Vasily Kelsiev (1835–1872): Life, works, and the Rusin theme in the oeuvre of a “renegade” and patriot

Vasily Ivanovich Kelsiev (June 16 [28], 1835 - October 2 [14], 1872) was a public figure, a repentant revolutionary, a former political emigre, a former employee of Alexander Herzen's Free Russian Press in London, writer, journalist, translator, historian, and ethnographer. He came from an impoverished noble family. In 1855, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Commercial School. After his father's death in 1852, his studies were funded by the Russian-American Company. He was subsequently offered the opportunity to study Chinese and Manchu, becoming an auditor at the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University from 1855 to 1857, with his tuition again covered by the Company. During this period, he became influenced by Liberal ideas. In 1858, Kelsiev was dispatched by the Russian-American Company to Alaska, accompanied by his wife. In May, their ship was forced to dock in Plymouth due to a storm, where his wife suffered a severe postpartum hemorrhage and their child also fell ill. Consequently, he took a Leave of absence, subsequently resigned from the Company, and relocated with his family to London. Their daughter could not be saved. In London, Kelsiev declared himself a political emigre and began collaborating with Alexander Herzen and Nikolay P. Ogaryov. He attempted to engage Old Believers in the struggle against the autocracy and published the Collection of Government Reports on the Schismatics (1860-1862, 4 vols). In March-April 1862, Kelsiev illegaUy entered Russia on a Turkish passport, making contact with members of revolutionary circles and leaders of the schismatics in Moscow. When the trial of “the case of persons accused of liaising with London propagandists” (the “Case of the 32”) began in St. Petersburg in the summer of 1862, the investigation summoned Kelsiev. He failed to appear and was sentenced in absentia to exile from Russia and the deprivation of all rights of his estate. From October 1862 to December 1863, Kelsiev lived in Constantinople (Istanbul), striving to unite anti-government forces. The Polish Uprising of 1863, however, prompted a reassessment of his convictions. In December 1863, he was elected ataman by a community of Nekrasov Cossacks in Tulcea (Dobruja), but his propaganda work among the Old Believers ultimately failed. In April 1865, he moved with his family to GaLati (Romania), where his young children and wife died during a cholera epidemic. In the spring of 1866, he arrived in Vienna, residing there for approximately six months. He traveled through Hungary and Galicia, sending travel essays along with materials on Slavic ethnography and mythology to Russian publications. On May 19, 1867, Kelsiev arrived at a Russian customs post in Bessarabia and surrendered to the authorities. While under arrest, he wrote his “Confession” (June 13 - July 11, 1867), in which he renounced his revolutionary activities and petitioned the Emperor for a pardon. His rights to enter state service and to live in both Russian capitals were restored. His subsequent fate was difficult. His repentance and transition to the pro-government camp elicited an ambivalent reaction. He was criticized by liberals as an apostate and an immoral man, and his literary works were often assessed with excessive criticism and subjectivity. He was not accepted into state service and could earn a living only through literary work. In 1868, he published the books What I Have Lived Through and Reconsidered: The Memoirs of Vasily Kelsiev and Galicia and Moldavia: The Travel Letters of Vasily Kelsiev. From 1870 to 1872, he published a series of historical essays in the journals Niva and Family Evenings. His health had been undermined by the hardships of emigration and the trauma of losing his family. The plans he had made upon returning to Russia failed to materialize, and he began to drink heavily. In the last year of his life, he was overcome by apathy and died of cardiac paralysis. In a number of his works, Kelsiev addresses themes of Carpathian Rus', the Rusins, and the Union; provides an ethnographic description of the Rusins and the socio-political situation in Galicia; and criticizes Ukrainophilia. Some of his ideas, conclusions, and proposals remain relevant to this day.

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