The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius

On 3 March 1847, Aleksei Petrov, a student at Kiev University, informed the tsarist authorities about a secret society that he had accidentally discovered. The police quickly swooped down on the leading members of the group, brought them to St Petersburg, and subjected them to intense interrogation during which the authorities learned of the existence of the Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius, the first Ukrainian ideological organization in modern times.

It soon became apparent that the original fears on the part of the authorities about a large, dangerous underground movement were greatly exaggerated. The brotherhood consisted of only about a dozen core members and perhaps several dozen sympathizers. Led by Mykola Kostomarov (the talented historian and university lecturer), Vasyl Bilozersky (a teacher of gentry background), and Mykola Hulak (a minor but well educated bureaucrat), the group consisted of young members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. Although two other intellectuals – the secondary schoolteacher and writer Panteleimon Kulish and the already well-known poet Taras Shevchenko – were only loosely associated with the brotherhood, they too were arrested. Not only was the membership of the brotherhood small, but its activity was limited. During the approximately fourteen months of its existence, the “brothers” met several times for lengthy philosophical and political discussions (one of which had been overheard by the informant, Petrov) and prepared several statements of their program and goals.

The most important of these statements, formulated by Kostomarov, was entitled “The Law of God” or “The Book of Genesis of the Ukrainian People” (Zakon bozhyi or Knyhy bytiia ukrainskoho narodu). Written in the Romantic, idealistic spirit of the times, the work (which was permeated with Christian values and Pan-Slavic sentiments and was strongly influenced by Polish models) called for the restructuring of society on the principles of justice, equality, freedom, and fraternity.

Ukraine, which Kostomarov and his colleagues considered to be at the same time the most oppressed and the most egalitarian of all Slavic societies because of its alleged lack of an elite, was to lead the way in the creation of the federation. The Christ-like resurrection of the land was described in pseudo-biblical style: “And Ukraine was destroyed. But it only appeared to be so… because the voice of Ukraine was not stilled. Ukraine will rise from her grave and will call upon her brother Slavs; they will hear her call and all Slavs will arise… and Ukraine will be a self-governing republic in the Slavic union. Then all the peoples will point to that spot on the map where Ukraine is situated and they will say, ‘Behold, the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’”¹⁸ This messianic vision of Ukraine’s future in the federation, although buttressed by a highly idealized picture of its past, precluded the idea of its complete independence. Apparently, most members of the brotherhood, with the exception of Shevchenko and a few others, had doubts about the ability of their “soft,” “poetical” countrymen to stand on their own.

Although they agreed on general principles, the members of the group differed on issues of priority and emphasis. For Kostomarov, Slavic unity and fraternity were most important; Shevchenko was passionate in demanding the social and national emancipation of Ukrainians; and Kulish stressed the development of Ukrainian culture.

Despite the relatively harmless nature of the society, the tsarist authorities resolved to punish its leading members. The punishments varied greatly in severity, however. Kostomarov, Kulish, and the other moderates received comparatively light sentences consisting of banishment to the depths of Russia for periods of a year or less, after which they were allowed to resume their careers. Hulak received a three-year prison sentence. But the severest sentence was reserved for Shevchenko, whom the tsar and his officials regarded as the most dangerous member of the group. He was forcibly conscripted and assigned to a ten-year term in a labor battalion in Siberia. Nicholas I himself added the following note to the sentence: “under the strictest supervision, forbidden to write and sketch.”¹⁹ The physical and psychological suffering that resulted from this sentence contributed to Shevchenko’s untimely death in 1861.

The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius and its liquidation were significant for several reasons. It represented the first, albeit unsuccessful, attempt of the intelligentsia to move from the cultural to the political phase of national development; it alerted the tsarist government (which until this time had tried to play Ukrainophilism off against Polish cultural influences in Ukraine) to the potential dangers of growing Ukrainian national consciousness; it signaled the onset of an anti-Ukrainian policy and marked the beginning of the long, unceasing struggle between the Ukrainian intelligentsia and the imperial Russian authorities.