave him a tip. When all the convicted were gathered by the railway tracks to be sent to the Gulag, he simply… stepped away from the crowd, sat down on some logs, and watched from a distance, pretending to be a bystander. The train arrived, people were shoved in, and it left. My great-great-grandfather then made his way to Uzbekistan to rejoin his family.

My great-grandfather dreamed of a career and wanted to hide his kulak origins, as such people were not spared. During World War II, he worked on ferrying airplanes—he would travel to the factory, fly a plane to the base, and repeat the cycle. After the war, he applied to become a civil pilot, but his background was discovered, and his entire career was blocked. As a result, he died bitter about his life. After his death, a woman—his aunt—approached my grandmother and said, “I’m the only one who knows our family’s story. I can tell it to you.” But my grandmother was young and uninterested at the time. And so the aunt died, taking all that knowledge with her.

Just when I thought that was the end of the story, my mother also decided to tell me about her family history. She had been the only one who didn’t know…

Her entire line is of Ukrainian ethnicity from the Poltava region. According to my mother, there was never any kind of "mixing" in their heritage.

Ukrainians are an ethno-national group that descends from the East Slavic tribes. They once formed the mighty Kyivan Rus, which became an influential force in Europe. During Kyivan Rus, the ancestors of Ukrainians (the Rus) adopted Orthodox Christianity and entered a golden age. But then came the Mongol invasion, which destroyed Kyivan Rus and fractured it into many principalities. This led to the formation of the aforementioned Ruthenians, who came under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Under Polish and Lithuanian control, the Ruthenians faced discrimination. The Polish aristocracy forced the population to adopt the Polish language and Catholicism. A sort of compromise arose in the form of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which blended Orthodox tradition with allegiance to the Pope. (Since then, Ukrainians have been a bireligious people: Orthodox and Eastern Catholic.) Many Ruthenians fled to the Wild Fields, becoming Cossacks. Under Khmelnytsky’s leadership, they rebelled and formed the Cossack Hetmanate, but it was eventually absorbed into the Russian Empire, losing its autonomy.

Under the Russian Empire, Ukrainians were humiliated. They were labeled “Little Russians” to make them feel inferior to Russians. The Ukrainian language and culture were repeatedly banned, while Russian identity was imposed. Their faint hope came during the Communist Revolution, when Ukrainians briefly established the Ukrainian People's Republic, a liberal attempt at independence. But the Soviets crushed it and integrated Ukraine into the USSR as the Ukrainian SSR. To prevent further nationalism, Ukraine saw mass repressions, known as the “Executed Renaissance,” and genocidal starvation—the Holodomor.