We live in the land of glorious ancestors… Many names of talented Zhytomyr men and women are known to the whole world, but there are also those who are rarely mentioned. Historian Victoria of Hungary reveals the new name of our compatriot to the readership of Zhytomyr.Travel. Historical essays on the representatives of different national groups, which are an integral part of the history of Zhytomyr, we will begin with the ethnic Pole, who became the first historian of the Zaporozhian Sich
«A Historian from Zhytomyr» is the beginning of a short story about Apollon Skalkovsky in the Ukrainian Small Encyclopedia, published in 1965 in Buenos Aires by representatives of the Ukrainian Argentine diaspora.
Zhytomyr of the early XIX century – is a city of four cultures, which due to historical circumstances are closely intertwined, and forever endowed it with a unique polyethnic charm. Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and Russians, and from the second half of the nineteenth century also Czechs and Germans, formed a «mix» that created a unique atmosphere in one of the country’s most western provincial centers. The Russian Empire, having joined the destruction of the Commonwealth, inherited from it a significant percentage of the Polish nobility, who lived concentrated in the Right Bank of Ukraine and, in particular, in Zhytomyr.
The future historian of Steppe Ukraine, Zaporizhia and the New Sich, Apollon Skalkowski, was born on January 1 (13), 1808, in one of the Polish families of the petty gentry. According to one version, which has the right to life, but needs clarification, the Skalkovsky house was located on Pylyponivska Street (modern Mykhailivska), on the site where the Sporting Goods store is now located.
At the age of twenty, the young man already received the degree of Candidate of Law and came to work in Odessa – a city with which he will connect life forever. A lawyer by education, Skalkovsky devoted himself to searching for sources and archival materials on the history of the last Zaporizhzhya Sich, and developed the archival and statistical work of the Novorossiysk Territory. This is how, according to the imperial tradition, the south of modern Ukraine was called. Thanks to the scientist’s search, the Kosh Zaporozhian archive of the 18th century was found and preserved, which is now stored in the Central State Historical Archive in Kyiv.
On the basis of the collected materials, Apollon Skalkovsky wrote historical works, including «History of the New Sich or the last Zaporozhian Kosh», «Haydamak’s raids on Western Ukraine in the XVIII century», «Jewish colonies in southern Russia in 1880», works on the history of Odessa , a series of articles on the history of the Right Bank of Ukraine in the XVIII century.
His creative output also includes works of art written in a romantic-adventure style close to Walter Scott’s novels. Today, Skalkovsky’s works are a valuable and unique historical source, due to the loss of some of the documents used by the author in writing.
Thanks to the archive and works of our compatriot, another Ukrainian historian Dmytro Yavornytsky was able to prepare his three-volume study «History of the Zaporozhian Cossacks».
Apollon Skalkovsky lived a long life, not living three days until his 90th birthday, leaving behind a significant legacy in the form of historical works, works of art, romantic adventures and ten children, each of whom was an interesting person and deserves a separate essay. Polish professor Stanislaw Pigon praised his contribution to history: «It is a fragment of the great battle that unfolded in the 19th century between Polish and Russian culture for Ukraine. Ukrainian culture has won».
