Monument builder

Few know about the man who built the grave of Petro Kalnyshevsky, the last commander of the Cossack camp. After Russian troops destroyed the Sich in 1775, the tsarist government supported by Grigory Potyomkin locked the otaman away in a prison cell of the Solovetsky Monastery. The verdict was merciless: “to keep under the strictest surveillance,” without leaving the monastery, with the ban on correspondence and communication with other people.

This was an inhuman verdict. The mere mentioning of the Solovki prison causes sorrow, grief and bitter affliction. The sun never reached the holes and stone dungeons of the big state prison. No one knew anything about it because no one returned alive, except for those who ruled there, unbearably torturing the enemies of tsarism and the biggest “sinners” against the church. There was no amnesty for prisoners of this living cemetery. Those who came there stayed forever. Shackled, cold and hungry, staying in intolerable humidity the prisoners went mad, they were dying in throes before their prison guards-inquisitors. No one could learn about the conditions of their existence.

This was also the fate of Petro Kalnyshevsky. Hidden in the dungeons of the Solovetsky Monastery, he was struck out of life, history, and memory for a hundred years.

Who was the first to take a step toward the immortalization of his memory, who showed mercy and honor to his earthly remains? It is easy to find him. This is Archimandrite Andronik, whose secular name was Oleksandr Pavlovych. He placed a granite slab with the following words on the grave of the Kish Otaman:

“Our Lord Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross for all of us, he doesn’t want the sinner’s death. The deceased in God, the body of the Kish Otaman of the once formidable Zaporizhian Sich of Cossacks Petro Kalnyshevsky, who was exiled to this cloister by the highest command in 1776 to become humble, and was buried here. In 1801, by the highest command he was released again, but this time did not wish to leave the cloister, where he found the peace of mind of a humble Christian who really admitted his guilt. He died on Saturday, October 23, 1803 at the age of 112, a good pious death.

“Blessed are the dead dying with God in their heart! Amen. A.A. 1856”

This text repeatedly appeared on pages of periodicals and research publications, but no one commented on the content of the epitaph or named its author. Only the Ukrainian historian and ethnographer Petro Yefymenko, being in exile in the Arkhangelsk province, in the article “Kalnyshevsky, the Last Kish Otaman of the Zaporizhian Sich. 1691-1803” in the November edition of the journal Russkaya Starina explained the cryptonym “AA” as “Archimandrite Andronik,” the monument’s builder. It was his initiative to make a slab with the inscription and mark the grave of the honored Kish Otaman more than fifty years after his death.

The future archimandrite was born on May 16, 1798 in the village of Kobrynova Hreblia, now Talny in Cherkasy oblast. He was the son of a Uniate priest of noble origin Ivan Pavlovych and Ahapia Syniak. At the age of 19 he graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 1817 Pavlovych was ordained as deacon and sent to the town of Borodianka, but later they kept him at the metropolitan’s house, where he taught the choristers Latin. In 1820, being a priest, he married a girl from a Kyivan bourgeois family. The married couple had four children: three sons and a daughter. For a long time he served as a priest of a military department, so he learned about the life and daily routine of soldiers and officers, their readiness to not only march but also master military science and the skill of using a weapon. This would help him when he came to Arkhangelsk. The young man lead divine services in different military regiments and small towns of Ukraine, and the parishes honored and respected him. There were cases when he was transferred to serve in other places but the parishioners insisted on returning the respected priest to them. And the eparchial authorities had to make concessions. This was the case in the town of Ryzhanivka, Kyiv province, when after some time priest Oleksandr was returned to the Intercession Cathedral. At that time, in 1831, a tragedy happened in his family: his wife Oleksandra died unexpectedly, leaving four children in his care, and in 1853 his daughter Anastasia passed away. That happened already far away in Arkhangelsk, where he served as an archpriest of the Solombalsk Marine Transfiguration Cathedral since 1847. There he took the monastic vows, after which he was ordained as archimandrite of the Solovetsky Monastery of the Savior, and later became its vicar. The cold and scarcely populated land, and severe climate influenced his spiritual state and health. The archimandrite wrote to his acquaintance about his life in the North: “Life in Arkhangelsk is boring. There are no pleasures that one has in the beneficial southern climate. I find pleasure in God’s temple, wonderful cathedral, and correspondence.”

Being far from his native land, he did not forget about his relatives, wrote letters and greetings on all Christian holidays to them, looked forward to any news from Ukraine, where his children were left under the care of his relatives. He also passed a charitable donation of 2,000 roubles in silver to the Kyiv Church of All Saints. The rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Filaret Amfiteatrov expressed sincere gratitude to Archimandrite Andronik for the generous donation “to the temples of settlements close to him.”

In 1854 Russia broke off relations with England, and war was approaching. Fearing an attack the Synod obliged Archimandrite Andronik, before navigating the White Sea, to send all his valuables to the mainland for safekeeping, and to stay there without leaving and take all measures to protect the monastery and prisoners, among whom was a member of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius Yurii Andruzky. The dean of the monastery quickly coped with the responsible errand, together with his brethren he packed valuables and sent everything the enemy could seize to the mainland. These included brocaded and velvet chasubles, plates, silver sugar bowls, cups, candlesticks, a box of silver, 1,356 handwritten and 83 ancient books. The Solovetsky Monastery, being far from the mainland territory and icebound by the White Sea, lived its ordinary life not knowing that in the Arkhangelsk province martial law had been introduced. A messenger arrived and raised the alarm — then the dean understood what danger threatened him and all residents of the Solovki Island. Left to the mercy of fate, the monastery independently reorganized its life in military fashion. Archimandrite Andronik bore the main responsibility, he enthusiastically undertook the duties of the military commandant of the Solovki Kremlin and the head of the garrison. His personal bravery inspired all citizens of the island to join the ranks of its defenders.

When the squadron of English ships approached the island and started firing from cannons, the defenders of the monastery did not retreat and repulsed the attempts of the enemy to land troops through coordinated cannon and rifle fire. Archimandrite Andronik acted as the commander of the military forces with dignity. When the exchange between the attackers and defenders subsided, he congratulated the gunners on their victory in front of all the island’s inhabitants and promised to nominate them for state awards. He kept his word. After bombarding the Solovetsky monastery on July 6-7, 1854, the archimandrite mentioned the bravest prisoners in his report. “All of them selflessly fought against the enemy in the forest as hunters,” he reported to the Synod. In his report he also noted the former student of the Kyiv University Yurii Andruzky and pleaded to commute the punishment for him and other particularly brave ones who deserved “liberation from the monastery” as a reward for their exploits. After this Andruzky was transferred to live in Arkhangelsk under the surveillance of the police.

In 1857 the chief hero of the defense of the Solovetsky Monastery was consecrated as bishop of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogorsk. In 1860 he was transferred to the Poltava eparchy, back to the warmth of native land and the inexpressible joy of meeting native and close people. At the age of 70 the bishop made a six-month trip to Jerusalem and Mount Athos. At this, the emperor financed the trip on his own initiative, allotting him 1,000 rubles for accommodation. The last years the bishop lived in the Kyiv Sofia’s metropolitan house, with a pension. He died in 1874. He was buried in the St. Anna Conception Church of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

That’s how Archimandrite Andronik, who constructed the first grave of the last Kish Otaman of the Zaporizhian Sich, lived and was remembered in history and by his contemporaries. Now every Ukrainian visiting Solovki considers it a sacred duty to bow to the grave of the glorious Otaman Petro Kalnyshevsky.