1500th anniversary of Kiev

1982 commemoration in Soviet Ukraine June 2024June 2024 USSR 1982 5190 3039 0.jpg Soviet postage stamp from 1982 commemorating the anniversary Святкування 1500-річчя Києва uk 1982 y Kiev (Kyiv), Ukrainian SSR, USSR The 1500th anniversary of Kiev, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, was an event held in 1982.kyivcity nv vechirniy Although archaeologists have found evidence that Kiev (present-day Kyiv) was founded in either the 6th or 7th century, and the settlement may have been mentioned in documents more than two millennia ago, the observance of the 1500th anniversary in 1982 is based on a now traditional founding date of AD 482 for the city.britannicaTsalyk 2016 Development of the idea There are several contradictory versions of who in the second half of the 1970s came up with the idea of celebrating an anniversary of Kiev.Tsalyk 2016 Amongst the alleged initiators are the names of Petro Tronko (vice-premier of the Ukrainian SSR and famous historian), Halyna Menzheres (deputy mayor of Kiev, who had attended the celebration of Yerevan's jubilee), and Valentyn Zghursky (mayor of Kiev in 1979; he himself claimed credit for the idea in many interviews).Tsalyk 2016 What is clear is that the city council of Kiev requested permission to organise an event to celebrate this anniversary, which was approved by the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR; the city council just had to determine how old Kiev actually was first.Tsalyk 2016 thumb|Example of a Roman follis coin of Anastasius I Dicorus, one of which was found on Zamkova Hora Zghursky then claimed that recently discovered manuscripts in the Matenadaran supposedly mentioned Kiev as a settlement 2,500 years ago, and sent documents of this to UNESCO in Paris. Its head replied that UNESCO does not celebrate days of cities; at most, it could consider recognising the formation date of the state of Kievan Rus'.Tsalyk 2016 The city council then offered to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Kievan Rus' and Kiev, but the European experts at the UNESCO headquarters disagreed with the new date suggested.Tsalyk 2016 Another suggestion made previously by numismatists was basing the foundation on a Roman follis coin of Byzantine emperor Anastasius I Dicorus (491 518) found in Zamkova Hora; this argument would eventually prove to be decisive.Юбилей города City anniversary Vitaly Kovalinsky weekend.today 10 October 2012 16 October 2020 https://www.weekend.today/spectemy/kievskaja-starina/jubilej-goroda_arhiv_art.htm ru When a 1500-year-old anniversary was discussed, the chairman of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Borys Paton who was also present half-jokingly told mayor Zghursky: "Hurry up and go to the podium and agree. Otherwise, they will cut off another few hundred years!"Tsalyk 2016 Zghursky did so, and apparently this is how UNESCO reached the official decision that Kiev was allowed to celebrate its '482 foundation' in 1982.Tsalyk 2016 Preparations and controversies The age of Kiev thus having been determined and officially recognised by UNESCO, in July 1979, the city council of Kiev began planning the event celebrating a 1500th anniversary. In December 1979, the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a resolution on the reconstruction and construction of social and cultural facilities, and restoration of historical and cultural monuments, to coincide with the celebrations. According to various versions of events that are difficult to verify, the leadership of the Soviet Union in Moscow was unhappy with the suggestion that the capital of one of its constituent republics was supposedly hundreds of years older that the Union's capital Moscow itself (first mentioned in documents in 1147; the city had celebrated its 800th anniversary in 1947).Tsalyk 2016 The back-and-forth negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, which according to Zghursky lasted two years in 1980 and 1981 and involved the exchange of "endless correspondence – memos, historical information, clarifications, etc.", revealed an ideological struggle rather than a scientific debate.Tsalyk 2016 Claims of some Kievan archaeologists that the earliest settlements at the site of modern Kiev might be as old as 3,000 years, proved to be too much of a stretch;Tsalyk 2016 the Muscovite Politburo demanded evidence of Kiev as a city (город), not just as a settlement (поселение). Nevertheless, it could hardly be denied that evidence from written sources pointed to Kiev definitely existing as a city by the 9th century at the latest.Tsalyk 2016 In the end, first secretary of the Ukrainian SSR Volodymyr Shcherbytsky would have persuaded USSR general secretary Leonid Brezhnev (himself also from Ukraine, and on good terms with Shcherbytsky) in a phone call to allow the plans for a 1500th anniversary to go ahead.Tsalyk 2016 Shcherbytsky commented: 'We will celebrate the 1500th anniversary during the lifetime of the current generation. And if the descendants decide that we were wrong, let them celebrate another anniversary.'Tsalyk 2016 Thus, in the run-up to the event, the Soviet authorities claimed that the year 1982 simultaneously coincided with the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922, as well as the alleged "1500th anniversary" of the legendary foundation of Kyiv by Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv in AD 482.Gunnarsson 2021 44–45 Various scholars and commentators found "482" an odd attribution, as no such date is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle.Gunnarsson 2021 44 Historian Taras Kuzio said that 'the year 482 had no special significance'.Gunnarsson 2021 44 There was speculation that the two anniversaries were merged for the sake of convenience by the Soviet regime, to emphasise the common origins of Ukraine and Russia, and step around their many conflicts.Gunnarsson 2021 44–45 Archaeologist and historian Petro Tolochko reasoned that the authorities seemed to be in a hurry to celebrate the 1500th anniversary, even though Kiev was in his view at most 1400 years old at that time.Tsalyk 2016 In 1981, historian Omeljan Pritsak (Harvard University) similarly wrote critically about the much-touted upcoming celebration, denying the claim that Kiev could have been founded in 482, as well as drawing attention to the ideological and political bias of the holiday. He suggested celebrating the Christianization of Kievan Rus' instead. Moreover, Pritsak contended the celebration of the high-profile anniversary was also designed to distract Ukrainians from another tragic anniversary: the 50th anniversary of the Holodomor, the deliberately caused famine in Ukraine in 1932–1933.Pritsak 1981 48—49, 51 Event and legacy To celebrate the anniversary, many important monuments were restored, and new monuments, such as the Monument to the Founders of Kyiv and the Monument to Commemorate the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia,Official name of the monument in Soviet times: Monument to commemorate the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. After the restoration of Ukraine's independence until May 2022, the monument was renamed the Peoples' Friendship Arch (uk Арка дружби народів Arka druzhby narodiv), colloquial name was the Yarmo (uk Ярмо́ YokeАрка Дружби народів чи Ярмо? Соцмережі тролять ініціативу головного архітектора Києва//Еспресо, 8 вересня 2015Софія Середа. «Арка дружби народів» у Києві та війна з Росією: що зробити з радянським монументом?//Радіо Свобода, 24 січня 2018). On 14 May 2022, according to the decision of the Kyiv City Council, it was named the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian people.The Arch of Friendship of Peoples, Ukrinform, was renamed in Kyiv on May 14, 2022 were constructed.vechirniy The people of Kyiv enjoyed the festivities so much that Kyiv Day was established as an official holiday in 1987, commemorated on the last Sunday of May.kyivcity Despite the questionable claims about the supposed 1500-year age of the city, several politicians would go on to embrace 482 as the date of the legendary foundation, including former Kyivan mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, who utilised it in order to argue the Ukrainian capital was much older than Moscow.Gunnarsson 2021 45 The Monument to the Founders of Kyiv soon became iconic for the city and has been used as Kyiv's unofficial emblem.May 2024 In 2001, another statue was installed at a fountain of the Maidan Nezalezhnosti.Gunnarsson 2021 45 Gallery See also History of Kyiv Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv Kyiv: An Encyclopedic Handbook (1981, prepared for the 1500th anniversary) Notes References https://www.britannica.com/place/Kyiv/History History of Kyiv 28 May 2021 13 May 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210513070257/https://www.britannica.com/place/Kyiv/History dead https://kyivcity.gov.ua/kyiv_ta_miska_vlada/pro_kyiv/382251/ Загальноміські свята та пам'ятні дати 25 December 2022 3 June 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230603215217/https://kyivcity.gov.ua/kyiv_ta_miska_vlada/pro_kyiv/382251/ dead https://nv.ua/ukr/kyiv/pershiy-den-kiyeva-ta-vidkrittya-zolotih-vorit-arhivni-foto-1982-roku-istoriya-kiyeva-50162581.html Назад у 1982 рік. Як в Києві вперше відсвяткували День міста — архів 25 December 2022 28 May 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230528113404/https://nv.ua/ukr/kyiv/pershiy-den-kiyeva-ta-vidkrittya-zolotih-vorit-arhivni-foto-1982-roku-istoriya-kiyeva-50162581.html dead https://vechirniy.kyiv.ua/news/66949/ 40 років тому Київ святкував перший ювілей: екскурсія у минуле 2022-12-25 2022-12-25 https://archive.today/20221225225508/https://vechirniy.kyiv.ua/news/66949/ bot: unknown Literature Origin Stories: The Kyivan Rus in Ukrainian Historiography Gunnarsson Valur Skemman 7 January 2021 https://skemman.is/handle/1946/37323 en 9 May 2024 Pritsak Omeljan Omeljan Pritsak За кулісами проголошення 1500-ліття Києва Behind the scenes of the 1500th anniversary of Kyiv https://shron2.chtyvo.org.ua/Suchasnist/1981_N09_249.pdf Сучасність 1981 9 49–53 uk 15 October 2020 17 October 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201017134146/https://shron2.chtyvo.org.ua/Suchasnist/1981_N09_249.pdf 1982 рік: як рахували вік Києва 1982: how the age of Kyiv was calculated Tsalyk Stanislav Stanislav Tsalyk BBC News Україна 28 May 2016 https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/blogs/2016/05/160528_kyiv_tsalyk_az https://archive.today/20221225002916/https://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/blogs/2016/05/160528_kyiv_tsalyk_az 25 December 2022 uk 15 June 2024 Category:1982 in the Soviet Union Kiev Category:Organized events in Kyiv