Crushing of the Cyril and Methodius Society (1847)
The secret police's blow against the intellectual elite of the indigenous people: "In March 1847 the society was crushed by the gendarmes. The police managed to identify 12 members of the clandestine organization… The tsarist authorities judged the society's program documents a serious threat to the foundations of autocracy"[1]. The sentences for all the accused were proposed by the chief of gendarmes Orlov in his report to the emperor of May 26, 1847, on which Nicholas I inscribed "Execute"[2]. It was accompanied by trials, exiles, and Shevchenko's dispatch into the army "with the institution over the poet of 'the strictest surveillance with a prohibition on writing and drawing'"[3].
Actors
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| G0009 | Russian Empire | 2 |
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0017 | Secret Police and Security Services | 2 |
Procedures Carried Out
The destruction of the first political organization of the Ukrainian intelligentsia following student Petrov's denunciation to the secret police: "In March 1847 the society was crushed by the gendarmes. The police managed to identify 12 members of the clandestine organization"[1].
Arrests, interrogations – the gendarmes "resorted to brutal pressure" and "applied refined methods of psychological processing"[1], and reprisal against the leaders: the sentences were set out in the report of the chief of gendarmes Orlov to the emperor of May 26, 1847, with Nicholas I's resolution "Execute"[2]. Shevchenko was sent into the army "with the institution over the poet of 'the strictest surveillance with a prohibition on writing and drawing'"[3][2]. Hrushevsky: the brotherhood "was seized while still in the midst of its very formation" after a student's denunciation; "The heaviest punishment fell on Shevchenko: he was given over to the soldiery and exiled to the trans-Caspian desert, forbidden to write and to paint," and "persecutions and prohibitions previously unheard of descended upon Ukrainian thought and the Ukrainian word… the very words Ukraine, Little Russia, Hetmanate were deemed criminal"[4]. The brotherhood's co-founder Mykola Hulak "was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress (1847-50), then exiled to Perm under strict police surveillance (1850-59)"[5].
References
- Редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. НАН України. Інститут історії України. (2007). Енциклопедія історії України: Т. 4.
- Ін-т історії України АН УРСР; Наукова думка, Київ (Т.1 — доклад гр.А.Ф.Орлова Миколі I від 26.05.1847 з вироками, с.62-70; Т.2 — окремий запис рішення у справі Шевченка від 30.05.1847, с.329). (1990). Кирило-Мефодіївське товариство: У 3 т..
- Пётр Жур. (1996). Труды и дни Кобзаря.