Monasteries and Peasants (based on materials from the Assumption Vinogradsky Monastery)

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to clarify, using documentary sources from the history of the Uspensky Vinogradsky
Monastery, the peculiarities of the relationship between monasticism and local peasantry in provincial conditions. Scientific
novelty.
As a result of the search for archival documents, documentary reports were analyzed that reveal the content of social
relations between monasticism and the Ukrainian peasantry during the 17th - early 20th centuries.
Author’s conclusions. The history of the Uspensky Vinogradsky (Irdynsky) Orthodox monastery on the territory of the
modern Cherkasy region left a significant number of documents in which we can see the social, economic, and cultural aspects
of the development of this region. During the 17th - early 20th centuries, archival documents record constant social relations
that were formed and developed between the monastery itself and the local peasantry. They concerned both land issues and
trade relations, the resolution of moral, ethical, or private problems, etc. In all this, the presence of both conflict situations and
cooperation is observed at the same time. At the same time, the survival of the monastery largely depended on the peasantry.
On the other hand, the peasantry was also interested in the activities of the monastery, since it not only satisfied its religious
needs, but also acted as an employer. In the last decades of its existence, the social base of the monastery was the peasantry.
The research methodology is based on a general scientific systematic approach to the disclosure of the topic using logical,
chronological, comparative and historical-genetic methods. Thanks to this, it was possible to present the changes and evolution
of relations between the monastery and the local peasantry in the context of the functioning of the relevant state and political
regimes.