On October 5, 2023, Amund Myklebust, a Norwegian journalist and entrepreneur who has been helping Ukraine with various projects for many years, visited Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University. This country has already become like his second home, since he has been coming here for the past 20 years and connecting with many Ukrainian partners. What is also particularly important for us is that this Norwegian journalist took an active part in the founding of our organization, Student Journalism Platform, and the launch of the first version of this website. And on a regular basis, he shares with our team ideas for developing new projects and helps us to attract new partners.
Amund Myklebust gave a lecture on the historical ties between Ukraine and Norway, with a special emphasis on the period of Kyivan Rus. It is a well-known fact that many Kyivan princes or their children married Scandinavian representatives (kings, princesses, daughters of kings, etc.). The eldest daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Elizabeth, was married in 1045 to the Norwegian conung Harald the Harsh. At that time, Yaroslav himself had a wife named Ingygirda, baptized Iryna (she was the daughter of the Swedish king Olof Shetkonung). Therefore, if we go deeper into our past, if we imagine using a time machine to go back 1000 years to the period of Kievan Rus, we can see many common ties between us and the Scandinavians. Literally, a certain part of our genetic material comes from the people of Scandinavia. Interesting historical notes: the legendary chronicle “Tale of Bygone Years” tells about the arrival of the Vikings (or Varangians, as they are commonly called) – Prince Askold and Dir in 860 in Kyiv. It was with the arrival of these Vikings that Kyiv stopped paying tribute to the Khazars and, after a successful campaign against Constantinople, concluded an agreement with Byzantium. This can be considered the beginning of the statehood of Rus-Ukraine, as a foreign policy emerged and the principality expanded its influence to the rest of the surrounding lands. The chronicle also mentions the beginning of Rurik’s reign in Ladoga in 862 and his direct relation to the Varangian origin.
We must remember our history and not succumb to the manipulations of russians to distort this history. The aggressor seeks to impose its false narratives about Ukraine as an integral part of Russia on our society and actively uses various propaganda methods to achieve this goal. Their pseudo-journalists rewrite Ukraine’s history to give some meaning to their own narratives that have nothing to do with reality.
However, it should be understood, as the Norwegian emphasized in his speech, that Kyiv was a prosperous European city way before Moscow even existed on the world map at all. We have our own unique and very interesting history, which needs to be studied more, and we also need to remember the deep historical ties with other European countries that have been formed over many centuries. In this context, we also told the students about our publication Truthful Reporting, the NGO Student Journalism Platform, and the importance of truthful reporting today. We emphasized that Truthful Reporting has recently been included in the Map of Recommended Media in Ukraine. You can read more about it here.
In today’s information space, the ability to convey truthful information and understand what is true and what is just fake or manipulation is more important than ever. We are living in a time of full-scale hybrid war and fighting against the aggressor not only on the military front but also on the information front. That is why we urge you, our readers and students, to join the platform, to contribute to the publication as an author, editor or translator and tell the world the truth about the events in Ukraine today. Let the world know and understand more what’s happening today in our country. You can read how to do this by following this link.
