A masterpiece of Ukrainian Baroque

The overwhelming majority of monasteries, churches, and holy places, which since time immemorial have been Ukraine’s spiritual treasure and national pride, no longer exist. Everything that had been built with the talents and labor of unknown architects, Cossack officers, and people of various classes was demolished, destroyed, burned down, and blown away by the winds under the Bolshevik slogan “Religion is the opium of the masses.”

The lamentable fate of countless ravaged places of worship also befell five churches in the town of Liutenka, which is located in Hadiach raion in Poltava oblast. From 1921 until 1974 the Bolsheviks razed to the ground three parochial and two cemetery churches: St. Michael’s Church built in 1742, Resurrection Church (1731), the cemetery Church of All Saints (1675), the cemetery Siknovenska Church (1884), and the Dormition Church (1686).

The Dormition Church was one of the landmarks of the Cossack era. Because of its historical value it was included in the Program to Restore Outstanding Historical and Cultural Monuments of Ukraine, which was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers’ regulation No. 700 of April 23, 1999.

Daniel Krman, a native of Slovakia, who was in Liutenka in March 1709 with the Swedish forces, described the church in his diary: “We saw a very nice temple of God made of stone. They say that its altar cost 20,000 Cossack florins and the entire building, 100,000 florins. One Cossack florin is worth 10 imperial groszy.”

“I have not seen an altar like this in my whole life. It struck me all the more because in the land of Cossacks I did not see any stone buildings. The altar was high and wide; there were various gilded and richly painted sculptures. In the evening three men honored us with three-part singing — one bass and two sopranos — and they told us that boys are rarely used for public singing.” This wonderful church was built by Mykhailo Borokhovych.

Since the glorious age of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Hadiach and other Cossack sotnia towns (administrative centers of Cossack companies), including Liutenka, which were part of a sizeable Cossack regiment, were constantly at the center of the political and armed struggle for the independence of young, hetman- governed Ukraine. The drama of local events was enhanced by their proximity to Muscovy for which this territory was a kind of bridgehead to be used for further colonization. There were quite a few outstanding men among the Cossack officers. True statesmen and caring landlords, they defended the Ukrainian lands with the sword and built fortresses, churches, and monasteries.

One of them was a regimental quartermaster named Borokhovych, who later became a captain in Liutenka and finally a colonel in Hadiach. He held the last two positions for over 20 years (1687-1705). He never evaded danger during his many military raids, and he always rode into battle ahead of his Cossacks for which they revered him like their own fathers. Hetman Ivan Mazepa valued Borokhovych’s courage and military talent and appointed him acting hetman of the Ukrainian army.

Like other hetmans, Mazepa willingly appointed Ukrainians of Jewish origin as Cossack starshynas (officers). They served in good conscience and made donations to the army and for worthy secular undertakings. Borokhovych was this type of man. He owned a company town and financed the construction of the Dormition Church. For some reason it was always called the Zaporozhian Church. It was the first stone church in Hadiach district. This three-altar church was erected in 1686 in the form of a beautiful cruciform, five-domed structure, which was typical of the Byzantine style and the Ukrainian Baroque. It rose to the skies, sparkling with gilded crosses and the light reflected from its numerous windows. The interior was no less original and majestic. Four identical, linked arches turned the side altars into cozy nooks and made the building compact and spacious at the same time.

The length of the church from the main altar in the east to the western door was 36.5 arshins (1 arshin=71.12 cm), and it was 33.5 arshins wide, from north to south. The main altar took its name from the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, and the one on the right was called Holy Trinity. The left altar was dedicated to Archangel Michael. Linked to all three altars, the iconostasis of the Dormition Church was a masterpiece of medieval art. It was executed in the Byzantine style, had a four-tiered structure, and reached to the middle of the central dome. A document states: “Its fairly well- painted icons are placed in sinuous figures; three non-local images in the middle part of the iconostasis on the robes of the Savior, St. Mary, and St. Nicholas are chased in copper and silver-plated with the use of fire, with pure crowns made of gilded silver and adorned with diamonds.”

One of the sacred objects that were kept in the church was the relics of the hermit Avtonom from the former St. Nicholas Krasnohirsky monastery located 15 versts from Liutenka on the banks of the Pslo River. According to ancient legends, these relics were kept in a niche that was gouged out in one of the walls close to the iconostas in Trinity Church. Before the arrival of the Swedish troops before the Battle of Poltava, they were moved to the church cemetery.

On June 10, 1748, a fire broke out in the church, destroying its interior. The rebuilding involved the entire community. Generous contributions from the Borokhovyches, Bishop Tymofii Shcherbatsky, the priests Petro Fedoriv, Myron Ivaniv, Danylo Zasiadko, and Vasyl Kurdynovsky helped raise the beautiful temple from the ashes, and once again it began catering to the spiritual needs of the people. The Byzantine-style iconostasis, the pride of the church, was reinstalled. The church received two more precious relics that later attracted pilgrims. One of them was the Holy Gospel, a unique large-format book printed on high-quality Alexandrian paper in 1735 in Moscow. The book weighed 30 pounds (12 kg) and lay on the altar. The second relic was a carved and gilded ancient silver ciborium weighing over five pounds. The bottom of this vessel bore the following text carved in block letters: “Presented by Tatiana Borokhovych to the stone Dormition Church in Liutenka in the year 1724.”

The most significant fact in the history of the Dormition Church is shrouded in mystery. It is related to the two burial vaults located beneath the church. It is known that the remains of Borokhovych, the church’s founder and the colonel of the Hadiach regiment, who died on Oct. 13, 1704, were placed in a casket and suspended by iron chains from the ceiling of the second vault. For some reason, the contents of the first burial vault and any related information are veiled in mystery. Neither witnesses nor documents indicate the identity of the person whose remains are buried in this vault. Nevertheless, it is well known that there was more than one casket underneath the church. Many regional historians conjecture that the body of Ivan Briukhovetsky, the hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine, may be interred there. There is documentary evidence that his body was transferred from the Epiphany Church in Hadiach to Liutenka. In the last days of his rule Briukhovetsky dissolved the union with Muscovy and was proclaimed a traitor. This may be the reason why the casket was moved to a vault in the Dormition Church (it would have been improper to bury him in a village cemetery).

There are interesting facts linked to the construction of the church. Legend has it that the undecayed relics of one individual were found during the construction. Borokhovych notified the bishop of Chernihiv and received a reply that “it is customary to bury relics under the church’s foundation.” This is what they did.

Another intriguing fact is mentioned by Hryhorii Lohvyn, a famous historian and the author of Around Ukraine: Monuments of Ancient Art. He writes that there was a great famine at the time of the church’s construction, so Borokhovych ordered dumplings to be cooked in huge cauldrons at the construction site. These were served, one per person per day, to the starving people who came to help build the church. The old timers in the village say that these people formed a line that stretched from Zinkiv to Liutenka and handed bricks down the line, delivering them to the construction site.

In this way Borokhovych not only built the church, but also saved hundreds of people from starving to death. For this reason, the grateful residents would prepare dumplings and borshch for everyone who came to the church on the patron saint’s day. This tradition lasted until the Soviet era. Whenever a religious procession went around the church, a large portrait of Borokhovych was carried at the head of it and a short distance behind it, his Persian sash made of red silk.

For over 150 years the church in Liutenka had a roof made of slender oak shingles. The roof was put together in a masterful and filigreed way. Later the wooden roof was gradually covered with sheet iron and painted with verdigris. In 1834 under Bishop Nephaniel and in 1846 under Bishop Gedeon, the walls of the church were whitewashed again on the inside and outside.

The church in Liutenka was located inside an ancient city fortress and rested on a massive foundation. It always stood immovably and served people well. Neither the destructive force of fire nor the hands of blood-thirsty foreign conquerors who invaded Liutenka several times were able to penetrate its nearly two-meter- thick walls. It is hard to believe that the people’s own government — the Bolshevik regime — became the chief enemy of this remarkable church. In 1933 the church was closed down, the belfry was stripped of its bells, and the majestic building became deserted. The first attempts to destroy the church took place in 1937.

Four years earlier the village had survived the Holodomor and the most brutal repressions when Liutenka was placed on the republican list of shirkers (the so-called “blacklist”). Nonetheless, the distressed villagers found the courage to write a letter to the head of the Council of People’s Ministers of the USSR Viacheslav Molotov about the need to protect the Dormition Church.

On Sept. 15, 1937, they wrote: “In the village of Liutenka (Hadiach raion, Kharkiv oblast) the enemy wants to destroy a historical monument-the former Dormition Church. It is 300 years old. There is no other church of this kind on the entire territory of Kharkiv and Poltava gubernias. It is made of stone and is extremely beautiful. It withstood the siege by Swedish troops. We have preserved it for 300 years. We are not clergymen, but we cannot suppress our indignation as we observe how grand historical monuments are being destroyed. If you, Comrade Molotov, are not together with the wild barbarians, then please put a stop to this savage and deplorable process.”

“Issue an order for this historical monument, the former Dormition Church, to be placed under protection and for damages to be partly compensated in order to stop the enemies of the people from rejoicing and discontent from spreading among the people.”

“There are many citizens, but unfortunately, they cannot sign their signatures because otherwise they will be broken and maimed for doing this. Please telegraph your order immediately.”

The residents of Liutenka were not aware that Molotov, as a member of the Politburo of the CC AUCP(B) and the long-standing head of the Sovnarkom of the USSR, was directly linked to the Bolsheviks’ state anti-ecclesiastical policy. To make matters worse, from time to time he and his wife Polina Zhemchuzhna gave unique and ancient church items as gifts to foreign diplomats. Joseph Davies, the US ambassador to the USSR, and his wife received from the Molotovs 20 icons dating from the 16th to the 18th century, including eight that were taken from the Kyiv Cave Monastery. There was no way the Soviet government was going to pardon the audacity of the Liutenka residents who had complained to Molotov. In 1937-38, in pursuance of order No. 00147 issued by Nikolai Yezhov, the head of the NKVD, some residents of Liutenka were exiled to the Far North regions of the USSR. In 1939-40 several more were imprisoned for three years in the Kustanai prison for secretly gathering in one of the houses and holding church services.

Some elderly residents of the village recall: “Something strange was going on in the Dormition Church, which had been standing empty and locked. There were unusual sounds, some strange lamentations, coming from the church day and night. This lasted for days. Finally, the villagers leaned a ladder against the wall and climbed up to the window. Just as they were about to take a look inside, the bony black hand of a dead man appeared in the window. The terrified fellows jumped off the ladder and ran away. Within a few days, two crosses appeared on the damp walls of the parochial school that stood next to the church and remained visible for several days.”

The church was destroyed in 1974. Young regional historians from the local school interviewed the villagers and pieced the events together. At one point, top party functionaries from Poltava and Hadiach arrived in Liutenka. The local bosses showed them the newly erected monument to the soldiers of Infantry Division 373, which had liberated the village during the Second World War. After viewing the monument with satisfaction, a party official from Poltava suddenly turned in the direction of the church and asked his subordinates suspiciosly: “And what kind of monument is that?” This signal was understood by everyone.

The campaign to destroy the church unfolded instantly and quickly reached the republican level. In Kyiv well-known scholars sprang to the defense of the church in Liutenka. They tried to save one of the few surviving historical-architectural monuments of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but the forces were unequal. The CC of the CPU broke the scholars’ resistance.

However, in order to raze the church they needed the consent of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. So the local authorities had to convince the Soviet government that the Dormition Church in Liutenka was on the point of collapsing. The local bosses resorted to a criminal falsification. The church was photographed from a distance, and buildings with visible cracks and breaches were identified in the entire raion. Photographers took pictures of them and pasted them over the photograph of the church as evidence of its dilapidated condition. The case was neatly sewn together and Moscow gave the go-ahead.

Hundreds of small explosions created hollows and breaches in the walls, but the church did not fall. It was dying slowly. At night watchmen in nearby stores heard more and more distinctly cracking sounds coming from the walls. The demolition squad and all the witnesses of the tragedy were afraid to approach the church. At sunrise the next morning, the four domes of the church slowly sank to the ground as the benumbed and terrified villagers stood watching. Only one dome survived-its wall had withstood even the assault of the demolition crew. As a mute witness to this crime, it stood overlooking the ruins for another 12 years. The remains of the church and belfry were finally blown up in April 1985.

For nearly 300 years the Zaporozhian Dormition Church in Liutenka had served the spiritual needs of the Ukrainian people. It witnessed many events during its existence, including visits from hetmans, Cossack colonels, captains, and otamans. Highly respected and occasionally undesirable guests came to the church. It is possible that in January-March 1709 King Charles XII of Sweden or one of his military commanders visited their garrison in the Liutenka fortress, which was under the command of Commandant Sparre. According to one legend, this mysterious town encircled by forests, marshes, and rivers put up fierce resistance to the Swedes. “The accursed Liuten finally surrendered,” they said with relief when they eventually captured Liutenka.

The Dormition Church was called the Zaporozhian Church for a reason: it was built inside a large Cossack city, which Olena Pchilka, the mother of Lesia Ukrainka, later called “an old Cossack nest.” It is not surprising that the world-famous scientist Oleksandr Zasiadko was born here into the family of the chief gunner of the Zaporozhian Sich. The future inventor and designer of the first combat missiles, whose name is inscribed on the map of the Moon alongside Copernicus, Newton, Einstein, and the names of other prominent scientists and inventors, was baptized in the Dormition Church in 1779.

Somewhat later, in 1706, Feoktyst Pavlovsky was born in Liutenka. Pavlovsky was a famous icon painter, who decorated the churches of the Kyivan Cave Monastery and St. Sophia Cathedral. In 1857 another prominent figure, Ivan Zaretsky, was born here. Zaretsky was a noted ethnographer, archaeologist, collector of antiquities, founder of a potter’s studio in Opishnia, and a member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, Anthropologists, and Ethnographers and of the Moscow Archaeological Society.

Churches are like people: each one has its own life, whether short or long. It was the Liutenka church’s destiny to survive many memorable and tragic years. There is hope that it will live on in the future if the government of Ukraine grants it the status of a historical and architectural monument that must be restored. The Oles Honchar All-Ukrainian Historical and Architectural Monument Restoration Fund is already providing modest financial support to pay for the design documentation needed to rebuild the Dormition Church in Liutenka. However, the main guarantee that this project will come true is that in lands far and near there are many of our fellow countrymen, caring Ukrainians, and people who are willing to support this cause and donate at least a small amount of money to help raise the Zaporozhian Dormition Church in Liutenka and make it resound with melodious bell-ringing. The example of Borokhovych, the colonel of Hadiach, that illustrious son of the Poltava region and Ukraine, is a source of inspiration for us today.

The parish of the Holy Dormition Church in Liutenka has opened an account to which donations can be sent: Pryvatbank, Hadiach branch, a/c 26009060173744, MFO code 31401, EHRPOU code 35293820. Beneficiary: the parish of the Dormition House of Prayer of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Liutenka.

Ivan CHAIKA is a writer and journalist based in Liutenka.