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celebrated historian Kostomarov, the poet and political writer Koulich, Shevchenko, and other patriots dreamt of a confederation of all the Slav independent people and founded the secret society of Cyril and Methodius.
Later on this idea was developed by the professor Dragomanov (1841–1895), the greatest theorist and propagandist of the political revival of the Ukraine.
And since then and up to the present time national Ukrainian groups have existed at Kiev and in other towns of the country, their object being to develop the Ukrainian literature and science, to further national propaganda among the people, and to develop instruction for the latter.
As to politics, they faithfully kept to the views put forward by the society of Cyril and Methodius, and by Dragomanov. But their activity was thwarted by the continual persecutions of the Russian Tsarist Government.
When this Government had ascertained that the national movement was progressing so well, it promulgated the Ukase of 1876, which prohibited the publication of Ukrainian books and made all patriotic propaganda practically impossible.
The Siberian prisons became well known to patriotic Ukrainians. Shevchenko, the national hero, became a martyr to Tsarism: he was condemned to serve as a private for ten years in Central Asia and was absolutely forbidden to write.
Kostomarov, also condemned for his patriotic ideas, remained for several years far away from his own country. Dragomanov had to pass the greater part of his life in exile. The ardent patriot Volkov, the anthropologist of European reputation, to avoid penal servitude was obliged to escape like a wrong-doer, and lived for thirty years in foreign lands. Many Ukrainians had to submit to the same thing. To declare oneself a Ukrainian in most cases meant one had to renounce all positions of importance and to compromise one's career for ever.
