On the first day of summer 2021 at the request of the Kyiv Rotary Club, Doctor of Economics, Professor of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business Administration, SSU, Director of the Research Institute of Development Economics Melnyk Leonid told about the history of the Neplyuyev Brotherhood (the territory in which it existed now belongs to Sumy region). The scientist also expressed his opinion on its civilizational significance.
Ironically, the life and work of this unique social phenomenon shows the features of the three industrial revolutions in which humanity has to exist today: Industry 3.0 (greening), Industry 4.0 (cyberphysical) and Industry 5.0 (humanitarian). It was in the Neplyuyev Brotherhood that the foundations of the first waste-free cycles of production and nature management were created. It was here that people took the first steps towards the effective use of machines. It is here that the priority of personal development of man and the synergy of productive and personal nature of man was achieved.
The scientist’s story gradually grew into a round table, where listeners had the opportunity to express their opinions.
The story used the results of Jean Monnet’s research and education project, funded by the European Commission: “Legislative, economic and social transition of the EU to a sustainable society within Industry 4.0 and 5.0” (619997-EPP-1-2020-1-EN) -EPPJMO-CHAIR) (2020–2023), head L. Melnyk.
Those who are interested in the history of the Neplyuyev Brotherhood can read more about it below.
At the end of the XIX century on the Ukrainian land and the heritage of his father (now it is the territory of Sumy region) MM Neplyuyev founded the unique Exaltation of the Cross Labor Brotherhood. For almost half a century (from 1881 to 1929), it amazed the world with its organization, moral principles and innovations, which were far ahead of their time.
The Brotherhood used the most advanced technologies, tools, information. At the end of the XIX century, the settlements of the Brotherhood – the villages of Vozdvizhenskoe and Rozhdestvenskoe – were telephoned. The beginning of the twentieth century brought electrification and mechanization of the economy.
Education for population of the Brotherhood at the beginning of the XX century was free of charge. It was practically comparable to the modern higher education (in total, the Brotherhood members studied for 9 years in the primary school and special agricultural school. It happened in the country of almost completely illiterate population). All Brotherhood members received musical and artistic education. The Brotherhood also provided free primary education and medical assistance to residents of other surrounding villages.
Except advanced agricultural and industrial production (engineering, construction materials, wood processing) the Brotherhood had its own theatre, symphony orchestra, ballet studio, folk instruments orchestra, publishing house. Since the 1880s a black and white photograph was used, and since 1916 – a color photograph. Pilgrims came to the Brotherhood, and the reception service and information support functioned.
Being a small settlement (about 600 people to the beginning of the 1920s) the Brotherhood gave the society, without exaggeration, dozens of outstanding personalities: scientists, designers, writers, artists, musicians, singers, conductors, leaders of various spheres of the national economy. Not a single case of theft was recorded in the history of the Brotherhood. Houses of the Brotherhood members drowned in greenery and flowers. The Brotherhood members spent leisure time in a shady park among the cascade of lakes.
In anomalously terrible historical conditions (two revolutions and an exhaustive civil war) the development of the Brotherhood was steadily ascending. Thanks to technologies that synergetically linked man’s work with its managerial beginning and natural forces, there was not a single crop failure in the entire history of the Brotherhood. Crop yields in the Brotherhood exceeded 3-5 times those of the neighboring farms.
In modern conditions we would call the Brotherhood economy an industrial-agrarian cluster. Its production became more and more information and information became the main product: developing new technologies of different activities, creating new plants varieties (apples, grasses, and flowers), breeding animals. The production in the Brotherhood operated with a minimum of waste.
In 1929, the Soviet government ruined the Brotherhood economy, and its inhabitants were completely evicted.