Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
letter from his father, a letter containing proof of a Russian course of action against the Ottoman Empire and expansion to the South, including the threat of the complete destruction of the Crimean Tartars. Hryhorii Orlyk's military service in France took a new turn after his marriage with Louise-Helene Le Brune de Dinteville in 1747. With his wife's wealth, he was able to equip a regiment known as the Royal Suedois dragoons stationed at Comercy in Lorraine, and in 1748 he was appointed a French general. More importantly, in 1750, he became a member of Louis XV's private council -- the Secret du Roi - which assisted the king in shaping foreign affairs policies. As a general, he distinguished himself at Bergen in April 1759, but was wounded and died on November 14, 1759 after twelve years of service in the French military and more than thirty years of service to Franco-Ukrainian relations at the court of Louis XV. The Eighteenth Century is known as the century of enlightenment and Pylyp and Hryhorii certainly contributed in enlightening the West about the Cossack nation. Their contributions were significant. Pylyp Orlyk's Diaries , valuable as documents for the study of Ukrainian history are yet to be explored by scholars interested not only in history, but also in linguistic, literature and logistics in Eastern Europe. It is unfortunate that the third volume of the Diaries, which contains the most crucial correspondence of Pylyp Orlyk after 1731, remains unpublished and is not readily available for research. Both Orlyks were instrumental in maintaining France's anti- Russian policy at least until 1735, Pylyp Orlyk as Mazeppa's successor and as the tireless advocate for Ukrainian independence and Hryhorii Orlyk, as a diplomat and military man, a model of courage, dedication and intelligence. A man of the hour, Hryhorii Orlyk was an especially invaluable asset to the French court. He had lived in Eastern Europe (an area for which there were few maps except for Beauplan's), he could speak the numerous languages of the East, and he knew personally many of the prominent people that were the leaders and policy shapers of the region. He provided the French court, and ultimately all of Europe, with details about Eastern Europe that were previously unknown. Without this insights and information, much of it communicated to Hryhorii Orlyk by his father, Voltaire's History of the Life of Charles XII could not have been written. Published in 1731, the book informed the whole of Europe about Mazeppa, the Cossack nation, and Russian expansionist plans. The information also found its way into Diderot's Encyclopedia (1749- 1776).b For the first time, names and terms relating to Ukraine were fully explained: Borysthenes (Dnipro), Mazeppa, Poltawa, Cossack, Zaporizhian Cossack, Hetman. To this day, these entries provide interesting and sometimes intriguing and unusual information about the East. The illustration for "An Oriental Landscape", for example, shows a distinctive naval shipyard, unmistakably Russian, with men dressed in Russian fur coats and tall fiir hats supervising the construction of sea vessels. The workers, dressed in Western clothes, hold the construction plans. Through entries and illustrations like these, Diderot's encyclopedia documents the reasons Ukraine and its neighbors, especially Poles, Turks and Tartars, were viewed by France, and ultimately Europe, as the potential "cordon sanitaire" which would provide a protective shield against the expansionist ambitions of the Russian czar. Perhaps without intending to, it also documents the importance of Hryhorii Orlyk as the diplomatic force which encouraged and cemented Franco-Ukrainian relations on this issue. Copyright Helene N. Turkewicz-Sanko, Ph.D. John Carroll University, 1998. END NOTES 1. Dinteville, France. Recent correspondence with Marquis de la Ville Bauge provided photographs of the castle and one photograph of the descendants of the Dinteville family. In his letter, the Marquis indicated that his family knows practically nothing about Hryhorii Orlyk's life and contributions. This may be due in part to the fact that anything written about the Orlyks is either in Ukrainian, Polish or English. 2. Ilko Borshchak was the first to write about Hryhorii Orlyk's life and contributions. Most of his research was conducted in the castle of Dinteville in the 1920s and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His book about Hryhorii Orlyk was completed in 1930, published in Lviv in 1932, and published in English translation in Toronto in 1956 under the title of Hryhor Orlyk: France's Cossack General. Borshchak also authored numerous articles about Pylyp Orlyk. Of special interest is "Pylyp Orlyk's Devolution of the Ukraine's Rights" published in the 1958 Annals of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. Vol. VI, No. 3-4 (21-22): 1296- 1313. 3. In 1949, Nicholas D. Chubaty brought the public's attention to Hryhorii Orlyk's role in Franco-Ukrainian history in his article "Mazeppa's Champion in the Secret du Roi of Louis XV, King of France" published in the Ukrainian Quarterly [Vol. 4, No. 2:37-51]. More recently, according to the bibliography provided by Professor Zoia Khyzhniak of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy for her article "Pylyp Orlyk" which is published in Our Life [Vol. LV, No. 7-8 (July-August 1998): 1-5], Ilko Borshchak's book was re-edited in Kyiv in 1996. Also of interest is Professor Orest Subtelny's The Unwilling Allies: The Relations of Pylyp Orlyk with the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Porte (1710-1742). Ph.D. Dissertation at Harvard University, 1973. 4. In the series of Harvard Library of Early Ukrainian Literature. Texts: Vol. V. The Diariusz podrozny of Pylyp Orlyk (1720- 1726)', Texts: Vol. VI. The Diariusz podrozny of Pylyp Orlyk (1727-1731). Omeljan Pritsak, editor-in-chief. Harvard University Press for the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University, 1989. The publication of Texts: Vol. VII, which was forthcoming, has been postponed to an indefinite date. 5. Ukrains'ka Radians'ka Encyclopedia. M.P. Bazhan, editor-in- chief, Kyiv, vol. 10:378 (1962); Encyclopedia Ukrainoznastva. Volodymyr Kubijovyc, editor-in-chief. "Molode Zhyttia." Munich: Logos II/5 (1966): 1875-76;
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
