Yulia, Amazons and St. Olha

By Walter Kish

On the eve of the Ukrainian election, much press ink is being dedicated to the likelihood of Yulia Tymoshenko returning as Prime Minister of a beleaguered Ukraine and what she is likely to do once the bulava of power is in her hands.  In contrast to the weak-kneed Yushchenko, no one doubts Yulia’s resolve to act quickly and decisively.  In the past, she has been dubbed Ukraine’s “Iron Lady”, or pictured as this country’s “Joan of Arc”.  What many Ukrainians may not know, is that Yulia is not the first of the fairer sex in this country to wield an iron hand in dealing with affairs of state.

The tradition goes back into pre-history with the ancient legends about the Amazons, a feared race of female warriors.  Ancient Greek historians claim they were of Scythian or Sarmatian origin and lived on the shores of the Black Sea in an area that is now part of Ukraine.  We know that both the Scythians and Sarmatians held sway on the Ukrainian Steppes for long periods of time, so it is not too far fetched to presume that Yulia has Amazonian antecedents. 

The word Amazon is thought to have come from the old Persian term for warriors – hamazan.  According to legends, the Amazons only had contact with men for procreation purposes; otherwise, they were excluded from the Amazonian kingdom.  Interestingly enough, we know that Yulia is (or was) married to one Oleksandr Tymoshenko and has a daughter, but we know almost nothing about her husband, his current whereabouts or the status of his relationship with Yulia.  Intentionally or not, Yulia may be carrying on more than one old Amazonian tradition.

A little more recent and less mythological is the example of St. Olha.  Olha was of Viking extraction and the grandmother of St. Volodymyr the Great.  She was married to Prince Ihor, ruler of the growing Kyivan Rus domain.  Ihor was an ambitious warrior and his campaigns took him as far as the Caspian Sea and Constantinople.  He was killed in 945 while trying to subdue the Drevlians, an obstinate Slavic tribe that inhabited a large area northwest of Kyiv.  As his son and heir Sviatoslav was just an infant at the time, Olha took over as regent and soon showed the world she was not to be trifled with.  She exacted harsh revenge on the Drevlians, reportedly executing most of their nobility and burning their capital Iskorosten (today Korosten) to the ground. 

Olha proved to be a competent and astute ruler, instituting a rudimentary tax system, creating an efficient state administration and enacting some of the first legal codes to be seen in Europe at that time.  Even after her son Sviatoslav came into power, because he was often away on extended military campaigns, she continued to rule the growing Kyivan Rus Empire in his absence.  She made a number of visits to Constantinople, seat of the dominant Byzantine Empire, and realizing the political advantages, was baptized a Christian and encouraged her son and countrymen to do likewise.  Although Sviatoslav remained a pagan throughout his life, he did nothing to discourage his mother’s efforts, which finally bore fruit when his son Volodymyr officially converted Kyivan Rus to Christianity in 988.  Olha was declared an Orthodox saint in the thirteenth century.

On one Ukrainian Orthodox web site, I found the following quote regarding St. Olha – “Olha was not raised to cower before men.  Her character was extremely strong and her personality won people over, even as she was no one’s fool.” 

Obviously, much the same can be said of today’s Yulia who is cast in much the same mold.  I personally would love to see her be given the chance to try and fix the current political mess in Ukraine.  She certainly has the right stuff to do it.