V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Bulletin ‘History of Ukraine. Ukrainian Studies: Historical and Philosophical Sciences’

Philology and Sacred: Church Slavonic Language in the Views of Mychailo Maksymovych

Pavlo Yeremieiev — 2024-06-19

Purpose. The article attempts to discover how and under the influence of what factors Mykhailo Maksymovych perceived and described the Church Slavonic language and how the scholar’s vision of this issue influenced other assessments and characteristics in his works.

Methods. The study is based on the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane described in the phenomenology of religion. Based on published works by Mykhailo Maksymovych, his memoir, letters and unpublished notes, saved in the Institution of Manuscript of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (Kyiv), I attempt to find out whether the sacralisation of the Church Slavonic language took place in the mind of Mykhailo Maksymovych, and if so, how this sacralisation influenced his assessment of the place and role of this language in national life.

Scientific novelty. The author reveals how Mykhailo Maksymovych’s religious views and worship experiences influenced his perception of the Church Slavonic language in his scientific works. The connection between Mykhailo Maksymovych's opinions on the Church Slavonic language and his assessments of the importance of other Slavic languages is revealed.

Conclusions. Mykhailo Maksymovych sacralised the Church Slavonic language under the influence of his religious beliefs and prayer practices. This process resulted from rather archaic principles of thinking described in terms of the phenomenology of religion. Influenced by the sacralisation of the Church Slavonic language, Mychailo Maksymovych characterised its influence as positive without any philological arguments. Postulating the thesis about the particular impact of the Church Slavonic language on the formation of the Russian literary language, Mykhailo Maksymovych stressed its superiority to the other Slavic languages.

Advancement of national interests on the pages of the Ukrainian emigrant press in France during the First liberation struggles of 1917-1921 (on the example of "France et Ukraine" weekly)

Yaroslav Shkabura — 2024-06-19

The purpose of the article. Based on the analysis of the issues of the French-language periodical "France et Ukraine", published in Paris by Ukrainian emigrants, to find out what place the national interests of Ukraine occupied in the publications and through which plots and theses they tried to promote them.

The research methodology. The research used both general scientific methods (structural-systemic), as well as specifically historical (comparative) and interdisciplinary (methods of content analysis, discourse analysis).

Scientific novelty. For the first time, the author analyzes a Ukrainian French-language weekly in such detail, introducing all its issues into scientific circulation, examines their content and main emphasis, and the place of national interests in them.

The relevance. The topic of the article is particularly relevant nowadays, as the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused a wave of forced emigrants to appear in various countries, primarily in Europe. And currently, the issue of interaction with them and the promotion and protection of national interests is an important aspect of Ukraine's foreign policy. Therefore, studying and using previous positive experience is quite logical and necessary.

Conclusions. It has been demonstrated that the weekly "France et Ukraine" took a strong pro-Ukrainian position from the very beginning, and on its pages actively promoted pro-Ukrainian narratives, the history of Ukraine, informed the European public about the relevant political and state-building processes, the national liberation movement, tried to strengthen and improve the Ukrainian-French relations.

The Kulture-Lige`s Role in the Yiddish Language Development in Ukrainian People's Republic and the Early Soviet Period: From the Epoch of Experimentation to Ideological Restrictions

Anna Umanska — 2024-06-19

The purpose of the research: The proposed article aims to highlight the contribution of the educational organization Kultur-Lige to the development of the Yiddish language in the Ukrainian People's Republic and the early Soviet period.

Methods of the research: The methodological basis of the research is Karl Mannheim`s theory of generations, helping to analyze the motivational aspirations of the Kultur-Lige figures in the context of the Yiddish culture creation.

Scientific novelty: The novelty of the research lies in the specification of a topic that was not covered in the national scientific literature. In addition, the study analyzed several Yiddish-language sources that still need to be introduced into the national scientific community.

Conclusions: During the Kultur-Lige formation in the period of Ukrainian People's Republic and the first years of the Soviet regime, the creation of Yiddish educational institutions, and the development of literature and theatre were free and experimental. However, with the Soviet establishment, cultural policy towards Yiddish began to transform. The authorities began to dictate the course of development to all Jewish organizations, which led to the liquidation of the Kultur-League and the actual eradication of national elements from Yiddish culture and education.

Ukrainian detective (Soviet and emigre): History and pragmatics. (1920–1930).

Olga Zubko — 2024-06-18

The task of scientific research. The study of ukrainian soviet and emigration literary tastes, which changed under the pressure of historical realities in the 1920s and 1930s. Distinguishing the concepts of «ukrainian soviet detective story» and «ukrainian emigration sensational stories».

Methodology of research and scientific approaches. Methodology of research is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness, integrity, systematicity, as well as on the use of methods of analysis and synthesis, historical‑genetic, historical-comparative, historically-typological, problem-chronological.

The main results of the research carried out within the article. It was found out that the soviet detective by Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Dmytro Buzko, Georgy Danylovych, and Yuri Smolych prevailed in the 1920s. There were many autobiographical allusions in the storylines of the soviet detective. The Vynnychenko novel «Gold Deposits» sparked interest due to the mysterious fraudulent schemes of the characters, which reflected the corruption of the Directory period. In the story «Lyolya» by Dmytro Buzko, the author's repatriation and his undisguised desire to settle scores with those involved in the «supruniada» it was read. «Provocateur» by Georgy Danylovych was the first attempt in such a literary genre as a classic detective story. Yuri Smolych intrigued with espionage (the detective story «One and a Half Men») and fiction (the detective story «The Household of Doctor Galvanescu»).

In the 1930s, party ideologistses cunning bullet targeted the soviet ukrainian detective, which caused a lot of trouble for Yuri Shovkoplyas with his doctor Piddubny, because there could not possibly be any maniacs, rapists, or thieves of socialist property or any criminal domestic plots in a soviet detective story.

Instead, the 1930s were the years of emigration sensational novels. At that time, Ukrainian immigrants on the European continent enjoyed reading the works of Hryhoriy Luzhytskyi, who «did not invent the bicycle», but continued to promote the glorious Ukrainian past, adding new Ukrainian heroes to it – the most ordinary emigrants, fighters, detectives. Among his sensational stories, the most famous are: «The First Night» (1928), «Comrades of the Smile» (1929), «The Room with One Entrance» (1931), «The Clock with the Broken Glass» (1933), «Shot in the Night» (1934), «Hallo!..Hallo!..Attack on the bank!» (1935); trilogy «Crimson Cross» (1931 - 1937).

Originality and practical significance. Reading books by ukrainians as a psychological release and relief from stressful situations on both sides of the border during the period between the two world wars is the clear example of practicality and intellectual satisfaction, which is so important in our time.

Prospects for studying the problem. The study of the literary preferences of ukrainian soviet readers and ukrainian emigrants in the 1920s and 1930s as recreation is promising from the perspective of such a scientific direction as everyday history, which examines the conditions of life, work and rest, as well as factors affecting the formation of consciousness and norms of behaviour , socio-political preferences, etc. of the vast majority of the population («ordinary people», «nameless», «silent») of one or another country in one or another historical period.

Memoirs of travellers and foreign specialists as the sources of personal origin about Holodomor: informational potential

Tetiana Boriak — 2024-06-19

The purpose of the article. To illustrate comprehension of Holodomor y foreign specialists who were in Ukraine during the famine and thus to introduce their testimonies into scientific information space.

The research methodology. Methods of analysis and synthesis, content-analysis, bibliography heuristics and problem-thematic.

The scientific novelty. The author systematizes testimonies about the famine left by foreigners. This allows correlate their experience and evaluation with the sources of personal origin and contemporary evaluation by historiography. Also foreign sources of personal origin are introduced in scientific information space.

Conclusions. Given testimonies contain descriptions of the consequences of starvation visible to outsiders (cannibalism and corpse-eating, mortality, burial, emptied huts, crowds of hungry on the streets, DPU control, appearance of starving, photos of bread from starving regions). Of extreme importance is analysis provided by foreigners with high education regarding political reasons of Holodomor, politics on disinformation and militarization of society – of general artificial nature of the famine.

The defeat of the 6th and 12th Soviet armies in the summer of 1941 as repoted by Ukrainian-language newspapers during the Nazi occupation

Victor Grinchenko — 2024-06-19

Aim of the study. Highlight and analyze various information related to the defeat of the 6th and 12th Soviet armies in the summer of 1941 in the materials of Ukrainian-language newspapers published in 1941–1944 in the occupied territories of Ukraine and beyond.

Research methodology. The principles of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness and integrity of the study of the source are applied. The methods used include descriptive, historical-comparative, historical-critical methods, historiographical analysis and synthesis.

Scientific novelty. The materials presented in this publication can serve as a certain addition to already existing scientific research on the coverage of the defensive battles of the 6th and 12th Soviet armies in the summer of 1941 and their interpretation by one of the opposing sides in the German-Soviet war.

Conclusions. It was established that the relevant publications of Ukrainian-language newspapers presented information on the quantitative indicators of losses of Soviet troops in manpower and equipment as a result of their defeat near Uman in the summer of 1941; assessments of the importance of this battle for the offensive actions of the German army; comparison of the losses of the WPRA in this battle among other military campaigns of 1941; judgments about the reasons for the defeats of the Soviet army, including at Uman; mentions of individual facts, local episodes of military actions during this battle; information about Soviet generals captured near Uman. These newspaper materials, despite their censorship and bias, are of scientific interest and can be used in conjunction with other sources to cover various aspects of the tragedy of the 6th and 12th armies in the summer of 1941, which will enable assessing the level of objectivity of the information they presenteded.

Beekeeping traditions of bee stoking in the ethno-cultural heritage of Right-Bank Polissia of Ukraine: based on field materials

Alla Dmytrenko — 2024-06-19

The purpose of the study. Based on expeditionary materials, to analyze the traditions of bee stoking that have been formed in beekeeping and apiary beekeeping of the Right-Bank Polissya of Ukraine.

Research methodology. The research was based on the principles of historicity, objectivity, systematicity, and complexity; historical research methods (analysis and synthesis, typological, comparative and historical). The ethnological method of research used is the collection of field materials according to the author's questionnaire program; information was collected using the bush method of ethnological research. The field materials collected by the author in different regions of Ukrainian Polissya during 2005-2013 and 2023 are used.

Scientific novelty. For the first time in ethnological science, the traditions of bee-killing, their local peculiarities and changes during the second half of the XX and early XXI centuries are studied. The author proves the groundlessness of the thesis about the existence of the so-called swarming system in beekeeping. The used field ethnographic materials are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Conclusions. It has been found that two types of devices were used for lighting bees. The oldest were open-fire devices made from improvised materials: tree branches (zubel), linen and wood (golovenka), canvas, flax processing waste, straw, birch bark, and wood mushrooms (kurak). They were set on fire, extinguished, and used to light bees in side and log hives, directing the smoke into the longitudinal opening of the hives. The second type of device is a chimney with a closed fire, in which gunpowder from various trees, including fruit trees, leaves, grass, etc. is burned and the smoke is produced mechanically. The spread of chimneys is associated with the development of frame beekeeping, and in beekeeping and log beekeeping, traditional devices were preserved until the mid-twentieth century, and in some places to this day.

The Person and the City of the 20th-21st Centuries: Versions of Ukrainian and Polish Prose Fiction

Dmytro Chornyi — 2024-06-19

Purpose. The article examines the influence of the city on a person, component parts of the urban space that form the spirit of the city, evolution of the average city dweller and everyday life over the past hundred years, patterns of the past in modern cities. Our responses based on the analysis of the modern Poland and Ukrainian novels.

Methods. The methodology of the work is based on the approaches of everyday life history and historical memory studying. We have drawn on the novels of S. Khvin, A. Stasyuk, M. Krajewski, R. Mruz, N. Osinska, J. L. Vyshnevsky, N. Gurnytska, S. Zhadan, Y. Vinnychuk, Y. Andruhovych, O. Krasovytskyi, E. Kuzhavska, M. Hrymych, published in 1995-2021.

Results. Such factors as "traumatized memory", features of the creation of the city space and its markers were mainly affected the lives of residents of Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Lviv, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and small cities of Donbas. The city itself erased national, estate, social, gender stereotypes and conventions. It happened faster in Poland, Ukraine is moving more slowly in this direction. Each specific city shapes its residents, and they start to feel themself like a citizens of the city and personalities. This process chiefly occurs under the influence of everyday relations between people, external political events of the national and global level, not thanks to the actions of the city authorities.

Conclusions. All texts provide a holistic view on the relationship between man and the urban environment. The perception of the city by dwellers, authors and heroes of the works can be divided into several types: a magical space, a space of love, a terrain of the fight against evil, a set of stations on the route of one suburban railway line.

Symbolization of city space in contemporary urban prose (Mesopotamia by Serhiy Zhadan and Istanbul: memories and the city by Orhan Pamuk).

Ruslana Maryniak — 2024-06-18

Purpose: To characterize the specificity of symbolization of Kharkiv and Istanbul spaces as former capitals, considering the authors’ and national-cultural peculiarities of the city's representation in contemporary Ukrainian and Turkish prose, based on the urbanistic books of Serhiy Zhadan and Orhan Pamuk.

Methods: The methodology of work based on certain provisions of the semiotic and structural-linguistic analysis of Ferdinand de Saussure and the ideas of Yuri Lotman on the social and communicative function of the text, regulations on the phenomenon of the “urban text” by Kaya Semih and Taras Voznyak. Comparative analysis of the collection Mesopotamia by Serhiy Zhadan and the novel Istanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk let us compare two “urban” works of fiction (in fact local variants — “Kharkiv” and “Istanbul” texts) and define their aesthetic value in the corpus of texts of artistic urbanism, in which appears the image of a myth city.

Results: Both Serhiy Zhadan and Orhan Pamuk devoted their works to their favorite cities: this is the space of their permanent residency, labeled with a special magic. Nowadays in art, including literature, the tradition of ambivalent creation of the image of the cities of Kharkiv and Istanbul continues: industrial — commercial — student and scientific center — the first capital (Kharkiv) and the capital of the Empire — the city-prison — “Arena of Dishonor” (Istanbul). Both novels became a search for answers to questions about what forms the true magic of a city, whether it loses its uniqueness when it ceases to be the capital of the state, a center of rapid development, or whether it instead returns to the autochthonous tradition of original existence.

Conclusions: In Serhiy Zhadan’s novel the symbolization of Kharkiv’s landscape, the myth city presented in images of the Ukrainian, or rather Slobozhansky, its Mezhyrichia, its Mesopotamia, its original local civilization — between Lopan and Kharkiv — rivers that remember everything, whose shores renew a person, give strength to move on, and simply give happiness.

In the work of Orhan Pamuk we have a completely opposite story about Istanbul, the city that has lost its uniqueness after ceasing to be the capital. Here the myth city is the ancient Constantinople, its residents enveloped in overwhelming sadness, hüzün. However, there is a source of vitality here as well — Bosphorus Strait. For the novel’s character Istanbul’s landscape is also embodied in Byzantine ruins, in abandoned quarters where multiculturalism still “lives”.

Phenomenon of the Image-Symbol Kharkiv-Zalizobeton.

Maryna Kurushyna — 2024-06-18

Purpose: To identify peculiarities of perception of urban space with sense organs, to analyze the basic mechanism of creating a symbolic city’s image, to characterize the phenomenon of the symbol Kharkiv-Zalizobeton in view of the city’s architectural history.

Methods: The systemic approach for analyzing the city as an internal organ is used in the work. The semiotic approach gave an opportunity to interpret urban facilities as units of the sign system, that are connected with each other and can acquire connotations, turn into symbols. The structural-functional approach is used to explain the phenomenon of urban space facilities transformation into symbols. The synthesis method is used in conclusions.

Results: Attention of the researchers was focused mostly on visual perception in studying urban space facilities for a long time. But by understanding the city as an internal organ, the possibility of interpreting the city as systems of interconnected non-random signs is conducted to a conclusion that urban space has several different characteristics and is perceived comprehensively through the sense organs, leaving an impression in individual and collective memory. Usual facilities have not only utilitarian value but also symbolic value. The layering of several planes (information and perception) – objective knowledge about the city, cultural, historical, political contexts, individual objects and space perception, individual and collective memory, experience, accommodation – creates conditions for creating and consolidating a symbol.

Conclusions: The emergence of the image-symbol Kharkiv-Zalizobeton and especially its consolidation and popularity aren’t mistaken. Famous symbolic the Derzhprom building that is the architectural dominant of Freedom Square, is located at the center (the heart) of the city, made of monolithic reinforced concrete, is gray color (color of “emotionless stability”, strength). This symbol turned out to be harmonious for a lot of residents because it was formed as a result of the accumulation of many levels of the city’s perception (as city with a million inhabitants, frontline city, the symbol of the strength and physical and psychological stability, the prominence and significance of the architectural dominant of the central square of the city, called Freedom Square). An architectural history of the city indicates that Kharkiv has many reinforced concrete buildings and this fact forms the logical historical context of the image-symbol, formed on the basis of reinterpretation and metaphorization of the city's widely known reinforced concrete structure, the Derzhprom building.

"When you grow up, you have to leave here": life strategies of Donbas residents in the context of the history of the formation of the region

Victoria Nesterenko — 2024-06-19

Purpose. The article presents an analysis of the life strategies of Donbas residents related to their choice of a place to live and career growth in the context of the study of socio-economic problems of the region.

The research methodology is based on the analysis of in-depth interviews that were collected among respondents in 2022-2024. The study of specific cases allows us to make a hypothesis about the spread of a certain phenomenon to a social group.

Scientific novelty. The theses presented in the article help to better understand the social context in which the region found itself before 2014 and can become part of the reintegration strategy. The article presents practical conclusions regarding the involvement of human resources for the restoration of this territory.

The relevance of the article is determined by the current social situation and the need to study the perceptions of Donbas residents about their region in order to develop a reintegration strategy.

Conclusions. Passionate residents who could become a driving force for change in the region often chose to build a career elsewhere. This is due to the lack of opportunities for career growth in the monocities of Donbas. However, over time, some of them realize the importance of investing in the development of the region, both social and financial resources, which can become a support not only for the reintegration process, but also for the revitalization of the region.

Representation of Ukrainian Cities in Contemporary Wartime Narrative.

Maryna Kurushyna — 2024-06-19

Purpose: To identify peculiarities of the representation of Ukrainian cities in the war narrative, to analyze key images of these cities, to determine sustainability/transformation of the images of some Ukrainian cities since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Methods: The paper uses the descriptive method and the content analysis to study the war narrative and further distinguish image-symbols of Ukrainian cities. The semiotic approach provides an opportunity to interpret the city as a text, a sign environment that is in constant motion and responds to internal and external challenges.

Results: The representation of cities in a certain narrative and formation of their images depend on many factors, including the historical development of the city, sociocultural context, geographical characteristics, ethnic and social composition of the city, and ultimately, the leading functions of a particular city, which may be determined by the development of tourism, industry, science, etc. Russian armed aggression has led to sustainability/transformation of the images reflected in the war narrative.

Conclusions: The analysis of the representation of certain Ukrainian cities in the contemporary war narrative has revealed several main trends. The cities are depicted in a personified way, possessing distinct individuality and character, and resisting the enemy. The physical loss of a city doesn’t mean a mental loss; residents literally reassemble the city from their own particularly significant places. These include both well-known locations-symbols and private spaces (associated with moments of pre-war life, a sense of the city’s spirit) that are stored in individual memory. The borderline nature of the cities is felt especially acute, the necessity to preserve the Ukrainianness and to remain a Ukrainian city that continues to function as a complete organism, becomes unbreakable and turns into a fortress, causes partial or complete irrelevance, and respectively, fewer or no mentions of other images of such cities.

Encyclopedia man: Mykola Sumtsov as an author of encyclopedic publications

Michaylo Krasikov — 2024-06-19

Purpose: to study Kharkiv University Professor, philologist, folklorist, ethnographer, museum worker Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov’s (1854–1922) publications in the issues of the «Encyclopaedic Dictionary», the «New Encyclopaedic Dictionary» and some other encyclopaedic dictionaries of the end of the XIXth – the beginning of the XXth centuries.

Research methodology: the principles of historism and objectiveness implied by means of using special historical methods such as chronological and retrospective ones.

Novelty. For the first time we suggest a general characteristics of the whole massive of M.F. Sumtsov’s articles published in encyclopaedic publications. We highlighten the scientist’s innovations both in the field of scientific biographistics and in non-trivial choice of dictionary articles on folkloristics and ethnography; emphasise his role as a researcher and populariser of Ukrainian Literature and Slavic Humanities figures’ achievements.

Topicality. The importance and topicality of this research is grounded by the very personality of M.F. Sumtsov – the scientist who stood at the foundations of Ukrainian Studies as a science. Analysing his publications in the best encyclopaedic isues of the end of the XIXth – the beginning of the XXth centuries, we see for sure that the Ukrainian ethnographer and folklorist not only summarised his colleagues’ achievements in studying traditional Ukrainian culture but also suggested a system of significant notions, artefacts and phenomena which only in a hundred of years would become basical in our native ethnolinguistic encyclopaedic dictionaries. Besides we note the scientist’s priority in creating a huge database of scientific biographies of both native and foreign science and culture figures.

Conclusions. We have studied to a certain degree forgotten, non-collected and almost non-investigated by ethnographers, folklorists and literature historians encyclopaedic legacy of Academician M.F. Sumtsov, which has not lost its topicality both from historical point of view and in the sense of looking for new methodological approaches to studying traditional folk culture. As for his latest bibliography (1999) there are 254 articles in just encyclopaedic dictionaries and not fewer than that can be found in the issues which formally are not encyclopaedic but have all the features of such ones. M. Sumtsov was one of the pioneers in the field of studying Old Ukrainian Literature and it was he who supplied XVI–XVIII centuries writers’ first scientifically grounded biographies and characteristics of creative work to encyclopaedias. Besides M. Sumtsov wrote and published in encyclopaedias the first scientific biographies of T. Shevchenko, Lessya Ukrayinka, B. Hrinchenko, I. Karpenko-Karyy, M. Kropyvnytskyy, I. Kotlyarevskyy, H. Kvitka-Osnov’yanenko and other Ukrainian authors of the XIXth – the beginning of the XXth centuries. Moreover, he was the first of native scientists to supply encyclopaedic articles about a great number of Slavic folklorists and ethnographers (P. Ivanov, O. Kolberg, Y. Karlovych and others), which in some cases are nearly the only historiographic sources. M. Sumtsov’s ethnographic and folkloristic encyclopaedic articles, which in general quite thoroughly and completely outline the parametres of traditional folk culture, continue to be of great value today. Definitely, Ukrainian science coryphaeus’ encyclopaedic legacy is worth being republished as a separate collection of works.

Mykola Sumtsov - a figure in the context of time

Anna Khirina — 2024-06-19

Objective: to analyze and summarize the role and place of academician M.F. Sumtsov in the development of European and Ukrainian science and culture, to determine the peculiarities of the scientist's scientific interests, to trace the transformation of his scientific views, to analyze the contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture, the formation of the national idea, and the formation of Ukrainian national consciousness.

Research methodology: the principles of analytical approach, historicism, and objectivity, embodied through the application of special-historical methods - comparative-historical, chronological, and retrospective.

Scientific novelty. For the first time, materials from Fund N 1115 of the Central Rada of Ukraine CSAVO of Ukraine regarding the involvement of M.F. Sumtsov as a responsible person of the Central Rada in organizing Ukrainization of education in the Kharkiv region are introduced into scientific circulation. The biography of the scientist is supplemented with his work at the Ukrainian University in Poltava in 1918, and his arrest in 1921, made possible after studying the periodical press of the 1940s. The contribution of Sumtsov to the formation of Ukrainian studies as a separate field of scientific knowledge, to biographical and prosopographic research, the study of the nature and geography of Ukraine, the analysis of Sumtsov's correspondence in terms of his place among prominent representatives of Ukrainian culture, including S.V. Petliura, is analyzed.

Conclusions. M.F. Sumtsov is a prominent figure in the history of Ukrainian and European science and culture, one of the founders of Ukrainian studies as a separate scientific field, belonged to a whole pleiad of founders of the Ukrainian national idea. Sumtsov's scientific work is characterized by interdisciplinarity, versatility, and depth of understanding of the problems of peoples' existence. The worldview, public activity, and scientific legacy of the scientist fully reflected the complex contradictions of the era from the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Sumtsov was a man of his time, but he went beyond its boundaries with his actions and scientific works, which remain an important source for understanding and studying the culture and spirituality of the Ukrainian people.

Mykola Sumtsov's contribution to the study of pysankas

Victor Tkachenko — 2024-06-18

The purpose of the article. To highlight the work of Mykola Sumtsov (1854-1922) on the study of pysankas as one of the types of decorative and applied art of Ukraine and his influence on further research on pysankas based on historical sources and archival materials.

Research methodology. The methods of search, analysis, synthesis and generalization were applied, the principles of historicism and objectivity were used. The application of these methods and principles of research helped to reveal the activities of M. Sumtsov related to the study of pysanka, its ornamental component and pysanka art in general.

Scientific novelty. For the first time, MykolaSumtsov's activities in the study of pysanka are considered in a holistic manner, and the introduction of letters by F. Vovk, A. Patera with information about pysankas, H. Yashchurzhynsky about sending a collection of products to him, and coverage of correspondence with another researcher S. Kulzhynsky testifies to the recognition of his work on this issue.

Conclusions. M. Sumtsov's studies of Ukrainian pysankas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries indicate that he was one of the first to take a deep interest in this topic. It was M. Sumtsov who first developed a questionnaire program for the study of pysankas. In 1891, he published a generalized publication about pysankas, in which he proposed his own classification of ornamental motifs, highlighted the customs and ritual traditions associated with the use of pysankas, characterized the symbolic and semantic meaning of individual ornamental motifs depicted on Easter eggs, and so on.

Even today, researchers of folk art, including pysankas, turn to the work of M. Sumtsov, which for many years became a defining work in the study of Ukrainian pysankas.

Yakov Yakovych Belen de Ballu (1753–1815) – professor of Kharkiv University, first librarian of the university library.

Світлана Глибицька — 2024-06-19

Purpose. To trace the life and creative path of Ya. Ya. Belin de Ballu (1753–1815), a writer, translator, professor of the department of classical philology and at the same time the first librarian of the newly established Imperial Kharkiv University; to publicize the portrait of Ya. Ya. Belin de Ballu, which was found in 2023 almost 220 years after the scientist worked at Kharkiv University.

Research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and systematicity.

Scientific novelty. For the first time, the most complete information about Ya. Ya. Belin de Ballu, which is reflected in domestic and international sources, has been collected; a portrait of a scientist presented to the scientific community for the first time.

Conclusions. Ya. Ya. Belin de Ballu is one of the organizers of Kharkiv University and its library, one of the first professors and the first librarian of the university library. Among his many services to the university and the library is that he compiled and published a catalog of Greek manuscripts from the 12th to 18th centuries, which are kept in the university library, and compiled a Latin anthology that was published in the university printing house.

Yehor Redin in life and work (by letters to Volodymyr Savva).

Maryna Domanovska — 2024-06-18

Research aim. Update of the scientific work and epistolary legacy of the famous scientist and specialist in art history, byzantinist, professor of the Kharkiv Imperial University Yehor Redin (1863–1908), publication and commenting of the scientist’s letters to his colleague Volodymyr Savva (1865–1920) from the collection of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Kyiv (CSHA of Ukraine).

Research methodology. The basis of the work is a combination of comparative-historical and biographical methods, the involvement of philological commenting techniques, as well as adherence to modern principles of publishing sources of personal origin, in particular epistolary.

Scientific novelty. Nine letters of Yehor Redin to his colleague Volodymyr Savva have been put into scientific circulation, which chronologically cover the period from 1897 to 1902. The epistolas contain both personal and professional sides, in particular, the beginning of the scientist’s work on his doctor dissertation; based on them in the introductory the article specified some facts of the scientific and personal biography of the scientist are prezented.

The relevance. Yehor Redin’s scientific legacy continues to be the subject of attention of modern historians and art critics. Given the fact that the materials of the personal archive of Yegor Redin are stored mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation and will be inaccessible to Ukrainian researchers for a long time, the materials from the Kyiv archives are of particular importance. The study presents new facts of the scientist’s biography and publishes the mentioned nine letters of Yehor Redin to Volodymyr Savva.

Borys Hrynchenko and Fedyr Matushevsky: epistolary dialogue

Nadija Yakobchuk — 2024-06-18

The complex of mutual correspondence between Borys Dmytrovych Hrinchenko and Fedir Pavlovich Matushevskyi - well-known public figures, representatives of the Ukrainian national movement of the beginning of the 20th century is analyzed in article. The content and source value of the epistolary dated 1902-1910 were studied. Texts of autographs of individual epistles are added to the article.

The purpose of the research is to determine the thematic range, informational potential and source value of the correspondence for the study of the social and cultural life of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as to clarify the key stages of the life path of the respondents.

Research methodology. The article is written on the basis of the principles of historicism, scientificity and systematicity. General historical and source research methods are applied: analytical, synthetic, chronological, heuristic, critical, archeographic and others.

The scientific novelty is due to the lack of a comprehensive study of the correspondence of Borys Hrinchenko and Fedir Matushevsky, the need to involve it in scientific circulation.

Conclusions. It has been established that the complex of correspondence between Borys Hrinchenko and Fedir Matushevsky has a small volume, but this does not diminish its value as a historical source. The thematic range and informational potential of the epistolary have been determined. Its significance for the study of the public life of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, clarification of the facts of the respondents' biographies, is revealed. The analysis of the correspondence provides an opportunity to investigate the publishing activities of the figures and the working conditions of the Ukrainian intelligentsia at the beginning of the 20th century. An important topic in the correspondence is the discussion of the events that took place in Kyiv region, Chernihiv region and Kharkiv region as a result of the 1905 revolution.

Review: Михайло Могилянський. Листування з Наталією Полонською-Василенко 1929–1941 / упорядкування та передмова Вікторії Сергієнко. — Харків: ТОВ «Видавництво „Права людини“», 2023. – 496 с. фотоіл.

Olena Potapenko — 2024-06-18

Review: Михайло Могилянський. Листування з Наталією Полонською-Василенко 1929–1941

The All-Ukrainian Scientific Conference “Borys Hrinchenko: Known and Unknown (to the 160th Anniversary of the Birth of the Great Ukrainian”

Natalia Aksyonova — 2024-06-18

19 січня 2024 р. в онлайн-форматі відбулася Всеукраїнська наукова конференція «Борис Грінченко: знаний і невідомий (до 160-річного ювілею Великого Українця)». Її співорганізаторами виступили філософський факультет, кафедра українознавства, філологічний факультет, кафедра історії української літератури, Центр українських студій та краєзнавства імені академіка П. Т. Тронька та відділ українських студій імені Д. І. Багалія Харківського національного університету імені В. Н. Каразіна.