Міністерство освіти і науки України

Прилуцький гуманітарно-педагогічний коледж ім. І. Я. Франка

Доповідь – презентація на тему:

Kachanivka. National Historical and Cultural Preserve

Підготував

студент ІІ курсу 2 групи

шкільного відділення

Бойко Євгеній Миколайович

Керівник

Цибенко Лариса Миколаївна

Прилуки - 2008

Kachanivka, a romantic place

When, over almost three centuries ago in 1742, Fedir Bolharyn, a land owner of Greek descent from the town of Nizhyn sold a small village located at a scenic place dotted with tree groves and ravines, that he himself had founded, he could never guess, of course, the full import of the sale — the village was destined to become an estate of wide renown as a cultural centre, “new Athens” as it was referred to later. The man who bought the village from Bolharyn the Greek was Fedir Kachenovsky, a chorister of “the choir at the court of Her Imperial Majesty Elizabeth” in St Petersburg.

Neglected estate

Kachenovsky whose last name, in all likelihood, was actually Kachan (“Head of Cabbage”) changed to Kachenovsky for euphonic and prestigious reasons, did not do much with the village he had acquired, except for buying some more land around it. His only lasting contribution was the name — Kachanivka that the place became known by.

In 1770, the Russian Empress bought the estate to give it as a present to Petro Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky, the then governor general of Malorosiya (“Small Russia” as Ukraine was referred to in Russia at that time) and “glorious victor over the infidels.” Kachanivka which was situated in the vicinity of Chernihiv, an ancient Ukrainian town about a hundred miles north of Kyiv, was meant to become one of the chief residences of the Imperial viceroy who ruled over Ukraine that was being robbed of the last remaining vestiges of autonomy.

Rumyantsev had a palace built in Kachanivka — a magnificent place designed to properly reflect the status of its owner. A big orchard was planted around it, and a nearby forest was landscaped and turned into a wonderful park. But the owner of Kachanivka, being a person of much too “great involvement in the affairs of the state”, had little time to spare for his estate, paid only infrequent visits there, in fact neglecting it altogether. His son, a diplomat and statesman, followed in his father’s footsteps in neglecting Kachanivka. Hryhory Pocheka, Rumyantsev’s steward who took care of the estate and thus knew that the estate in its neglected state could be purchased for a song, did buy it. He began improving it but as he “died without issue” the estate became the property of Hryhory Tarnovsky, Pocheka’s wife’s son from her first marriage. It was Tarnovsky who gave Kachanivka a completely new status.

Kachanivka as “a cultural centre” flourished for only about seventy five years. The three generations of the Tarnavskys made a thoroughly romantic place out of a derelict “nobleman’s nest.” Kachanivka attracted, to use the words of Mykola Kostomarov, a prominent Ukrainian cultural figure of the nineteenth century, “the most learned birds of the Ukrainian world of literati, musicians and artists.” The Tarnavskys themselves were colourful figures in their own right, and besides, they were philanthropists, patrons of learning and arts, Ukrainian Maecenases.

Hryhory Tarnovsky, nominally “a titular counsellor” (a civil servant of a low rank in Czarist Russia), was a person distinguished in many respects. Paradoxically, he combined in himself a miser and most generous person, a womanizer and a faithful husband; he could alternately be rude and most civil, phlegmatic and full of energy to the overflowing. He was, by the standards of the social elite of that time, poorly educated (his knowledge of foreign languages, for example, was limited to a few polite phrases, a thing unheard of in the then polite society with French being the main means of communication), and yet among his friends were such polymaths as Hryhorovych, Secretary of the Art Academy. Hryhory Tarnovsky was known for being very little versed in musical notation and yet he composed orchestral pieces which were performed by his own orchestra made up of the musically gifted serfs he owned. He was even known to have tried to “better” Beethoven himself.

Thanks to Hryhory Tarnovsky Kachanivka gradually became a cultural focal point whose light was seen all over Ukraine. The atmosphere in Kachanivka was conducive to inspiring all kinds of creativity, and authors, musicians and artists flocked to it to spend weeks and months there, giving themselves fully to the creative urge. The revamped central palace was more like a fifty-room five-star hotel accommodating literati and artists than a specious dwelling of a retired civil servant. In addition to purchases of works of art made by Tarnovsky himself, famous painters donated their works to be hung on the walls of the palace and a newcomer never failed to be surprised and delighted to discover paintings by such famous artists as Bryullov, Kiprensky and Ivanov in Tarnovsky’s “humble abode.” Hryhory Tarnovsky, in addition to an orchestra, ran his own “home theatre” in whose repertoire were pieces performed both for his private enjoyment and that of his guests.

Thriving on culture

In 1854, Hryhory Tarnovsky died, also “without issue” and Kachanivka passed on to his relative, Vasyl Tarnovsky. Unlike Hryhory, Vasyl was well educated, with a university degree in law. His “civil stance” was that of a much more active participation in the life of society. ............