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UKRAINIANS BEYOND THEIR BORDERS: HRYHORII ORLYK IN FRANCE by HELENE TURKEWICZ-SANKO In 1747, at Versailles, Hryhorii Orlyk (1702- 1759) married Louise-Helene Le Brune de Dinteville, a lady whose family had received aristocratic status in the XITH century and who was related to the French royal dynasty The original marriage document, which is housed at the castle of Dinteville, identified Hryhorii Orlyk as Comte Orlyk, the eldest son of His Highness Count Pylyp Orlyk, Leader of the Cossack nation ... (and of Her Highness Lady Anne Hertzig, his wife and presently his widow).1 Who was Hryhorii Orlyk son of Pylyp Orlyk (1672-1742), Leader of the Cossack Nation? We find answers in the works of historians who specialize in researching the history of Ukrainian Cossacks and the history of the Ukrainian emigres known as the Mazeppists who pursued Mazeppa's dream of seeing Ukrainians united in an independent and sovereign state. It was Ilko Borshchak (1892-1959), late professor of Ukrainian at the French National School of Oriental Languages in Paris, who headed the "Orlikiana" in the 1920s. His research, critical studies and subsequent publications concentrated on the Orlyks' political lives. He focused special attention on Hryhorii Orlyk and his role while in the service of France. His work, Velikyi Mazepynets' Hryhor Orlyk (The Great Mazeppist, Hryhor Orlyk) appeared in Ukrainian in Lviv in 1932 and an English translation was published in Toronto in 1956.2 Numerous scholars have since contributed to Borshchak's "Orlikiana".3 In addition, two of the three volumes of Pylyp Orlyk's Diaries, which provide primary materials for further inquiries into the background and mission of Orlyk's son, have been published at Harvard University.4 Ukrainian encyclopedias have always made the distinction between father and son, yet Hryhorii Orlyk seems to be known only to Ukrainian scholars.5 As an example of this is the 1982 publication of The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History6 There is only one entry for Orlyk and the article erroneously states that Pylyp (Filip) Orlyk "after having lived in Sweden from 1714 to 1720, lived in Germany, Poland and France and attempted to organize intervention in these states against Russia." Although Pylyp Orlyk did live in Sweden and traveled through Poland and Germany, he never went to France; it was the son and not the father who was entrusted by the French ambassador to Poland with a secret mission to France. In order to understand Hryhorii Orlyk's life journey throughout Europe before he was entrusted with his secret mission to France, it is important to examine the historical background in which he was raised. Hryhorii was bom in 1702 in historic Baturyn, the capital of Ukraine under Hetman Mazeppa. At this time, the lands of Ukraine were divided into what became known as "Right Bank Ukraine" and "Left Bank Ukraine". Right Bank Ukraine was under the leadership of Mazeppa. He was the commander, or Hetman, of the Ukrainian Cossack elite who fought against foreign absolutism -- specifically that which Peter I, Duke of Muscovy, sought to impose in Ukraine. Left Bank Ukraine also fought against foreign absolutism. There, the military units were under the leadership of Cossack elders known as the "starshyna". These Cossacks, whose stronghold was hidden beyond the rapids of the Dnipro River, became known as the Cossack "Zaparog" (the Cossacks beyond the rapids) and their army was referred to as "the Zaporozhian Host". Mazeppa's dream was to unite the Right Bank and the Left Bank and create an independent Ukrainian state. Yet his dream could not materialize without foreign help and for this reason, he allied himself with King Charles XII of Sweden and embarked in a war against Peter I. Unfortunately, Mazeppa and Charles XII were defeated by the Russians at Poltava in 1709 and were compelled to seek refuge within the Ottoman Empire in Bessarabia, in the border town of Bender. About three months after the defeat at Poltava, Mazeppa died, and his secretary, Pylyp Orlyk, became the new commander of the forces of Right Bank Ukraine. Pylyp Orlyk took it upon himself to devote his life to the revival of Mazeppa's dream. As Professor Subtelny states: "For thirty-two years Pylyp Orlyk continued to cause problems for Russia's rulers. Orlyk took on the role of standard-bearer for the struggle against tsarist rule for the rights and privileges of the Ukrainian people and the Zaporozhian Host".7 Voltaire (1694-1778), a contemporary of Orlyk the father and Orlyk the son, and whose courtly function was to write the history of his time ("historiographe du roi"), gives the following account of the situation in Ukraine in 1709 in his History of the Life of Charles XIL "Ukraine has always aspired to liberty; but being surrounded by Muscovy, the dominions of the Grand Seignior (La Porte), and Poland, it has been obliged to choose a protector, and consequently a master, in one of these three states. The Ukrainians at first put themselves under the protection of the Poles who treated them with great severity. They afterwards submitted to the Russians Who governed them with despotic sway. They had originally the privilege of electing a prince under the name of general; but they were soon deprived of that right; and their general was nominated by the court of Moscow. The person who then filled that station was a (polish) gentleman, named Mazeppa, and bom in the palatinate of Podolie. He had been brought up as a page to Jan Casimir, (and had received some tincture of learning at this court) ... The superiority of his knowledge gained him great respect among the Cossacks; and his reputation daily increasing, Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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