04 May 2025
(Photo: Yaryna Paslavska)
Lviv-based journalist, writer and blogger Yaryna Paslavska traveled to old Cossack cemeteries in Odesa region to demonstrate that the history of the region is inextricably linked to the history of Ukraine and the Cossacks themselves.
Yaryna Paslavska visited old cemeteries where you can find many crosses that local historians define as "Cossack".
But as the blogger notes, there used to be many more such cemeteries in the Odesa region, but they were gradually destroyed.
"The century proved to be merciless to historical memory: old cemeteries were dismantled for stones that were later used in construction or to make dams." In the 90s, historian Ihor Sapozhnykov published a monograph "Stone Crosses of Steppe Ukraine" in which he described his travels in the Odesa region. Everywhere he went he found information about ancient cemeteries that had been destroyed. Over the past 10 years alone, not only individual graves and monuments have disappeared from the face of the earth, but also entire non-city towns, as happened in Yasky, Bilyayivka, Yefymivka, Ovidiopol, Dalnyk, Mykolaivka and others," the blogger noted.
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In particular, Yaryna Paslavska visited the Kuyalnytsia cemetery, cemeteries in Usatove and Nerubayske, cemeteries in Nova Kovalivka, Adamivka, Prymorske, Hlyboke, Pivdenne, and Sychavka.
Earlier, the Usatove Village Council of Odesa District entered into an agreement with private entrepreneur Oleksandr Shchygelskyi to develop design and estimate documentation for the reconstruction of the cemetery in the village of Usatove. The total cost of the work will be UAH 1.2 million. The project should be completed by December 31, 2025. The Usatove cemetery, which is known throughout Ukraine, is located in Odesa district and is a historic necropolis with numerous Cossack burials and an archaeological monument. Currently, there are only about fifty intact stone Cossack crosses left at the cemetery, most of which are being destroyed by external influences.
Yaryna Paslavska is not the only blogger who has recently visited the Odesa region. Dmytro Komarov, a journalist and author of the "The World Inside Out. Ukraine" project, Dmytro Komarov has already visited Odesa region three times.
Кирило Бойко