Kozak/Cossack

[Evgeny Steiner]

What is offered by changing Cossacks for 'kozaks' is a part of appropriation
of the common history by groups of (the) Ukrainian activists. It is similar
to the inscription on the monument of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus
on London's Holland Park Road erected by "Ukrainians in Great Britain": "To
celebrate the establishment of Christianity in Ukraine by St. Volodymyr in
988". In case anybody has misconceptions about Vladimir, there is a
clarification: "St. Volodymyr, ruler of Ukraine."

ES

P.S. I'll be happy to send a snapshop to those who want to see it by their
own eyes.



2008/12/7 William Ryan <wfr at sas.ac.uk>

> Of course it is a political matter - your politics, not mine. You have
> failed to answer my question as to why Ukrainian nationalists have decided
> not only to claim ownership of all Cossacks but also to dictate how their
> name should be spelled in latin alphabets, regardless of language (the
> combinations ko- and -ak in English and French for example are uncommon and
> ugly, c, ck, and qu- are much more common). And what about the
> Russian-speaking Don Cossacks who expanded Muscovy eastwards and manned the
> forts of Siberia, and fought for or rebelled against the Moscow tsar - most
> of them were never within a thousand miles of the Ukraine. Are we supposed
> to re-write history and literature as well? Do we have to describe Ermak,
> Pugachev and Stenka Razin as kozaki, Ukrainian cowboys? Do we have to
> rewrite Tennyson's  'Charge of the Light Brigade'? (I note, however, that
> Byron in Don Juan also uses the form Kozack, as well as Cossacque).
> By all means be proud of your cultural heritage, by all means try to
> re-balance the Great Russian view of history - I applaud all that, but stop
> trying to bully others into alien linguistic norms for spurious reasons.
> Your introduction of the notion of purity ('Ukrainian and thus pure') into
> the argument is really quite alarming. This precisely why 'political
> correctness' has got a bad name.
> Will Ryan
>
>
> nataliek at UALBERTA.CA wrote:
>
>> Ah, but it is not just a matter of spelling. Or a matter of English usage.
>> It is a political matter. As Will Ryan correctly pointed out, at one point
>> the Ukrainians waged a successful campaign to get rid of the "the" before
>> Ukraine. When the campaign began, "the Ukraine" was indeed standard English
>> usage. It no longer is. And Kyiv is written as I just have, not as Kiev,
>> though Kiev was standard English usage for a long time, like Peking and
>> Bombay.
>>
>> The current campaign is to replace Cossack with kozak. Why? Well
>> kozaks/Cossacks are to Ukrainians what cowboys are to Americans, to
>> paraphrase Subtelny. And Cossacks/kozaks, like cowboys, or any other group
>> for that matter, did not always behave well. Shedding the term Cossack and
>> replacing it with kozak allows the retention of the positive aspects of this
>> group while negative aspects are jettisoned. The term kozak is seen as more
>> Ukrainian and thus pure, free of negative traits.  By implication, the
>> negative traits were attributed to Cossacks by non-Ukrainians.
>>
>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                   http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>



-- 
Professor Evgeny Steiner
Senior Research Associate
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
SOAS, University of London
Brunei Gallery, B401
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------