«All the Ladies have been Dressed in Black»: Vasyl Domanytskyi in the History and Memories of the Inhabitants of the Village of Kolodyste

Author

Pavlenko Maryna

a Ph.D. in Pedagogics, an associate professor, a member of the National Union of the Writers of Ukraine (Uman, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2456-5877

«All the Ladies have been Dressed in Black»:
Vasyl Domanytskyi in the History and Memories of the Inhabitants of the Village of Kolodyste

Abstract

The significance of the activities of Ukrainian literary critic, writer, historian, folklorist, publicist, archaeologist, public and political figure, cooperator Vasyl Domanytskyi in his native village of Kolodyste (Kyiv region at the time, now it is in Cherkasy region) is considered in the article comprehensively.

First of all, it is written about the fact, that in 1905 Vasyl Domanytskyi has founded the so-called «People’s House» (Narodnyi Dim) in Kolodyste, which was unique at the time and housed a credit and consumer profit union, a bank, a reading room, a theatre, a mutual aid fund, etc.

Peasants from all the nearby villages have gathered in the People’s House, establishing a new way of life, financing, and work in all areas: from agriculture (peasants bought implements collectively and took turns using them, applied the latest technologies in crop and livestock production, which were described in brochures in Ukrainian published by Vasyl Domanytskyi) to cultural, educational, and political (peasants managed to avoid Jewish pogroms and even managed to nominate their candidates for central elections).

The role and influence of Vasyl Domanytskyi’s personality and his authority among the peasants has been so powerful that the development of all these spheres was incredibly rapid, the profits, cohesion and consciousness of the peasant union became so strong that it threatened to «undermine» the imperial regime, and soon Vasyl Domanytskyi had to leave Ukraine, hiding from the police. But even in those circumstances, his business developed and flourished until the Bolshevik coup of 1917.

An important part of the research is formed with a field study, a survey of respondents, residents of Kolodyste, conducted by the authoress in 2011 and revised in 2024, which reveals the image of Vasyl Domanytskyi not only in the descriptions of his contemporaries, but also in the memories, stories, and even legends of the next generations. They are an interesting and important addition to the touching image of the scientist-cooperator, who lived only 33 years, but left an indelible heritage in particular in the history of Kolodyste and Ukraine.

Keywords

Vasyl Domanytskyi, Ukraine, the village of Kolodyste, memory, People’s House, cooperation, labour, education, culture, gratitude.

References

1. DOMANYTSKYI, Vasyl. From the Scientific and Creative Heritage: Articles, Essays, Reviews. In Two Books. Book 1. Cherkasy: Chabanenko Yu. Publisher, 2010, 440 pp. [in Ukrainian].
2. ANON. History of the Village of Kolodyste. Typescript. Archives of the Kolodyste Village Council [in Ukrainian].
3. PAVLENKO, Stepan. “He is no Less than Hrushevskyi” (On the History of Ukraine-Rus by M. Araks and Vasyl Domanytskyi). Ear, 1990, December 20 [in Ukrainian].
4. POLISHCHUK, Yukhym. Memories on the Past. Essays on the History of the Village of Kolodyste in Talne District of Cherkasy Oblast. Typescript. Archives of the Kolodyste Village House of Culture [in Ukrainian].
5. POLISHCHUK, Volodymyr, compiler, ed. To a Person with a Pure Heart. To Commemorate Vasyl Domanytskyi. Cherkasy: Bookmaker Yu. Chabanenko, 2010, 174 pp. [in Ukrainian].