National benefactors and merchants in Nizhny Novgorod, Ukraine

In the Chernihiv region of Ukraine, 120 kilometers northeast of Kiev, the city of about 80 thousand inhabitants Nizin, formerly Nizna, emerges with the scent of Greece.

Greeks emigrated there during the difficult years of the Ottoman yoke and then worked hard.

Cradle of education and culture, Nizna. The place of presence, action and offer of Greek merchants and national benefactors is quickly becoming a point of reference for Hellenism in tsarist Russia.

The Nizna of Epirus merchants and benefactors

The Epirotic philologist Spyros Ergolavos, a member of the Board of the Alumni Association of the Zosima School of Ioannina, for 10 years looks back at historical sources, written testimonies, regularly visits the “bright Greek homes” in the past. Mr. Ergolavos lists in the APE-MPE the historical information, yesterday and today, the strong ties of the people of Epirus with the places that they sealed with their route.

Nizna’s history for the Greeks dates back to the 17th century. The area at that time was the crossroads of peoples and continents. This is the reason why many Greeks were found in Nizna, most of whom were from Epirus.

In Nizna, the family of the scholar, writer and teacher Athanasios Psalidas, who lived there during his teenage years, was active. One of the most important figures of the modern Greek Enlightenment, Athanasios Psalidas studied at the Slavic Theological School of Poltava, which was founded by Eugene Voulgaris.

Anastasios Averoff, George Averoff’s older brother, started in Nizhny Novgorod and later went to Russia and Egypt.

Triantaphyllos Dombolis and his son Ioannis started from Nizna, who later became the first Minister of Finance of Greece during Kapodistrias, of whom he was a personal friend and advisor. Triantaphyllos Dombolis gave the National University the title of Kapodistrian, in honor of his murdered friend, as he was the first to conceive the idea of ​​establishing a University in Greece.

Zois Kaplanis was active in Nizna, after first passing through Bucharest. He is the great Epirote benefactor who built the school in Grammeno and the Kaplanio School in Ioannina.

The Zosimades brothers started from Nizna. They were 6 brothers in total, of whom, Ioannis, Nikolaos and Anastasios, settled in Nizna and the other three, settled in Livorno, Italy and were engaged in transit trade. In the Orthodox Cemetery of the city, next to the church of Saints Constantine and Helen, built by the Zosimades, are the tombs of the brothers Nikolaos and Anastasiou.

The privileges of the Greeks in Nizna

In 1670 an enlightened priest, Papa-Christodoulos from Etoloakarnania gathered all the Greeks of the area and founded the famous Greek Brotherhood of Nizna, a public institution, officially recognized with privileges and benefits for the Greek society, which with the passage of years acquires a strong entity. One hundred years later, in April 1785, by order of Catherine II of Russia, the Greek-Greek Magistrate of Nizhny Novgorod was established, which was recognized by the Russian authorities as a kind of independent Republic.

The Greek Magistrate starred in the effort for the enlightenment of the Nation, in the spiritual cultivation of the Greek children in Nizna and the surrounding area.

Proponents of this struggle are the Epirote mayors of Magistratos, Georgios Rizaris, Ioannis Klitzas and Stefanos Boubas, on whose initiative the “Alexandreio Greek School” was founded in 1817, which operated until 1919.

These respectable Greeks

Today, those who visit Nizna, encounter surviving monuments undeniable witnesses of the once great Greek community.

“You will form the impression that this is a large provincial Greek city,” said Mr. Ergolavos, who has visited Nizna many times.

“There you will find the first Hospital founded by the Zosimades, there you will find the first pharmacy created by the Greeks, the Nursing Home, there you will see the Greek cafe, Zosimadon Street, the Greek Street, the Greek Merchants Club, the which on the ground floor of the building hosts a great library with Greek color.You will see the church of All Saints, which survives to this day and operates.We have regular communication with the elder of the church Alexander Morozov. the area is pounded.

The current inhabitants of Nizna talk about our ancestors and call them, “these respectable Greeks”. Since 1990, when the free movement of Greeks in Nizna was allowed again, a Greek nucleus was created and today in the city, there is the Greek Association Zosimades, with which we are in regular contact. The Alumni Association of Zosima School, in collaboration with them, took the necessary steps so that the city of Nizna became twinned with the city of Ioannina and this took place in Ioannina 2004.

During the 19th century as the ways of trade began to change, Nizna ceased to be a strong point of reference, but the imprint of Hellenism remained important.

SOURCE: AMPE