On July 28, Ukraine celebrates the Memorial Day of Prince Volodymyr, the Day of Trade Workers, as well as World Hepatitis Day and World Nature Protection Day.
Memorial Day of Prince Volodymyr
July 28 is the Memorial Day of Prince Volodymyr, who in 988 changed the life of Kievan Rus forever by adopting Christianity.
Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv lived in the X-XI centuries, was born around 960. He was the son of a Drevlyan woman – the daughter of Prince Mal, who was executed by Princess Olga for the murder of her husband Igor. Olga took pity on the two children of Prince Mal, a son and a daughter, and took them to her, and later Malusha gave birth to her grandson Volodymyr from the son of Princess Svyatoslav.
In 970, Svyatoslav divided the land among his three sons: Yaropolk – Kyiv, Oleg – Ovruch, Volodymyr – Novgorod. But soon Volodymyr had to run to the Varangians because of the insidious plans of his older brother. However, after some time he collected his wife, returned and in 978 took the throne of Kyiv from Yaropolk.
Prince Volodymyr was originally a pagan. He worshiped the gods, made sacrifices to them, had a harem. But everything changed when the prince demanded the hand of the Byzantine princess Anna in exchange for military assistance. Constantinople agreed with the condition that the prince would accept baptism. According to the “Tale of the Temporal Years”, Volodymyr had been thinking about choosing a faith even before that, and he decided on Orthodoxy.
Prince Volodymyr was baptized in Chersonesos. According to legends, before this he suddenly became blind, and after baptism he regained his sight. It was then that he uttered his famous phrase: “Now I have seen the True God!”. At the baptism, the prince was engaged to Vasyl. Together with him, his sons, servants, and wives underwent the rite of baptism (the pagans had many wives). Volodymyr renounced all his wives, and on August 14, 988, together with his new wife Anna, he went back to Kyiv. Soon, a historic baptism took place in the waters of the Dnipro. It is known that the day before Volodymyr announced: “If someone does not come to the river tomorrow – rich or poor, beggar or slave – I will be an enemy.” The ruler’s wish was fulfilled. Since then, the prince began to destroy pagan sanctuaries and build churches in their place.
Christianity appeared on the territory of modern Ukraine long before the baptism of Volodymyr — back in the 1st century, when the Apostle Andrew the First-Called was in Kyiv. There are also data about the first Christian martyrs in Crimea, in particular about the death of one of the first Roman bishops of Pope Clement I.
Before baptism, polygamy (from two to four women) prevailed in Russia. Prince Volodymyr had many wives and several hundred (up to 800) concubines. “Every pleasant woman and maiden was afraid of his loving gaze.” Some sources indicate that there was also a possibility of accepting Islam. However, the ban on alcohol in Islam got in the way, and Volodymyr and his army were lovers of merry drinking. They also considered the possibility of accepting Catholicism: “And we came to the Germans and saw their various services in the temples, but we did not see any beauty.”
On July 28, 1015 (according to the old style – July 15) in Berestov near Kyiv, Grand Duke Volodymyr Svyatoslavich died, he was 55 years old. The people called him prince – “bright sun”. To prevent a fight for the throne, he was secretly buried in the Tithe Church he built, but the war between his sons could not be avoided. In the history of Ukraine, his name is written in golden letters not only as a powerful and intelligent ruler, but above all as a baptizer, enlightener and zealous apostle of the Christian faith. The holy faith, which he accepted in the Byzantine rite, became over time the heart and soul of our nation and state.
As a state holiday, this day was established only on July 25, 2008 by the third president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko.
Day of trade workers
Trade Workers’ Day is a professional holiday of all trade workers in Ukraine, which has been celebrated annually on the last Sunday of July since 1995. Trade has played a key role in society since ancient times, when merchants embarked on long journeys to trade, discovering new lands and cultures. In the modern world, trade is an important economic and political factor.
Trade on the territory of Ukraine flourished even during the times of Kyivan Rus. Cities were centers of trade, where artisans and peasants gathered to sell their products and buy necessary goods. In Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and other cities, there were entire quarters where foreign merchants from Europe, Scandinavia and the East lived. A significant part of the merchant community consisted of Jews and Armenians.
Merchants from Kyivan Rus were welcome guests in many countries. For example, in Constantinople they had a separate trading yard where they stayed. They traded in furs, wax, linen, leather, silverware, bronze mirrors, and prisoners captured during military campaigns. Instead, foreign merchants brought expensive fabrics, spices, gold and silver jewelry, precious stones, weapons, wine, and horses to our lands.
Internal trade also developed actively – artisans’ products were delivered from Kyiv to other cities, salt from Volyn, and grain and vegetables to less fertile regions. The main trade center of Kyiv was Podil, where most business deals were concluded and active trade was conducted.
After the capture of Kiev by Khan Baty, trade did not stop, on the contrary, the number of dealers increased. The traditional form of trade was benches and trade rows, and from the 15th century, merchants began to create guild associations to control pricing. Once or twice a week bazaars were held in cities, and fairs became the largest form of trade.
In the 1920s, fairs were banned, and trade came under state control. In the Soviet period, trade was carried out over the counter, shops were dependent on centralized supply, and the range of goods was quite narrow. In the late 1980s, supermarkets combining the sale of food and industrial goods appeared, but the organization of trade almost did not change.
After gaining independence, Ukraine took a course towards the development of a market economy, the centralized system of distribution of goods was abolished, prices were liberalized, and the privatization of state trade began. A competitive environment was formed, entrepreneurial activity grew, and new channels of movement of goods were formed.
World Hepatitis Day
World Hepatitis Day is celebrated annually on July 28 in many countries. This day was chosen in honor of the birth of the American doctor Baruch Samuel Blumberg, who discovered the hepatitis B virus and received the Nobel Prize for it.
The first World Hepatitis Day was held in 2008 at the initiative of the International Hepatitis Alliance. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially added this date to its calendar.
On this day, the WHO recommends that doctors all over the world conduct educational campaigns, inform people about viral hepatitis and related diseases. Preventive measures such as diagnosis and vaccination against hepatitis are also important.
Other events on this day:
1914 – the beginning of the First World War;
1916 – the ban on the import of opium and cocaine to Great Britain; 1917 – the Small Council of the Ukrainian People’s Republic approved the personnel of the General Secretariat headed by Volodymyr Vinnychenko;
1959 – introduction of postal codes and installation of sorting machines in Great Britain;
1991 – creation of the Union of Officers of Ukraine;
1992 – in the Islamic State of Afghanistan, women were forbidden to appear on television;
1994 – adoption of the Constitution of Moldova;
2014 – Ukrainian troops freed Avdiivka from Russian troops.
On July 28, 1794, 22 political figures of the Great French Revolution were executed, including Maximilian Robespierre and Louis Antoine Saint-Just. Together with them, many other people were executed, and the number of corpses from official and unofficial executions was so great that in Paris they decided to open a factory for processing human skin. The skin of men turned out to be stronger and more elastic than the skin of animals, gloves, leggings, purses, and shoes were sewn from it. According to legend, one of the leaders of the revolution, Louis Antoine Saint-Just, became enraged when a young woman refused to reciprocate his amorous courtships, and ordered her to be executed, and ordered a waistcoat from her skin, which he wore every day. Saint-Just himself was executed on the guillotine on this very day. Stanislav Jerzy Letz was right when he said: “The French Revolution clearly showed that those who lose their heads lose.”
On July 28, 1858, two more significant events in history took place. William Herschel, an employee of the British administration, demanded from the Indian Rudyard Conai, a supplier of materials for the construction of the road, to certify the contract with his fingerprint. Later, after extensive research, he proposed this method of identification to the Inspector General of Prisons, Bengal. A person could grow old, his face and figure could change due to old age and disease, but the pattern of the fingertips remained the same. This is how a person’s personal, unchanging mark was discovered, and forensics received a fingerprint. Modern criminologists believe that the reliability of identifying a person by fingerprints is only 98 percent. This means that, on average, one in 50 convictions based on fingerprint identification may be a miscarriage of justice. The fault for this lies not with dactyloscopy, but with the unprofessionalism of the investigation.
On the same day, French photographer and cartoonist Félix Nadar, who patented the idea of using aerial photography for map-making and reconnaissance, conducted the first-ever aerial photo shoot. This is how aerial photography appeared, which played an important role in drawing up maps and conducting reconnaissance both in peacetime and in wartime. In 1858, Nadar patented the idea of taking pictures from a hot air balloon, which he implemented himself. In 1861, he constructed the “Giant” balloon and flew it over Paris several times. During the siege of Paris by German troops in 1870, he organized reconnaissance of enemy army movements using balloons. The first aerial photography from an airplane was carried out by Frenchmen Wright and Bonvillan at the beginning of the 20th century.
