The Cyril and Methodius Society is a secret political organization in the Russian Empire that opposed serfdom. It existed in 1846-1847, was organized on the initiative of Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov, the author of a multi-volume publication on Russian history. The ultimate goal of the participants in this organization was the formation of a union of democratic Slavic republics, the center of which was to be Kyiv. An important role in the union was assigned to the Ukrainians. Members of the brotherhood considered them to be especially freedom-loving people, prone to democracy. The organization was named in honor of the Enlighteners and Saints Cyril and Methodius. This article will discuss the history of the creation of the organization, its tasks and members.
History of Appearance
The Cyril and Methodius Society became the first Ukrainian organization in the Russian Empirepolitical orientation. You can find evidence of this in two documents at once. These are the "Charter of the Slavic Society of St. Cyril and Methodius" and "The Law of God (the Book of Genesis of the Ukrainian people)", which were written by Kostomarov.
The program provisions of these documents were actually implemented in the calls of the Cyril and Methodius Society, which sounded like:
- "Brothers Great Russians and Poles!".
- "Brothers Ukrainians!".
These documents contained an appeal to the peoples to unite in the Union of Slavic Republics. It was supposed to be a federation based on democratic institutions.
Participants of the Cyril and Methodius Society stood for equality, freedom and fraternity, which were to become the foundations of a new public education. Specific measures to achieve these goals were the elimination of legal differences between estates, the abolition of serfdom, the availability of education for workers.
Currents within the brotherhood
Inside the Cyril and Methodius society, there were two currents. Evolutionary, or liberal-bourgeois, and revolutionary, or people's democratic.
They adhered to the same principles, but at the same time they disagreed on which of them should be considered the most important and paramount.
At the same time, in many ways, in their views, both of them were close to the Moscow Slavophiles. In the 1980s, it even became the subject of special studies. Difference and identity in their worldviewscan be clearly seen in the example of the Slavophil Fyodor Chizhov, who was arrested in the case of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. In the spring of 1847 he was exiled to Ukraine after a temporary imprisonment.
Leaders
Besides Kostomarov, there were many other bright and famous members of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. Among them, mostly young intellectuals, students and teachers of Kharkov and Kyiv universities.
Kostomarov himself belonged to the liberal-bourgeois movement, as well as the composer Afanasy Markovich, the folklorist Panteleimon Kulish, and the teacher Alexander Tulub. They were convinced of the brotherhood and unity of the Slavs, the importance of the development of Ukrainian culture.
Revolutionary-democratic views were shared by publicist Nikolai Gulak, poet Georgy Andruzsky, public figure Ivan Posyada. Taras Shevchenko, who joined the brotherhood in April 1846, had a great influence on the formation of ideas and views. He was a follower of the revolutionary movement.
Tasks
Telling briefly about the Cyril and Methodius brotherhood, it is important to dwell on the tasks that they pursued. The organization was based on pan-Slavic and Christian ideas. Its main tasks were the liberalization of the cultural and political life of the Russian Empire. This must have taken place within the framework of the pan-Slavic union of peoples.
Social and national liberation has become an important task in the activities of the Cyril and Methodius BrotherhoodUkraine, first of all, in the anti-feudal sense. These events were to be accompanied by the abolition of class privileges, serfdom, the proclamation of freedom of conscience and other important democratic institutions.
The planned all-Slavic federation was to include not only Russia and Ukraine, but also the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria and Serbia. Legislative power was supposed to be given to the Sejm, consisting of two chambers. The functions of the executive were to be carried out by the immediate head of state in the status of president.
The society was supposed to realize its ideals by carrying out peaceful reforms in full accordance with the Christian rules of meekness, love and patience.
Historical value
Describing briefly the Cyril and Methodius Society, it is worth emphasizing that its historical significance was that it was the first attempt by the Ukrainian intelligentsia to support the rights and freedoms of its people.
In addition, a rich program was developed, which became a pointer and guide for numerous followers.
The fundamental thing was that the brotherhood turned out to be an original and independent political formation. It was unique, as it did not repeat any other political organizations that existed at that time in the Russian Empire.
Debacle
The brotherhood did not last long. In March 1847, Alexei Petrov, a student at Kyiv University, informed the authorities about the existence of a secret society. He managed to find it duringone of the discussions in which its members took part. He just overheard them.
In the next month and a half, the brotherhood was actually defeated by the gendarmes. Most of his supporters were exiled or arrested. For example, Taras Shevchenko, who was then 33 years old, was sent to the army.
Return to scientific, literary and teaching activities, most of them were able only in the 1850s.
Nikolay Kostomarov
Kostomarov was the main ideologist of the brotherhood. He was born in the Voronezh province in 1817. He was about 30 when the secret society was founded.
He studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kharkov University. It was then that I became seriously interested in history. Having learned Ukrainian, he began to write in this language under the pseudonym Jeremiah Halka, releasing several collections of poems and dramas.
Interestingly, his first dissertation caused a scandal. The work on the significance of the union in Western Russia was considered outrageous, and it was ordered to be burned. At the same time, Kostomarov was allowed to write another master's thesis. In 1843, he successfully defended a work on the historical significance of folk poetry in Russia.
After that, his attention was focused on the figure of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Since 1846, he began teaching Russian history at Kiev University, then a secret circle formed around him.
Accused of organizing a secret society, Kostomarov spent a year in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then was exiled to Saratov. In this provincial townwas under constant police surveillance. At the same time, he was forbidden to teach and print his works.
Once in exile, he was amazed at how huge the gulf between his ideals and existing reality turned out to be. It is important that at the same time he retained energy and the ability to continue hard work.
By 1856, the ban on the publication of his works was lifted. Then supervision was removed.
The fate of Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko in the history of modern Ukraine remains one of the main poets and writers, a representative of the national movement that became the founder of modern Ukrainian literature and the Ukrainian literary language.
Shevchenko was born in the Kyiv province in 1814. After the defeat of the secret society, he was accused of writing outrageous poetry in the Little Russian language. In them, he wrote about the disasters and enslavement of Ukraine, advocated free Cossacks.
It was decided to send him as a private for military service in the Orenburg Territory. It was only in 1857 that he was released, thanks to numerous petitions. Taras returned to St. Petersburg, visited Ukraine, but he did not have long to live. Four years later, he died of dropsy at the age of 47.
