Helsinki Union seeks restoration of tryzub, flag of free Ukraine

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - In a December 5 press statement, the Kiev branch of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union outlined its demands regarding the restoration of Ukrainian national symbols and the blue and yellow flag of free Ukraine, reported the Ukrainian Press Agency in London.

The Soviets have consistently linked the tryzub and the blue and yellow flag to "bourgeois nationalism," ignoring their true history.

Seventy members of the UHU's Kiev branch voted to send the demands for consideration to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR during a November 20 meeting in the republic's capital city. The statement, in English translation provided by the UPA, follows.

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The Ukrainian national emblem and flag are the oldest symbols not only in Ukraine, but throughout the entire Eastern Europe. In particular, the tryzub (trident) was the first emblem of the Riuryk dynasty. It was depicted on coins and on royal buildings, weapons and costumes. They went to fight against the Pechenegs, Polovtsi and other tribes with this symbol. After the fall of Kievan Rus', the trident became the symbol of all the principalities of Kievan Rus'; The principality of Halych (Galicia) and Volhynia refused to accept this symbol and adopted its own - the lion and the blue and yellow flag.

The principality of Muscovy was the second to refuse this symbol, and after the conquest of Byzantium by the Turks, it adopted the Byzantium symbols - a two-headed emblem and a tricolor. The trident was for a long time the emblem of the Novgorod state until it was incorporated into Muscovy in 1478.

Under the blue and yellow flag, the armies of our ancestors, led by Danylo of Halych, defeated the German princes in 1237-1238 near the town of Drohobych. Just before the Tatar-Mongol invasion, Kiev belonged to the Galician-Volhynian kingdom. That is why the heroic defense of Kiev, led by Dmytriy against the armies of the khan was undertaken under the blue and yellow flag. It fell along the walls of the Desiatynna Church in December 1243.

Later, other foreign powers in Ukraine were, just like the khan, against the blue and yellow flag and the trident. However, there is the possibility that democratization could make the leadership of Ukraine realize that it is time to solve the problem of these symbols, initiated in 1240 against the khan and his spiritual followers.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 1988, No. 52, Vol. LVI

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