[gothic-l] Ukrainians and Goths

[Bertil Häggman]

Esteemed listmembers.,

Recently I had the pleasure of reading an article by
Ukrainian archaelogist Professor Volodomyr Baran,
in a 1999 issue of The Ukrainian Review. He is
a co-author of a 15 volume series Ukrayina kriz viky
(Ukraine Throught the Ages), National Acadmy of Arts
and Sciences.

He wote on the ethno-cultural development of what is
Ukrainian territory. He does once mention the Goths,
although they for centuries must have had an enduring
influence in the area.

Baran starts in the middle of the first century web archaelogical
finds are supported by written sources. He mentions three
cultures of local Slavic foundation (Prague-Korchak, Penkivka,
and Kolochyn) and located on forest-steppe Ukraine in the
fifth century. According to classical sources there lived (on
the area of the two latter ones) the Sklavenes and Antae,
a collective name used by for instance by Jordanes for East
Slavs. The Antae word seems to be derived from an Indo-
Iranian root meaning 'borderlanders". We find this explanation
of the people word Ukrainian from the Great Revolt of the
Kozaks at the time Khmelnitsky to the independent state of
1991, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

In the beginning of the Third Century AD the Goths were
migrating from the Vistula area. The common name for
the tribes were 'Goths' and they founded what was to become
the powerful Ermanarik kingdom defeated later by the Huns
(370 to 380 AD).

In the McEvedy Atlas the Ostrogoths is shown in 362 AD
to control roughly Belarus, parts of Russia and present
Ukraine. But they are not featured by Professor Baran.
He continues by describing the Slav migration south
and westward, some Slavs ending up in Bohemia and Slovakia.

Professor Baran prefers the term "empire for the Ryurikides"
for the Kyivan state and it was first later the three East Slav
peoples: Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian were formed.

But what about the influence of the Goths? What is the role
of the Goths in today's Ukrainian history writing?

Gothically

Bertil


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