Bogatyrets, Kassian Dmitrievich

Early years. Russophile movement

Kassian Dmitrievich Bogatyrets was born on November 5, 1868 in the village of Kabovtsy-Kabin in the Vyshkovetsky district in the north of the Austrian crown region of Bukovina (now the Storozhynetsky district of the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine) ^{[1] [2]} . His family lived there before the accession of Bukovina to the Austrian Empire, when Bukovina was part of Moldova. The heroes belonged to the ancient Moldavian nobility. Cassian's parents - Dmitry and Ksenia - were considered peasants by Austrian standards ^[3] . Cassian, to whom the clergyman’s road was intended, graduated with honors from the German public school and Chernivtsi gymnasium in 1889, after which he entered the theological faculty of the Franz Josef I Chernivtsi University . He graduated in 1893 with honors ^{[3] [2]} . In addition to religion, Bogatyrets was interested in Russian and Ukrainian folk art, having submitted several of his works on this subject to the Chernivtsi Society “Orthodox Academy” ^[4] .

On May 11, 1897, the Bogatyrets married Stefanida Aleksandrovna Veligorskaya, the daughter of a priest from the village of Oshihlebi . In June of the same year, he was ordained deacon by Metropolitan Arkady Bukovinsky and Dalmatia (Chuperovich) and took up a post in the parish of Sadhora ^{[1] [2]} In 1898, Bogatyrets defended his thesis and received a doctorate in theology ^[5] , also taking a short course in Slavic philology ^{[ 1] [2]} . In 1898 he moved to Orshevtsy , and a year later - to Stanovtsy ^[2] .

The hero became one of the members of the movement of Bukovinian Russophiles , the leader of which was the theologian Yevgeny Hakman and the teacher Yevgeny Kazak. The ideological opponents of this movement were the Ukrainophiles-Greek Catholics and the so-called “Young Russians”, whose leaders were Erofei Pigulyak and Nikolai Vasilko ^[6] . The Russophile movement was actively criticized by the Austrian authorities, who openly pursued Pigulyak. After Bogatyrets filed a request for giving him the opportunity to teach at the University of Chernivtsi, he received a decisive refusal from Austrian officials and Metropolitan Arkady ^{[7] [2]} . As a result, he continued his work as a clergyman: in 1901 he became a parish priest and began to engage in public education and political activities, opening reading rooms and small societies, spreading Russophile ideas among his parishioners and converting Greek Catholics to Orthodoxy ^[1] . Kassian Bogatyrts and Emelyan Markovich in 1907 released the "Russian-Orthodox national calendar" ^[8] .

In 1908, Bogatyrets received the rank of exarch ^[1] and traveled to Russia ^[9] : in St. Petersburg, he delivered a lecture, which was published in the newspaper New Time. The hero spoke about the history of Bukovina, which he considered part of Kievan Rus ^[10] , and condemned the Austrian support for the Ukrainian-Philosophical movement ^[1] . On the fact of these allegations, an investigation was launched in Chernivtsi, and in Bukovina, the supporters of Bogatyrts expanded their Russophile activities. The priest was sent to Verenanka , west of Zastavna ^{[1] [10]} , but he continued to support the Bukovinian Russophiles and even sent a delegation to the governor Friedrich Bourguignon von Bamberg ^[1] . In 1910, rumors swept across Austria that Bogatyrets was a member of a Russian espionage group, and as a result he was expelled ^[11] . In 1911, he participated in the elections to the Bukovinian Diet from the Russian People’s Party , but failed ^[12] .

In prison and after release

In January 1914, the renewed oppression of the Ruthenian movement left Father Cassian without a parish ^[13] . After the outbreak of World War I in August – September 1914, Russian troops partially occupied Bukovina and Galicia, and the Galician governor general appeared on the occupied Russian lands. In Austria, meanwhile, began mass arrests and executions of all who at least somehow sympathized with Russia or the Russophiles ^[14] . The head of the Chernivtsi police Konstantin Tarangul von Valya-Utsey, before evacuating the civil administration, ordered the arrest of Bogatyrts ^{[15] [16]} . The priest was sent to the internment camp in St. Martin in Upper Austria, and then to the Vienna prison. Spouse Stefanida was arrested a few days later and exiled to the Thalerhof camp ^{[16] [10]} . 22 people appeared before the Austrian court: Cassian Bogatyrets, Illarion Tsurkanovich and another 20 other Galician Russophiles. The trial took place from September 14, 1916 to February 17, 1917 and became known as the Second Vienna Process . The criminal case materials amounted to 360 pages, and most of them, according to Cassian's father, were falsified ^{[17] [10]} . The court sentenced most of the accused (namely 17 people) in the form of death by hanging ^{[17] [16] [10]} . In his farewell, Cassian Bogatyrets said:

It is easy to predict that the court will sentence me to death ... But I am convinced that I will survive that Austria, which will condemn me to death.

An appeal was filed against the court’s decision ^[16] , although the Athlete refused to ask for pardon ^[18] . However, the death of Emperor Franz Joseph and the subsequent rise to power of Charles I led to the complete amnesty of all convicts. The hero moved to live in Graz ^{[17] [16] [10]} . In September 1917, Bogatyrets returned to Verenanka , where he continued his religious activities ^[10] , and also took up politics again. In 1917-1918, father Cassian took an active part in the Bukovinian People’s Council, which announced its desire to join the Russian Republic as part of autonomous Ukraine ^[19] . By November 1918, the Austrian monarchy collapsed completely, and Austria-Hungary collapsed. However, Bukovina again became the center of bloody battles: this time the Ukrainian Galician army and the Romanian army came together in battle. The Romanians occupied Bukovina and achieved a transition from military to civil administration, which allowed Bogatyrts to stay on his native land. The core of the Ukrainophiles, led by Erofei Piguliak, Stepan Smal-Stotsky and Vladimir Zalozetskiy-Sas, left Bukovina and accused Romania of flagrantly violating the decisions of the Paris Conference , according to which Bukovina had to be transferred to the UNR ^[20] .

For some time, Bogatyrets collaborated with the Romanian conservative politician Janku Flondor from the General Congress of Bukovina supporting regional autonomy for Bukovina within Great Romania . In June, Romanian general Nicolae Petala received petitions from an interethnic coalition, which included Bogatyrets as a representative of Ukrainians and Ruthenians ^[21] , Romanians Janku Flondor and Gheorghe Grigorovich, Germans Albert Kolruss and Rudolf Gaidosh, as well as Jews Mayer Ebner and Jacob Pistiner ^[22] . After the collapse of the UNR and the formation of the Ukrainian SSR, Bogatyrets sent a letter to the Entente asking him to recognize the right to autonomy of Bukovina, Eastern Galicia, Carpathian Russia, Bessarabia and Maramuresh, as well as the possibility of their unification into a new state ^[23] . The letter was conveyed by the delegation of the First Czechoslovak Republic ^[10] . According to Bogatyrts, Bukovina was the historical land of the Carpathians, and evidence of this was the map of Bukovina, on which Ukrainians and Ruthenians were shown as a national majority ^[10] .

Service in Bukovina

After Bukovina joined Romania, Bogatyrets took part in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in May 1920, but lost by a large margin to Konstantin Krakali from the Socialist Party (640 votes for Bogatyrts, 2994 for Krakali) ^[24] . This defeat meant that the old policy towards the Ruthenians and Ukrainians by the Romanians had lost its relevance. In 1928, the Ukrainian National Party achieved great success in the elections Vladimir Zalozetskiy-Sas, who managed to establish good relations with a number of Romanian politicians ^{[24] [25]} . In 1921, Bogatyrets began cooperation with the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church and began his missionary work among Greek Catholics in Mukachevo ^[26] . As a distinguished professor of canon law at the University of Chernivtsi (he received the name of Karol I after the accession of Bukovina), he rendered great assistance in creating the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church in Mukachevo’s diocese in 1928–1929 ^[27] . In addition, Father Cassian was engaged in important activities in the Chernivtsi diocese of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In 1925, he was elected to the Diocesan Assembly as a representative of the Rusyn people, Ukrainians were represented by Peter Katerynyuk, and the rest of the delegates were Romanians. The athlete defended the interests of Ruthenians and Ukrainians, defending the right to provide children with education in his native language and fighting for permission to use the Prayer Book in Russian ^{[28] [29] [30]} . Romanization he called impossible and unacceptable for Rusyns ^[10] .

Being in the rank of archpriest since 1929, in 1930 Bogatyrets moved to Kitsman , where he served as rector of the parish until 1940 and actively participated in missionary activities on the Dniester in Maramures under the leadership of Metropolitan Vissarion of Chernivtsi. The activities of Cassian's father consisted in uniting the parishes of Maramuresh and Bukovina, reuniting the Transcarpathian and Bukovinian Greek Catholics with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia , as well as fighting against the further spread of Greek Catholicism among Ukrainians ^{[28] [31] [10]} . In 1931, Bogatyrets became one of the participants in the political confrontation with Zalozetskiy-Sas. The teacher and writer Konstantin Isopeskul-Grekul interceded for Bogatyrts who called him a true leader and a person with a strong character ^[18] . In the end, activities to develop education in the Russian and Ukrainian languages ​​in Romania were put to an end in April 1937, when the Diocesan Council threatened with imprisonment many priests who organized teaching in Sunday schools or other schools other than in Romanian ^[32] . However, against the Bogatyrts wearing the Polish Golden Cross, the Romanian government had nothing ^[33] .

In July 1940, the Romanian government was forced to recognize the legal accession of Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia to the Soviet Union . 132 parish priests (including Bogatyrets) remained on Soviet territory and, together with Archimandrite Damaskin, entered the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church ^[34] . Chernivtsi diocese came under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. In official documents (first of all, in the application form for registration with the Council for ROC Affairs under the Chernivtsi Oblast Executive Committee) ^[35], father Kassian noted by nationality as “Ukrainian”, and not as “Rusyn” or “Russian”. The historian S. G. Sulyak argued that the Athlete did so under pressure so that the Athlete would not be mistaken for the White Guard ^[36] . However, Bogatyrets filled out a questionnaire in literary Russian ^{[35] [36]} . The property of churches and temples in Bukovina was nationalized, and some priests who did not recognize Soviet power were arrested for counter-revolutionary activities. However, part of the priests appealed to higher authorities with a request to allow them to return to the Romanian Orthodox Church and received permission ^[32] . As a result, only 22 Orthodox priests remained on the territory of Bukovina: the rest left for Germany ^[37] .

Father Cassian was one of those who took this opportunity: he left with his wife Stefanida and children Nikolai and Nadezhda ^[37] . About six months they stayed in the Lyubenzhsky monastery , where Father Cassian restored his health and did some research in the library ^[37] . He was registered as a refugee in the Leibus prisoner of war camp ^[9] and met there with the Romanian Commission ^[32] . The commission decided that the Athlete could return to Romania to Merey, where he had previously served as a parish priest ^[37] . Operation “Barbarossa” began in July 1941, and the Bogatyrs were allowed to return in September to Bukovina, which was already under the control of the Romanian troops and where the Romanian civil administration was already located. The family settled in Chernivtsi ^[32] . The new head of the Bukovinian Diocese of Titus (Symedrya) appointed Cassian's father as his confessor and assigned him to the Holy Vvedensky Monastery ^{[37] [32]} .

Soviet Bukovina

In March 1944, the Dnieper-Carpathian operation ended with the liberation of Bukovina by the Soviet troops from the German and Romanian invaders. Metropolitan Simedria fled to Romania, like many Romanian priests, but this time Bogatyrets refused to leave, in spite of possible religious persecution by the Soviet government and hatred of Romanization undertaken by Ion Antonescu ^{[38] [32]} . Father Cassian donated several thousand rubles to the needs of the Soviet troops ^[39] . The athlete was ready for a full transition to the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and could even lead the Ukrainian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. During the transition process, all Romanian ordinations of the Bogatyrts were recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church ^[40] . After the transition, Bogatyrets remained a confessor in the Holy Vvedensky monastery (exarchs met there after his eviction from the residence of the metropolitans of Bukovina ) and rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Chernivtsi ^{[38] [40]} .

On August 31, 1944, Stefanida Bogatyrets died. Nicholas and Nadezhda, the children of Cassian's father, left for France. The hero was tonsured a monk ^{[41] [32]} and engaged in historical work: he wrote "A Brief History of the Bukovinian Diocese", which he worked on at the request of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Theodosius, Bishop of Chernovetsky and Bukovinsky. In the course of his work, he even turned to the metropolitan with permission to get into the Bukovinian archive in Kiev, although there is very little evidence of such a permit ^{[42] [43]} . Also, at the request of the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR and local museums, Bogatyrets compiled notes on the residence of the metropolitans, the history of the Lipovans, Old Believers , and Baptists in , Pentecostals and Seventh-day Adventists in Bukovina ^{[44] [39]} . Bogatyrets also left detailed shorthand notes on the Vienna process ^[45] .

In 1946, Cassian was awarded a miter and adopted a small schema; in the same year he was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" ^{[46] [43]} . Not having the ability and desire to ask to return to the residence of the metropolitans or to address the flock with a message, the Athlete began to struggle to restore the possibility of studying theology at the university. He supported the conversion of Greek Catholics and the fight against dubious religious movements. ^[43] In 1947, Metropolitan Theodosius, who took a new post in Kirovograd, recommended Bogatyrts to the post of bishop of Chernovetsky and Bukovinsky as a well-known Bukovina and a convinced Russophile, but Patriarch Alexy spoke out who did not have much political trust in Cassian ^{[41] [47]} . The church left the archpriest as Bogatyrts, but since 1955, after retiring, Bogatyrets began to receive a monthly pension of 2,000 rubles due to him for his contribution to the development of the Orthodox Church in Bukovina during Austrian rule and for the large amount of scientific work done ^{[48] [47]} . The house on Pravda Street, where Cassian lived, was nationalized in 1949, and he moved to Kvitki-Osnovyanenko Street ^{[48] [39]} . He received a USSR passport in 1954 ^[48] .

In 1955, Bogatyrets retired after a serious illness and bequeathed his books to the church ^[47] . On July 28, 1960, he died in Chernivtsi and two days later was buried in a family crypt in the Chernivtsi cemetery: many of his parishioners attended the funeral ^[49] . A few days later, many of Kassian’s books were confiscated by the KGB, and the “History of the Bukovinian Diocese” remained incomplete. For a long time it was believed that the manuscript of “History” was lost ^[50] , but the niece of Cassian’s father, Eugene Gorzhu, kept a hard copy of it ^[48] , which became one of the important works devoted to the history of Bukovina, and was then considered to be equivalent to works on history Scythians, Dacians and Bokhovtsy . A significant part of the “History” was dedicated to the life of the church during the Austrian rule, as well as the struggle of the Ruthenians and Romanians for self-government ^[51] . However, historians found a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the text of the manuscript, as well as the lack of a description of some aspects of Bukovina’s life during both world wars ^[52] .

In Russian

• Burkut I.G. The historical fate of the Galician and Bukovinian Rusinism. Final (Rus.) // Rusin. - 2009. - No. 3 .
• Gaisenyuk V. Repression of the Austrian authorities against the Muscovites of Bukovina during the First World War (Rus.) // Codrul Cosminului. - 2014. - No. 2 .
• Pashaeva N.M. Russian movement in Galicia of the XIX-XX centuries. (Statement of the problem) (Russian) // Slavic almanac 1998. - Indrik, 1999.
• Sulyak S.G. Rusins: past, present, future (Rus.) // Rusin. - 2009. - No. 3 .
• Chuchko M.K. , Sulyak S.G. Archipresbyter Kassian The Bogatyrets researcher of the church history of Bukovinian Rus (Rus.) // Rusin. - 2014. - No. 1 (35) .

In Ukrainian

• Danilets Yu. V. Chasis Russian Orthodox Vestnik 1921–1922 (Ukrainian) // Pravoslávie a súčasnosť. Zborník príspevkov zo VII. Vedeckej konferencie študentov, absolventov a mladých vedeckých pracovníkov. - Prešov: Prešov University , 2015. - 31 birch trees.
• Sokolevich O. Ukrainian national nutrition at the Russian political and historical sciences (4): Rumunsko – Ukrainian national studies in the remaining days of Austria (Ukrainian) // OUN Vizvoly Shlyakh. - London , 1956. - Leaf fall (vol. 9, No. 11 (109) ). - S. 1282 .
• Old man V.P. Vid Saraдva to Paris. Bukovinsky Interregnum 1914-1921. - Chernivtsi : Prut, 2009.
• Yaremchuk C. The Life of the Orthodox Priest Cassian Bogatyrtsa // Food of History of Ukraine: Zbirnik of Science Articles, vol. 6. On the mission of Professor Pavel Mihailini . - Chernivtsi : Zelena Bukovina, 2003 .-- S. 275-280. - ISBN 966-7123-88-X . Archived May 8, 2018 on Wayback Machine

In Romanian

• Hrenciuc D. Integrarea minorităților naționale din Bucovina în Regatul României Mari (1918–1928). Unele considerații (rum.) // Codrul Cosminului. - 2006. - Nr. 12 .
• Iorga N. Memorii. Vol. 6: Încercarea guvernării peste partide: (1931–2). - Vălenii de Munte: Datina Românească, 1939.
• Mihai F. Dinamica electorală a candidaților minoritari din Bucovina la alegerile generale din România interbelică // Partide politice și minorități naționale din România în secolul XX / Vasile Ciobanu, Sorin Radu. - Sibiu: TechnoMedia, 2010 .-- Vol. V. - ISBN 978-973-739-261-9 .

In Czech

• Marek P. K problematice budování české pravoslavné církve v období první republiky (Czech) // Sborník Prací Filozofické Fakulty Brněnské Univerzity (Studia Minora Facultatis Philosophicae Universitatis Brunensis). - C, Řada Historická, 2006. - Vol. 55. - Vyd. C53 .

• Ivanov A. “Austria, which will condemn me to death, I will still survive” (Rus.) . Russian folk line (December 1, 2014). Date of treatment July 28, 2016.