All articles
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Is Pavlovsky’s 1818 Grammar Really “the First Ukrainian Grammar”?
Oleksii Pavlovsky's Grammar of the Little Russian Dialect, published in St. Petersburg in 1818, is called by the Encyclopedia of the Ukrainian Language "the first printed grammar of the living, popular Ukrainian language" in Ukrainian linguistics. This article sets it against grammars going back to the 16th century, examines the conditions behind that "first," its title page and contents, its use of the letter і, and the wavering between "dialect" and "language" in its preface.
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Lake Synevyr: The Carpathian Lake Whose Area Runs From 4.45 to 7.58 Hectares With the Water Level
Lake Synevyr, high in the mountains of Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine, is usually described as the largest lake in the Ukrainian Carpathians. But the lake's area itself ranges from 4.45 to 7.58 hectares depending on the water level, and the figure "29 ha" sometimes quoted for it is actually the area of the Ramsar-listed wetland, not the lake. This article traces where the numbers come from, how the lake was formed, and the legend behind its name.
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Over 200 km in One Source, Over 260 km in Another: The Gypsum Maze of Optymistychna Cave
Optymistychna Cave, underground in Ternopil Oblast in western Ukraine, is a maze-type cave whose passages spread in a net-like pattern along cracks in a gypsum layer. Its length has been given as over 200 km in a 1996 paper, over 240 km in a 2013 government regulation, and over 260 km in a 2022 encyclopedia entry, and even calling it "the world's longest gypsum cave" comes with conditions about what is being compared. This article traces where the figures come from, the nearby caves, and how the site is protected.
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The Nikita Botanical Garden, Begun on Crimea’s Southern Coast in 1812
On the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, east of Yalta, the Nikita Botanical Garden is a plant-research institution begun in 1812. This article traces the career of its first director, Steven, the timeline from the 19th century, when it opened schools for fruit growing and viticulture, through the Soviet period, to the independent Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, along with the shifting names of the garden itself.
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A Week Later Than the West in 2026: How Ukraine’s Churches Set the Date of Easter
In 2026, Easter fell on April 5 for the Roman Catholic Church and on April 12 for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Greek Catholic Church. Though the 2023 calendar reform moved Christmas to December 25, both churches left the Easter calculation unchanged. This article works through how the equinox and full moon are fixed, why the gap shifts from year to year, the holidays counted from Easter, and how Easter is treated as a state holiday, based on church decisions and the church calendar.
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From Hlukhiv to Bologna: Three 18th-Century Ukrainian Composers
In 1771, Berezovsky, born in Hlukhiv, passed the examination of Bologna's Accademia Filarmonica. Bortniansky, born in the same town, also staged operas in Italy, while Vedel, in Kyiv, wrote choral concertos. From the singing school that sent boys to the imperial court choir to the birth years and work counts that differ from one encyclopedia to the next, this article traces the three men's paths through three encyclopedias and school records.
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Seven Years on Record, and a Legend Told for Generations: Dovbush, Leader of the Opryshky
In the first half of the 18th century, Oleksa Dovbush led the opryshky, bands who raided landlords and merchants in the Carpathian highlands. Sometimes called "the Ukrainian Robin Hood," this article traces, through two encyclopedias and a folklore collection, the seven years of events (1738-1745) that encyclopedias record, the legends gathered in 1910, and how views of him as a "noble bandit" diverge.
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Twenty Years Before Release: Brief Encounters and Director Kira Muratova
Completed at the Odesa Film Studio in 1967, Brief Encounters went almost entirely unscreened for about 20 years. Its director, Kira Muratova, was released together with Long Farewells (1971) in 1987. This article follows her life through encyclopedias, presidential decrees, and the Berlin International Film Festival's records, and sets side by side the years that differ from one source to the next.
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Two Rounds of Member Voting: The Golden Dzyga and the Ukrainian Film Academy
Ukraine's national film prize, the "Golden Dzyga" (Золота Дзиґа), decides most of its award winners by a vote of the members of the Ukrainian Film Academy, an organization of film professionals. In July 2026 it held its tenth ceremony. This article sets out membership eligibility, the two-round vote, the editions delayed by the full-scale invasion, and the committee that selects Ukraine's entry for the U.S. Academy Awards, drawing on the Academy's own bylaws and announcements.
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1,500-Plus Kilometers on the Map: The Underground Quarries Beneath Odesa
The "catacombs" beneath Odesa are the traces left by cutting stone to build the city, starting in the early 19th century. The often-cited figure of 2,500 km is written even in encyclopedias as an estimate; the tunnels that have actually been recorded and mapped come to just over 1,500 km. This article sets out the name, where the numbers come from, and the nature reserve and fossil cave dating to 1963, drawing on encyclopedias, a university, and city records.