Passions according to Laura
Laura, the daughter of the Przezdiecki family of Polish magnates, met her untimely death in the distant year of 1874. Her grief- stricken parents commissioned Professor Viktor Brodsky of the St. Petersburg Art Academy to design the tombstone. A white marble sculpture was erected at the Przezdiecki family crypt located in Chorny Ostriv. In the 1930s, militant atheists turned the nearby Roman Catholic church into a club.
History has preserved the notes of Mykhailo Matveyev, a scholarly researcher of the museum in Kamianets-Podilsky, who managed to obtain authorization from the Soviet organs and funds to transfer the four-ton sculpture from Chorny Ostriv to Kamianets- Podilsky, a city located near the river Smotrych. He brought not only the Laura statue but other sculptures: one of Constantine Przezdiecki and another of a little girl, who was either Laura or her sister. There are also eyewitness testimonies of people who took part in erecting the monument in the Roman Catholic church in Chorny Ostriv.
The monument arrived in damaged state in Kamianets-Podilsky. At the time, few visitors to the museum realized that the statue was an internationally acclaimed work of art. Matveyev patiently explained that Constantine Przezdiecki was the owner of 14 villages in Podillia and Volyn, and that he had discovered a number of historical materials proving that the Przezdiecki family had produced a number of scientists, scholars, and public figures. Constantine was well versed in agronomy and ranked with the leading local selectionists.
Scholarly circles did not allow the transfer of Brodsky’s famous creations from Chorny Ostriv to Kamianets-Podilsky to pass unnoticed. Moscow’s Pushkin Museum and Leningrad’s Russian Art Museum claimed the masterpieces as their property. Archival files contain letters that were sent by these museums in 1940. Some claim that the only reason these masterpieces of monumental art remained in Ukraine was because they were too heavy to be transported.
Today, Brodsky’s masterpieces are stored in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Kamianets-Podilsky. Local residents and guests of this ancient Ukrainian city can explore them thanks to cooperation agreements signed on Oct. 30, 1997, by the local history museum-preserve and the parishioners of SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church.
Our local history experts remembered the Laura statue when they started writing the history of Chorny Ostriv, says village head Tetiana Baieva. Eventually, the matter of transferring the statue to the place where Laura Przezdiecka found her last repose was shelved after public hearings in Chorny Ostriv. The initiators pointed out that the structure that had served as a village club for so many years had now been restored to believers.
Liudmyla Stanislavska, director of the Kamianets-Podilsky Local History Museum Preserve, believes that the Laura statue will not be transferred to Chorny Ostriv: “This sculpture is state property and has no religious significance. Therefore, the local community in Chorny Ostriv cannot have any legal claims to this masterpiece. The only reason for hearing this case in court is that a claim was filed by the Przezdiecki descendants.
Chorny Ostriv is located at the junction of the Southern Buh and Mshanets rivers, 17 kilometers from the city of Khmelnytsky. In 1556 Chorny Ostriv was granted Magdeburg rights and permission to hold fairs twice a year and markets every week.
Chorny Ostriv, however, refused to forget its historical grievances and grudges against the Przezdieckis, who owned a luxurious palace complete with a picture gallery and library and held balls and other equally spectacular social functions (Podolskie eparkhialnye vedomosti, no. 30, 1883). “The arbitrary rule of the Przezdieckis in enserfing the inhabitants of Chorny Ostriv reached the point that in 1838 a district court had to hear the case about the local peasants, who were being compelled to work even on holidays. Failing to reach a finding, with the help of incontrovertible evidence the court nevertheless declared that the landowner was abusing his rights,” the chronicler writes.
Today, however, old grievances and injuries are being forgotten. People say that the gravesite statue should serve its original purpose and remain in the same place as Laura Przezdiecka’s remains.
“For some reason I believe that if the Laura statue returns, everything will change for the better in Chorny Ostriv,” says Baieva, adding that Leonid Hlibov worked in the village, which has a museum commemorating the noted fabulist and the house in which he lived. Underground approaches to the fortified walls, dating from the 14th century, have also been preserved. So art lovers who fail to find “Laura” in Kamianets-Podilsky will travel to Chorny Ostriv, where they will be shown other historic sites in a village that is barely eking out a living.
