"Too 'Hot Kulesh': How a Classic of Ukrainian Literature Became an Admirer of the Russian Empire."

"The Ukrainian song and the unwritten oral traditions of the Ukrainian people have inspired young minds in Kyiv with the blessed thought of pulling their nation out of darkness," – these words belong to Panteleimon Kulish (1819—1897), an outstanding Ukrainian – writer, historian, folklorist, translator, and ethnographer. He was the person who, alongside the distinguished physicist, professor, and rector of the German Technical University in Prague, the Galician Ivan Puluy (the developer of the X-ray tube!), published the first complete translation of the Bible into Ukrainian using ancient sources.

Panteleimon Kulish lived a long life for his time: he died on his estate in Motronivka (now the village of Olenivka) in the Nizhyn region on February 2 (14), 1897, largely abandoned by friends due to his very complex and uncompromising character. This was a tragedy of his life. Meanwhile, Ivan Franko regarded Panteleimon Oleksandrovich as a "first-rate star" of Ukrainian literature…

At the beginning of his creative path, he was a singer of the romanticism of life and the deeds of the Cossack estate, becoming the author of the first Ukrainian historical novel "Chorna rada. Chronicle of 1663." The first edition of the novel was written in 1846 (simultaneously in Ukrainian and Russian), but the complete version was only published in 1857 due to the author's arrest in connection with the activities of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, as mentioned below.

The novel recounts events from the period of the Ruin, specifically the "Chorna rada" in the vicinity of Nizhyn at the end of June 1663 during the elections (elections) of the Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host on the Left Bank, convened by the suzerain of the Hetmanate, the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. As a result, the impoverished Cossacks and the Cossack settlers chose the pro-Moscow populist Ivan Briukhovetsky with the support of Ivan Syroko. Terror was unleashed against the two other candidates – Yakym Somko and Vasyl Zolotarenko (associates of the Hetman of Ukraine Bohdan Khmelnytsky) and their supporters. They themselves were killed in September of the same year on charges of treason to the tsar.

Born in the town of Voronezh in the Glukhov district of Chernihiv region, Kulish was a descendant of ancient Cossack families, in which, despite the harsh Russification policies of imperial power, the traditions of the Ukrainian language and culture prevailed. He received his primary education at home, then in Novhorod-Siverskyi – at the county school and gymnasium. He studied at the philosophical and legal faculties of Kyiv University of Saint Volodymyr.

From 1846, he worked in the Kyiv Archaeographic Commission. Among his acquaintances and colleagues were Taras Shevchenko, prominent Ukrainian humanities scholars Mykhailo Maksymovych, Mykola Kostomarov, Mykola Hulak, Polish writer-historian Mykhal Grabovsky, journalist and public figure Vasyl Belozersky (his sister Oleksandra became the wife of Panteleimon Kulish; they lived together for over 50 years despite the husband's tumultuous affairs, including a romance with the writer Marko Vovchok). The wedding was attended by Taras Shevchenko himself as the "boyar," the witness of the groom…

Very soon, in March 1847, Panteleimon Kulish was arrested in connection with a secret political organization – the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, which had emerged back in 1845. It had a strictly autonomist character and emphasized the unity of Slavic nations. However, the Slavic nationalism of the "brothers" differed from the Russian version – which was anti-Western in spirit – because it highlighted the equal cooperation of all Slavic peoples and the spiritual revival of Ukraine. For the Russians – representatives of any ideological currents in the Russian Empire – such an approach was completely unacceptable. Kulish was among the founders of the brotherhood, along with Georgiy Andruzsky, Kostomarov, Shevchenko, Belozersky, and Hulak. After three months of interrogation, he was sent to the Alekseevsky ravelin for four months and then exiled to Vologda, where he was to serve as an official. After "sincere repentance," Kulish was sent to Tula, again to serve in the governor's administration. Taras Shevchenko faced additional charges from the authorities for participating in the Brotherhood, which became fateful for our Prophet – for insulting the tsar and his wife (during searches, the poem "Son" was discovered). By personal order of the tsar, Taras Hryhorovych was conscripted into the army for 10 years…

In 1850, Panteleimon Kulish was pardoned at the request of his wife, fellow senator Alexander Kochubey, and the rector of St. Petersburg University, Peter Pletnev, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Tsar Nicholas I's reign, and moved to the imperial capital. It was there, at the end of 1850, that he developed the Ukrainian phonetic spelling, which became known as "kulishivka." All future versions of the spelling of our native language were based on the invention of this writer and historian.

Kulish was one of the editors and regular contributors to the first all-Ukrainian socio-political and literary monthly magazine "Osnova" (1861—1862), published in St. Petersburg and contributing to the growth of national consciousness among Ukrainians at that time. Many works by Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Oleksa Storozhenko, Stepan Rudansky, Leonid Glebov, and historical and folkloric studies by Pavlo Zhitecky, Alexander Lazarevsky, and Mykola Kostomarov were published in its pages… The authors of the magazine still cautiously emphasized the uniqueness of the Ukrainian nation and its language: they had to constantly look back at the censors. The Ukrainian writer and translator Alexander Konysky wrote that the main reason for the magazine's closure was that "Ukraine has gone much further than the gaze of the noble 'Osnova'".

Kulish sought to establish cooperation both with Russian officials at the beginning of his creative path (such as the infamous Russifier Mikhail Yuzefovich, who in the 1840s was still a liberal and supported the young writer) and with Polish landowners, who greatly influenced Right Bank Ukraine. For many years, Kulish maintained friendly relations with the classic of Polish historical literature Mykhal Grabovsky, who was considered a renegade among his compatriots due to his support for the Russian authorities.

A Dramatic Shift in Worldview

In the early 1860s, Kulish underwent an unexpected evolution in worldview for his contemporaries: the writer and historian began to interpret the history of the Cossacks as an absolutely uninterrupted anti-state orgy of violence, a wild arbitrariness of the "black" mass:

People without direction, without honor and respect,

Without truth in the bequests of wild ancestors,

You, who emerged from mad courage

Of bitter drunkards and great rascals!

Your only treasure is your native language,

Accursed for neighboring predation:

It is the strong foundation of your life,

More reliable than all treasures and riches.

This is the voice of your ancient ancestors from the coffin,

Of those holy souls who perished in vain

In the hardships of the Great Ruin,

Which your elders called triumph...

It is important to note that only the first four lines of this poem by Panteleimon Kulish "To the Native People…" are constantly quoted with a dedication – "providing him (the people. – S.M.) with the Ukrainian translation of Shakespeare's works." Indeed, he became the founder of translation work in Ukraine. In addition to William Shakespeare (13 plays!), he translated works by Friedrich Schiller and George Gordon Byron.

Kulish repeatedly changed his views on the history of his homeland and transformed from a Cossack-phile into a fierce Cossack-phobe. He constantly drew a line between two, in his opinion, antagonistic Cossack worlds – Zaporozhians and town Cossacks; he himself was a descendant of the latter.

As a historian, Kulish emphasized the ambiguous role of the Cossacks, which by the 18th century had become an an