UKRAINE TAPS INTO HANSEATIC LEAGUE INITIATIVE

The Hanseatic League is a unique phenomenon in the history of Europe. From the co-operation and association of merchants for the development of their trade abroad, a federation of cities arose, which in its heyday included almost 200 cities. The Hanseatic League was so powerful that it imposed economic blockades on kingdoms and principalities to defend its economic interests, and, in exceptional cases, even waged wars.

From the thirteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century, the Hanseatic League largely dominated the exchange of goods between north-eastern and northwestern Europe, covering the needs of the west in raw materials and food from the east, opened by German colonisation, and the east from the west, where necessary western European products were supplied. For centuries, the Hanseatic League had a significant impact on economy and politics of Europe.

The modern Hanseatic League is an active network of approximately 200 cities from 16 European countries, many of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.The aim of “DIE HANSE” is to contribute to the economic, cultural, social and national unification of Europe and, in this sense, to strengthen the confidence of cities and municipalities in their powers so that they can fulfil their tasks as a place of living democracy.

Prince Lev Danylovych gave the German, Voivode Berthold, a mill in Lviv and small villages, Vynnyky and Pidbereztsi. The German colonies and, accordingly, the Hanseatic merchants played back the role of mediators in the trade and cultural ties of Ukrainian lands with European countries. Thanks to their efforts, a number of Ukrainian cities were involved in Hanseatic trade. Wroclaw and Gdansk became the main addressees of Ukrainian export. Such model of trade relations of Ukrainian lands with the outside world was determined by the general historical situation after the Mongol-Tatar invasion of 1241, which caused a deep destruction of the economy and reduction in population.

In the modern sense, international organisations emerged as a legal phenomenon at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, when the needs of world development determined the necessity to create the permanent collective intergovernmental bodies. The experience of the development of the first interstate international organisations is connected with the thirteenth century creation of the Hanseatic League as a trade and political union of North German cities, headed by the city of Lübeck, which formally existed until 1669. The League carried out trade between Western, Northern, and Eastern Europe. It had a trade hegemony in Northern Europe, and became the prototype of the European Union, its original archetype.

Already in our time (1980) in the city of Zwolle, the “New Hanse” was founded as a “cross-border living and cultural community of cities”. The purpose of this organisation is to support trade and tourism and to hold “Hanse Congresses of the New Era” annually in one of the former Hanseatic cities.

There are also long-standing ties between Ukraine and the Hanseatic League. Among the Hanseatic cities, Toruń, which was the centre of trade of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, played the leading role in trade with Ukraine. Toruń merchants traded predominantly in fabrics. In return they exported wax, squirrel fur, oriental silk and spices, as well as cattle.

Gradual economic revival, intensification of trade began in the mid-fourteenth century, but these processes were still slowed down by raids of hordes from the steppe. Besides, Ukrainian lands remained under complete foreign control - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, Hungary, Moldova, etc. This actually made independent trade activity impossible and increased the intermediary role of privileged merchant associations. In the period from the fourteenth to the the first half of the seventeenth century, both internal and external trade on Ukrainian lands was subject to strict regulation resulting into downfall of a large part of small and medium-sized merchants. Under such circumstances, the contacts of merchant guilds and cities were a particularly important form of political and legal support for the development of trade and economic relations. As an example of effective historical ties between Ukraine and the Hanseatic League, there is a letter from the council of the town of Volodymyr to the council of Stralsund dated 1324 confirming belonging of merchants Bertram and Mykolay Ruthenians to Volodymyr community, whose goods were detained in Stralsund after the shipwreck. This example clearly proves that Ukraine is definitely a natural component of the Hanseatic League.

The modern integration interests of Ukraine, among other things, are being implemented by a promising initiative of the representatives of the scientific, business, civil society of Ukraine using historical and modern experience in the practice of international cooperation.

An international non-government organisation has been created and successfully functioning, a humanitarian project - “Ukrainian Hanseatic Initiative”, which is the sole founder of the inter-structural interaction of the Hanseatic League, representing not only Ukraine in the Hanseatic League, but also the Hanseatic League in Ukraine and in the world. It is initiates and implements the perspective of effective development of the potential of the Hanseatic League, on the timeless essence of whose standards the viability of the countries of Europe is based, which will be confirmed in the future.

Also, the Ukrainian Hanseatic Initiative is the organiser and inspirer of the creation of the Hanseatic University in Ukraine as a scientific, educational, cultural centre