Карнеев Захар Яковлевич

Karneev Zakhar Yakovlevich (1748–1828) came from an old noble family that came from Poland and settled in the area now occupied by the Bogodukhovsky district of the Kharkov province. The Karneev family was not rich, and therefore they entered the service from an early age. Zakhar Yakovlevich entered military service at the age of twenty. It is difficult to believe that he received a thorough education - especially since at that time it was not the custom for rich and noble families to spend a lot of time on education. In military service 3.Ya. Karneev spent 14 years, remaining almost all the time in the army operating in the south and in the Crimea. He enjoyed confidence and was given responsible assignments: 1775 3.Ya. Karneev was sent to the Nekrasov Cossacks to return them to Russian citizenship. In 1782, he retired with the rank of colonel and was appointed director of economy in the Kursk province (member of the state chamber). In 1785, Karneev was appointed Oryol vice-governor. In Oryol it turns out that he is already a Freemason and occupies a leading position (master) in the Oryol lodge established by I.V. Lopukhin. The latter spoke of Karneev as “a man full of honesty and rare abilities.” Under Emperor Paul (1796) 3.Ya. Karneev was appointed governor of Minsk, and here at first he found himself a man alien to intolerance and coercive measures, who understood deeply religious issues, but following Paul’s change in view of the Uniates, he became a supporter of the most stringent restrictive measures against them. In 1808 he was appointed senator, and soon a member of the State Council. During this time, there is information about his participation in the activities of the Bible Society: from 1815 he was vice-president of the society. Having earned the favor of Prince Golitsyn, 3.Ya. Karneev was appointed trustee of the Kharkov educational district, as a reliable person who shared the views of the minister, passionate about mysticism. In Kharkov 3.Ya. Karneev arrived as a 69-year-old man: nothing remained of his former broad views. Like other Masons, mysticism, the belief in the existence of special immutable laws inaccessible to reason, was also introduced into 3.Ya. Karneev's distrust of the power of science. It is clear that he could not be expected to take the activities of the university seriously. Being little versed in the sciences, he could neither judge the dignity of the members of the university's scientific corporation, nor monitor the merits of scientific teaching. For him, everything came down to purely external monitoring of the improvement of university premises and the performance of professors of their duties, or rather, their attendance at the university. But, besides such an external attitude towards university activities, 3.Ya. Karneev tried to show a positive attitude and took care of raising religiosity both among students and pupils of the district’s gymnasiums. For this purpose, the reading and explanation of the Gospels, compulsory attendance at divine services on holidays were introduced everywhere - in a word, a whole series of measures were introduced to establish (external) piety. The professors and teachers themselves were required to take care of the “inculcation of piety.” All this led to the development of hypocrisy and hypocrisy among students and teachers, and science receded into the background. Under the influence of 3.Ya. Kartsev was founded in 1821 by a “student Bible fellowship”, with the main goal of distributing the books of the Holy Spirit. Scriptures. Post of trustee 3.Ya. Karneev held until 1822; upon retirement, he lived, for the most part, on his estate. 3.Ya. Karneev is credited with writings published with the initials K. 3.: Thoughts poured out during the reading of the Lord's Prayer “Our Father” (1814); My Concepts of the Creed (1814). Literature. I. Shchelkov, From the history of Kharkov University in “Journal. Min. Nar. Enlightenment." 1890 No. 10; Correspondence 3.Ya. Karneeva with Prince A.N. Golitsyn and A.F. Labzin was published in the “Russian Archive” for 1892 No. 12 and 1893 No. 5.