In Lviv, a book titled the "Shrines of Ukraine "("Svichado" Publishing House), which introduces to the reader the Ukrainian monumental painting, book miniature, iconography, valuable relics and relics of the times of Rus-Ukraine (X-XIII centuries), which were destroyed, stolen and exported mainly to Russia, where they were renamed and the history of their origin was rewritten.
In Lviv, a book titled the "Shrines of Ukraine "("Svichado" Publishing House), which introduces to the reader the Ukrainian monumental painting, book miniature, iconography, valuable relics and relics of the times of Rus-Ukraine (X-XIII centuries), which were destroyed, stolen and exported mainly to Russia, where they were renamed and the history of their origin was rewritten.
The authors comprehend the sacred heritage of the prince-governed Ukraine, debunking stereotypes and myths of its Northern neighbor, Radio Svoboda (Liberty) reports.
The icon "Annunciation of Korsun", which in Russia was called "Annunciation of Ustyug", is an old Russian pre-Mongol icon, painted around 1022, according to various sources, in Kyiv or Korsun. Today it decorates not the Ukrainian Museum, but that of Moscow.
The great sacred relic of the Russian Church - the Vladimir icon - is, in fact, the Vyshgorod Virgin of Tenderness. Until 1155, it was one of the main Ukrainian shrines. So far, the history of the Ukrainian sacred sights in Russia is presented as its property and the history of this icon is written in their own manner. And this is despite the fact that people from all over Rus-Ukraine came to worship the icon of the Virgin of Vyshgorod because they knew about its power and miracles.
Local princes who tried to destroy Kyiv were well aware that the famous Kyivan relics can help strengthen their power, the authors of the study "Shrines of Prince-Governed Ukraine" claim.
In Soviet times, almost all widely worshipped Kyivan icons were transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), including the Icon of Vyshgorod. Since 1999, this icon was granted to the Russian Church.
Art historians Andriy Komarnytsky and Bogdan Zyatyk describe in their books dozens of sacred monuments of the pre-Mongol period, the prince-governed Ukraine, which were removed from Ukraine. Andrei Bogolyubsky, who was the first to rob and destroy Kyiv, did the most to export Ukrainian relics to Russia.
"Bogolyubsky destroyed Kyiv and everything that was sacred to entire Rus," wrote Nikolai Kostomarov. In 1157, Bogolyubsky takes out of Ukraine the Icon of the Virgin of Vyshgorod. He organized the coalition of princes against Kyiv and terribly destroyed it, according to the information recorded in all Chronicles. Some of the shrines were exported to the North. The destruction inflicted by Bogolyubsky was terrible. Nobody had ever caused such destruction before him, it was the principal act of the Northern Prince who was the representative of the later Moscow state and exported numerous shrines. Since then, the looting of Ukraine began," Andriy Komarnytsky said.
"The lion's share was taken out in the XIII century," he said. "In XII, XIII centuries, it was the turn of the removal of the remains of Prince Volodymyr and Olga after the discovery of their grave by Petro Mohyla in the XVII century, the Golden Belt of Varangian Shimon, the relics of the saints. An extremely valuable fragment of the fresco: "the eyes of an unknown Saint" from the Church of Tithes was stolen in 1940 from St Sofia Museum."
One of the first shrines of he prince-governed Ukraine, mentioned in the "Chronicle of Rus" – is the relics, namely the head of St. Clement the Pope. There are facts confirming that the relics were kept in the Church of Tithes. Actually, the authors of the book describe this relic in detail, based on archival materials. The relics of St. Clement, namely his head are being stored in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Among the icons that were transferred to Russia, apart from the Kyivan icons, some of them came from Chernihiv, Halych, Pereyaslav. Ancient Ukrainian relics were kept in the assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, then in the Tretyakov gallery.
The situation with the removal and destruction of sacred monuments of the Princely era allows us to understand how Ukrainian history and culture for centuries tried to falsify and on the Ukrainian history and culture built and build their own fictional, says Bohdan Zyatyk.
The book is written in Ukrainian and English to convey information about Ukrainian sacred monuments of the Princely period to the Western reader, that he became acquainted with original and unique iconography of Kyiv, with its peculiar golden-haired images of the Savior, angels, the virgin, claiming that it was in the Kyivan theological tradition that the idea of identification of Wisdom with the Virgin was introduced.
The researchers note that an important role in the formation of rare forms of Christian sacred tradition in Rus-Ukraine was played by the combination of the Byzantine East and the Catholic West and elements of paganism, which for a long time in Princely Ukraine coexisted with Christianity.
"It is a shame that the majority of Ukrainian shrines, relics of saints, remains of princes, miniatures, manuscripts, mostly exported to Russia. We must claim our cultural heritage because we are losing on the cultural front", says Bogdan Zatyk.