Masonic Movement in Central and Southern Ukraine in the 19th century: Loss of Hopes for Emancipation

Abstract

The epoch of world revolutions, the epoch of the formation of world ideas (the first half of the 19^th century) gave rise to global projects of nationalism and the nation state, socialism and anarchism, emancipation, and public enlightenment, in the formation of which the Masonic ‘rulers of thoughts’ played an active role. The research paper uncovers the importance of the Masonic movement in the history of Ukraine and shows the contribution of the Masons to the formation of Ukrainian culture and the national idea, enlightenment, and self-organization of society.

The purpose of the study is to find answers to the questions: why elite groups of Ukrainian gubernias gathered at the secret lodges in the 19^th century, what global and intermediate tasks they set, and which of them they managed to achieve. And most importantly, how the Masonic ‘building of the Temple’ influenced the processes of formation of the Ukrainian nation. To address this purpose, the authors use a synthetic approach combining the research capabilities of social philosophy, history, and political science.

The scientific novelty of the paper. A comprehensive study of the Masonic movement in the territory of Ukrainian gubernias of the Russian Empire has been conducted, extracting the Masonic movement from the historical context imposed by Russian-Soviet historiography. The authors mention Ukrainian Masons in Ukrainian history as ‘builders’ and ‘awakeners’ of a new society, where the democratic and national features of Ukraine were taken into account.

Conclusions. In the first quarter of the 19^th century in Central and Southern Ukraine, the Masons managed to form four centers (Kharkiv, Poltava, Kyiv, and Odesa) in which they not only organized the liberal-minded local elite as an independent ‘horizontal structure’, but also began ‘Masonic creation’ – upbringing a new person, a supporter of social progress. A special contribution of Masonic authors to the creation of Ukrainian literature and theater, the first historical studies of Ukrainian history, and Ukrainian autonomist projects took place. Of great interest are the activities of the Masons in Ukraine after their formal ‘prohibition’ in 1822, and the attempts of Masonic leaders to influence events in Ukrainian gubernias, being ‘in the shadows’, in the rigid system of barracks imperialism of the ‘Nicholas era’.