The History Pages of Everyday Life of Saint George Monastery: on the Basis of its Contemporary’s Ego-documents

Abstract

The purpose of the article is the systematization of discovered entries about the Monastery of Saint George near Uman in «Diaries», written by a lawyer, a famous public figure, an activist of the cooperative movement in Uman region Petro Fedorovych Kurinnyi (1852–1931). They contain information about the daily life of monks and only everyday life focuses attention on the study of such issues as economic life of monks, the place of monastery in a religious and cultural life of the region, relations with authorities and the condition of connections between the state and the church. Research methodology is based on the combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special historical (descriptive, typological, system-forming) methods with principles of: historicism, systematicity, scientificity. Scientific novelty. Fragments of everyday life of inhabitants illustrating liturgical practice and economic activity of monks supplement an official history of the Monastery of Saint George near Uman. We characterized the attitude of state authorities to the monastery, which had been manifested in robberies, the abuse of monks and, in the end, in its liquidation. A death date of the Vicar of the Kyiv diocese, bishop Platon (Petrov) of Uman and Zvenyhorod was clarified. The history of monastery is filled with names of its inhabitants. Conclusions. Petro Fedorovych Kurinnyiʼs ego-documents are an important part of the source base of the history of monastery because they contain information, not found in other sources. Its systematization forms the idea about monksʼ daily life, filled with liturgical practice and economic activity. Diary entries testify that the service in the monastery attracted a large number of believers, but the monks’ economic activities provided the self-sufficient existence of the Orthodox monastery. From recorded monksʼ words the evolution of their attitude towards the Bolshevik government may be traced: from expectations of the closeness of views on joint economy management to non-acceptance due to brutality and the Bolsheviks’ desire to profit at other peopleʼs expense. The Bolsheviks looted the monastery four times in 1919. The ego-documents gave the opportunity to name all the abbots of the monastery and hieromonks.