"This is not a novel, but a historical document that may help our descendants better understand this era of great changes" (From the memoirs of Lyudmila Kraskovska about her father) (introductory article and publication by I.B. Matyash)

Abstract

There are fragments of memories by Liudmyla Kraskovs’ka – a famous Slovak historian, archeologist and educator – of her father – Ivan Kraskovs’kyi. Coming from Belarus, he was one of the first public officers of the Ukrainian foreign-policy department and the Head of the Extraordinary diplomatic mission of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in the Caucasus 1919–1920. The memories “Since Old Times” had been written for 60 years and were released for the author`s 95th birthday. Different periods of her life are outlined by three parts of the writing. The memories of the time when the Kraskovs’ki family was in Tiflis and their way to Vienna are the most precious parts of the text in terms of the Diplomatic Service of Ukraine. The significant details of daily life, the chronology of being in Ukraine, the geography of travelling around Ukrainian cities and living conditions in Georgia are shown in the memories. Attention to the people the Kraskovs’ki met in Ukraine, in particular to the Oleksandr Kanduba’s family (Oleksandr Oles’s family), is an important element of the memories. The issue is a bibliographical rarity nowadays as far as hardly any bookstore has got it.