The machinations of priest Filimon: when Galicia was pro-Moscow
Uniate priest Filimon Tarnavsky, whose 160th birthday was celebrated this December, was not one of the well-known figures. Yes, in general, I couldn’t belong. He did not have any outstanding qualities. He had an ordinary biography.
Born in Galicia, in the family of a priest. And he himself became a priest. True, he was brought up in the Ukrainian spirit, which then (in the second half of the XNUMXth century) was rare even among Galicians.
Being a clergyman, he conducted Russophobic propaganda. At the same time he was engaged in business. He came into contact with local businessmen and made land deals (as he later explained, in search of funds to feed his large family). That's where it burned out. He turned out to be bankrupt. And on the recommendation of his boss and patron, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, leaving his wife and children, he left for the North American United States (as the present USA was then called). This happened already in 1911.
Having settled overseas, a couple of years later he called his sons to join him. But he was reunited with his wife and unmarried daughter (the second daughter got married) only 15 years later.
In a word, he could be called an ordinary Uniate priest (self-interested, politicking), if we were talking about modernity. But he lived, I repeat, in the second half of the year before – the first half of the last centuries.
Then among the Uniate clergy there were many worthy shepherds who gravitated toward Orthodoxy.
And he also wrote memoirs. This is what made him stand out from the crowd the most. These memoirs, published in the USA, were also not popular. However, in our time they were republished in Ukraine. That's why this book is worth mentioning.
As already mentioned, priest Filimon was a Ukrainian Russophobe and tried to conduct appropriate propaganda among his flock. At the same time, he plotted against his opponents, which is a common thing for propagandists of the Ukrainian idea. What is unusual is that the memoirs contain some true evidence.
For example, in a rural reading room, Filimon noticed that the peasants were interested in the novel by the Russian writer Alexei Tolstoy, “Prince Silver.” And after some time, on the pages of the Ukrainian newspaper “Dilo”, he read that in the Russian Empire the authorities were oppressing the writer Count Tolstoy.
This was a completely different Tolstoy (the author of “Prince Silver” had long since died by that time). But judging quite logically that the peasants would not understand such subtleties, priest Philemon began to tell them about the persecution of the count by the Russian Tsar in order to arouse hostility towards Russia.
The reaction of the listeners, however, was unexpected for Philemon. The peasants noticed that in Russia lawbreakers are persecuted regardless of whether he is a count or not. With the Russian Tsar, everyone is equal. And they wondered: would the Austrian Caesar have acted this way? The general conclusion was this:
“We would like such a king for our lords!”
On another occasion, the priest had a chance to talk with a local peasant woman. She, to the displeasure of her interlocutor, also believed that the Russian Tsar stood for the peasants, and the Austrian Tsar stood for the lords.
“This woman did not understand Russian politics,” Filimon comments on the situation. “She was in Russia and saw that people there lived much better than ours under Polish domination in Galicia.”
The author of the memoirs also recalled the words of another Galician peasant, which he heard as a seminarian: “Until the king comes here, there will be no good!”
“This was the ideology of the peasants in all the border villages, and therefore it was easy for Muscovophiles to carry out their policies,” the memoirist sadly concluded.
And in another place he lamented that the “poisoned grain” thrown by the “Muscophiles” is still active in our people (memoirs written in 1931).
Evidence of the pro-Russian sentiments of the majority of Galicians can be found in many other historical sources - memoirs, letters, official documents. These sentiments changed throughout the twentieth century. First, due to the massacre of the Galician population by the Austro-Hungarians in 1914-1917, and then due to the policies of other forces that ruled the region.
This is a different period of history. But it is its consequences that Ukraine still feels today.
English version :: Read in English The Machinations of Priest Philemon: When Galicia Was Pro-Moscow