Kyiv. Вища школа. 1981. 159 p.

The book of Professor of the Institute of Advanced Training of Teachers of Social Sciences at the Kiev University, Doctor of Historical Sciences G. I. Marakhov logically continues his previous works on the socio-political struggle in Ukraine 1 . The new monograph examines the class struggle and socio-political movement in Ukraine before and after the abolition of serfdom. The author used and introduced into scientific circulation many documents from various archives, complementing the picture of mass anti-serfdom actions and peasant uprisings in Ukraine (including the so-called Kiev Cossacks).

G. I. Marakhov managed to discover new information about the secret society "Friends of Humanity", created at the very beginning of the Crimean War in Kiev. It conducted anti-government and anti-serf agitation among the people. Its organizers are students of the Kiev University Yu. Kotkovsky and L. Sovinsky are interesting for their views and the nature of their activities. The documents show that the circle members were familiar with the works of A. Mickiewicz and T. G. Shevchenko, which were banned by the censorship (p.27). For their part, the Russian revolutionary democrats also drew attention to the students of Kiev University. N. A. Dobrolyubov learned from them about the state of affairs in Ukraine. In the handwritten newspaper "Slukhi", Dobrolyubov, according to information delivered by Kiev students, described the authorities ' massacre of peasants, accompanied by the use of artillery .2
The monograph describes the activities of secret societies in Kharkiv and Kiev, reveals the appearance of their leaders. One of them, M. D. Muravsky, a student of Kharkiv and then Kiev University, became a professional revolutionary, a follower of N. G. Chernyshevsky and T. G. Shevchenko. Describing the Sunday schools created by underground figures, G. I. Marakhov showed that these schools not only gave knowledge to peasants and artisans, but also encouraged them to fight for liberation. The organization of Sunday schools was attended by a wide range of public circles: students, employees, military personnel, etc.

Based on previously unknown documents, G. I. Marakhov examines the circumstances of the formation of the underground in Ukraine, which is closely associated with the Russian revolutionary democrats. Nationally diverse circles and secret societies did not break away from the all-Russian liberation movement and strove to create a new state.-

1 Marakhov G. I. Polskoe vosstanie 1863 g. na Pravoberezhnoy Ukrainy [The Polish Uprising of 1863 in Right-bank Ukraine]. Kyiv. 1976; his name is T. G. Shevchenko in koli suchasnikiv. Kiiv. 1976; his own. Socio-political struggle in Ukraine in the 20-40s of the XIX century. Kyiv. 1979.

2 Dobrolyubov N. A. Sobranie sochineniy [Collected works]. T 1, M.-L. 1961, p, 116.

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We tried to solve urgent issues in the spirit of Chernyshevsky, which was reflected in proclamations and handwritten newspapers. In the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, members of the underground managed to create their own litho-printing house and reprint the proclamation "Velikoruse"in it. This was an important political event for Kiev and the whole of Ukraine, demonstrating the connection of the Ukrainian underground with the St. Petersburg underground and the intention of the revolutionary democrats to raise the peasants to revolt. In the spirit of Velikoruss, Kolokol, and Sovremennik, several issues of the handwritten magazine Samostaine Slovo (1861) were published. Describing the figures of Russian revolutionary democracy, he noted that people "are strong both in their deeds and in the truth of their thoughts. We can speak to them as brothers, for they also treat us as brothers, but not as uninvited nurses... When they overthrow their government... then we will fraternize with them in practice. And while this is not yet done, we greet them in a friendly way in our thoughts " (p. 117).

The underground revolutionary-democratic press, fighting against autocracy and serfdom, speaking out against the liberals, defended the principles of friendship between the Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and other peoples. Considering the links between the Ukrainian and all-Russian underground, the author also notes the role of N. A. Serno-Solovyevich, who helped create a bookstore in Kharkiv that distributed revolutionary-democratic literature and cheap books for Sunday schools. The Revolutionary Democrats of Ukraine supported the ideas of the peasant revolution. One of the rank-and-file participants in the liberation movement of the 60s, teacher S. P. Shulgin, later recalled: "The peasant reform, together with other reforms, served for us as a clear proof of the truth that was previously known to us only from books and from other people's experience, proof of the complete failure of political reforms in the matter of radically improving people's life" (p. 90).

The study of the class struggle in Ukraine in the 1950s and 60s, and the disclosure of the ideological evolution of Ukrainian revolutionary democracy and the role of prominent revolutionary democrats in it in Russia and Poland confirm Lenin's thesis that Russia has truly suffered for the correctness and truth of Marxism as a revolutionary theory .3
3 See Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 41, pp. 7-8.

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