Gogol was here

“I’ve been here before. You cannot help admiring this beauty. It is unique; the whole place here is holy. What I like most is this eternal springtime. You see, even though it is fall now, it is spring in my heart. I wish this place could always have its followers.” These heartfelt words about the picturesque village of Kachanivka in Ichnia raion, Chernihiv oblast, were spoken by the prominent Ukrainian singer and director Dmytro Hnatiuk.

On Oct. 7 and 8 this corner of Ukraine was the venue of a major cultural event called “EthnoAutumn: A Star-Studded Autumn in Kachanivka” held under the slogan “Know Ukraine!” Its goal is to acquaint visitors, including Ukrainians, with the Kachanivka National Historical and Cultural Preserve. This event is the logical continuation of a series of cultural-charitable ethnic festivals that commenced on April 6-7 2006 in the village of Hoholeve, Poltava oblast, with “EthnoSummer-XIX: The Kupalo Games in Gogol’s Homeland.”

“Now the most important thing is promotion. Historic sights need it as much as performers or public personas,” Anzhelika Rudnytska, singer, anchorwoman, and one of the organizers of EthnoAutumn, told The Day. “We travel to different countries while we have such beauty right under our nose, and we are not even aware of it. It’s easy to reach this place; it’s not far or expensive. There is a cheap hotel — only 30 hryvnias a night, a cafe is opening soon, and there are always interesting art exhibitions. I hope this place becomes a real cultural venue, not just another spot visited by newlyweds.”

Kachanivka is the only palace and park complex in Ukraine to have almost completely survived: a gorgeous palace, outbuildings, decorative garden edifices, a church, an intricately planned park, an adjacent forest, and a few lakes. The name “Kachanivka” derives from the surname of the court singer Fedir Ivanovych Kachanivsky, who owned these lands in the 1740s. When Kachanivsky inherited some richer estates, he sold this small village together with its lands to his relative, Mykhailo Ivanovych Kachanivsky.

The house and was founded in the 1770s by count P. Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky, a well-known commander of the Russian army (1725-1796), as the residence of the president of the Little Russian collegium and governor-general of Little Russia (Ukraine). The palace was built and the park with an orchard was laid out at this time. But Rumiantsev-Zadunaisky’s work required him to spend a lot of time far away from Kachanivka, and the estate went into decline during his lifetime.

The golden age of Kachanivka began in 1824, when it became the property of three generations of the Tarnovsky family, which owned Kachanivka until 1897. Later it was owned consecutively by the sugar manufacturers Pavlo Ivanovych Kharytonenko and his daughter Olena with her husband Mykhailo Oliv.

A legend says that when Pavlo Kharytonenko, who had bought Kachanivka as a dowry for his elder daughter Olena, was marrying her off to prince Urusov in the summertime, the bride and groom had a traditional marriage ceremony in the estate’s church. The 350 to 400 meter-longalley was covered in sugar to make the newlyweds’ life sweet. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be sweet. Urusov was much older than Olena, and he could not stay in Kachanivka all the time because of his military service. Olena then fell in love with a young officer named Mykhailo Oliv, who was serving under prince Urusov’s command and often spent time in Kachanivka. Oliv and Urusov fought a duel in the churchyard. Oliv did his best to make Urusov leave Kachanivka for good, and then became a wonderful estate owner until 1918.

At different times Kachanivka was visited by a host of celebrities. Hryhorii Tarnovsky was the first to launch local patronage activities. In the 1830s he started an album for visitors, which contains approximately 608 autographs of famous people, including Taras Shevchenko, Nikolai Gogol (Mykola Hohol), Marko Vovchok, Vasilii Sternberg, Ilia Repin, Mykola Kostomarov, Panteleimon Kulish, Viktor Zabila, Mykhailo Maksymovych, and many others. It was impossible not to create things here.

In 1918 the estate was nationalized by the Soviet authorities. Terrible years of destruction and devastation ensued. Local residents dismantled the architectural structures to use them as construction materials. From 1925 to 1933 Kachanivka was home to the Vorovsky Children’s Commune. Later the estate was used as a recreational facility — as a health center for invalids of World War Two and a tuberculosis sanatorium until 1981. Kachanivka’s glory only began to revive after it was proclaimed a preserve in 1981. The presidential decree of Feb. 27, 2001 granted Kachanivka the status of a national preserve. The historical area of the estate was 732 hectares. Today the preserve covers 443 hectares of parkland, while 125 hectares covers lakes and ponds. It is one of the largest preserves in Ukraine. Nowadays the architectural ensemble requires large-scale restorations for which there are no state funds.

“EthnoAutumn in Kachanivka” was truly star-studded. Dmytro Hnatiuk, Iryna Semenenko, Anzhelika Rudnytska, Olena Hrebeniuk, and the Sokalsky Sisters trio performed on the main stage, which harmonized with the gold-leaved park. The palace’s rooms were brightened by the colorful exhibition of EthnoAutumn, featuring enamel paintings by Serhii and Tetiana Kolechko, glass paintings by Yaroslav Danyliv, and exclusive embroidery works by Anzhelika Rudnytska.

But EtnoAutumn is not the last project aimed at helping Ukrainians to familiarize themselves with the real wealth of their country. “We are going to hold four events,” said one of the initiators of EthnoAutumn, Mykola Tomenko, who heads the Parliamentary Committee on Family, Youth Policy, Sports, and Tourism. “We’ve made up our minds about EthnoSpring. It’s going to be held in Lesia Ukrainka’s homeland. We’d love to put on something extraordinarily special and artistic. It will probably be either a musical or a rock opera based on Lisova pisnia (Forest Song). It will definitely happen on Europe Day, May 20 — we’d like Europe to see Ukraine, not Ukraine to see Europe.”

Visitors to EthnoAutumn were amazed by what they saw. In Kachanivka everyone had an opportunity to take a deep breath of fresh air filled with the smell of fir trees and larches together with the scent of mysterious old times.

“I come from Moldova. I came to see my granddaughter,” says Svitlana Zimina, a guest of the “Star-Studded Autumn in Kachanivka.” “In the morning a female neighbor invited me to go to the festival in Kachanivka. A moment ago, as I looked in Tarnovsky’s old mirror, it seemed to me that I had been transported to the past, 200 years ago, and that I would encounter someone in a long beautiful frock, see a carriage, a sunset, and famous poets and writers getting together to discuss their best works. And today I simply met them. We’ve had a wonderful time here. The only thing that upsets us is that everything around here is in such a bad state. The palace requires restoration, and that takes money. And so far I’ve seen few things with national coloring. It would be great if visitors were met in the Ukrainian style, by people wearing national costumes. But it’s just the beginning, though, soon it’ll be better.”

One of the most interesting sights was “Glinka’s pergola.” Interestingly enough, it was in Kachanivka that Mikhail Glinka composed parts of the opera Ruslan and Liudmila, a few songs, romances, and a cantata dedicated to Tarnovsky, entitled “A Hymn to the Host.” The pergola has excellent acoustic properties. It faces magnificent landscapes overlooking Mayorsky Pond, on whose shores grow four giant oaks between 250 and 450 years old. Sadly, one of them is dying. They are witnesses to bygone eras. These very oaks saw Shevchenko, Gogol, Kostomarov, Yavornytsky, and Vrubel. It was no accident that the historian Mykola Kostomarov called Kachanivka the Ukrainian “warm lands,” where famous scholars, writers, and painters flocked.

The descendants of the former owners of the Tarnovsky estate, who live in Great Britain, Germany, and Kyiv have set up an international society “Friends of Kachanivka” whose goal is to attract funds and sponsors to encourage the revival of the palace and park complex and to turn it to an international cultural center.

Kachanivka deserves becoming known throughout the world but above all — in Ukraine. All those who want to breathe in the authentic atmosphere of the past can come here and see interesting exhibits and hear the wind blow words of admiration over the ancient oaks.