In the light of the current war in Ukraine the following review was posted in my blog in 2018. It gave me a historical perspective on Ukraine and Poland that is invaluable.

I want to introduce you to one of the most enthralling works of literature that I have ever read. Between 1883 and 1888 Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote his trilogy: WITH FIRE AND SWORD, THE DELUGE, and FIRE IN THE STEPPE, for which he deservedly received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905. W.S. Kuniczak has superbly translated it into modern English in 1991 and 1992. I believe it is even better as a national saga, an adventure story, and a romance than Tolstoy’s WAR AND PEACE.

His subject is Poland and Ukraine in the seventeenth century as it endured wave after wave of invasions, rebellions and civil war.

Jerzy J. Maciuszko of Baldwin-Wallace College quotes James A. Michener who called the Trilogy “a sacred book.” He goes on to say that in most Polish and Ukrainian homes it stands beside the Bible.

“It has rallied the Polish people in their most tragic moments for more than a century, giving them faith and hope when neither appeared to be realistic, and it continues to inspire each new generation. Yet it is not merely an apotheosis of grandeur and lost glories but also a grim lesson in humanity, decency, loyalty and determination, which warns, not only Poles, but every other people that even the greatest civilizations fall if they lose sight of their moral and spiritual values. Written with love and that controlled, disciplined passion that makes for great writing, it has withstood every test of time, and although it has often been compared with a variety of famous English and American novels there is really nothing quite like it in any other literature beyond the works of Homer.

The author who turned to the 17^th century to comfort his countrymen, shows us a nation rising back to greatness through courage, faith, endurance and devotion after successive devastations by rebellious Cossacks, invading Swedes, and the avalanche of the Moslem world which tried to overwhelm Christianity itself in an attack on Poland and Ukraine. …The role of greatness in FIRE IN THE STEPPE, is supplied by a historical figure rather than any character of the fiction, in the person of King Jan III Sobieski, who save the Christian world from the Turks at Vienna in 1683.”

Sienkiewicz travelled through America in 1876-78 and wrote about the American West, the high plains and western prairies and fell in love with all the people he met. His descriptions of his travels found their way into the magnificent descriptions of the borderlands of southeastern Poland and Ukraine.

This trilogy is a page-turner. I found it difficult to put down as each chapter led on to the next. Its characters, both male and female, come to life in their romances, their courage under overwhelming odds, and their faith.

Recently I read a review of a book on modern Europe, which is struggling to survive the onslaught of immigration and multi-culturalism. The reviewer laments that European political elites do not have a sense of their own historical, national and religious identities, and what Miguel de Unamuno called “the tragic sense of life.” Their principles have eroded and the legacy of previous struggles against tyrannies sometimes have been forgotten. Compromise and cowardice can replace the virtues of western civilization.

The current leadership in Ukraine and Nato personified in President Zelenskyy have revived the values of democracy and freedom. Ukraine has suffered much from foreign invaders during the centuries. That they are willing to fight for their independence should inspire our own leaders. It is to be hoped that we will be willing to support and supply them and not be intimidated by our fears of conflict. We do not need another period of appeasement that encouraged evil leaders and led to the second World War. Reading this trilogy will put heart in everyone who values Christian culture.

The trilogy is hard to find. Request it from your public library on inter-library loan. Remember to request the Kuniczak translation.