"The Business of Forgotten Ancestors": LIGA.net launches a special project on the history of Ukrainian entrepreneurship

LIGA.net launches a serial special project "The Business of Forgotten Ancestors" – about the economic life of the Hetmanate, which the empire silenced, devalued, and tried to erase from our memory.

Our history is wider than just one image. Ukrainians were indeed farmers – caring, hardworking, resilient. But this is not the end of the story. Beneath the layer of imperial myths lies another, often forgotten Ukraine — a country of Cossack bankers and entrepreneurial women, city merchants and family estates, craft shops and distilleries, credit unions and artillery factories.

"The Business of Forgotten Ancestors project returns voices and faces to those who have been erased from our memory. This is an act of restoring dignity. We want to show that Ukrainians have always had not only the will but also business acumen. We had our own entrepreneurs, our own ambitions, our own economic traditions. Our future is not based on a fictional origin, but on a real, rich, albeit forgotten tradition of entrepreneurship," explains the value of the project the CEO of Ligamedia media holding, which includes LIGA.net, Natalia Koteneva.

The project was launched on Entrepreneur's Day because, in addition to their historical interest, these texts provide practical tips for modern business: how business reputations were built, why symbolic gestures were important in negotiations, and how Ukrainians adapted to different communication models.

"The Business of Forgotten Ancestors" combines historical facts with emotional storytelling and opens a new page of decolonization through an economic lens, not just a cultural or linguistic one.

The first story of the special project tells about the Kandyba dynasty, who built an entire trading empire on exporting cattle to Europe, but the family was plagued by dramas and scandals. International trade, family conflicts, the wedding economy, and cultural heritage are intertwined here.