Kalnyshevsky, Peter Ivanovich

In the 1750s, as a Yesaul, he directed the suppression of Haidamaks on the Bug. Then he became the general judge of the Zaporizhzhya Sich. As part of the Russian army, he took an active part in the Russian-Turkish war .

In 1756, he took part in a deputation from the Cossacks to St. Petersburg to the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna . This delegation, led by Danila Stefanov Smooth , was authorized to petition for the satisfaction of a number of needs of the Zaporizhzhya army ^[1] .

Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (icon, middle of the 18th century, lower right image of the ataman Peter Kalnyshevsky)

In January 1767, the regimental foreman of the Zaporizhzhya Lower Army Pavel Savitsky reported to the capital about the affairs of the ataman Peter Kalnyshevsky, who, having arrived from St. Petersburg on the Sich, had a conversation with the military clerk Pavel Golovaty, during which it was decided that if in the near future the border the government does not resolve disputes between Zaporizhia and the Novorossiysk province in favor of Sich, they will choose twenty “good fellows” in the Army and send them to the Turkish sultan asking him to accept the lower Zaporizhzhya Army under his pro he’ll notify the Cossack community so that everyone is ready for the march, the Russian regular teams are not allowed into their borders, and they live “quietly and amicably” with the Turks and Tatars. Then Pavel Savitsky wrote that the military esaul after this conversation was absent from the Sich for more than two weeks (probably, going around Zaporozhye to discuss the situation with the palank foreman).

In early June 1775, the Russian army under the command of Peter Tekeli with five columns from different sides secretly approached Sich. The 85-year-old Kalnyshevsky was arrested and first detained in Moscow , in the office of the Military College, and then was sent to the Solovetsky Monastery , where he spent about 28 years. In the beginning, he was placed in a casemate, located in the loophole of the fortress wall near the dryer ^[2] , and in 1792 he was transferred to a solitary confinement near the cookery ^[3] . Kalnyshevsky in the monastery was given a “specified salary” in the amount of 1 ruble per day (40 times more than for other prisoners) and upon his request, the casemate was repaired in 1780 due to allocated funds ^[3] . The historian P. S. Efimenko reports that according to the story of the Vorzogorsky peasants, Kalnyshevsky was released from the cell into the fresh air three times a year: during the holidays of Christmas, Easter and the Transfiguration ^[3] .

Emperor Alexander I by his decree of April 2, 1801 pardoned Peter Kalnyshevsky, who was 110 years old at that time. Being practically blind, despite the right granted by the emperor to choose a place of residence at his own request, he did not want to return to his homeland and stayed in a monastery to which, from his words, he "got used to it completely over the years of imprisonment," and he enjoys his freedom "to the fullest" ^[3] .

Pyotr Kalnyshevsky, after his release, lived in the Solovetsky Monastery for another three years and died in it on October 31, 1803 . He was buried in the monastery courtyard near the Transfiguration Cathedral, the grave was not preserved ^[3] . The tombstone from the burial was moved to the courtyard of the Church of St. Herman.

It was first canonized in 2008 by the local cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate in connection with the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia: the cathedral decided to commemorate the righteous Peter the Long-suffering - October 1 (14) , the day of the Protection of the Holy Virgin, patroness of the Cossacks ^[4] .

It was later canonized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate . On December 23, 2014, the Holy Synod of UOC MP examined the report of the chairman of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride John (Siopko) , on the basis of which he blessed local glorification and veneration of the last ataman of the Zaporizhzhya Sich Peter Kalnyshevsky within the Zaporizhzhya diocese ^[5] . Memorial Day is set on October 31 ( November 13 ) on the day of his death.

Petr Kalnyshevsky is one of the central characters in the historical novel “The Cry of Scream” by the Ukrainian writer Roman Ivanichuk .

• Zaporizhzhya Sich
• Zaporizhzhya Cossacks

• Goncharuk T.G. Koshovy otaman Petro Kalnishevsky and Hadzhibey (Odessa). - Odessa: Fenix, 2011
• Efimenko P.S. Kalnishevskiy, the last koshovoy Zaporizhzhya Сѣчі. 1691-1803 // Russian antiquity . - 1875. - T. XIV.
• Evarnitsky D.I. The last ataman Petr Ivanovich Kalnishevskiy. - Novocherkassk , 1887.
• Anatoly Dilanyan . The last of the koshes. On the 200th anniversary of the death of Pyotr Kalnyshevsky. // “ Mirror of the week ” No. 43, November 08, 2003

• All-Ukrainian Charitable Foundation named after Pyotr Kalnyshevsky (Ukrainian)
• Kalnishevsky, Pyotr Ivanovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• The life of the righteous Peter Kalnyshevsky on the website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) , in Ukrainian.
• A documentary about Pyotr Kalnyshevsky on the website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) , in Russian.
• The UOC MP ranked the saints of the last chieftain of the Zaporizhzhya Sich (Ukrainian)