Kyiv (formerly Kiev) (pronounced kee-yiv (Ukrainian) or kee-yev (Russian))
(1) Capital
of Ukraine, in the north-central region of the country on the Dnieper River.
(2) An
oblast (a region or province in Slavic or Slavic-influenced countries (plural
oblasts or oblasti)) of Ukraine, the medieval principality centered on Kiev
(the Kievan state (Kievan Rus)).
(3) In
culinary slang, a shortened for the dish Chicken Kiev (a breast of chicken
stuffed with butter, garlic and parsley, rolled, breaded and fried).
Pre
1000: From the Ukrainian Kýjiv or Kyyiv (Ки́їв), from the Russian Kíjev (Ки́ев), perhaps from the name Кий
(Kij or Kyi), one of the city’s four legendary founders, from the Proto-Slavic
kyjь (stick, club) although some historians regard this as a folk etymology and
instead link it to an evolution of something from the local language. The alternative forms are Kyïv, Kyjiv & Kyyiv, the
earlier forms Kiou, Kiow, Kiovia, Kiowia, Kiew, Kief, Kieff & Kief all obsolete. Historically, in Western use, an inhabitant
of Kiev was a Kievan.
The
Ukrainian government's official roman-alphabet name for the city is Kyiv,
according to the national standard for romanization of Ukrainian Київ (Kyjiv), and has been adopted by
geographic naming databases, international organizations, and by many other
reference sources. In the West, many
style guides have been updated to reflect the government’s recommendation the
preferred spelling should be Kyiv (although a few historians insist it should be Ki'iv), pronounced kee-yiv and a transliteration of the Ukrainian Київ.
The
Russian form was a transliteration from the Russian Cyrillic Киев and, along
with the associated pronunciation, was the internationally accepted name during the
Soviet era, something that lasted well into the twenty-first century and many who couldn’t have
found the place on a map would have been familiar with both because of the eponymous
chicken dish introduced to popular Western cuisine in the 1960s. The post-Soviet reaction to the Russification
of Ukraine encouraged the Ukrainian authorities to adopt the local spelling,
the cultural sensitivities heightened by Russia’s military incursions into
Ukrainian territory since 2014. The
changing of locality names is nothing new in Europe, various parts of the
continent having changed hands over thousands of years and names of localities
have often been altered better to suit the needs of conquerors, sometimes as a
form of triumphalism and sometimes just to ease the linguistic
difficulties. The area in which sits
Kyiv has at times over the last millennium fallen under Mongol, Lithuanian,
Polish, Russian, Soviet and now Ukrainian rule and while Russian and Ukrainian
are both east Slavonic languages (as opposed to west Slavonic languages such as
Polish, and south Slavonic ones like Bulgarian) and from the one original root
they have, like just about all languages, diverged in forks which sometimes
evolved and sometimes went extinct.
In the
early modern period, Ukrainian absorbed some Polish influences and a number of vowels
came to be pronounced differently from their Russian counterparts, the kind of
regional difference quite familiar to those in England, Germany or the United
States. That would be variation enough
to account for many differences but in its evolution, several letters of the
alphabet became unique to Ukrainian (such as the ї in Київ) and the variations
can make it difficult for native Russian speakers to understand some words or
expressions when spoken by Ukrainians. Still, there must be acknowledgement that name changes imposed from Moscow (whether Russian, Tsarist or Soviet) have so often reflected an astute understanding of propaganda and the implications of language. When in the 1660s the Ukraine was taken from the Kingdom of Poland, the Russians promptly renamed the territory "Little Russia" although despite the assertions of some that here began the Kremlin's manufactured fiction that Russians & Ukranians are the one people with the one language, the root of that lie earlier. The legend shared by three Slavic peoples is of three brothers, Czech, Lech & Rus who set off in three directions from the family and later settled in different places, the three fathering the Czechs, the Poles and the Rus (which begat both the Russians and Ukranians).
Sometimes
the changes effected by governments happen instantly upon occupation such as
much as what was done in Nazi-occupied Europe but sometimes, the rectification
or correction waits for centuries.
Although the Byzantine capital Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453,
it wasn’t until the Turkification movement, which began in the 1920s after the
formation of the modern Turkish state, that the government began to encourage
other countries to use Turkish names for Turkish cities, instead of the
transliterations to Latin script which had been used during the Ottoman
era. In 1930, the Government gazetted
the official change of name from Constantinople to Istanbul. Ankara’s interest in linguistic hygiene was
recently revived, the Turkish authorities issuing a communiqué advising the
country’s name would change from the internationally recognized name from
"Turkey" to “Türkiye”. The
concern is said to be the association of Turkey with other meanings in English
(not the birds but rather “a person who does something thoughtless or annoying;
an event or product which fails badly or is totally ineffectual”). Around the word, those in chancelleries
dutifully adjusted their directory entries while cynics wondered if the Turkish
president might be looking for something to distract people from their
problems.
The Chicken Kiev speech
What came to be known as the “Chicken
Kiev speech” was delivered by President Bush (George HW Bush, George XLI; 1924–2018;
US president 1989-1993) to a session of the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine in Kyiv on
1 August 1991. The tone of his words
came to be much criticized by the right of the Republican Party, still infused
with the spirit of Ronal Reagan and heady from breathing in the dust which rose
as the Berlin Wall fell. Three weeks after
the speech, the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence would be presented and a
few months after that, over 90% of Ukrainians would vote to secede from the Soviet
Union which would collapse before the year was out, an event at least hastened
by Ukrainian independence. Bush’s speech
came directly after his meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev (b 1931; leader of the
USSR 1985-1991), the last Soviet leader, who seems to have impressed the US
president with both his sincerity and ability to pursue economic and political
reform.
Bush started well enough, telling
his audience “…today you explore the
frontiers and contours of liberty…”, adding “For years, people in this nation felt powerless, overshadowed by a vast
government apparatus, cramped by forces that attempted to control every aspect
of their lives.” That encouraging
anti-Moscow direction must have raised expectations but they were soon
dashed, Bush continuing “President
Gorbachev has achieved astonishing things, and his policies of glasnost,
perestroika, and democratization point toward the goals of freedom, democracy,
and economic liberty.” Just to make
sure there was no hint that Washington might be encouraging in Ukrainian minds
any thoughts of independence, Bush provided clarification, telling his by now
perhaps disappointed audience that “…freedom
is not the same as independence. Americans
will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off
tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal
nationalism based upon ethnic hatred."
The speech had been written by Condoleezza
Rice (b 1954; US secretary of state 2005-2009), then on the eastern Europe desk
at the National Security Council and a special assistant to the president for
national security affairs although the "suicidal
nationalism" flourish was inserted by Bush himself. Commenting later, Dr Rice and Mr Bush would
acknowledge the speech did not capture the moment, the winds of change which had
been blowing since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but both in their (sort
of) apologias made the point that August of 1991 was a very different time and
place from December and nobody had predicted the imminent demise of the Soviet
Union.
Whatever the reaction of the
Ukrainians, it was no more severe than that unleashed at home by the
aggregations of anti-communists, American exceptionalists and right-wing
fanatics, New York Times columnist William Safire (1929-2009) calling it the
"Chicken Kiev speech" and a
"colossal mis-judgment". Later presidents, all of course who served in
a post-Soviet environment, seemed to agree and changed direction, pushing for
an aggressive expansion of NATO to embrace all the former Soviet bloc. NATO would, at the now famous Bucharest
summit in 2008, go further still, pledging that Ukraine and Georgia would one
day be invited to join the alliance. Perhaps wishing to atone for the sins of
the father, another President Bush (George W Bush, George XLIII; b 1946; US
president 2001-2009) then wanted immediately to offer both nations membership roadmaps
but even then, Berlin and Paris were cautious about antagonizing Russia and put
both the former Soviet republics on the back-burner. There they’ve stayed.
Chicken Kiev (côtelette de volaille in Russian
& Ukrainian cuisine)
Chicken Kiev variations.
Ingredients
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
Olive oil
4 x 150 g skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons of plain flour
2 large free-range eggs
150 g fresh breadcrumbs
Sunflower oil
2 large handfuls of baby spinach or
rocket
2 lemons
Butter
4 cloves of garlic
½ a bunch (15g) of fresh flat-leaf
parsley
4 knobs of butter (at room
temperature)
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
800 g Piper potatoes
1 head of broccoli
1 knob of unsalted butter
Instructions
Fry bacon in a pan at medium heat
with no more than a drizzle of olive oil, until golden and crisp, then remove.
For the butter, peel garlic, then
finely chop with the parsley leaves and mix into the softened butter with the
cayenne. Refrigerate.
Stuff the chicken breasts. Pull back the loose fillet on the back of the
breast and use a knife to slice a long pocket.
Cut the chilled butter into four and
insert into the pocket, then crumble in a rasher of crispy bacon. Fold and seal back the chicken, completely
covering the butter so it becomes a wrapped parcel.
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
Place flour in a shallow bowl, whisk
the eggs in another and put breadcrumbs and a pinch of seasoning into a
third. Evenly coat each chicken breast
in flour, then beaten egg, letting any excess drip off, and finally, turn them
in the breadcrumbs, repeating until all four are evenly coated.
Shallow-fry
in ¾ inch (20 mm) of
sunflower oil on a medium to high heat until lightly golden (should take no
more than 2-3 minutes), then transfer to a tray and bake in the oven until
cooked through (typically around 10-12 minutes). The alternative method is to bake them
completely in the oven and skip the frying process; this requires drizzling
them with olive oil and baking for about 20 minutes; taste will be the same but
they won’t have the golden surface texture.
While cooking, peel and roughly chop
the potatoes and cook in a large pan of boiling salted water until tender
(typically 12-15 minutes).
Chop up broccoli and add it to the
potatoes for the last 8-odd minutes of cooking.
Drain and leave to steam dry, then return to the pan and mash with a
knob of butter and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Dollop the mash on the serving plates, placing a Kiev atop each. Lightly dress the spinach leaves or rocket in a little oil and lemon juice, then sprinkle over the top as garnish. Serve with a wedge of lemon.
