 Soviet postage stamp from 1982 commemorating the anniversary | |
| Native name | Святкування 1500-річчя Києва |
|---|---|
| Date | 1982 (43 years ago) (1982) |
| Location | Kiev (Kyiv),Ukrainian SSR,USSR |
The1500th anniversary of Kiev, the capital of theUkrainian SSR, was an event held in 1982.[1][2][3] Although archaeologists have found evidence that Kiev (present-dayKyiv) 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.[4][5]
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.[5] Amongst the alleged initiators are the names ofPetro Tronko (vice-premier of the Ukrainian SSR and famous historian), Halyna Menzheres (deputy mayor of Kiev, who had attended the celebration ofYerevan's jubilee), andValentyn Zghursky (mayor of Kiev in 1979; he himself claimed credit for the idea in many interviews).[5] What is clear is that the city council of Kiev requested permission to organise an event to celebrate this anniversary, which was approved by theCouncil of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR; the city council just had to determine how old Kiev actually was first.[5]
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Zghursky then claimed that recently discovered manuscripts in theMatenadaran supposedly mentioned Kiev as a settlement 2,500 years ago, and sent documents of this toUNESCO inParis. Its head replied that UNESCO does not celebrate days of cities; at most, it could consider recognising the formation date of the state ofKievan Rus'.[5] 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.[5] Another suggestion made previously by numismatists was basing the foundation on a Romanfollis coin of Byzantine emperorAnastasius I Dicorus (r. 491–518) found inZamkova Hora; this argument would eventually prove to be decisive.[6] When a 1500-year-old anniversary was discussed, the chairman of theNational Academy of Sciences of UkraineBorys 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!"[5] Zghursky did so, and apparently this is how UNESCO reached the official decision that Kiev was allowed to celebrate its '482 foundation' in 1982.[5]
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.[6]
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).[5] 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.",[6] revealed an ideological struggle rather than a scientific debate.[5][6] 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;[5] the MuscovitePolitburo demanded evidence of Kiev as acity (город), not just as asettlement (поселение).[6] 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.[5] In the end,first secretary of the Ukrainian SSRVolodymyr Shcherbytsky would have persuadedUSSR general secretaryLeonid 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.[5] 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.'[5]
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 theSoviet Union in 1922, as well as the alleged "1500th anniversary" of the legendary foundation of Kyiv byKyi, Shchek and Khoryv in AD 482.[7] Various scholars and commentators found "482" an odd attribution, as no such date is mentioned in thePrimary Chronicle.[8] HistorianTaras Kuzio said that 'the year 482 had no special significance'.[8] 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.[7] Archaeologist and historianPetro 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.[5] In 1981, historianOmeljan 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 theChristianization 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 theHolodomor, the deliberately caused famine in Ukraine in 1932–1933.[9]
To celebrate the anniversary, many important monuments were restored, and new monuments, such as theMonument to the Founders of Kyiv and theMonument to Commemorate the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia,[a] were constructed.[3] The people of Kyiv enjoyed the festivities so much thatKyiv Day was established as an official holiday in 1987, commemorated on the last Sunday of May.[1]
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 mayorOleksandr Omelchenko, who utilised it in order to argue the Ukrainian capital was much older thanMoscow.[13] The Monument to the Founders of Kyiv soon became iconic for the city and has been used as Kyiv's unofficial emblem.[citation needed] In 2001, another statue was installed at a fountain of theMaidan Nezalezhnosti.[13]
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