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About this Book
On a visit to Ukraine to retrieve a family heirloom secretly buried by his grandfather during the Second World War, Yaroslaw, a Ukrainian-Canadian university student, stumbles into a world full of spies and secret organizations, peril and political intrigue.
His discovery of the hidden cache yields clues to the location of a fabled lost treasure – the greatest in all Europe. Working against time, Yaroslaw and a small band of accomplices struggle to uncover and save a nation’s heritage, operating in secret to prevent the corrupt leaders of the government – and the Russians – from stealing it.
Yaroslaw’s Treasure is a thrilling suspense story set against the gripping drama of the Orange Revolution, the 2004 popular uprising that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets in Ukraine to overthrow a corrupt government and reinforce democracy in a land long occupied by repressive and foreign regimes.
Rich with history, romance, politics, and danger, Yaroslaw’s Treasure superbly captures the wonders and horrors of Ukraine’s past, swirls through the treacherous currents of its present politics, all the while providing entertainment as a first-rate thriller.
Praise for Yaroslaw’s Treasure
“Think Hollywood action-adventure film Romancing the Stone, with a dash of a young ‘Indiana Jones’ thrown in. Except what takes Yaroslaw’s Treasure beyond the action, lightness, and romance into greater depths are the political issues it raises. It makes sense of them by staging a living, historical context for the modern-day contentions.
“Disputed origins and independence of Ukraine entwine with actions of the empire-addicted, KGB-controlled Russia to create a maze through which Yaroslaw quests for the treasure, a voyage as mysterious and dangerous as the deep caves of the mediaeval Ukrainian kingdom of Kyivan Rus' into which we are led.
“This spectacular expedition tumbles us into the depths of those caves. We encounter Kyiv’s heroic, but realistically and humorously rendered, defenders during the Mongol destruction of the city in 1240. We emerge at the dawning of the Orange Revolution 764 years later, when the heroes of the twenty-first century supplant those of the thirteenth. From beginning to end, a journey to treasure!”
Myroslava Oleksiuk, film-maker, editor of ePOSHTA, Independent Ukrainian Internet News Magazine
“A riveting book!”
Paulette MacQuarrie, host of Nash Holos radio show, Vancouver, British Columbia
“Yarolsaw’s Treasure is a double-entendre – the family treasure is intertwined with a far greater treasure that is, in turn, intertwined with the fate of contemporary Ukraine. Abductions, explosions, and shoot-outs take the reader on a wild and exciting ride.”
Tamara Stadnychenko Cornelison, editor, Our Life, New York City
“An innocent Canadian meets Ukrainian reality in a fast-paced tale blending fact and fiction marvellously.”
Nestor Gayowsky, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada’s first diplomat to Ukraine and Consul-General
“Historically accurate and well researched – from the sacking of Kyiv, through the 1940s wartime episodes, into the Orange Revolution – Petriw displays a very good grasp of the political goings-on in Ukraine. This drama of delightful realism will be enjoyed by many.”
Bohdan Onyschuk, Chair, Canada Ukraine Foundation
© Myroslav Petriw
All rights reserved. Written permission of the publisher or a valid licence from Access Copyright is required to copy, store, transmit, or reproduce any part of this publication.
Blue Butterfly Book Publishing Inc.
2583 Lakeshore Boulevard West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M8V 1G3
Tel 416-255-3930 / Fax 416-252-8291
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PUBLISHING HISTORY
Print edition, soft cover, 2009; second printing, 2010
ISBN 978-0-9784982-7-6
Electronic edition, epub format, 2010
ISBN 978-1-926577-36-4
Front cover concept by Gary Long and Myroslav Petriw
Maps by Gary Long / Fox Meadow Creations
Title page photo – Mykhailivsky Monastery, Kyiv – by Myroslav Petriw
Cover photo – Koronska Street, Lviv, Ukraine – by Myroslav Petriw
Blue Butterfly Books thanks book buyers for their support in the marketplace.
Dedication
To my wife, Luba …
and our sons,
Yaroslaw, Mark, and Adrian
Note to readers
The meaning of most Ukrainian and other non-English words used in this book are either explained in the narrative or are evident from the context. For additional background on many of these terms, please consult the Glossary which follows the main text.
Prologue
KYIV, UKRAINE
December, 1240 A.D.
AN UNEARTHLY thunderclap and a roar like he had never heard before made Ratibor whirl about. The air itself had slammed him like an enemy shield in combat. What he now saw was beyond comprehension. The tower that had stood over the city gates, the gates themselves, the very soil of the earthenworks, and hundreds of boulders that had been bracing the gates, were lifting into the air in a cloud of smoke and fire. Ratibor saw the face of Perun, the Thunder God of old, in that fire and smoke. Staggering back, he tripped over the stoop of some building, falling through its shattered façade, landing under the protection of a snow-covered roof.
What happened next was no less diabolical. All that had flown upwards began raining down. First came the boulders, falling like giant hail among the hundred prostrate figures that littered his field of view. Then came a rain of rocks, earth, logs, lumber, and men. This was followed by a shower of bloody body parts, rent shields, armour, and dirt. When such larger parts stopped falling, all he could hear was a steady hiss, as of falling rain, as torn flakes of everything, along with dirt, more dirt, and dust fell to earth. A thick cloud hovered where Kyiv’s southern Lyadski Gates once stood.
For a moment, terror and incomprehension paralyzed him. But a deeply rooted sense of duty, that of a voyevoda, or warrior leader, overcame this paralysis. It was not courage. It was an alloy of desperation and duty. He was alive; others were dead.
“If not I, then who?” Ratibor asked himself.
He stood up and discarded the tattered remains of the fur overcoat from his chain mail hauberk. He retrieved his shield and walked directly towards the middle of the cloud of dust. He unsheathed his two-edged sword from its scabbard. An old topir, the Rus′ battle-axe that was long out of fashion, hung behind him from his belt. As he approached, he saw that the tower of the Lyadski Gates had been converted into a pile of rubble, criss-crossed with splintered logs and lumber. It still formed