Rediscovering Zaporozhians Memory, Loyalties, and Politics in Late Imperial Kuban, 1880–1914

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Rediscovering Zaporozhians Memory, Loyalties, and Politics in Late Imperial Kuban, 1880–1914 Rediscovering Zaporozhians Memory, Loyalties, and Politics in Late Imperial Kuban, 1880–1914 Oleksandr Polianichev Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, 26 May 2017 European University Institute Department of History and Civilization Rediscovering Zaporozhians Memory, Loyalties, and Politics in Late Imperial Kuban, 1880–1914 Oleksandr Polianichev Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Examining Board Professor Alexander Etkind, European University Institute (EUI Supervisor) Professor Pavel Kolář, European University Institute Professor Vladimir Lapin, European University at St. Petersburg (External Supervisor) Professor Mark von Hagen (Arizona State University) © Oleksandr Polianichev, 2017 No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author Researcher declaration to accompany the submission of written work Department of History and Civilization - Doctoral Programme I Oleksandr Polianichev certify that I am the author of the work Rediscovering Zaporozhians: Culture, Memory, and Politics in Late Imperial Kuban, 1860–1914 I have presented for examination for the Ph.D. at the European University Institute. I also certify that this is solely my own original work, other than where I have clearly indicated, in this declaration and in the thesis, that it is the work of others. I warrant that I have obtained all the permissions required for using any material from other copyrighted publications. I certify that this work complies with the Code of Ethics in Academic Research issued by the European University Institute (IUE 332/2/10 (CA 297). The copyright of this work rests with its author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This work may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. This authorisation does not, to the best of my knowledge, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that this work consists of 147606 words. Signature and date: 29 November 2016 Thesis Abstract Rediscovering Zaporozhians examines the cultural imagination of intellectual, administrative, and military elites of the largely Ukrainian-speaking Cossack colonial settler community on the North Caucasus, the Kuban host, who in the final decades of the nineteenth century came to celebrate themselves as the heirs and successors of the Zaporozhian Sich. Drawing together findings from nine archives, materials from contemporary periodicals, administrative and personal correspondence, and ego- documents, the dissertation traces the emergence and development of the idea of Kuban as a living relic of Zaporozhia during the late imperial period. Inventing the ancient past for themselves, the Cossack elites pursued different goals at once. They sought to secure the Cossack privileged estate status in the changing world of fin-de-siècle, to negotiate more autonomy in local affairs, to lend the Cossack community organic coherence and enhance its morale, to reaffirm the Cossacks’ loyalty to the ruling dynasty. Finally yet importantly, the notion of the Cossacks’ Zaporozhian origin shaped and maintained the symbolic boundaries of their cultural peculiarities. The dissertation looks at a wide array of examples of using the past—commemorations, monuments, regalia, rhetoric and other culturally charged entities—to show how the Zaporozhian myth came into being and what political implications it entailed. Following these processes against the background of political developments in the Russian Empire, this work weaves them into the general fabric of the imperial ideology of the epoch. In doing so, it probes the limits of allowable in the dealing of the central authorities with cultural differences on the imperial periphery. Table of Contents List of Illustrations .......................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... xi Notes and terms .............................................................................................................................. xv Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ xvii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 0.1. Chronological Framework ........................................................................................... 8 0.2. Scale of Research .......................................................................................................... 9 0.3. Cossacks as an Intellectual Problem .......................................................................... 14 0.4. Indifference to Nation ................................................................................................. 21 0.5. The Cossack Myth ....................................................................................................... 28 0.6. Ambiguities of Little Russia ........................................................................................ 33 0.7. Outline of Cultural Perspective .................................................................................. 38 Chapter 1: The Afterlife of Zaporozhia in an Imperial Colony: Making and Unmaking of Chernomoria ................................................................................................................... 43 1.1. From Ancient Greece to Old Rus: Changing Notions of Place .................................. 45 1.2. Chernomoria and the Question of Zaporozhian Succession....................................... 49 1.3. Ekaterinodar, Chernomoria’s Capital ........................................................................ 54 1.4. Colonization and War ................................................................................................. 57 1.5. Experiments in the Colony: The North Caucasus as a Testing Ground for Russianness .................................................................................................................................... 62 1.6. Effacing Chernomoria: The Kuban Oblast during the Great Reforms ....................... 76 1.7. Chernomoria Resurfaces: Alexander III’s Visit to Ekaterinodar in 1888 .................. 85 1.8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 95 Chapter 2: Anniversary that did not Exist: Commemorations and Discussions about the Past ................................................................................................................................. 97 2.1. The Centenary of Something ....................................................................................... 98 2.2. Catherine II and her Zaporozhians: The Main Monument of Ekaterinodar ............ 102 2.3. Bringing Zaporozhian Regalia “Back” .................................................................... 120 2.4. The Taman Initiative: The Monument to the Zaporozhian Ancestors ...................... 126 2.5. Celebrating the Origin: Bicentenary of the Kuban Host .......................................... 134 2.6. Cossack Songs for the Cossacks ............................................................................... 147 vii 2.7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 153 Chapter 3: Between Mutiny and Loyalty: The Revolution of 1905 and its Aftermath ............................................................................................................................................. 155 3.1. The Cossacks as Revolutionaries .............................................................................. 159 3.2. Discipline and Punish: Consequences of the Uprising............................................. 163 3.3. Zaporozhians Convoke: The Rada of 1906 ............................................................... 166 3.4. The Caucasus Viceroyalty: Liberal rule in non-Liberal Times ................................ 186 3.5. New Administration for Kuban ................................................................................. 189 3.6. Getting over the Revolution ...................................................................................... 196 3.7. The Rhetoric of Nativeness ....................................................................................... 199 3.8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 208 Chapter 4: The Triumph of the Sich: The Taman Festivities of 1911.......................... 211 4.1. Paying Homage to Zaporozhia: The Taman Monument Revisited ........................... 212 4.2. Elusive Personality: Controversies over the Monument’s Figure ............................ 217 4.3. Unveiling the Monument ........................................................................................... 219 4.4. Staging Zaporozhia: Havrylo Dobroskok and his Plays .......................................... 229 4.5. Congratulations to the Host .....................................................................................
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