Abstract
The purpose of the article is to assess the degree of accessibility to divorce in Ukraine under Russian rule during the 19th and early 20th centuries, to identify the legally recognized grounds for marital dissolution, and to compare these formal provisions with the actual ability of spouses to terminate their marriage, as illustrated through specific case studies. The methodology of research is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, systematization), special historical methods (historical-structural, historical-comparative, constructive-genetic) with the scientific principles of historicism, objectivity, and systematicity. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in Ukrainian historiography, the process of divorce has been considered as a component of the everyday life of different strata of society; specific examples and unique archival materials demonstrate the complexity of divorce from a legal point of view among both the Orthodox and Catholic and Jewish populations of Ukraine under Russian rule; statistical information on the level of divorce among the population of the Russian Empire and other countries of the world has been introduced; the place of the Volhynian Governorate in these processes has been demonstrated. Conclusions. Divorce in Ukraine under Russian rule in the 19th – early 20th centuries was a rare phenomenon, the reasons for which were not only Christian morality, which sharply condemned the act of divorce, but also bureaucratic aspects, strict requirements of legislation, both secular and church. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, against the background of the processes of emancipation and modernization, the proportion of divorces increases, and adultery becomes the main reason for divorce among Orthodox Christians. The power to conduct divorce belonged to the highest church authorities (for Orthodox Christians, to the Holy Synod), and only at the beginning of the 20th century was secular legislation allowed to regulate the act of divorce to a greater extent than before. Nevertheless, the discussion on the transfer of divorce cases to secular authorities, as well as on the liberalization of the divorce process, remained a discussion in the columns of the periodical press of that time until 1917, one of the reasons for which was the church's unwillingness to give up its power. When it was impossible to officially dissolve a marriage, it was necessary to resort to such actions as separation of spouses and bigamy.