FEAR AND HATE IN VASYLKOV: UPRISING OF THE CHERNIGOV REGIMENT THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS

Abstract

The proposed article discusses the story of the uprising of the Chernigov regiment through the prism of the history of emotions. The authors show how S.I. Muravyov-Apostol and M.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin tried to influence the feelings and experiences of the soldiers, dressing the revolutionary program and the call to rebellion in the form of a traditional religious document, the fate of voicing which fell to the lot of regimental priest D.F. Keyser. Subsequently, speaking about this fleeting participation in the rebellion, he presented to the members of the Holy Synod an apocalyptic picture of the experiences that gripped him. In this system of fears, three main emotional planes can be distinguished. The first is the fear of reprisals from the legitimate authorities after reading the anti-government catechism; the second is anxiety in connection with the hypothetically possible punishment on the part of the rebels for refusing to obey; and the third is concerned with the future of relatives and friends. The emotional context of soldiers' perception of D.F. Keyser's speech, on the one hand, and the reaction of the clergyman himself to what happened, on the other hand, present an interesting case related to the problem of the role and significance of Orthodoxy in the realities of a remote Russian province.