The year 2018 marked the 210th anniversary of the birth of Vadim Passek, a researcher and ethnographer from our region. However, I’m not sure that—even amid the current surge of interest in the history of Sloboda Ukraine and Kharkiv—this name would mean much to most people. That’s a shame. That’s exactly why today, even if only briefly, I’d like to tell you about him.
Let’s start with the fact that back in the 17th century, a native of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic; author’s note) Danila Ivanovich, following Smolensk’s annexation to the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667, took Russian citizenship. He is considered the progenitor of the illustrious Passek family. His descendant, the “Smolensk nobleman” Bogdan Ivanovich Passek (1702–1757), served in the Little Russian General Military Court. And in 1742, he became the voivode of Belgorod. From that time on, the Passeks settled in the lands of Sloboda Ukraine. What didn’t happen in the history of this family! Land seizures, schemes, and heartless relatives… You can read more about this in V. S. Romanovsky’s excellent article, “The Passeks.”
Bogdan’s grandson, Vasily Vasilyevich, distinguished himself in military service. He was one of the first to scale the wall during the assault on Izmail, for which he was promoted to the rank of major. However, in the early 19th century, following yet another denunciation, Vasily Passek was arrested on charges of insulting the emperor and committing unlawful acts, after which he was exiled to Siberia to perform hard labor, stripped of all his ranks and noble rights. In 1824, the Passeks were allowed to return to Moscow, but Vasily Vasilyevich’s children were not restored to their noble rights until 1836. It is believed that Vasily Vasilyevich had 13 sons and 5 daughters from his two marriages. Some of them became quite well-known figures in the Russian Empire of that time. For example, Vasily Vasilyevich (1816–1864) became famous as a writer. And Diomid Vasilyevich Passek (1808–1845) rose to the rank of major general and was killed in early July 1845 during battles with the highlanders for Darg (the residence of Imam Shamil), becoming a hero of the Caucasian War.
However, today’s article isn’t about them, but about their brother Vadim.
An important milestone in the life of Vadim Vasilevich Passek was his trip to the Kharkiv Governorate in 1832. The purpose of his visit to the homeland of his ancestors was extremely simple—to settle matters related to the family estate. Here is how, in his letters to his family, he describes his first encounter with what he himself called “blessed” Sloboda Ukraine, which he was seeing for the first time:
…Here, the entire natural world is new to a Siberian who has known only the wildness and vastness of the snowy deserts, the impenetrable forests, and the colossal rocks of the Urals. The rolling cultivated fields, oak forests, fruit trees, the deep blue of the sky, and the songs of nightingales fill me with delight one moment and sadness the next, stirring memories of the past and thoughts of the future. The past holds few joys—the suffering of my family, a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to share my thoughts and feelings; the future—all is uncertain…
But it seems that Vadim Passek didn’t like our favorite city back then. Here’s what he writes about Kharkiv:
Most of the people we have to interact with lack any semblance of humanity. Sometimes the whole city strikes me as a coral island, with people flitting about here and there. Every house seems to me like a cage from which an animal indiscriminately snatches up everything that swims by: it is against such islands that the loftiest creations of thought and the most ardent aspirations are shattered…
Be that as it may, according to his wife’s memoirs, Vadim Passek stayed in Slobozhanshchina for half a year during his first visit. Living on his estate in Spasskoye, he attended to his business affairs and read many history books. In a letter dated August 24 to his then-fiancée, Tatyana Petrovna Kuchina, Passeck wrote:
…From Kharkiv, I went to Chuhuiv, then to Volchansk, and only today did I return to the village. I’ve already told you about Kharkiv and Vovchans’k; now for Chuhuiv. The city stretches one and a half versts from end to end and nearly as far from side to side. It’s situated on three hills, separated by three deep moats. It’s not a city—it’s a military camp. The houses are all built to the same design, painted the same color, and all have the same layout and the same number of windows and doors. The difference between Soldiers’ Street and Officers’ Street is almost the same as the difference between those two ranks. That is the extent of its diversity. One building stands out from the others due to its sheer size. I did not encounter a single person in the entire city except for those in uniform. A civilian is a rarity here. They say that the entire city used to be surrounded by gardens. Now there isn’t a single one left…
In 1834, the book *Vadim’s Travel Notes* was published; in it, in the section titled “Ukraine,” Passeck describes our land in simply magical terms, with the enthusiasm of a young man in love.
…The rising sun seemed to me like divine light; in the life and speech of nature awakening, in the nightingale’s trills, I imagined unearthly songs; in them I heard the harmony of the universe, the voice of God, who lives as a soul within His creation. It was in June, in a village overlooking the tranquil waters of the Donets River. Near the windows, the linden trees planted by my grandfather whispered to one another. On one side of the river, fields stretched out and wide steppes spread like silver sand; on the other, chalky mountains and dark ravines, overgrown with oaks and pear trees, came into view…
…Ukraine! How many dreams your very name awakens! How deeply my soul is drawn to your turbulent, ever-changing destiny, to your silent burial mounds and enigmatic sculptures! How easily memories carry me back to your past life, to your warlike hordes and the vastness of nature itself. Once again, vast plains and steppes stretch out before me, and across them the clear waters of the Donets, the Vorskla, the Kharkiv, and the Psel flow gently; before me lie your fields, carpeted in green, brought to life by the playful frolics of scattered herds. To the right, forests and groves darken: they stretch in a broad strip toward the Poltava border…
…Who wouldn’t pause to reflect, wandering through these steppes that stretch as far as the eye can see, knowing that they were once the bed of a vast sea; that sea monsters once rested here carefree, and there, high above, where the lark now soars, scattering its ringing songs, there the storm once howled, the waves foamed, and drowning swimmers feared falling onto these plains, where there is now so much splendor and vastness! And this sea once encompassed part of present-day Ukraine, and perhaps I have wandered along its ancient shores more than once!
Yes! I will never forget the impression that wonderful view made on me. I was on Mount Nizhny Saltov; the Donets River flowed below me, and plains and steppes stretched out with scattered villages, and it seemed to me that I was standing on a high cliff, with the sea spread out below me, and the villages had turned into ships! At that moment, it seemed as if there was a lull; nothing stirred; the wind did not ripple the surface—only now and then would a peasant’s cart appear on the horizon of that boundless expanse, move slightly, and seem like some kind of monster; at times, scattered herds played like seabirds, and a seagull would soar above the water with a cry, hover in midair, flutter its wings for a long time without moving, and then plunge like a stone toward its prey. These were the Ukrainian steppes. To me, they seemed like a still sea!”
Vadim Vasilyevich was unable to secure a spot at Moscow University, and in 1834 Passek and his young wife set off for Sloboda Ukraine, where Count A. N. Panin had promised Vadim a position as a lecturer in history at Kharkiv University. The young couple arrived in our city in the fall. However, the unexpected happened. By that time, all members of the “Herzen Circle” had been arrested. Herzen (a well-known writer and publicist, one of the most prominent critics of the official ideology and politics of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, and a supporter of revolutionary reforms) was also arrested, exiled to Perm, and from there to Vyatka, where he was assigned to work in the governor’s office. Passék (who had become friends with Herzen during their student years and was married to one of his relatives) miraculously avoided disgrace. However, his name came up during interrogations, and a directive was sent to Kharkiv: deny him admission to the department, but keep him under secret surveillance.
Finding himself in our city without a job and with virtually no money, Passeck decided to go to his estate in Vovchans’ky County. This estate has not survived to the present day. But thanks to Tatyana Petrovna Passeck’s vivid memories of it, we can still get a sense of what this place was like.
…The village of Spasskoye, also known as Passekovka, lies on a small river that flows into the Donets. Half a verst from the village, on the bank of the Donets, stood at that time a manor estate consisting of outbuildings and an old ancestral home—long, low, thatched with reeds, built in a single story, and divided by wide porches into two equal halves. Both inside and out, the house was plastered with clay and whitewashed with chalk. In some rooms, the floors were warped; the windows were so low that it was easy to climb out of them into the century-old garden that surrounded the house on three sides. Through the branches of a long linden alley, the Donets River was visible from the house, and turtledoves cooed in the thick foliage. Overgrown shrubs pressed against the panes of some windows; when we opened them, the branches burst through and bent tremulously onto the windowsills. Small birds rustled in these bushes, and in the spring, nightingales began to sing…
Until 1837, Vadim Passek devoted himself entirely to the study of the history of Sloboda Ukraine. He traveled and recorded folk beliefs and fairy tales. Based on these travels, he wrote:
— “An Essay on the Kharkiv Governorate,” 1839;
— “The Kuryazhsky Transfiguration Monastery,” 1840;
— “Towns of the Kharkiv Governorate with Maps, Plans, and Coats of Arms”;
— “Burial Mounds and Ancient Settlements of the Kharkiv, Valki, and Poltava Districts of the Kharkiv Governorate.”
It was Vadim Passeck who, in the first half of the 19th century, made the greatest contribution to the archaeological study of Sloboda Ukraine, mapping all the archaeological sites known to him and conducting the first systematic excavations. Incidentally, after Vadim Passek ceased his research, the study of archaeological sites in our region remained extremely sporadic until the end of the 19th century.
On October 25, 1842, at the age of 34, the talented scientist passed away in Moscow after a serious illness. Ironically, the very same Passekovka where Vadim Vasilyevich lived and worked ended up at the bottom—not of the ocean, but of the Pechenezh Reservoir—in the 1960s…
