The Hromada movement in the 1860-90s

At the end of the 1850s when the tsarist regime started a program of liberal reforms, the former members of the Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius decided to use this opportunity for propaganda of Ukrainian culture. In 1859, in St Petersburg, where many influential Ukrainians lived, they formed the so-called Ukrainian Hromada (community), an informal cultural-educational organization for popularizing of Ukrainian cultural values. The Hromada published its journal Osnova (1861-62) dedicated to various issues of Ukrainian cultural life: folklore, ethnography, literature, history, education, etc. Osnova was the first Ukrainian journal in the Russian empire.

Soon the Hromada movement spread all over Ukraine. Besides the Kyiv Hromada, which was the most significant, many other smaller hromadas appeared in other Ukrainian cities and towns (over a hundred in total). They had such aims as establishing Sunday schools with the Ukrainian language, writing and publishing textbooks, preparation of Ukrainian-speaking teachers, study of ethnography and history, etc. In a word these societies were devoted to the promotion of Ukrainian culture and enlightenment of the masses. Hromada members as well as other Ukrainian activists and sympathizers generally became known as the Ukrainophiles (українофіли). The word actually meant “those who loved everything Ukrainian.” The hromadas experienced some difficulties in encouraging peasants to study in the Ukrainian language. Many peasants did not want their children to study in a “villain language” (мужицькою мовою). The Russian language for them was connected with civilization and the prospects for a career growth. It should be noted that over 90 percent of Hromada members could not speak Ukrainian and they conducted their meetings in Russian. It did not mean that they did not love the language; they could read and understand Ukrainian but they found it difficult to express their thoughts in Ukrainian at the meetings.

The reviving Ukrainian movement also included a group of young Polish szlachta, who felt ashamed of their ancestors who had exploited the Ukrainian people. The group was nicknamed khlopomany, or peasant lovers.[3] They changed their Catholic faith to the Orthodox one; wore embroidered peasant shirts; sang Ukrainian songs; collected Ukrainian ethnographic material. Their leader was Volodymyr Antonovych. In 1861 this group joined the Kyiv Hromada which mostly consisted of professors and students of Kyiv University.

At first the activities of Hromadas did not disturb the Russian government but after the Polish uprising of 1863[4] it started to think that Hromadas ’ cultural activity could lead to political demands in the future. (The government feared that Ukrainians might think that their culture was too different from that of Russia and demand independence). These considerations led to the so-called Valuiev Edict (July 20, 1863) which forbade the publication in Ukrainian of all scholarly, religious, and especially pedagogical books. Only belles-letters were allowed to appear in the “Little Russian dialect.” Piotr Valuiev, the minister of internal affairs, declared that the Ukrainian language “never existed, does not exist and shall never exist.” Those who thought that Ukrainian was not a Russian dialect were accused of “separatist thoughts hostile to Russia.” Valuiev as well as other Russian political leaders believed that the “Little Russian dialect” was in fact the same Russian language but spoiled by Polish influences. The Valuiev Edict led to temporal extinction of the hromada movement.

The recovery took almost ten years. Hromadas reemerged in Kyiv and other cities. Their practical activities were again cultural. At this time Ukrainophiles organized Ukrainian publications in Austro-Hungary and their delivery to Russian-ruled Ukraine.[5] It was mostly because of these publications that the imperial government launched a new attack on the Ukrainophiles.

In 1875, M. Iuzefovych, a Ukrainian cultural and public figure, wrote a report to St. Petersburg warning the authorities of the danger of the Ukrainian national movement for the unity of the Russian Empire. As a result of the report, the government formed a special commission (Iuzefovych became a member of that commission) with the aim to work out necessary measures to weaken the Ukrainian movement. The commission produced a report signed by the Emperor Alexander II on May 18, 1876. This report came down into history as the Decree of Ems (it was signed in a small German resort town called Ems). The Decree of Ems of 1876 totally banned the import[6] and publication of Ukrainian books, prohibited the use of Ukrainian on the stage (even the lyrics of Ukrainian songs that were sung in the theater were translated into other languages). The decree also banned all public lectures and concerts in Ukrainian. The Ministry of Education was instructed to prohibit the teaching of any subject in Ukrainian in schools, to remove from school libraries books in Ukrainian or by Ukrainophiles, and to replace Ukrainophile teachers with Russian patriots (many educated Ukrainians considered themselves Russian patriots at the time). Dozens of Ukrainian activists lost their jobs and were exiled from Ukraine. Many Russian intellectuals considered the Hromada movement as an Austrian conspiracy to split Ukrainians and Russians and in such a way to weaken the Russian Empire. In 1881, however, the government modified the Decree of Ems to allow the publication of dictionaries and music lyrics in Ukrainian, as well as the staging of Ukrainian plays with permission from local authorities.

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