Petro Kalnyshevsky’s legacy

The Holy Mother of God Birth Church in Lokhvytsia (1763–71), now in Poltava oblast, occupies a special place among the numerous religious structures built at the expense of Petro Kalnyshevsky (1690–1803), the legendary last Kish Otaman of the Zaporozhian Sich. He invested nearly 10,000 rubles in the construction project, a staggering sum at the time.

Kalnyshevsky also spent large sums on the construction of the Intercession Church in Romny. It was built almost simultaneously with the Lokhvytsia church. At the beginning of the 20th century the Romny church was transferred to Poltava. This gem of Ukrainian wooden architecture of the Baroque period perished in 1943, during the Second World War.

What makes the Lokhvytsia church especially interesting is the fact that there is a 230-page file in Kalnyshevsky’s private archives with detailed information about its construction, including the costs, the builder, and the decorators of the interior.

Why did Kalnyshevsky take such special care of the church construction project in Lokhvytsia? In the 1970s, F. Sakhno, a researcher of Romny’s antiquities, tried to trace Kalnyshevsky’s family ties. In one of his research papers he claimed that the otaman’s descendants lived in Right Bank Ukraine, then part of the Polish kingdom (Rzeczpospolita), and that they settled in the Hetman State in the early 18th century.

Several other researchers believe that Kalnyshevsky came from the szlachta (nobility), as evidenced by documents relating to his exile to the Solovetsky Monastery and identifying him as a “Polish nobleman.” Kalnyshevsky’s relatives settled in the vicinity of Romny and Lokhvytsia. Another piece of evidence is the unprecedented scale of his philanthropic activities in these localities.

Kalnyshevsky maintained close contacts with senior Cossack officers in Lubny and Lokhvytsia, including such noted sotnyks (captains) of the Hetman State as Oleksii Markevych, Yosyp Borysenko, Ivan Stefanovych, Vasyl Nelhovsky, and others. His Lokhvytsia friend Maksym Yanovsky told Kalnyshevsky about the death of his nephew Yosyp Kalnyshevsky, whom he had at one time appointed Colonel of the Kodaky Regiment.

Kalnyshevsky visited Lokhvytsia more than once. Historical documents point to the fact that in 1766 he came to stay with the local archpriest K. Kryvetsky. A while later the latter’s widow asked him to help repair the belfry in Zapadynka, a village near Lokhvytsia.

After the Lokhvytsia church burned down in 1748, the local Cossack community asked Kalnyshevsky to help build a new temple. Letters to this effect in the archives indicate that its construction lasted eight years and that Kalnyshevsky signed a contract with the best constructors in the Hetman State. The construction project was first supervised by Ivan Brodatsky, a person contracted by Kalnyshevsky, but he suddenly died and was succeeded by the skilled local architect Ivan Lukash.

Despite several rounds of Soviet heavy censorship, Stefan Taranushenko’s fundamental work Monumental Wooden Architecture of Left-Bank Ukraine (Kyiv, 1976) contained a unique document: the contract between Kalnyshevsky and Brodatsky under which the builder undertook to “erect within two years the Blessed Mother of God Birth Church by using his skill and making an excellent structure on a solid foundation, in place of the previous church destroyed by fire, with the same width and length as the foundation of the previous construction, and that, I [the customer] hereby undertake to agree with any such reductions in size as may be determined by the persons mentioned above. The height and style will be the same as those of the recently built Church of the Holy Trinity in Lubny, or less, as they will determine. There shall be five stories to the church to be built, the same as the above-mentioned Holy Trinity Church in Lubny, as well as semispherical domes. They shall be tin-plated at my expense, with windows the number and sizes of which shall be determined by me, and which shall be built and puttied also at my expense. Should any damage be my fault, I shall make up for it at my expense.”

There is an archival document listing all Lokhvytsia church construction expenses and materials, including 504 oak trees worth 405 rubles. In the first half of the 18th century craftsmen were paid mostly in kind (e.g., with grain, honey, wax, etc.), whereas toward the end of the century all payments were made with money.

Kalnyshevsky placed a certain Borysiak in charge of all construction works. He regularly sent letters with progress reports to the Kish Otaman in the Sich. When the temple’s interior was completed, Borysiak wrote with satisfaction: “The iconostasis in the Lokhvytsia Church looks absolutely beautiful and it has been duly consecrated.”

The iconostasis deserves special notice. It ranked among the exceptional monuments of the Cossack period, although this unique creation of talented artisans is mentioned only briefly in the contemporary special literature. What concerns the photograph, it had never appeared in a publication dealing with the history of old Ukrainian art, not until the late 1990s. It was first published in 1997 by the Chornukhy-based newspaper Nova pratsia as an illustration for my feature about Nestor Horodovenko (1885–1964). An unknown photographer had made a snapshot of the central part of the iconostasis in 1931, before it was destroyed by the local militant atheists.

Sysoi Shalmatov (1720–1790), a noted Russian woodcarver who was known in both his country and Ukraine for monumental works, was commissioned to make the iconostasis. Among the projects completed under his supervision were grand, sophisticated iconostases for the Romny church and for the cathedrals of the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross in Poltava and the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration in Lubny (neither has survived the ravages of time).

In 1763 Shalmatov moved to Okhtyrka where a large religious construction project was underway. On Kalnyshevsky’s request, he was found and offered a new contract in Lokhvytsia. (He was decorating the interior of the Mhar Monastery at the time.) In one of his letters Borysiak wrote: “We could hardly locate the master woodcarver (i.e., Shalmatov — H.Sh.) who did the iconostasis in Lubny. He was shown the sketch, using which he was to do his work, as instructed by Your Honor…”

In fact, Kalnyshevsky knew Shalmatov personally and highly valued his talent that had flourished in Slobidska Ukraine and in the Hetman State, thriving on the aesthetic ideals of the Cossack period. They were friends, so Kalnyshevsky would quite often begin a letter to him with these words: “My highly esteemed Sysoi Zotych…” Shalmatov also repeatedly visited the Zaporozhian Sich, where he was always made welcome.

When the work was completed, the Lokhvytsia church was adorned with a grand iconostasis carved out of cypress, whose refined beauty made it one of the best in Left-Bank Ukraine. It was as wide as the temple and reached the lower part of the central dome. The carving was done in the rocaille style reminiscent of St. Andrew’s Church with its refined interior design and twisted columns in the Royal Doors, something Shalmatov especially favored. This lent the whole iconostasis inimitable beauty. Vines and grapes, leaves of acanthus, and shamrock were the prevalent decorative motifs. Although the iconostasis conformed to the space of the temple with its trifoliate shape and Baroque-like d cor, white planes were noticeably prevalent, contrasted by gilded architectural elements, with rocaille cartouches placed at larger intervals. The Lokhvytsia iconostasis marked the beginning of a new Ukrainian religious decorative carving style that became known as classicism.

Another reason Kalnyshevsky personally supervised the construction and decoration of the temple was that he intended it to be a monument to the valiant Cossacks of the Lokhvytsia company (sotnia), who had fought for the freedom of Ukraine in Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s host and shown bravery under enemy fire in every campaign. Some historians believe that the Kish Otaman was a prominent man of that company.

Kalnyshevsky commissioned Pavlo Petrash (Petrashev), one of the best artisans in Poltava at the time, to decorate the iconostasis. The contract was signed in 1766 and read: “The Undersigned Cossack Pavel Petrashev, resident of the village of Rybtsiv, man of the Second Company of the Little Russian Poltava Regiment pledges under this Contract … made with Kalnyshevsky in Lokhvytsia to paint and guild the iconostasis in the Mother of God Birth Church … with all of the iconostasis to be covered in pure gold, with the ground to be covered in silver and then in Venetian crimson. In smooth and sufficiently wide gilded places church-like patterns are to be executed on the wall icons, using Venetian paints (these were the best at the time — H.Sh.) with good solutions, wherever necessary. Also, the walls and ceiling within the church shall be whitewashed and the vaults painted…” The contract mentions the painter Shumiansky (Shumliansky) who must have been in charge of other decorative works.

In the summer of 1797 the Lokhvytsia church was hit by a bolt of lightning and burned down. It happened while a divine service was in progress on St. Elijah’s Day and the temple was packed. Miraculously, the parishioners saved the iconostasis and other church paraphernalia. Legend has it that they were assisted by a miracle-working icon brought from a monastery on Mount Athos and presented to the temple by Kalnyshevsky. After the iconostasis was carried outside, the church collapsed.

The construction of the new temple lasted until 1809. It was a brick structure crowned with a dome that had windows cut in it. The four corner domes resembled belfries. On three sides the temple had porticos supported by four Dorian columns. The temple was executed in the style of Russian classicism. Its architecture basically reminds one of cathedrals and churches that were built in the gubernia and district centers of the Russian empire at the turn of the 19th century and designed in the architect Ivan Starov’s studio. The Church of Saint Nicholas built in Reval (today: Tallinn) in the late 1820s stands closest to the Lokhvytsia church in terms of separate architectural elements. The Lokhvytsia church was one of the first single-domed structures built in what is now Poltava oblast in strict accordance with the architecture of classicism.

The unique carved iconostasis of the wooden temple, which had perished in the fire, was transferred to a new brick structure, and it remained there until the mid-1930s when it was dismantled during the infamous period of militant atheism. Another thing that makes this monument stand out among others is the fact that the noted Ukrainian choirmaster and teacher Nestor Horodovenko conducted here the church choir in 1907–09, when he worked in his native town as a schoolteacher.

A number of streets and lanes in Lokhvytsia still bear the names of Bolshevik revolutionaries and communist leaders and foreign nationals. Why can’t a street or a square be named after Petro Kalnyshevsky? This man fully deserved the privilege with his entire long-suffering and virtuous life.

Heorhii Shybanov holds the title of Honored Art Worker of Ukraine