Khortytsia Island is a Place Of Memory

Abstract

In the article, using the example of Khortytska Sich, the evolution of views on the question of Sich genesis is considered in the context of the prevailing ideological conditions in different periods. The basis of research approaches is the theory of the place of memory of the French historian Pierre Nore, as well as the conclusions of the American philosopher Thomas Kuhn about the variability of scientific paradigms due to scientific revolutions and the impossibility of resolving their conflict with the help of evidence. At the everyday level of public consciousness, the concept of 'Khortytska Sich' was formed from the first half to the middle of the 17th century. It entered the scientific field in the second half of the 18th century. together with other centers of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks in the lower Dnieper. However, Khortytska Sich did not fit into the system of official scientific views. The justification of the empire's 'rights' to the so-called Western Russia (Lithuanian, Belarusian and Western Ukrainian lands) required consideration of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks as a pro-Moscow and anti-Polish force. Emphasis was placed on the era of wars against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which since the end of the 16th century. led by the Zaporozhians. Cossack centers that arose before this period did not fall under the sich status. As a result, in the 19th century a tradition arose, the echo of which exists in modern Ukrainian historiography, to call Khortytsia not the place of Sich, but 'the place of gathering', 'protosich', etc. For the same reasons, Khortytska Sich did not fit into the class model of social development. In this way, the history of Sich found itself in the context of Russian history, and the issues of the activities of the Ukrainian people in the development of the southern territories and the creation of centers of self-government back in the days of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania receded into the background. Only with the restoration of Ukrainian independence in 1991 did the conditions for understanding the phenomenon of Khortytska Sich emerge. The new scientific paradigm allows us to consider the Ukrainian-centric models of the first Sich, its role in the development of southern lands, resistance to Ottoman-Tatar aggression, and the formation of the Cossack state. This actualizes the direction of further research into the historical authenticity of Khortytska Sich as the basis of the notion of a place of memory of the Ukrainian people.