Petrov Alexey
Alexey Petrov (1827 – 1886) – author of denunciation of the participants of Cyril and Methodius society.
Place of petty noble family, who had a house in Starodub (now Bryansk region, Russia), 4 male souls serfs and ca. 150 hectares of arable land near the settlement Dobryanka (now in Ripky district, Chernihiv region).
Son gendarmerie officer. He was educated at boarding school in Kursk, after which the fall of 1844 entered the law faculty of the Kiev University. Educator interested in the works of enlichteners, including Montesquieu. He played the violin.
In the university he acquainted with Athanasius Markovich, Alexander Navrotsky, Nikolai Kostomarov and Nikolai Gulak. With the last Petrov, since November 1846, quartered in a house in the next room, which allowed him to overhear conversations Cyril-Methodians.
In December 1846 Petrov asked Gulak to take him to the secret society. Gulak informed Petrov of the purpose, objectives and principles of the society, and allowed to rewrite the charter. Navrotsky read Petrov four unprinted Shevchenko’s poetry, which, as pointed out in denunciation Petrov, "had in thoughts entirely illegal content", including "Dream", "For the dead and alive".
Soon, as Petrov recalled in his memoirs, during a visit to his uncle David Alexandrovich Podhursky, Professor of Mathematics Kiev Theological Academy, he uttered the existence of a secret society and showed its charter. Podhursky ordered nephew immediately inform the authorities about it.
March 3, 1847 Petrov wrote denunciation Kiev school district trustee Alexander S. Traskin and his assistant Mikhail V. Juzefovich. This led to the arrest and punishment of Cyril-Methodians. Petrov received a cash award and was accepted for service in the Third division. However, in 1849 was accused of stealing from the archive document with the signature of the tsar and spent more than a year in Alexeyev Ravelin (Peter and Paul fortress, St. Petersburg).
After the release of the freedom led a life of poor small Russian official. He served in Petrozavodsk and Pskov, and in 1861 he retired. The last years of his life in Starodub where music lessons earned.
Traditionally considered, Petrov joined the Cyril and Methodius society, acting as a conscious provocateur who wanted to know more about members to tell in detail about these authorities. Show yourself in this light was interested primarily himself, to justify failure to report from November 1846 to March 1847. But the facts speak in favor of Petrov’s words that denunciation 19-year old boy made under pressure Podhursky. In his memoirs Petrov repented for his imprudence and tried to justify himself.
Portraits of A. M. Petrov unknown.
Shevchenko and Petrov
Petrov and Shevchenko were not personally acquainted.
Shevchenko was not punished for participating in society, but for his works. However, it turned out the most serious punishment.
Image Petrov as a treacherous traitor and provocateur see in the famous film "Taras Shevchenko" (1951).
Eugene Lunyak, January 2, 2016