One day, while working with the inventory lists of the Kharkiv Archive’s collections, I came across a document. Its title piqued my interest, so I requested it. The file that arrived turned out to have quite interesting—and even amusing—content. But at the time, I couldn’t even have imagined that the author of the petition to the governor of the Kharkiv Province was not just some ordinary local patriot or a madman, but a well-known (albeit in narrow circles) writer.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a hereditary nobleman, Provincial Secretary Evstafiy Nikolaevich Voronets, lived in our city with his wife. The Vorontsov family was originally from Poland, meaning they were of noble descent. And because of the antiquity of their lineage, they are listed in the fourth and sixth sections of the noble genealogical registers of the Voronezh, Mogilev, Smolensk, and Kharkiv provinces.
Evstafiy Nikolaevich was born in 1846. After graduating from the St. Petersburg School of Law, he studied at the Moscow Theological Academy—the highest educational institution of the Orthodox Church, which trained clergy, teachers, theologians, and church officials—from 1866 to 1870. He studied the way of life of the Finno-Turkic and Mongol tribes of Eastern Russia and the state of Orthodox missionary work. Although he was among the top students, Evstafiy Nikolaevich left the academy two months before completing his studies due to family circumstances. Over time, Voronets became a lifetime or honorary member of many missionary organizations, as well as a full member of the “Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment.”
It should be noted that the religious and political views of Evstafiy Nikolaevich Voronts, who spent most of his life in our city, were quite unique. For example, he criticized paintings by renowned artists such as Karl Bryullov, Vladimir Makovsky, Vasily Vereshchagin, and others for their attempts to depict the moment of Christ’s resurrection, a mystery even in the texts of the Gospels. This guardian of the faith asserted that most iconographic and pictorial depictions of this subject, which drew on Western tradition, did not correspond to the texts of the Gospels and contained an extremely arbitrary interpretation of the event. At the same time, Voronets proposed his own iconography of the Resurrection, which he considered correct. It was based on his sketch that the icon was painted, which he donated to the committee responsible for constructing the church and chapel at the site of the imperial train crash on October 17, 1888.
In late August 1894, the Kharkiv newspaper “Yuzhny Krai” joyfully announced to all its readers that Their Imperial Highnesses Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich had graciously accepted and honored with their kind attention, at their wedding, a gift from Kharkiv resident E. N. Voronts—an icon depicting the Resurrection of Christ.
Incidentally, Vorontsa was very popular at *Yuzhny Krai*, which periodically published his articles. When, in 1895, the Imperial Chancellery finally accepted Evstafiy Nikolayevich’s petition-report on how icons should be properly depicted and then forwarded it to the vice president of the Academy of Arts, Count I. I. Tolstoy, Evstafiy Nikolayevich was heartily praised and congratulated.
He was also passionate about writing and publishing numerous spiritual pamphlets for the general public. These were primarily adaptations of the lives of the saints. For example, “The Life of St. Polyxenia, Confessor of the Christian Faith,” “On Guardian Angels and on Imitating the Saints Whose Names We Bear,” “The Life of Our Holy Father Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch,” and “The Life of St. Mary Magdalene.”
In his writings on missionary work, Voronets argued that Orthodox missionary activity should be directed not only toward people of other faiths, but also toward Orthodox Christians in all dioceses of the empire. At the same time, he defended Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminsky’s ideas that divine services and the instruction of “foreigners” in the fundamentals of Orthodoxy should be conducted in their native languages.
This extremely active and prolific writer also found time to write books on Buddhism and Islam. The fact is that Voronets considered the empire’s policy toward these religions to be deeply flawed. He argued that granting official status to Muslim and Buddhist clergy and institutions would only serve to strengthen the position of these religions within the empire and harm Orthodox Christianity. Eustafy Nikolayevich proposed lifting the restrictions on the number of mullahs and lamas, but at the same time stripping them of their official state status. He also wished to abolish the Orenburg and Taurida Muslim Spiritual Administrations as state institutions. These measures, in Voronts’s opinion, would finally lead to a reduction in the influence of Islam and Buddhism in Russia.
What’s more, our tireless Voronets was a staunch patriot and gained widespread fame thanks to his books and articles on the national flag. Here are just a few of the titles of his publications:
“How the Posyetov Commission Distorted the Colors of the National Russian Flag.” “The Origins and Meanings of the Black, Yellow, and White Colors in Russian State Symbolism. With a Sample of the Flag,” “What Colors Symbolize the Distinctive Emblems of the Russian State,” “How the Black, Yellow, and White Colors of Russian State Symbolism Came to Be and What They Mean,” “What Flags Russian Citizens Should Display on Their Homes.”
According to the author himself, the true national flag should have been only black, white, and gold. Evstafiy Nikolayevich vividly expresses his views in a complaint written in 1893 to the governor of the Kharkiv Governorate.
…On the day commemorating the Sacred Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties, May 15 of this year, 1892, in accordance with a long-standing custom and with the permanent permission of the authorities, at my wife’s residence on Sadovokulikovskaya Street, No. 10, which I manage by legal power of attorney, two flags of “exclusively Russian” colors representing all estates—black, orange, and white—were displayed as a sign of celebration of this joyous Russian national event…
Voronets goes on to report that the Kharkiv police unexpectedly arrived and insistently demanded that the symbols be removed, stating that flags of those colors were prohibited by a police sergeant. According to the author, law enforcement officials also made certain indecent threats. Evstafiy Nikolaevich was forced to take down the flags.
However, he placed them in the most prominent spot in the reception room of his home, as he considered them the official colors of the Russian state. After presenting his arguments that only the flag of black, orange, and white is truly Russian, Voronets writes:
The colors red, blue, and white, however, are not exclusively Russian; they have belonged to the French state since 1879… In Russia, however, the “white-blue-red flag” was legalized by Article 1142 of the Maritime Code, which received Imperial approval specifically for “merchant ships” alone.
This is followed by about two more pages of text attempting to prove the importance of the flag’s other colors, the need to display it and decorate homes with it, as well as phrases about exceptionalism and “Russianness” repeated several dozen times. Voronets concludes his petition-complaint with extremely modest words:
Aware that the permission I am requesting is of national importance, I, however, under existing laws, am not authorized to request it directly from the highest central authorities, but am first required to appeal to Your Excellency, which I hereby respectfully do.
In early January 1893, a reply arrived from the vice-governor. Noting that the flag of red, blue, and white was the traditional national flag, Voronts was informed that a decision had been made to deny his petition. However, it appears that this official and well-reasoned rejection had absolutely no effect on the patriotic writer from Kharkiv. In the years that followed, he continued to diligently pen books on this topic, some of which were published right here in our city.
One of the meanings of the name Evstafiy is “balanced, calm.” Alas, that is not the case in Kharkiv. Years have passed. Far more residents of our city know and remember Karl Bryullov, Vladimir Makovsky, Vasily Vereshchagin, and other “non-conformist” artists than they do the writer who branded them. However, controversial figures like Voronets are also part of our city’s true history. After all, Kharkiv’s past contains not only good things but also bad ones…
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