A Volodymyr By Any Other Name

By Volodymyr Kish

Long time readers of my column will remember that there was a time when the by-line to my column read Walter Kish.  Of course, Walter is not my real name, as I was given the name of Volodymyr when I was baptized by my immigrant Ukrainian parents many decades ago.  However, the local authorities in the small mining town of Noranda, Quebec where I born, being more than a little Cyrillically challenged, registered me with the anglicized equivalent of Walter.

Regrettably, this English moniker has always been deemed as being somewhat wimpy and lacks the princely and warrior cachet of the Ukrainian Volodymyr, so I was never overly fond of my official name in English.  It was therefore not particularly difficult for me, when later in life and subsequent to some soul-searching brought about by my increasing re-discovery and growing attachment to my ancestral roots, that I decided some years ago to adopt my proper Ukrainian name of Volodymyr as my preferred forename.

Needless to say, the change to a proper and truly Ukrainian name engendered no small measure of pride and satisfaction for some time after, especially considering that I was named after one of the famous heroes of Ukrainian history, the first great leader of Kyivan Rus, Volodymyr the Great.  And so it was until a friend of mine, familiar with Ukrainian history, pointed out that Volodymyr was not really a true Ukrainian name but was derived from the Viking name Valdemar, and that likely during his time, Volydymyr the Great, being a descendant of the Viking aristocracy that established the Kyivan Rus state, was much more likely to have been addressed as Valdemar than Volodymyr.

As much as I may want to think otherwise, my friend is likely correct.  Although there is still some debate about the history surrounding the beginnings of the Kyivan Rus state, a strong Viking influence is beyond question.  Starting around the 8^th Century AD, the Vikings, or Varangians (Variahy in Ukrainian) as they are better known in Eastern Europe, began an aggressive expansionist assault on most of Europe and the Middle East.  By the 9^th Century AD, they were well established in the Baltics and the area around Lake Ladoga near present day St. Petersburg. The Varangians continued to push down the Dnipro and Volga rivers conquering the native Slavic tribes along the way.

In 862, one Varangian chieftain by the name of Rurik became the ruler of the principality of Novgorod in present day northern Russia, the same year that two of his retainers, Askold and Dir, reached Kyiv and took it over from the local Slavic tribes that had colonized the area several centuries back. In 912, Rurik’s grandson Ihor (better known to his Varangian cohorts as Igvar) took over as ruler of Kyiv, and it was his grandson Volodymyr (or Valdemar) who took over the reins of power of a large and powerful Kyivan Rus empire in 980.  It seems that he only succeeded to the post after enlisting the aid of some six thousand Varangian compatriots from Sweden to help him defeat and kill his two brothers who were also contending for the post.

In 988, Volodymyr made the historically strategic and important decision to adopt Christianity as the state religion and we know what ensued thereafter.  It not only had a profound effect on Ukrainian history, but also heralded a major personal transformation in Volodymyr himself.  Prior to being baptized, Volodymyr was renowned for being the epitome of a barbarian chieftain, with one history book that I have read characterizing him as being a “Viking beast” who had four wives and some 800 concubines.  Nonetheless, he accepted Christianity and married Princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II in Constantinople, thereafter becoming a paragon of Christian rulers.

Before people start drawing too many parallels between Volodymyr the Great and this humble Volodymyr (my wife refers to me as Volodymyr the Middling), I would like to state categorically that prior to adopting Volodymyr as my preferred name, I was not a pagan barbarian, had only the one wife and zero concubines.  Also, my brother is alive and well, and though we may have had our conflicts in our youth, I have never sought his demise for political or any other purpose.

I would also like to affirm that I will continue to go by Volodymyr, eschewing the perhaps more historically accurate Valdemar.  One can only incorporate history’s lessons into one’s personal life so far before one has to draw the line.  My line stops with my being Ukrainian and not a Viking.