What is sobornost (conciliarity): an explanation of a word that is significant for Ukrainians

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On Wednesday, January 22, Ukraine will celebrate an important national holiday – Sobornost Day. Most of us know what events it is dedicated to, but do you know what exactly the word “sobornost” means in the name of the holiday?

What is sobornost?

As the Explanatory Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language in 11 volumes tells us, the word “sobornost” is a noun that denotes a property, the name of which is formed from the adjective “soborny”. And that, in turn, if it does not describe something related to the cathedral (which is not the case in this case), then it denotes something united, indivisible; based on the principle of sobornost.

In this sense, the word is marked as outdated. However, the name of the holiday has returned it to relevance, introduced it into modern language. And the element of antiquity only gives this name a more solemn, sublime sound.

What is the meaning of the word “sobornist” in the name of the holiday of January 22?

As we know from history, on January 22, 1919, the Act of Union was proclaimed on Sophia Square in Kyiv – the unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic into a single state. That state is called the prototype of modern Ukraine. Its creation was enshrined in the fourth universal of the Central Rada.

The document concluded a whole series of political decisions, according to which the Ukrainians who lived under the rule of the Russian and Austrian empires expressed their desire to unite for the sake of creating their own independent republic. “The parts of a single Ukraine that have been separated from each other for centuries are merging together – the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, Galicia, Bukovina and Hungarian Ukraine, and the Greater Dnieper Ukraine,” the document states.

Thus, historically divided Ukrainian lands were reunited into something indivisible. That is, they declared their unity.

In 1990, on the eve of the collapse of the USSR, the citizens of Ukraine symbolically repeated this step again. Then, on January 21, to celebrate the anniversary of the proclamation of the Act of Union, people lined up in a human chain that stretched from Lviv to Kyiv. Throughout the entire distance between these cities, Ukrainians stood in a continuous row, holding hands, thus symbolically uniting the territory. That is, they embodied the concept of unity in real life.