Kachanivka: Grandeur And Suffering
When in 1742 and 1744 Fedir Kachenovsky, a singer at the Russian imperial court, bought two farmsteads near Ivanytsia, a small town in Chernihiv province, he could not possibly have known that some time later the land would become a famous aristocratic estate, a unique architectural site; that the scenic environs would be favored by creative figures, artists, poets, and scholars, among them Vasily Shternberg, Mikhail Glinka, Ilia Riepin, Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, Panteleimon Kulish, Mykhailo Maksymovych, Dmytro Yavornytsky, Konstantin Petrov-Vodkin, and others.
Kachenovsky’s estate received the name Kachanivka 260 years ago. The twentieth century, now also history, inflicted severe wounds on the land and its landscape park, the oldest in Europe. Still, wandering through its autumnal alleys, marveling at its ageless landscape, stepping into empty palatial halls, and breaking their age-old silence, one is aware of shadows, the shadows of great men. Here time is compressed and condensed, with the past permeating the present. Here is eternity.
Kachanivka experienced a turning point in its history when Petr Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky was appointed governor general of Little Russia and took possession of the estate. He and his descendants owned it for 38 years (1770-1808). They had a huge stone mansion erected, a palace actually, and a large garden. They meant the estate to be more than a home and a source of income. They wanted it to harbor beauty. At the turn of the nineteenth century, serious attention was also paid to ornamental gardening and landscape architecture, in order to achieve harmony between the things made by man and those by nature.
From 1824 practically up to the end of the century, Kachanivka, its very image and spirit, were closely associated with several generations of the Tarnovsky family, especially Hryhory Tarnovsky. He is mentioned in the memoirs of his celebrated guests Shternberg, Glinka, Zhemchuzhnikov, and Shevchenko. He was deeply in love with Kachanivka. He turned the garden surrounding the palace into a real park, finished construction of the local church, and built two miniature islands in the Major Pond, linking them with a bridge. Tarnovsky, lord of the Russian tsar’s bedchamber (and a landlord owning 9,000 serfs), wanted his guests to see him as a man of the arts. It was a posture he tried hard to maintain and which sometimes made him appear amusing, although he did love music, dancing, collected works of art, and was justly proud of his orchestra.
Be it as it may, Heorhy Tarnovsky was the much-needed patron for Vasily Shternberg, a young artist from Saint Petersburg who was his annual guest at Kachanivka. Mikhail Glinka made a trip to Ukraine in 1838, scouting young vocal talent for the Russian capital. He would often visit Tarnovsky and stay at his estate for long periods. In fact, the noted Russian composer dedicated several pages of his Memoirs to Kachanivka. In particular, he mentions “selection” work by church galleries in Ukrainian towns and villages. In Pereyaslav, he robbed the church choir so ruthlessly as to win Poltava Bishop Gedeon’s undying hatred. He also wrote about a student of the Kyiv theological seminary by the name of Semen Hulak-Artemovsky. The young man was also taken to Saint Petersburg. It was in Kachanivka that Glinka worked on his opera Ruslan and Liudmila and Hryhory Tarnovsky’s orchestra performed two fragments of the score, including the popular Chernomor March. It was the very first rendition of the music.
Among those frequenting Kachanivka Glinka mentions Petro Skoropadsky, Tarnovsky’s neighbor who had an estate in Trostianets; poet Viktor Zabila who wrote the lyrics for Glinka’s songs “Don’t Chirp, Nightingale” and “The Wind is Howling in the Field.” The Glinka Summerhouse is a living reminder of those good old days filled with meetings with celebrities, daring creative plans, and enjoyable pastimes. At a distance it resembles a chapel.
Several years later, in 1843, Kachanivka was first visited by Taras Shevchenko. He had heard about it in Saint Petersburg, from his good friend Vasily Shternberg. Although the Ukrainian poet was not overly impressed by Hryhory Tarnovsky, he met other people there he really liked, among them Mykola Markevych, author of the collection of verse, Ukrainian Melodies, and then newly published five-volume History of Little Russia disliked by literary trendsetter Vissarion Belinsky. The latter, true to his radical self, wrote in a review in the Otechestvennye zapiski, 1843, No. 5: “Little Russia... has never had... a history... The Little Russians have always been a tribe, rather than a people.” The review could not have possibly passed unnoticed by Shevchenko, the more so that a year earlier Belinsky had treated his poem Haidamaky with matching distaste.
Kachanivka was dominated by a spirit of the glorious Ukrainian past, and the same was true of Skoropadsky’s estate in Trostianets and of the Halahans’ one in Sokyryntsi. Memories of the Hetmanate were still vivid there, primarily as a significant component of the family tree. Descendants of Ukrainian hetmans and starshyna senior Cossack officers cultivated their own attitude toward the past. Needless to say, they did not indulge in political reveries nor did they mourn past glory. They did what others described as free-thinking in a tavern and there was a definite national decorum. Those aristocratic estates were penetrated by Ukrainian folk culture with its language and tradition. Nevertheless, to Shevchenko some of these flag-waving Ukrainian patriots looked false with their overly dramatized sentimentality. In his verse Shevchenko emphasized social contrasts: long-suffering downtrodden serfs and gothic aristocratic estates. One ought to remember this, lest one adopt an oversimplified heartfelt attitude toward those who left behind genuine unique historical and cultural monuments.
After all, every next owner of Kachanivka was different from the previous one. Hryhory Tarnovsky was followed by his nephew Vasyl Tarnovsky the Elder. who would hold the estate for 13 years (1853-65). The Crimean War and death of Nicholas II, Alexander II’s reforms, all those mid-century stormy events could not leave that young talented man indifferent. Vasyl Tarnovsky had a law degree, considered the emancipation of serfs an ultimate objective, and did much toward that end while on the editorial committee set up by Alexander II to draw up the required documents. Under Vasyl Tarnovsky pere, Kachanivka experienced little by way of change. Public activities and creative patronage were something he liked far better than day- to-day estate management.
In contrast, his son Vasyl Tarnovsky the Younger, undertook to rebuild the estate and turn it into a kind of Eden. Dmytro Yavornytsky wrote that his three major obsessions were the park, collection of Ukrainian antiquities, and women. Tarnovsky fils did succeed in building one of Europe’s best landscape parks. And there was the Tarnovsky Museum at the Kachanivka Palace. In his twilight years he presented the treasures in its collection to the city of Chernihiv. A major part of the display relates to Taras Shevchenko; Tarnovsky cherished the acquaintance, knew, and loved his poetry. In fact, he wanted Shevchenko’s remains to be buried at Kachanivka...
Ilia Riepin painted Vasyl Tarnovsky’s portrait where the man is clad in hetman’s attire. There is a cross expression in his eyes, long mustache, the left hand rests on a Cossack gun barrel... Tarnovsky wanted his posterity to remember him precisely like this... He died in 1898 and was buried in the family vault near the Grave of Askold in Kyiv, beside his son. The Civil War and vandalism during Soviet times left no trace of the Tarnovskys’ last repose.
For twenty years before the Russian revolution Kachanivka changed owners — Tereshchenko, Urusov, Olevy — and then became a banal Soviet sanitarium. In 1915, artist Petrov-Vodkin, captivated by the beauty of the place, wrote to his wife: “Just imagine a well-kept park over an area of 700 desiatynas [1,890 acres] with huge ponds and age-old trees... And a castle in the center with 76 rooms, packed with antique furniture and works of art... I walked through all of the rooms as if in a dream...”
What would have Petrov-Vodkin written, had he visited today’s Kachanivka? The sight of the place leaves one pained in the heart. It is still grand and beautiful, but what ravages this creation of several generations has sustained in the twentieth century! In 1981, the unique estate became an “historical-cultural reserve” which received national status at the start of 2001. There are signs of revival. Restoration work is underway at St. George’s Church; the left facade section of the palace has been repaired, as have the Lamp Room, once inhabited by Vasily Shternberg, and the main dining room.
This is fine and good, except that all this was done at the expense of the Ministry of Culture of the German state of Bavaria. The Germans have honored all their commitments. The Ukrainian side was to restore the second part of the palace but never did so.
In June 1999, four members of the Tarnovsky family, currently residing abroad, jointly with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, set up the Friends of Kachanivka International Society and formed a board of trustees. Ukrainian state and public institutions, however, show little interest in Kachanivka. Even if there are new Tarnovskys and Tereshchenkos in Ukraine, there is no legislation encouraging patronage in the cultural realm.
Large projects aside, no one has bothered to publish an album or booklet dedicated to Kachanivka. All a visitor can get is an assortment of color postcards with views of the former Eden in Kachanivka. Fortunately, there are also magazines such as the Rodovid and Pamyatky Ukrayiny, the Khronika-2000 almanac, and several newspapers now and then refreshing the reader’s memory, carrying interesting archival documents reminding us of our sacred national duty.
Present-day Kachanivka reflects our inner world today. It has experienced much over the centuries; celebrated personalities have immortalized it in their works of art, verse, letters, and memoirs. Away from highways, it is quietly waiting, as beautiful and grand as ever, except that it is maimed grandeur, making one’s heart contract with a pang of conscience.
