Saving Private Shevchenko: The Exiled Poet and the Military Governors of Orenburg Region
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2019.2.397Keywords:
Taras Shevchenko; Nicholas I; Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius; Ukrainophiles; Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery; Orenburg Region; V. A. Obruchev; V. A. PerovskyAbstract
The secret political organisation known as the Ukrainian Slavic Society of Sts Cyril and Methodius (the Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius) was suppressed in the spring of 1847. The Brotherhood proclaimed that its goal was to create Slavic democratic republics and unite them into an alliance with its centre in Kiev. The methods of achieving this goal remained unclear. The society itself, according to the investigation, consisted of only three people, including N. I. Kostomarov who later became a famous historian. Count A. F. Orlov, head of the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery (the secret police of the Russian Empire) did not consider such a small organisation a serious threat. The count named the poet and artist T. G. Shevchenko and the prose writer and folklorist P. A. Kulish the most “important criminals” arrested in the case. At the same time, Orlov did not consider them members of the society but characterised them as “Ukrainophiles” (he might have been the first person to use this term). In their works, Shevchenko and Kulish glorified the Ukrainian past, the Hetmanate, and the freedom of the Cossacks (volnitsa), conveying the possibility and desirability of an independent Ukrainian state to the reader. Similar to the majority of defendants in this case, Kulish was deported to one of the Great Russian provinces. The punishment Shevchenko received was severer: he was sent to Orenburg as a private. Emperor Nicholas I also issued a special order forbidding the poet to write or draw. Shevchenko characterised his ten-year Orenburg exile (1847–1857) as the most painful period of his life. It is a commonly-held opinion that the exile received support from some officers who did not occupy significant posts (Lieutenant A. I. Butakov and Major I. A. Uskov). The paper shows that the patrons of Shevchenko were generals V. A. Obruchev and V. A. Perovsky, the military governors of Orenburg region and commanders of the corps. The poet himself spoke of them negatively.
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