Hieromonk-painter Anatoli Zdoichevski (1749-1827), citizen of the commonwealth of Poland (Rech' Pospolitaya), Moldova and the Russian Empire

Crises have always mobilized communities and individuals to unity and creativity, and much more extraordinary situations have stimulated individual creative souls. Exactly such conditions of war and confessional persecution were in full swing at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, both in Moldova and in the Polish Podolia. During this period, it was up to the young painter Anatoli Zdoichevski to realize himself. Born and educated in the town of Shargorod, after the death of his father, he crossed the Dniester to Moldova; where after the disasters left by the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774 he found a suitable space to realize himself in the iconographic art. It was also here, in his new homeland, being an exponent of the priestly order, at the insistence of the community from Cineşeuţi, that he was encouraged to receive the ordination as a priest. The consequences of the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1792 made him return to Poland, and then settle in the Khan's Ukraine. The premature death of his wife led the iconographer-priest to return to Moldova, where he received the monastic robe. His creative soul didn't allow him to follow the obedience all the time, challenging him to the new artistic achievements. His iconographic activity formed, together with other creators, an artistic concept that left its deep traces in the iconographic art of Moldova.