2021/3, стр. 303 - 319

CHARITABLE ACTIVITY OF BULGARIANS IN THE SOUTH OF UKRAINE (THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY – THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY)

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Ключови думи:

Introduction

Charity as a social phenomenon has recently attracted researchers’ attention. With the weakening of social functions of the state, public and private initiatives in the field of education, religious and spiritual life, health care, etc. are gaining a significant role. The historical experience of the Bulgarians of the South of Ukraine shows that they treated charity not only as means of supporting the needy, but also an effective factor of intra-ethnic cohesion and strengthening mutual complementarity with the surrounding non-ethnic environment.

The population of Southern Ukraine in the period mentioned was multinational in its composition, and therefore the establishment of charitable societies in national communities became a characteristic feature of the formation of organized charity.

Methodology

The basic idea of the study is to highlight the impact of Bulgarian charity in education on the socialization of Bulgarian youth through the implementation of the main forms (public, social, private) and areas (monetary, property, activities) of charitable support as a social practice.

For retrospective study of the processes in human communities within a separate region which has historically developed a regional approach has been used in Ukrainian historiography. Only on the basis of modern regionalism it is possibile to consider the process of formation and development of charitable activities of Bulgarians in southern Ukraine, whose specific differences were formed under the influence of geopolitical, historical, cultural and other factors.

Within the structural-functional method, substantiated by R. Merton(Robert 1968) and T. Parsons1), there defended the point that the defining structure in the study of social phenomena is a set of generally accepted norms that motivate people to meet the functional requirements of the social system (among them there appears social responsibility in some segments of the population towards others).

We consider the narrative method to be of much importance being endowed with the functions of: organizing stories about the course of certain historical events; presentation of historical material in a certain chronological sequence, which forms a single story; awareness of the essence of historical events through the description of the story, awareness of the organization of social and biographical time2).

The authors used heuristic, comparative-historical, descriptive, chronological, hermeneutic, retrospective, systemic and historical methods of research.

Historiography

There are no current studies on the charitable activities of Bulgarians in southern Ukraine. Scientific research was devoted to assessing the activities of the Bulgarian Board. Thus, the work of Mykola Barsov (Barsov 1895) is dedicated to the first thirty years of its activity. The work is written on the basis of a wide database, part of which has been lost.

In 1911, M. Popruzhenko emphasized the activity of this establishment: “This institution, which still exists nowadays, has great merits in the history of the Bulgarian Revival, and therefore its activities must be considered independently” (Popruzhenko 1911).

The activities of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees were studied in Chisinau (by L. Stepanova (Stepanova 1981), I. Zabunov (Zabunov 1977, 3 – 24), who considered the board of trustees as a political organization of the Bulgarian political emigration) and Bulgaria (N. Nachov (Nachov 1929, p. 5 – 20), N. Genchev (Genchev 1972, 99 – 222), E. Khadzhinikolova (Hadzhinikolova 1987), N. Chervenkov (Chervenkov 1993), Е.Nalbantova3), who payed attention to its ties with the government of the Russian Empire).

Among modern Ukrainian scholars who devoted their studies to the public charitable activities of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in the context of activities in Odessa should be noted the work of I. Grebtsova (Grebcova 1999), cultural and national, as V. Makedon (Makedon 2017) and Y. Grishchenko (Hryshchenko 2018) believes, and political according to V. Svyridenko (Svyrydenko 2011).

Results and discussion. One of the main problems the researcher faced in course of studying the ethnic composition of the population in the region is the lack of relevant indicators in most statistical sources. The documents of the Russian Empire did not have the “fifth column” – “nationality”. They were as a rule limited to caste affiliation and religion. An example of ignoring the ethnicity of the inhabitants of the empire became the materials of the First All-Russian Census of 1897. Belonging to a certain ethnic group can be judged only by indirect signs, such as native language, religion, citizenship. According to these characteristics, 172,659 Bulgarians lived in the empire (89,513 men and 83,146 women), which equaled 0.14% of the total population. Most of them lived in Bessarabia (87,138 people), Tavriya (41,417 people) and Kherson (25,685 people) provinces4).

Among the 403,815 inhabitants of Odessa, 600 were Bulgarian-speaking. Foreigners (according to citizenship) living in Odessa amounted to 19,422 people, 275 of which were from Bulgaria5).

In the 1830s, the national movement in Bulgaria manifested itself primarily in the form of a struggle for a national school. Until 1832, the Bulgarians of Odessa studied at the Greek Commercial School. In 1832 they moved to the Richelieu Lyceum, where Mykola Murzakevich, an active member of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities professed. From that time, he began to work over Bulgarian public education. He noted that the imperial government should provide assistance in spreading education among the Bulgarian population.

Activists of the Bulgarian Revival were Bulgarians living in Odessa, such as Vasily Aprilov and Spiridon Palauzov, initiated the creation of the first secular school in Bulgaria, opened in 1835 in Gabrovo. Odessa Bulgarians transferred considerable funds for its maintenance (Nalbantova 2006).

In 1840, V. Aprilov, S. Toshkovich, and S. Palauzov submitted a note to the Governor-General of Novorossiysk, Prince M. Vorontsov, requesting the establishment of four scholarships for Bulgarians in Russia: two at the Richelieu Lyceum and two more at the Kherson Theological Seminary. As it is noted by N. Barsov, this was the first fact that Bulgarians turned to Russian charity. The Holy Synod allowed the admission of four Bulgarian pupils to the Kherson Theological Seminary for state maintenance.

During the 1840s, the number of permanent scholarships for Bulgarian youth in educational institutions in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa increased to 37, and in 1867 to 75. This was largely the result of the active position of Bulgarian immigrants and, above all, V. Aprilov.

In his will, V. Aprilov stated: “I, the undersigned, registered in the Nizhny Novgorod Greek Magistrate, Russian subject Vasily Evstafiev, son of Aprillov, a Bulgarian by birth, wishing to dispose of my property so that it could be used at my request, without any cancellation, to the enlightenment of my compatriots, the Bulgarians, who constitute one tribe with other Slavic tribes, but lagged behind in education and learning, being in their right mind and solid memory, made this my spiritual Testament” (Spiritual testament of Vasily Evstafiev, son of April. 1849, 3).

The entire amount of 60,000 tickets remains for this in the Bank forever in favor of the educational institution of my homeland, Gabrovo (Spiritual testament of Vasily Evstafiev, son of Aprillov. 1849, 4).

“From a half of the interest received in Odessa, executors are primarily to separate 100 rubles for annual assistance to four burdens, Bulgarians, studying at the Royal Grace on state support in the Odessa Seminary. These 100 rubles apply to some young men who pay them, upon leaving the seminary, in Odessa or Gabrov, without interest. But if all of them, or one of them, living in Bulgaria for three years, enters the clergy, then the amount due before such is gifted to him (Spiritual testament of Vasily Evstafiev, son of April. 1849, 5 – 6)

The well-known public figure N. Kh. Palauzov initiated a meeting of Odessa Bulgarians on February 2, 1854, at which “it was decided to establish a Board of Trustees of four persons, which would deposit the collected money in the Odessa Commercial Bank until it is used for new needs”6) S. Toshkovich, N. Palauzov, N. Toshkov, K. Palauzov were elected as rectors. S. Toshkovich donated 750 rubles, N. Toshkovich donated 900 rubles, brothers N. and K. Palauzovs 1700 rubles, N. Rasheev 300 rubles, N. Palauzov – 350 rubles. The rectors outlined a plan of initial actions and determined in the future “To form a Bulgarian charitable society, the purpose of which will be to help the Trans-Danube Bulgarians for educational and all public institutions and subjects of general use”7).

On February 9, 1854, a petition was submitted to the Novorossiysk and Bessarabian governor-generals for the approval of the society by the Russian government, and on February 29, Nicholas I gave permission for the activities of the society. The 21th of May, 1858 the Emperor confirmed Odessa Bolgarian Benevolent Partnership under the name “Odessa Bulgarians Board of Trustees”, as they collect donations in the empire for the Bulgarian Orthodox churches and schools (Chervenkov 1993, 187).

The 1st of November, 1856, the Bulgarians turned to the Odessa Archbishop Inokenty with the petition about the foundation of a fellowship for the religious and moral education of the Bulgarians and asked to become a benefector. In collaboration with the Archbishop they made a draft charter. Prepared documents were sent to St. Petersburg. While waiting for the approval of the charter, the Council began collecting and sending church books to Bulgaria for the Bulgarian Orthodox churches.

Among the tasks of the Bulgarian Benevolent Society, Innokenty suggested: “the composing and printing of books necessary for the Bulgarians; collection and publication of historical Bulgarian acts; sending Russian people to Bulgaria to study it” (Barsov 1895, 16)

The draft charter was substantially revised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then approved by the Synod. The mere fact is that if the founders themselves played a leading role in drafting the charters of other national charitable societies, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs corrected the projects, the documentary of the Odessa Bulgarian Benevolent Fellowship passed other institutions and in October 26, 1860 it received its organizational document called “Temporary Instruction” from the Synod. This was due to the expansion of the powers of the Board of Trustees, which, to a certain extent, became a mediator between the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches (Grebcova & Grebcov 2006, 172).

According to the instruction, which contained 13 points, the goals and objectives of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees were broader than those of other national charitable societies, and concerned mainly aid to the population of Bulgaria suffering under the yoke of Turkey. The most extensive was the point formulating the tasks of the Board. In process of their systematizing we distinguished several main points. The first concerned assistance to the Orthodox churches in Bulgaria and supplying them with everything they need, “where, due to the poverty of the Board funds, it will be necessary” (Chervenkov 1993, 108).

As N. Barsov maintains, the books collected in Russia, church utensils, the attire of priests were sent to the Russian mission in Constantinople, the Russian embassy in Vienna and other cities, and then transported to the territory of Bulgaria (Barsov 1895, 9).

To spread the education, the Board had to:

– “help existing schools by possible means and assisted in the establishment of new schools, helping the founders with material means”;

– “take care of the education in the spirit of Orthodoxy of capable pastors of the Church and mentors for schools”;

– “help, as far as possible, those young Bulgarians who, out of love for science, come to Russia for education, trying to enroll them in educational institutions that are recognized as meeting the needs of the Bulgarian, with the aim of using them for the benefit of their nation”8) .

An important source for the reconstruction of the charitable activities of the Bulgarians are the reports of the Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees for a twothree-year period. The materials of the reports allow to trace the degree of participation and class affiliation of the main benefactors of the Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees. There is a large share of the clergy among them. Donations to the foundation of the Board of Trustees came from spiritual consistories, including such remote ones as Tobolsk, Orenburg, Astrakhan, theological seminaries, mainly located on the territory of Ukraine. Among personal benefactors, the clergy dominated the first decade. State institutions and individual officials from various parts of Russia made a significant contribution to the accumulation of funds for the superiors: treasury chambers, the treasury, city councils, regional boards, as well as district police officers, bailiffs, etc. The Odessa educational district and its trustees provided constant assistance to the Bulgarian Board of Trustees.

The main fund for the Board was made up of the contributions of its founders equal 3750 rubles, and donations from Odessa Bulgarians – 7000 rubles. Subsequently, fundraising was carried out among the Bulgarians of the entire South Ukraine.

As N. Barsov points out, from 1854 to 1861 they managed to collect 15,522 rubles and 58 ¼ kopeck. The available funds were partially spent on benefits for the Bulgarians wounded during the Crimean War, who took part in the Bulgarian militia, and benefits for volunteers. A significant part of the funds were spent on the purchase of books for schools, allowances for poor Bulgarian families, and allowances for Bulgarian students studying in Russia. During this period, 122 parcels were sent to Bulgarian churches (Barsov 1895, 22).

From February 1861 to February 1863 the Board of Trustees raised 55,796 rubles 44 ¾ kopecks in money, including 30,000 rubles donated by the Bulgarian colonists for education with interest from this amount of four Bulgarians in educational institutions in Russia, and 10,000 rubles from the Bulgarian Denkoglu for a school in Sofia. 8575 rubles and 94 kopecks were spent. During these years, the sending of parcels with church utensils and books to Bulgarian Orthodox churches continued (Barsov 1895, 23).

The activity of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees was met with warm support from the citizens of Odessa and other residents of South Ukraine. With the support from M.S. Palauzov and I.S. Ivanov the colonists of the ancient part of Bessarabia, which came to Moldova according to the Paris Peace Treaty 1856, they made a proclamation to the Russian emperor, which marked their requirements: “The popular voice of the Bulgarian colonists who became part of Moldova” and “The Peaceful Treaty by the colonies of migrants from the Danube principality”. In the “Peaceful Treaty” Colonists informed that they were ready to pass the 30 silver rubles the average Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees under the following conditions: to spend the per cent of the deposit (1200 rubles per person for a year), to care about the education of four guys from Bulgarian colonies studying in the Russian empire with the aim for them obligatory to turn “to Bulgaria to serve its people” Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees could spend money for their own sake (Zabunov 1981)

In the “Kherson Diocesan Gazette” in 1863 it was noted: “The trustee and members of the Board are obliged to take care, if possible, of increasing the collection of donations. The relations of the Bulgarians to Russia, long since the 9th century, and their message to our fatherland of Christian enlightenment and church writing are such that it is quite natural for us to wish to help the Bulgarians on the path on which we ourselves received aid from them”9) .

At the same time new scholarship funds were set up at the educational establishments of different level. So, in the nominal decree dated 20 September 1862 “On the establishment of Denkoglu scholarships at the Richelieu lyceum grammar school” the scholarship on behalf of І. Denkoglu was approved, moreover, a good fund for children of the Muscovite Bulgarians was appointed: “An honest bulgarian, who was an honorable bulwark and died in the end of 1861 near Moscow, Ivan Denkoglu, assigned a Will in 6250 rubles addressed to the Gymnasium of Richelieu Lyceum with the aim to keep one student from the Transdanubian Bulgarians constantly settled in the boarding school of the Gymnasium on the interest of the capital (Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. The first meeting. Т.ХХХVІІ. № 37887, 50 – 51). Itself, the fact is significant: it is important to inform about the spiritual tradition of the Bulgarians, who had a brightly expressed ethnocultural character: virtuousness was addressed for their fellow countrymen, representatives of their ethnos and their own history.

Interesting information is contained in the report of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees as for the period from February 2, 1863 to February 2, 1865. During the reporting period, 64681 rubles and 56 kopecks were already counted as an income of the Board, as well as 1961 copies of books and various things in the amount of 159 pieces. In the expenses of the Board there was 13305 rubles, 86 kopecks, and the bulk of the expenses was formed from the grants to 13 pupils from Bulgarians, in the 2nd Odessa gymnasium (equals 4,722 rubles. 31 kopecks) and Theological seminary – 1860 rubles 30 kopecks (Report of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa, 1865).

In 1865 – 1869 the rectors felt a decline in income and found it necessary to establish a new title – a “competing member”. 14 people in different parts of Russia were elected to the competing members of the Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees.

This made it possible to increase the income from 51 375 rubles 69 kopecks in 1865 up to 90 399 p. 88 kopecks in 1869. Expenditure items for 1869 amounted to 34471 rubles 79 kopecks. The number of books donated primarily to Bulgarian churches has increased to 3267 copies (Barsov 1895, 24). The funds of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees were used to publish books by prominent Bulgarian figures: G. Rakovsky, V. Stoyanov and other authors, for which up to 250 rubles were given.

In the second half of the 1860s, women's education appeared in the field of interest of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees. The members of the Board turned to Emperor Alexander II with a request to provide 1,500 rubles annually to enroll 5 girls from Bulgaria into Odessa gymnasiums in order to prepare them as teachers of women's education in this country. This request was granted. The Russian government started to provide 1,500 rubles per year from the Russian treasury for the education of Bulgarian girls (Grebcova, Grebcov 2006, 178).

The Board also petitioned to Alexander II for the establishment of ten scholarships for educating of Bulgarian girls in Russia for further teaching at home. And such scholarships were established at the Levashevsky boarding house in Kiev.

The composition of the benefactors was significantly renewed in the second half of the 1870s. Significant donations during this period came to the fund of the Board from the St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa committees of the Slavic charitable society, the editorial offices of the central and local press “Russkiye vedomosti”, “Novorossiysk Telegraph”, “Odessa Vestnik” professors of Novorossiysk University (Grebcova 1999, 161 – 168).

According to a letter to the mayor of Odessa in June, 23, 1877, the balance of the Board of Trustees equaled: 30 thousand rubles donated by Bulgarian colonists for the needs of education of the Bulgarian population; a house donated by a Court Adviser S. Grammatikov; annual subsidy in the amount of 1.5 thousand rubles from the Ministry of Public Education; voluntary donations, which in 1872 were calculated at 483 rubles, in 1873 – 290 rubles, in 1874 – 129 rubles, in 1875 – 442 rubles, in 1876 – 146 rubles10). The letter also noted that in 1876, considering the separation of the Bulgarians by Turks and the relocation of the latter to Odessa, additional 16.9 thousand rubles was contributed for their needs11.

Later, the Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees became an important center of patronage and education. As its leaders remarked in 1877: “firmly believing that the Bulgarian people, by their position, by their propensity for peaceful and industrious life, and by their thrift, have all necessary for cultural advantage over their oppressors, the Board is accustomed to seeing education and care of Bulgarians one of the most important tasks of their activity” (Report of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa, 1877, 5).

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 – 1878, the materials of the reports of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees contained information about the activities of the society, which went beyond its charter. Thus, with the beginning of the war, 25 girls and 7 boys (children from affected families) were transported to Odessa and arranged for study. At the request of members of the Board of Trustees to the Russian ambassador to Constantinople, M. Ignatiev, the imprisoned Bulgarian teachers were released and returned to their jobs. The Board of Trustees provided considerable material assistance to the needy. In its structure there was a commission for sewing clothes for Bulgarians who were persecuted. In December 1877, the commission sent eight bales of warm clothes and two thousand warm blankets through the Russian embassy in Constantinople12). In 1879, the Board of Trustees helped to send 8 bells from the Yaroslavl merchant Olovyanishnikov and 10 boxes from the Smolensk Department of the Society for the care of wounded and sick soldiers to the Sophia Office of the Imperial Russian Commissar (Report of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa,1880).

Thus, if in the 1860s, the main items of expenditure were scholarships for young Bulgarians who studied in Russia and Ukraine, the purchase and dispatch of church and secular literature to Bulgaria, the publication of books in the Bulgarian language, then in the second half of the 70s of the XIX century the society allocated funds for the uniforms of the Bulgarian volunteers, contributed to the formation of a militia from the Bulgarians who fled to Odessa after the Serbo-Turkish war and their military training in army regiments, and purchased weapons. The Russian government knew about this side of the activities of the Bulgarian Board and actively interacted with it during the war. Through the mediation of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees, the necessary aid such as medicines, warm clothes, etc came to the territory of Bulgaria.

It also accomplished an important mediator, book-learning and educational mission. Particularly, in1868 the Board sent 2938 books to the Bulgarian schools. In January 16th, 1871, 500 samples of the “Primary Doctrine” book were sent to the Constantinople Bulgarian reading room for distribution to Bulgarian schools from Macedonia. In May, 1878, it provided the transfer of “A Guide for Rural Pastors” donated by the Kyivan Spiritual Seminary to the chapel to the Bulgarian exarch Yosif, who wanted to publish the Bulgarian chronicle. In the next year a set of books was given to Professor M. Drinov from Sofia, which had been received from Samara citizen Alabin for the Bulgarian educational establishments and the Sofia library, 2 boxes of books from the Clergy Council of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra; 446 samples of books for the Sophia military school from the military headquarters of the Russian Empire.

During first 25 years of their existance, the Board helped to educate 250 Bulgarians. 60 of them became prominent Bulgarian activists, among them: Dimitriy Blagoev, Konstantin Miladinov, Vasily Cholakov, and etc. The specifics of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees was in the fact that it did not limit itself to be just an Odessa center, but a transitional bridge to Bulgaria. That is why a great deal of its activity wes devoted to the mediation: transferring of finances, clothes, etc. from the Russian Empire to Bulgaria. Due to the activity of the Board, Bulgarian boys and girls were settled to the Pivdenno-Slovyansky boarding house at Mykolayiv, Odessa Parafial school, Odessa Infantry Junior School (Report of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa from 2 February 1869 to 2 February, 1880).

The Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees maintained close ties with the Slavic Charitable Committee in Moscow. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, at the initiative of the committee, it contributed into admission of three students from three main schools in Bulgaria for education at the expense of the committee, with the condition of returning home after graduation; into the establishment of a painting school for icon painting at the Rylsky Monastery; about sending nuns to Russian Empire to study the robe sewing. These cases were implemented only partially.

Definitely, the Bulgarian Board of Trustees tried to maintain contacts with the Bulgarian national-cultural societies. In 1869, the Chisinau Bulgarian Literacy Society was established in Chisinau, and the leaders of the Odessa “Bulgarian Board of Trustees” N.M. Toshkova and M.Kh. Palauzov were elected honorary members (Zabunov 1981, 51).

The Board of Trustees took part in the foundation of the Bulgarian Literary Society in 1869. On September 26, 1870, K.I. Dzhynzifov was elected to be a deputy from Odessa at a meeting of the Bulgarian Literary Society. Odessa Bulgarians raised a large sum to establish an Association (Report on the activities of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa from February 2, 1869 to February 2, 1871). However, a conflict arose between the founders, as a result of which the Bulgarian Board of Trustees almost withdrew from the founders of the Association. However, later relations between the establishments, in particular, donations of books from Odessa, were reestablished.

The Board of Trustees constantly helped Bulgarian women who studied at the “Slavic Girls' Boarding House” within the of St. Cyril and Methodius Association. At the invitation of the chairman of the St. Cyril and Methodius Association (the establishment fulfilled the mission of the international charitable and educational center), the Bulgarian Board of Trustees agreed to pay for the education of the Bulgarian girl Leposlava Stretynovych at the Fundukleiv Women's Gymnasium in Kyiv.

It is known that the members of this organization did not carry out special registration of persons and organizations who applied to the Board of Trustees for help. Refusals to provide material assistance in full size were not uncommon. Instead, a certain amount of money was obligatorily paid to return to Bulgaria. The documents bring into the open that there were objective reasons for this: the Board of Trustees suffered from the instability of the receipt of donations for its activities due to the existence of a number of similar organizational centers.

In general, for 30 years of its existence, the Board of Trustees transferred about 30 thousand rubles to the needs of the Bulgarian population. It provided large-scale support to those who found themselves outside the homeland, especially refugees.

In the early twentieth century we hardly find a little of information about the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa (the last known report of the society dates to 1901), which allows to claim its gradual decline, although perhaps without official liquidation.

The Major Report of the Ober-Prosecutor of the Holy Synod of Russian Empire dated February 9, 1917, published by N. Chervenko, sheds light on the liquidation processes of the institution, announces the abolition of the current establishment under the name “Board of Trustees of the Odessa Bulgarians” in Odessa, with the transfer of property and capital to a charitable association at the Odessa Cathedral. As noted in the report, сonsidering the difficult situation and the absence of key members of the Association, Archbishop Nazariy of Kherson and Odessa called for the abolition of the “Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees” and the transfer of property and finance to already fruitfully working for many years “Charitable Association of ladies of a spiritual rank at the Odessa cathedral” with the aim to care about the orphans of soldiers killed in the war with Germany, Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria. They should have been carried about in Odessa (Chervenkov 1993, 191 – 192).

In the early twentieth century we can trace the attempts of Bulgarians to establish other charitable organizations in Odessa.

In 1908, 36 Bulgarian subjects, owners of gardens in the outskirts of Odessa on Peresyp, with the assistance of the Consul General of Bulgaria, asked for the establishment of the Bulgarian Horticultural Society “Progress” in Odessa. However, the mayor gave a sharply negative response to this initiative, due to which the activity of the organization was never allowed13).

In May 1914, the Bulgarian Brotherhood Society was opened in Odessa, whose leaders, P. Stamatov, a member of the Odessa Judicial Chamber, and V. Agura, an attorney, proclaimed the society's broad educational and charitable tasks (Odessa Paper. 1914. May 12).

Its charter stated: “The Bulgarian Society “Brotherhood” sets as its goal: a cultural association of Bulgarians living in the Odessa city administration and in the Kherson and Bessarabian provinces; providing its members with the opportunity to usefully and enjoyably spend their free time; material assistance to Bulgarians in need (The Odessa Bulgarian Society “Brotherhood” Charter: 2 – 4).

To implement all mentioned above, members of the society planned to organize balls, masquerades, dance and music evenings, performances, plays, concerts, bazaars, sports games, excursions, open libraries, subscribe books and newspapers (The Odessa Bulgarian Society “Brotherhood” Charter:19). However, considering the position of Bulgaria in the First World War, undoubtedly the work was not performed.

Conclusions

Drawing the conclusion, it should be noted that Bulgarians were not co-opted into the society of Southern Ukraine and focused most of their efforts on helping Balkan compatriots, training teachers for Bulgarian schools, and not on the development of Bulgarian education in the South of Ukraine. This was probably the reason for no separate Bulgarian-speaking school to be established here.

The most significant in terms of charity was the activity of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa, which, based in Odessa, had the status of a center of patronage and education for all Bulgarians in the Russian Empire.

The main fund of the Board of Trustees was composed of contributions of its founders and members, donations from the Bulgarians of the South of Ukraine. Among the benefactors of the Odessa Bulgarian Board of Trustees, there was a large share of the clergy, state institutions and individual officials. The Odessa educational sphere and its trustees provided constant assistance to the Bulgarian Board of Trustees.

The analysis of the reports of the Board of Trustees shows that the main expenditure items of the Board were: assistance to Orthodox churches in Bulgaria and supplying them with everything necessary, scholarships for young Bulgarians who studied in Russia and Ukraine, purchase and sending of church and secular literature to Bulgaria, translation and publication of books in Bulgarian.

The situation changed in the second half of the 1870s with the Serbo-Turkish War of 1876 and Russo-Turkish War of 1877 – 1878. During this period, the materials of reports of the Board of Trustees contain information about its activities that went beyond the scope of its charter: the allocation of funds for the uniforms of Bulgarian volunteers, assistance in the formation of militia from Bulgarians who fled to Odessa after the Serbo-Turkish War and their military training in army regiments, the purchase of weapons, the assistance to the soldiers. The Russian government knew about this side of the activities of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees and actively interacted with it during the war. Through the mediation of the Bulgarian Board of Trustees, the necessary material assistance, such as medicines, warm clothes, etc., came to the territory of Bulgaria.

Analysis of the Charter of the Board of Trustees and its reports shows that the last among the tasks and expenses was the help to the poor, which was provided by the Board of Trustees “as far as possible and under certain conditions” and only “to some people from the Bulgarians, whose extreme situation is reliably known”. In fact, charitable institutions caring for children and the elderly remained outside its competence.

The problem of financing, which influenced the quality of assistance provided, a limited range of persons who were not able to provide the proper guidance of the organization regularly, isolation and political direction should be added to the list of disadvantages in the activities of the Bulgarian Board.

The personal factor held a specific place in a complex weaving of both pragmatic and selfforgetful motifs, determined the charity of Bulgarians and its character in the south of Ukraine.

The Bulgarian Board of Trustees tried to maintain contacts with national charitable and cultural organizations of the South of Ukraine, all-Russian and Bulgarian societies.

In the early XX century, there were attempts by the Bulgarians to establish other charitable societies: The Bulgarian Gardeners Community “Progress” in Odessa in 1908 and the Bulgarian Society “Brotherhood” in 1914. However, given Bulgaria’s position in the First World War, there is no doubt that these tasks were not accomplished. This circumstance was the reason for the liquidation of the Bulgarian Board in 1917.

It should be noted that the Bulgarian charitable organizations of the South Ukraine, which emerged at this time, in their activities were guided by the following principles: legality of activity and accountability to local and central government; political orientation, which distinguished them from other national charitable organizations in the South of Ukraine and made it similar to Polish; functioning within the framework of laws on charitable societies; democracy of organization and activity; financial isolation among its members, occasionally receiving assistance from the city administration, other government agencies, providing physical and moral assistance.

NOTES

1. Parsons, T., 2016. The social system. Available from: https://voidnetwork.gr/wpcontent/uploads/2016/10/The-Social-System-by-Talcott-Parsons.pdf (Accessed 26 December 2020).

2. Isak, N., 2006. Naratyv yak zasib identyfikatsii osoby [Narrative as a means of personal identification]. Multyversum. Filosofskyi almanakh [in Ukrainian]. 2006, no. 52. Available from: http://www.filosof.com.ua/Jornel/M_52/ Multiversum_52.htm (Accessed 25 December 2020).

3. Nalbantova, E., 2006. Odessa – a place of nostalgia or view of Bulgaria in the “Dennitsa” by Vasyl Aprilov. El. LiterNet. 03/13/2006, N 3 (76). Available from: https://liternet.bg/publish2/enalbantova/odesa_2.htm (Accessed 25 December 2020) [in Bulgarian].

4. Pіdrahovano na pіdstavі: Pervaya vseobshchaya perepis' naseleniya Rossijskoj imperii. 1897 g.: T. XІІІ. Ekaterinoslavskaya guberniya.SPb.: Tip. E.L. Porohovshchikovoj, 1904. P. 74 – 75; Pervaya vseobshchaya perepis' naseleniya Rossijskoj imperii. 1897 g.: T. XLI. Tavricheskaya guberniya. SPb.: Parovaya skoropechatnya P.O. YAblonskogo, 1904. P. 5; Pervaya vseobshchaya perepis' naseleniya Rossijskoj imperii. 1897 g.: T. XLVII. Hersonskaya guberniya. SPb.: Izd. Central'nogo statisticheskogo komiteta Ministerstva vnutrennih del, 1904. [Calculated on the basis of: The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire. 1897.: Vol. ХІІІ. Ekaterinoslavskaya province. SPb.: Publishing house of E.L. Porokhovshchikova, 1904. P. 74 – 75;

The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire. 1897: Vol. XLI. Tavricheskaya province. SPb.: Steam print house of P.O. Yablonsky, 1904. – P. 5; The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire. 1897: Vol. XLVII. Kherson province. SPb.: Ed. Central Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1904] (1904), 90 – 95. [in Russian].

5. The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire. 1897: Vol. XLVII. Kherson province. SPb.: Ed. Central Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1904] (1904), 90 – 95. [in Russian]

6. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 2, description 11, case 38, p. 46.

7. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 2, description 11, case 38, p. 46.

8. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 274, description 1, case 29, p. 53.

9. Ot Odesskago Bolgarskago nastoyatel'stva, 1863. [From the Bulgarian Board of Trustees in Odessa]. Kherson Diocesan Gazette. 1863, no. 10, May 15, p. 127 [in Russian]. Available from: https://pravoslavnoe-duhovenstvo.ru/media/ priestdb/materialattachment/attachment/a3/cb/a3cb5c21-13c3-46b8-b0744267bf2b4f3e.pdf. (Accessed 25 December 2020).

10. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 2, description 11, case 38, p. 46.

11. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 2, description 11, case 38, p. 47.

12. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 2, description 11, case 38, p. 61.

13. State Archives of Odessa region (SAOR), fund 2, description 7, case 242, p. 17.

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