HOW MOSCOW COLONIZED KYIV-PECHERSK LAVRA. NEW PAGES TO THE HISTORY OF THE UKRAINIAN PRINTING OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVIIIth CENTURY.

Abstract

The purpose of the article – on the basis of newly discovered archival materials, to analyze the complex conditions of book publishing activity of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the second half of the XVIIIth century under pressure from the censorship of the Russian imperial authorities, which led to the ultimate loss of independence of Lavra printing press. The Novelty of the Research. The main source of the research is a non-updated correspondence of the special authorized persons from Lavra monastic fraternity with the rector of Pechersk monastery, who were entrusted with various important cases of a legal, economic, educational character, in particular, to assert the independence of Pechersk printing. The Methodology of the Research. In the article the method of intellectual networks modelling, which gives an opportunity to look at the Ukrainian cultural world as a structure of intellectual networks, has been used on the materials of the correspondence. The Conclusions. Thus, the newly discovered archival materials attest to the censorship of the Russian imperial power, which sought to deprive finally Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of its opposition and originality in book publishing. In order to preserve the ancient freedom of the press, the monastery's management sent to the capital cities of the Russian Empire special authorized persons, who performed the functions of monastic lawyers. The letters of Lavra commissioners to Pechersk Archimandrite Zosym Valkevych attest to their efforts to defend the independence of Lavra printing, in which, however, they could not succeed under conditions of the Russian centralism under the rule of Catherine II. By the act of secularization of the monastery lands in 1786, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was subordinated to the direct care of the Metropolitan of Kyiv, to whom the Synod transferred all control over printing in Lavra printing house. In this way, Lavra lost its main right of stauropegia, and Pechersk printing house finally lost its independence in book publishing.