In honor of the 60th anniversary of the Khortytsia National Reserve and the 104th anniversary of the birth of Mykola Kytsenko.

In honor of the 60th anniversary of the Khortytsia National Reserve and the 104th anniversary of the birth of Mykola Kytsenko.

Kytsenko was a Ukrainian local historian, public figure, writer, journalist, and the founder of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve on Khortytsia Island and the Museum of Zaporozhian Cossacks.

He was born on December 4, 1921, in the village of Nyzhniy Kurkulak (now Pokrovske) in the Tokmak district of the Zaporozhian region. His father, a descendant of the Cossack Petro Kytsya, possessed a sociable disposition and was a generous host. The entire male population of the village gladly visited the Kytsya’s household to chat, get a haircut, and hear stories about Cossack life. Mykola grew up to be a smart boy. Although it was common to enter school at age eight, he started at age six. Considered one of the best students, he traveled to the city of Novomoskovsk (now Samar) at the age of 14 to enter a pedagogical college after finishing the seven-year school. He aced the language portion of the entrance exam, but he struggled with mathematics. The situation was saved by Shevchenko’s Kobzar, which the boy knew well and began reciting at the commission’s request.

After graduating from college in 1939, he worked as a village teacher in the Zaporizhian region but was soon drafted into the army. At that time, Ukrainians were sent for military service far from their native land, so Mykola ended up in Manchuria. World War II broke out, and he had to participate in it.

Oh, Dnipro and Zaporozhian steppes,

Who hasn’t walked your vast landscapes?

To whom did ancient mounds provide their strength

when the foreign torturer was circling over like a crow?

Finally, in February 1946, Mykola Kytsenko returned to his homeland with his wife, Polina, and their young daughter. During the difficult postwar period, he worked as a proofreader for the Tokmak newspaper “On the Bolshevik Path”. Later, he became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “For the Bolshevik Collective Farms” in Verkhnya Khortytsia. At the same time, he studied journalism at the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

In 1953, his father died of tuberculosis, who, despite his illness, never lost his optimism: “Although Yoska (Stalin — ed.) sought to throttle me, I survived this executioner!” Mykola Petrovich took his mother home with him, and they lived together in Zaporizhzhia for 27 years.

From 1954 to 1964, M. Kytsenko worked as the editor-in-chief of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Committee for Radio and Television. He was also the head of the regional culture department and the propaganda and agitation department of the Zaporizhian Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, as well as the secretary of the Zaporizhzhia Rural Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. From late 1964 to 1973, he was the deputy chairman of the Zaporizhian Regional Executive Committee. During his term, a new building was constructed for the regional scientific library and archive, and a music school, regional art museum, and theater for young audiences opened in Zaporizhzhia. Since 1966, he also headed the board of the regional organization of the Ukrainian Society of Historical and Cultural Sites. During this time, 1,182 historical and cultural sites were registered.

In 1965, while preparing for Zaporizhia’s 200th anniversary, he and the head of the regional department of culture, S. Kyrychenko, initiated the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Ukrainian SSR to consider declaring Khortytsia Island a reserve and creating a Cossack historical and cultural memorial there. The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine adopted a resolution on August 31, 1965, and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a resolution on September 18, 1965, both titled “On the perpetuation of memorable places connected with the history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.” The island of Khortytsia was declared a state historical and cultural reserve.

Fascinated by the idea of creating a Cossack memorial on the island, Mykola Kytsenko traveled to Kyiv to meet with experts on the Cossacks, Kost’ Guslysty and Olena Apanovich. He also researched the Dmytro Yavornytskyi Museum archive in Dnipro and worked with the regional library archives. Finally, he wrote and published the book “Khortytsia in Heroic Stories and Legends” (1967). He also wrote the books “Zaporizhzhia in the Storms of Revolution” (1969) and “Khortytsia” (1970), as well as poems, essays, and stories. The beginning of the 1970s was a time of an active political campaign against what was called “bourgeois nationalism.” On March 21, 1973, M. Kytsenko was dismissed from his position as deputy chairman of the Zaporizhian Regional Executive Committee due to “serious methodological miscalculations.” The governing bodies accused him of “ignoring…some regularities of the development of the historical process,” “idealizing the social order of the Zaporizhian Sich, absolutizing its role in the history of Ukraine,” subjective explanations of the reasons and prerequisites for its liquidation,” and, most importantly, “one-sided coverage of Zaporizhzhia’s relations with Russia.” Then came accusations of “deviation from Marxist-Leninist class assessments” and “serious shortcomings” during the construction of the historical and cultural reserve on Khortytsia Island. Kytsenko was accused of nationalism, and the second edition of the book “Khortytsia in Heroic Stories and Legends” was withdrawn from sale. In September 1973, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine canceled the aforementioned August 31, 1965, resolution and ordered the construction of a historical and cultural complex on Khortytsia. This complex would become a branch of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Museum of Local Lore. The system blocked any initiative to perpetuate the memory of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. After being dismissed from office, Mykola Kytsenko served as head of the labor department of the Zaporizhian Regional Executive Committee from 1973 to 1982.

Zaporizhzhia journalist Ivan Naumenko wrote: “Modesty did not allow him to call himself a poet,” and that M. Kytsenko wrote many poems about Ukraine; however, “for the sake of a great cause—the creation of a historical and cultural reserve of the Zaporozhian Cossacks—Mykola Kytsenko hid his poems ‘in a drawer.'” According to the memoirs of Volodymyr Shovkun, a famous Zaporizhzhia local historian and later an employee of the Khortytsia National Reserve, “We talked about his ‘underground’ poems and how it was time to make them public. ‘Publish them and dry breadcrumbs (meaning “prepare, because you might get arrested”),’ he joked unhappily. The day after our meeting, at 10 o’clock, Kytsenko was deceased.

Mykola Kytsenko passed away on May 10, 1982, at the age of 60. His name deserves to be remembered with gratitude by his descendants. 1992: M. Kytsenko, laureate of the Republican Prize named after D. Yavornytskyi and established by the All-Ukrainian Union of Local Historians (laureate badge No. 1).

1993: A memorial bas-relief plaque in honor of the founder of the reserve was installed on the building of the Museum of Zaporozhian Cossacks (designed by P. Chagovets). In the village of Pokrovsk, a street and a library were named after M. Kytsenko.

Among Mykola Kytsenko’s poems are the following lines about Ukraine:

Those who died for her will come to life,

And their thoughts will bloom like poppies!

Olena Pachkovska, head of the history department, prepared the material.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

1. Mykola Kytsenko. Photo from the collection of the Khortytsia National Reserve, 28674/ ФН-3754.

2. Mykola Kytsenko on Khortytsia Island. Photo from the collection of the Khortytsia National Reserve, 28828/ФН-3808.

3-1, 3-2. Cover of the book “Khortytsia in Heroic Stories and Legends” with the author’s inscription: “To the Museum of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. If I have ever done anything good in my life, it was through this book, which gave birth to the Khortytsia Reserve and created a Cossack memorial there. Zaporizhzhia, March 20, 1971.”

4. From the collection of the Khortytsia National Reserve, 28826/П-17784.”

5. Memorial bas-relief plaque in honor of M. Kytsenko, designed by P. Chagovets. Photo by Khortytsia National Reserve.