Tavers “for ransom”

Did you know that tsarist government decided to give the state-owned sovereign taverns of Kyiv, Nizhyn and Pereyaslav “for ransom” in the early 1750’s?

In particular, it was about Pechersk taverns, which were sought to be rented by two main competitors – Lavra’s Monastery and Hudymy brothers.

Hudymy brothers – Vasyl (the then Kyiv mayor), Joseph (tax collector) and Pavlo Kyiv centurion (sotnyk), who, among other things, were the owners of several distilleries in Podol suburbs of Kyiv, made an offer related to the taverns in 1752. They suggested that they would pay 3339 rubles 36½ kopecks to the imperial treasury annually. At the same time, Archimandrite of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Luke (Bilousovych) also made an offer and sent it to the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1754. He asked for the taverns to be given to the Monastery and suggested that his annual rent for them would be 2841 rubles 27 ¾ kopecks.

To fasten the case handling, the cathedral hieromonk Sophronius left for Moscow “with gifts” from the Monastery. Joseph Hudyma did the same.

However, none of them got what they wanted. Kyiv, Nizhyn, and Pereyaslav taverns were rented by other people in 1756. They were Mayor Nikifor Ilyin, Moscow’s first guild merchant, Petro Tokarev, Kolomna merchant and Petro Yeliseyev, Moscow merchant. Each of them had to pay 1433 rubles a year for taverns’ ransom.

Anna Yanenko

Captions to the illustrations:

1. Dances in the inn near the town of Kopychyntsi, Chortkiv district. Illustration from the book “Galician and Hungarian Rus Folk Songs” by Yakov Holovatsky