Evfimy Kryzhanovsky on the Rusins-Uniates of the Russian Zabuzhie

Abstract

Evfimy Mikhailovich Kryzhanovsky (1831–1888) – a Russian Orthodox theologian, teacher, writer, and historian, the son of an Orthodox priest, a graduate and teacher of the Kyiv Theological Academy. After graduation, he taught at the Kyiv Theological Seminary. In 1862, he was transferred to the Kyiv Theological Academy. In 1865–1871, Kryzhanovsky was the head of the Sedlec Educational Directorate. While holding this position, he constantly visited educational institutions of the province. These trips played a big role in clarifying the history and assessing the “Russian question” in Podlasie. Based on sources, personal observations and eyewitness accounts, Kryzhanovsky wrote a number of articles on the history of the church union in Podlasie, the current state of the Uniate issue and education in the region. He analyzed the mistakes made by the Chełm diocese during the “purification of the rite” and subsequent reunification with Orthodoxy. According to the Russian historian Ivan Filevitch, a native of Chełm Land, who did a lot to solve the Chełm question, “the works Kryzhanovsky occupy a completely exceptional place in the literature on the Chełm question, since they contain the only academic and impartial coverage of those two periods of Chełm life, which affect the current Chełm malice: that of exclusively Polish influence with complete isolation from Russia in 1809–1863, which was followed by the rapid turning point, finally re-unifying the Chełm Uniates with Orthodoxy in 1875.” Kryzhanovsky’s works on the Russian Zabuzhie were republished by Ivan Filevich in 1911, when the discussion on the Chełm question intensified. Kryzhanovsky’s research contributed to the dissimination of the information among the Russians, who had known little about the problem and relied mainly on the Polish interpretation. Kryzhanovsky’s works also contributed to the decision to allocate the eastern counties of Lublin (Kholmshchyna) and Sedlec (Podlasie) populated by Rusyns to the Chełm province.