In May of 1594, Erich Lassota von Steblau, a special envoy of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II to the Zaporozhian Cossacks arrived in Kyiv. The Holy Roman Empire, the House of Habsburg intended for the first time in its history to invite Cossacks to form the new anti-Turkish coalition and for that reason, they sent Erich Lassota to negotiate with the Cossacks’ authorities. The “Diary of Erich Lassota: Habsburg and Zaporozhian Cossacks” in German is available on Archive.com. An English translation can be downloaded here. Here is how Erich Lassota copied the name of the famous bogatyr:
Who and why would want to change the name of the famous hero? The answer becomes obvious when one looks at the map and discovers that the city of Murom is in the east in the territory of ‘Russia”. Someone who messed with the true name wanted to implant an idea that the most famous defender of Kyiv was ‘Russian’. While the truth is that the former city of Morowa (which is currently a village) is situated halfway between Kyiv and Chernigiv, only some 150 kilometers to the north of Ukraine’s capital.
This is just one of the many examples of how Muscovy was stealing Ukrainian history. More examples and a new look at the history of Rus-Ukraine can be found in the “Gardariki, Ukraine” e-book.
