The early years of the biography of Nikolai Kostomarov

Mikheeva Vitalina Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0003-0876-338X PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Fundamental Legal and Socio-Humanitarian Disciplines, Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy" 111123, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, ul. Enthusiasts, 742 vitalinm7@mail.ru Other publications by this author

     Attention to the problem of personality in history has been present in humanitarian knowledge throughout its existence (G. Hegel, G. V. Plekhanov, K. Marx, etc.).  Approaches to solving these issues varied, but the undoubted guiding importance of the figure of an individual on the formation of history was recognized.

     The tradition of biographies refers to the Ancient world. At the turn of the I-II centuries AD, one of the first bibliographers appeared, he became the ancient Greek writer and philosopher Plutarch – the author of "Parallel Biographies" ^{[1, pp.637-653]}. The foundations of the genre were picked up by researchers of the Middle Ages and Modern times. For example, the Italian writer and poet J. Boccaccio left us several works made in a similar style, "The Life of Dante Alighieri" ("A Small Treatise in praise of Dante") ^[2], the book "About famous Women", and the French philosopher-educator Voltaire is the author of "The History of Charles XII, King of Sweden" ^[3]. The XIX – XX centuries were the continuators of this state of affairs. It was during this period (1890) that the well-known domestic series "The Life of Wonderful People" was founded. Its founder– the famous educator F. F. Pavlenkov, originally planned to publish 200 biographies of great people of different centuries and peoples. To date, more than 1,700 life stories of famous figures have been published, and the circulation of these books is more than 250 million copies ^[4].    Currently, the genre of biography itself is increasingly becoming the subject of research ^[5]. At the same time, biography today is not just the life path of an individual, it is the key to studying a specific historical situation ^{[6, p.87]}. 

    The XIX century is famous for outstanding historians. These are Nikolai Solovyov, who glorified his native history, and a talented scientist and lecturer Vasily Klyuchevsky, a wonderful teacher Sergei Platonov and many other great figures of our historical science. 

     Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov became one of the central figures of the national history of the XIX century. His works on history, archeology, ethnography, philology are known not only in the territory of the post–Soviet space, primarily in Russia and Ukraine, but also far beyond – in Canada, the USA, Western Europe. The apogee of recognition of his services to science was the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov all over the world by UNESCO decision. In the spring of 2022, it will be 205 years since the birth of the scientist. However, many pages of his biography contain contradictory material, have not been fully investigated, there is no complete picture of Kostomarov's life and work, covering all periods of his life, archival data stored on the territory of Russia and Ukraine are still poorly studied.

     Kostomarov's fate is connected with the heart of Russia – the territories of Great Russia and Little Russia.  Nikolai Kostomarov was born on May 4, 1817 in the estate of Yurasovka, Ostrogozhsky district, Voronezh province. The estate belonged to the Sloboda–Ukrainian province and occupied an intermediate ethnographic position between Great Russia and Little Russia.

    The father of the future scientist was Ivan Petrovich Kostomarov, Ivan Petrovich Kostomarov became a participant in the battles of the Russian army, under the command of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, who took part in the capture of the Turkish fortress of Izmail. After retiring, Ivan Petrovich settled in the Yurasovka estate that belonged to him.

     "Old Kostomarov", as the peasants called his master, was a type of "Voltaire" by conviction, as well as a mixture of an extreme liberal and Democrat of Catherine's times with a great-grandfather's lordship. He had a small number of serfs, about 300 people, but he owned 1400 acres of good land with hay and forests. Wayward, he did not know how to restrain impulses of temper. "The pan was fierce at times: it was just like him," the peasants recalled. In a fit of uncontrollable outburst of anger, he could without hesitation break a magnificent Saxon porcelain table service or break off a stick and slap him, or even put him on a chain attached to a large wooden deck ^[7].

     The mother of the future scientist – Tatiana Petrovna was in serfdom. However, Ivan Petrovich Kostomarov contributed to her getting an education at a private girls' boarding school in Moscow.   Soon the connection between the master and the serf led to the birth of  Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov.  Already after the birth of the boy – in September 1817, the wedding took place with a good-natured and gentle girl.

      The natural, innate inclinations of a person already outline the program of his subsequent development, and the impressions of childhood put an indelible stamp on his worldview. The highly nervous and impressionable nature of the adult Nikolai Kostomarov experienced the most contradictory influences as a child. In Yurasovka, where he was born, only Little Russian peasants lived, and only a few Great Russians were kept in the yard, transferred from the estate of the boy's paternal grandmother in the Oryol province. Consequently, both by descent from a peasant woman of Little Russia, and because of life in a settlement inhabited by Ukrainians, the young Nikolai could get acquainted with the Ukrainian language early, and, thus, love for Ukraine - Little Russia became something natural, hereditary in him ^{[8, p. 181]}.

     This love was the result not only of the accidental circumstance that Little Russians lived near him, but from the fact that this nationality was in his own blood, that he grew up in its environment, under its influence and in direct contact with culture.

     When the child turned 10 years old, his father took Nikolai to Moscow to send him to a private boarding school for training. The young man studied well in all subjects.  The enthusiasm was not caused only by dancing. As a result, some teachers called him a miracle child, and the dance master - an idiot. The study lasted only a few months. She was interrupted by her father, who took Nikolai from Moscow to the settlement with the desire to bring him back after the holidays. But the plans did not come true. Nikolai's father, Ivan Petrovich, was killed, and this pushed his son away from Moscow. The life of a young man has radically changed, which has had a depressing effect on the psyche of an impressionable child.

     The murder of Kostomarov's father resembled a detective story. Her circumstances are well known, as they were told by the residents of the settlement themselves and reflected in the archival documents of the Voronezh District Court. Among the latter, several files containing interesting information about the Kostomarov family were kept, including: "About the death of Captain Kostomarov, killed by horses, the will of God", "About the theft of various things and money from the landowner Kostomarova's chest by peasant Melnikov", "About peasants Vasily Smykolov and others, convicted of robbing the landowner's house Kostomarova". It follows from these documents that the court did not initially establish premeditated murder ^{[7, p. 9]}.

     According to the surviving sources, the inhabitants of the estate convey this story in such a way that "one evening old Kostomarov left for the apiary, which was in the Rakhmanov forest." He liked to ride at night and so cleaned the horse with silver that, sometimes, the harness even shone in the dark, and he hung so many bells on the horses that you could hear them rattling for several miles. And on that fateful evening, when Kostomarov was driving from the apiary, the Yurasovites heard the bells and bells rattling and rattling in the distance, and then their rattling stopped immediately. The horses and crew were driven into a swamp, Kostomarov's hands were wrapped in reins with twisted fingers, and a wound from a horse shoe gaped on his forehead. But the relatives did not believe this, especially since the horseshoe turned out to be on the forehead "upside down", not in the position in which it should have been if the horse had hit Kostomarov with its hind leg, and the top with spikes. In the course of the case, it became clear that the murder was committed partly out of revenge, and partly because of robbery ^{[9, pp. 66-67]}.

     Perhaps the case of the murder of Kostomarov Sr. would have stalled, but 7 years after a new attempt on the Kostomarov house, one of the participants in the murder of Ivan Petrovich himself let slip in a pub about this case very openly, and an energetic investigator Granikov took up the case. The murderers confessed under the new case management. They said that the first blow with an iron key from the carriage was inflicted on the landowner by the coachman, they finished off together. The guilty were punished and exiled to Siberia ^{[9, p. 68]}. The reason for the murder was money, but, apparently, to a greater extent, the excessive cruelty of the landowner. When, according to the stories of the old people, this happened, the whole Yurasovka kept saying: "Thank God! Now it will be, though girshy, but inshy!" ("... worse, but different" translation from Ukrainian). According to the memoirs of the Yurasovites, everything good and bright was concentrated around two personalities – Nikolai Ivanovich and his mother ^{[9, p.68]}.

     After the death of his father, the young Nikolai found himself in the position of a serf, which was used by the legitimate heirs of the deceased – the nephews of Rovneva. They blackmailed Tatiana Petrovna by offering her 50,000 rubles in the form of a widow's portion. banknotes and freedom for my son. The mother agreed, buying a small plot of land with serfs.

     For a sick widow who received such a modest inheritance, her son's education in Moscow became an expensive pleasure, and little Nikolai did not return to the Mother See to continue his studies.

      However, the mother did not give up the idea of giving her son a good education and upbringing. In 1828, she sent Nikolai to the private Voronezh boarding house of Fedorov and Popov, located in the house of Princess Kasatkina, and then transferred to the house of Borodin, not far from the Maiden Monastery. However, the boarding house was distinguished by unscrupulous teachers. For two and a half years, Nikolai Kostomarov learned little and also behaved undisciplined "and, fortunately for himself, was expelled from him for familiarity with the wine cellar, where, together with other comrades ... he sometimes sneaked at night for wine and berry waters" ^{[7, p. 11]}.

     In 1831, the young man was assigned by his mother to the Voronezh gymnasium. The director of the gymnasium, von Haller, was distinguished by taking bribes from students with geese, tea and sugar. Despite Kostomarov's poor training, he was enrolled in a gymnasium. I did not have to count on serious training because of poor teachers, as well as negligent students – the children of small officials, poor merchants and burghers. Those who worked harder were ready in advance to perceive study as a means important in life for obtaining the necessary sustenance.

     On the eve of graduation from the gymnasium, the following misfortune occurred in the Kostomarov family: the house was robbed. Kostomarov himself writes about this: "In 1833, when I was already expecting the end of the gymnasium course… My mother went to visit me in Voronezh on the winter Yuletide. At this time, our village house was attacked by robbers at night… When the investigation began, it turned out that the culprit of this was the landowner of the Valuysky district, retired ensign Zavarykin, and one of our peasants was with him..." ^{[7, p. 16-17]}.

     After graduating from the gymnasium course, Kostomarov moved to Kharkov and in August 1833, having passed the entrance exams, entered the verbal department of the university, which opened in 1804. He stayed at the university until August 1836. For three years, students of the ethical-political, verbal and physical-mathematical faculty studied. Students of the medical faculty have been studying for 4 years. In 1835, a new university charter was approved. In accordance with which the structure of the first Russian universities, namely Moscow, Kazan and Kharkiv, was changed. It was established that universities should have three faculties: philosophy, law and medicine. At the same time, the Faculty of Philosophy consisted of two departments: historical and philological and physical and mathematical. Each with its own deans ^{[10, p. 13]}.

     Kostomarov never entered Moscow University and did not study there, despite the evidence of his own words in his autobiography published in the journal "Russian Thought" in 1885: "I passed the exam successfully and entered the seventeenth year at Moscow University, but in my youth I did not study much at all and did not know how to take up the case.... A year later I moved to Kharkiv University" ^{[11, pp. 199-200]}.

     In his new autobiography of the 1890 edition, Nikolai Kostomarov no longer includes information about admission to Moscow University: "In the middle of August 1833, with fear and trepidation, I went to Kharkov with my mother and my teacher. The entrance exam came off as well as possible" ^{[7, p.18]}.

    The fact that the second version of the autobiography contains more reliable information is evidenced by the author's personal confession made in 1877 to his wife A. L. Kostomarova (Kragelskaya) that he first entered Kharkiv University and graduated with a candidate's degree ^{[12, p. 649]}. The correct state of affairs was pointed out by Kostomarov's friend F. K. Neslukhovsky ^[13], and in our time the Ukrainian historian Yu. A. Pinchuk writes about it ^[14].

    The whole atmosphere in Kharkiv society was determined by the university established in 1804 and opened the following year. The university was traditionally considered a higher educational institution and a scientific institution of its time, but it still had poorly defined goals and functions, and was limited to preparing young people for various kinds of public service.

     Thus, having passed through a number of difficult events, spiritual and moral trials, undoubtedly reflected on the personality and thinking, Nikolai Ivanovich came to a period that will determine his future path. This stage was the university period of the future great scientist's life. This time was full of events that influenced all his further activities. At this time, there is a rapprochement with a number of famous people. For example, such as the famous writer G. F. Kvitka ("Osnovyanenko"), P. M. Korenetsky – a deacon who wrote in the manner of Kotlyarevsky's Aeneid, F. S. Marachevsky – a poet and translator of the Bible, writers Stepan and Pyotr Pisarevsky, writer P. P. Artamovsky Gulak and many others. Here, Nikolai Ivanovich has the idea of studying the history of the Ukrainian people. In this place, they will defend their dissertation. Kostomarov will try himself not only as a serious scientist, but also as a poet. From this place the path of the researcher who is destined to become a great Russian and Ukrainian historian, ethnographer, writer and literary critic will begin.

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