The Cyril and Methodius Society is a secret political organization in the Russian Empire that opposed serfdom. It existed in 1846-1847, was organized at 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 become Kiev. An important role in the union was given to Ukrainians. The members of the fraternity considered them to be especially freedom-loving people, prone to democracy. The organization was named after the enlighteners and saints Cyril and Methodius. This article will discuss the history of the organization, its tasks and members.
Appearance story
The Cyril and Methodius Society became the first Ukrainian political organization in the Russian Empire. This can be found evidence in two documents at once. This is the "Charter of the Slavic Society of St. Cyril and Methodius" and "The Law of God (The book of the being of the Ukrainian people)", which were written by Kostomarov.
The programmatic provisions of these documents were actually implemented in the appeals of the Cyril and Methodius Society, which sounded like:
- "Great Russian brothers and Poles!".
- "Brothers Ukrainians!".
These documents called on the peoples to unite in the Union of Slavic Republics. It was assumed that this would be a federation based on democratic institutions.
Participants of the Cyril and Methodius Society advocated equality, freedom and fraternity, which were to become the foundations of a new state formation. Specific measures to achieve these goals were the elimination of legal differences between estates, the abolition of serfdom, and 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 uniform principles, but at the same time differed in which of them should be considered the most important and paramount.
Moreover, in many respects, both of them were close to the Moscow Slavophiles. In the 1980s, it even became the subject of special studies. The difference and identity in their worldviews can clearly be 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 temporary detention.
The leaders
In addition to Kostomarov, there were many other bright and famous participants in the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. Among them, mainly young intellectuals, students and teachers of Kharkov and Kiev universities.
Kostomarov himself belonged to the liberal-bourgeois movement, as well as composer Afanasy Markovich, folklorist Panteleimon Kulish, 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 the publicist Nikolai Gulak, the poet Georgy Andruz, and the public figure Ivan Posyada. A great influence on the formation of ideas and views was made by Taras Shevchenko, who joined the fraternity in April 1846. He was a supporter of the revolutionary trend.
Tasks
Speaking 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.
In the activities of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, an important task was the social and national liberation of Ukraine, primarily in the anti-feudal sense. These events should have been 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 supposed to include not only Russia and Ukraine, but also the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria and Serbia. Legislative power was supposed to be given to a diet consisting of two chambers. The executive function was to be carried out by the direct head of state in the status of president.
The society intended to realize its ideals through peaceful reforms in full accordance with the Christian rules of meekness, love and patience.
Historical meaning
Briefly describing Cyril and Methodius society, it is worth emphasizing that its historical significance was that this was the first attempt by the Ukrainian intelligentsia to come out in support of the rights and freedoms of its people.
In addition, a rich program was developed, which has become a guide and reference for numerous followers.
It became fundamental that the fraternity turned out to be an original and independent political formation. It was unique, since it did not repeat any other political organizations that existed at that time in the Russian Empire.
Rout
The brotherhood did not last long. In March 1847, a student at Kiev University Aleksey Petrov informed the authorities about the existence of a secret society. He managed to find him during one of the discussions in which his members took part. He just overheard them.
In the next month and a half, the fraternity was virtually defeated by the gendarmes. Most of his supporters exiled or arrested. For example, Taras Shevchenko, who was then 33 years old, was sent to the soldiers.
Most of them were able to return to scientific, literary and teaching activities only in the 1850s.
Nikolay Kostomarov
Kostomarov was the main ideologist of the fraternity. He was born in Voronezh province in 1817. When the secret society was founded, he was about 30.
He studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kharkov University. It was then that he became seriously interested in history. Having learned Ukrainian, he began to write in this language under the pseudonym Jeremiah Galk, releasing several collections of poems and dramas.
Interestingly, his first dissertation caused a scandal. The work on the meaning of the union in western Russia was recognized as outrageous and 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 concentrated on the figure of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Since 1846, he began to teach Russian history at Kiev University, and 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 town, he was under constant police surveillance. At the same time, he was forbidden to teach and publish his works.
Finding himself in exile, he marveled at how vast the gap between his ideals and existing reality turned out to be. It is important that at the same time, energy and the ability to continue hard work remained in it.
By 1856, the ban on the publication of his works was lifted. Then the surveillance 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, which became the founder of modern Ukrainian literature and the Ukrainian literary language.
Shevchenko was born in the Kiev province in 1814. After the defeat of the secret society, he was accused of composing poems of outrageous content in the Little Russian language. In them he wrote about the disasters and enslavement of Ukraine, advocated for free Cossacks.
It was decided to send him privates to military service in the Orenburg region. Only in 1857 he was released, thanks to numerous petitions. Taras returned to St. Petersburg, visited Ukraine, but he did not have to live long. Four years later, he died of dropsy at the age of 47 years.