Slobozhanshchyna is a Free Liberty: Local Reminiscences of Slobidska Community (After the Field Materials)

Author

BOSA LIUBOV

a Ph.D. in History, a senior researcher at the NASU M. Rylskyi IASFE Ukrainian Ethnological Centre Department

Slobozhanshchyna is a Free Liberty: Local Reminiscences of Slobidska Community (After the Field Materials)

Abstract

The search of certain loci to perform the functions of resocialization, identification, consolidation of the Ukrainan nation of both the Eastern territories and all Ukrainian lands at the same time within the present complex social and cultural conditions in Ukraine is a topical problem. However, the scientific world has already recognized the thesis that any knowledge is determined with the local context, the specificity of the place, locality long before. Therefore, attention is paid to the significance of the intellectual communities. These are public organizations, cultural societies, which often appear as the pioneers in social and cultural practices, as the researchers of new possibilities for the local population. It is especially important to appeal to the experience of such centers in rural areas of the Eastern terrains of Ukraine.

Some results of the field investigation in Novopskov and Starobilsk districts of Luhansk region are presented. The most persistent image of Ukrainian region, appearing in the stories of the interlocutors, is the image of the territory of former slobodas, the free lands, where their ancestors such as Cossacks and free people altogether have been settled. Concerning the activity of Slobidska Community and V. I. Zolotariov as its informal leader, the intellectual contribution of this community to the study of the territory along the Aidar river and the popularization of its special historical places is considered. The significance of small communities in the preservation and rendering of the local historical reminiscences and separate personalities as the creators of Ukrainian surroundings is shown. The special features of its self-organization mechanisms are investigated. The sources of this intellectual scientific, educational, social activity are reflected in memorials initiated by them, the press materials, scientific collections, separate author published works and chains of biographical interviews taken by us in December, 2014 and February, 2015.

Keywords

small communities, local reminiscences, Slobidska Community.

References

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