Forgery at the Foundation of the Mohyla Academy
Dusty folders in state archives hold secrets capable of shattering school-taught myths. Open old studies on the history of Kyiv's education, and a noble picture emerges. A wealthy noblewoman, Elżbieta Hulewiczówna-Łozczyńska, known as Halshka Hulewychivna, in the distant year of 1615 donated her own estate on Podil for an Orthodox monastery and a school for children of all social classes. This beautiful story is described in every history textbook in the chapter on the founding of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
The problem is that the original of the famous deed of gift has not survived to this day. Researchers have only a late copy, full of strange anachronisms, stylistic inconsistencies, and internal contradictions.
A genuine archival investigation begins when scholars take a magnifying glass and start comparing the ink against the realities of the era. That is when textbook narratives crumble before one's eyes, leaving the researcher alone with uncertainty where an ironclad historical fact once stood.
A Forged Gift on Archive Shelves
Doubts about the authenticity of the deed are nothing new. As far back as the nineteenth century, researchers began publishing works with provocative questions: were the accounts of the academy's foundress genuine? Or was it a skillful forgery from a later century? Scholarly thought moved slowly, running up against resistance from admirers of the pious patroness Halshka.
Comparing the text of the deed with other seventeenth-century documents reveals strange things. The document's wording suspiciously resembles legal practices of the eighteenth century. Some scholars openly declare it a forgery, concocted by monks to protect the monastery's property rights against territorial encroachments by rivals. Monastic lawyers knew how to handle documents, creating the necessary precedents retroactively for litigation in crown tribunals.
The identity of the donor herself is also shrouded in thick fog. Studying documents from those years, specialists stumble upon traces of another woman with a similar surname, giving rise to debates about a historical double. The result is a paradoxical situation. The foundation of a famous educational institution rests on a document whose authenticity serious historians have well-founded reason to doubt.
Signatures on the Yellowed Pages of the Upys
Fortunately, the history of Kyiv's education does not rest solely on a disputed document. There are entirely unimpeachable testimonies that have withstood scholarly scrutiny. The archives preserve not only questionable copies but also genuine autographs of people who defended the Orthodox faith in troubled times of persecution by Uniates and Catholics.
The earliest document is the so-called Upys — the official register of members of the Kyiv Brotherhood. The very first signature in this yellowed list is dated January 4, 1616. Fifteen clergy and five laypeople officially recorded the founding of an organization for the protection of believers.
These people did not wait for royal favors. They acted under conditions of religious pressure, when the Orthodox population on the fringes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was being pushed to the margins of public life. The existence of such a list confirms the community's presence long before the aforementioned legends appeared. Townspeople pooled their last coins, hired teachers, and defended church property from hostile seizures.
Documents of Jerusalem Patriarch Theophanes IV point to the existence of a newly built Epiphany Church on Podil as early as 1620. The distinguished guest personally lived in the monastery for months, performing secret consecrations of bishops to restore the Orthodox hierarchy that had been destroyed by royal prohibitions.
Side by side with the brotherhood members worked Hetman Petro Sahaidachny. The military commander generously donated money to the monastery's needs, becoming its chief patron. The hetman's will provided the community with a solid financial foundation. The hetman's saber and a well-filled purse protected the Podil scholars more effectively than any legal maneuver.
A Collegium Born Amid Disputes
The disputes surrounding the deed of gift do not negate the main fact. The institutional continuity of the Kyiv school is confirmed by ironclad evidence.
In the autumn of 1632, Archimandrite Petro (Mohyla) took a decisive step. He merged the school of the Epiphany Brotherhood with the educational institution at the Pechersk Monastery. The unified structure received the status of a collegium and was housed in the Podil buildings. The future metropolitan possessed strategic thinking of European scope, understanding the importance of quality education for withstanding the intellectual pressure of Jesuit colleges.
Mohyla took the school under his personal protection, transferring to it a vast library and real estate. Disputes over exactly who had owned the plot of land conveyed to the institution ceased to trouble the educators. The school began operating at full capacity, producing theologians, poets, and diplomats who were to defend the faith with pen and word.
Archival work continues. Professional historians will go on debating the authenticity of old documents, searching for traces of outside alterations. But the real educational process, begun by ordinary townspeople and supported by the hetman's saber, left a mark that no academic discussion can erase. Legends come and go, while institutions built through the labor of generations continue to change the course of history.
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