The Marvelous Carpathians
The Carpathians is a unique region as it is the biggest mountainous territory in Europe. It is the home for a great variety of species of flora and fauna as well as for different nations; also it contains a great cultural heritage. In ancient times the Carpathians witnessed lots of colonizations and migrations of nations.
In the Carpathians one can find the highest mountain in Ukraine – Hoverla (2061 m) and the geographical center of Europe, which is not far from Dilove village, located in Rakhivs’kyi Rayon, and the highest of the high-altitude lakes in Ukraine – Berenskul Lake (1801 m above the sea level).
Verkhovyns’kyi Rayon is located in the very heart of Hutsul’shchyna in the southern part of Ivano-Frankivs’ka Oblast’. Its area is 126326 ha (9,2 % of the territory of the Oblast’).
Verkhovyna Town (620 m above the sea level) is situated 130 km away from Ivano-Frankivs’k and 31 km away from the railway station Vorokhta. Verkhovyna village is situated on the banks of the Chornyi Cheremosh River, not far from the Chornogirs’kyi ridge. Chornogora mount is the Hutsuls’ place of worship. They make up songs and legends about it and praise it in their myths and stories. The first historical records to mention Verkhovyna (until 1963 it was called Zhabye) date back to 1424.
For more then 600 years the Hutsuls lived under foreign oppression, but they never put up with it. They preserved their language, way of life, traditions and art. This year the village celebrates its 45-th anniversary since it changed its name to Verkhovyna.
In the XVI and XVIII centuries the people, who were fighting for liberation of their region were called opryshky. The name was used to denote armed people who rose against the oppressors. Oleksa Dovbush was the most famous of them. The songs about him can be heard even today.
After Ivan Franko visited Verkhovyna village in 1884, he wrote: “This is the village Zhabye, the capital of Hutsul’shyna; they say there is no greater village than Zhabye, yet there is no tougher place…”
Despite the oppression of the foreign governments and the economical slavery or other obstacles, created by different governments for Ukrainian culture, it could not hebetate the Hutsuls’ natural talents.
The Hutsuls took an active part in the national revolution in 1918-1920, fighting in the legion of the Ukrayins’ki Sichovi Stril’tsi and the Ukrainian Halitsian Army. In 1920, they revolted against Poland which occupied the territory. In 1940-1950, Hutsul’shchyna turned into a battlefield between the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the fascists and the communist regime.
The sacramental dream of both Hutsuls and the rest of the Ukrainian nation came true on August 24, 1991, when the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proclaimed the creation of the independent state – Ukraine.
The word “Zhabye” refers not only to the certain kind of amphibious life, but also gives an insight into the historical past of the land. The pagan Slavic tribes lived in the Carpathians for quite a long time and worshiped the god of sun, whom they called Habye. They prayed him to provide them fire and spray the sparks. The same word was used to denote the fireplace at home, worshiped as St. Habya. One should take into consideration that in Slavic languages the letter “h” became softer under the influence of the letter “y” and subsequently transformed into the letter “zh”. So the Lithuanian word “habye” equals the Slavic “zhabye”; the Hutsuls pronounce it like “zhebyi”, which resembles the Lithuanian way of pronunciation.
As one of the Hutsulian legends goes, the frogs and the dew fall down to the Earth from the Moon shortly before the sunrise. Apparently, in ancient times Verkhovyna used to be a religious center for our ancestors who worshiped fire.
The people who reside in Verkhovyna live close to the foothills of the mountains.
In February 1940, Zhabye became the Rayon center.
For several years the private museum “Hutsul’s’ki Muzyky”, organized by the honored worker of culture of Ukraine Roman Kymlyk, works in the village.