Shalak Oksana

Іmperial persecutions of Ukrainian folklorists: Mykola Bilozersky in the mirror of archive sources

Section: Sources of biographical research

Abstract: The purpose of the article is to attempt to reconstruct certain periods in the biography of the folklorist Mykola Bilozersky (1833-1896), his scientific priorities and the cause-and-effect relationships of his departure from active publishing activities and the pressure of censorship during the publication of his edited “Narodnyе yuzhnorusskiе pesnі” (1854). In the process of analyzing ego-documents, the historical-comparative method was applied, when, based on the comparison of many sources, those facts and events were singled out that made it possible to highlight the circumstances of the imperial ban on Ukrainian publications and the persecution of folklorists and ethnologists. The novelty is in the study of the imperial policy of censorship oppression through the study of the epistolary, memoirs, and diaries of M. Bilozersky in 1854 and 1848, the latter of which was introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Understanding the impact on M. Belozersky rout of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the arrests and exiles of the Cyril-Methodians, including his brother Vasyl Bilozersky, makes it possible to reveal the motivations and obstacles in the biography of the compiler of “Narodnyе yuzhnorusskiе pesnі”. The article raises the issue of the scientific biography of a folklorist, whose activity was not aimed primarily at the publication of his own research, butat the collection of primary folklore material. Conclusions. Biography of M. Bilozersky is a vivid example of how his life and scientific activity change, undergo modifications under the influence of strong shocks, such as the defeat of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, as well as constant pressure from the imperial censorship system. The biography of M. Bilozersky could have been different, and he himself would have served the Ukrainian science of folk creativity much more if it were not for the pressure from the censorious imperial agencies. However, even under such difficult conditions, he managed to find away to realize himself as a scientist, collecting and organizing a collection of folklore from the Chernihiv region.

Keywords: Mykola Bilozersky, imperial persecution, censorship pressure, epistolary, diary, the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

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• Shalak Oksana (V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Ukraine, Kyiv, [email protected]) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8275-6703

Cite:
Shalak Oksana (2025). Іmperial persecutions of Ukrainian folklorists: Mykola Bilozersky in the mirror of archive sources. Biographistica Ukrainica, (26) 347-366. (In Ukrainan). https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.26.347

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