Mental Map of Hryhoriy Galagan: Territorial and Ethnonational Structuring in Ukrainian Nobleman’s World View (mid-1830s — mid-1860s)

Abstract

The article examines the spatial structures and related images of ethno-national communities in the world view of Hryhoriy Pavlovych Galagan (1819–1888), a representative of the Ukrainian local nobility and a prominent public figure. The research methodology includes the achievements of modern humanitarian geography, first of all the method of mental mapping, which allows to study the spatial structures in the world view of the individual, taking into account his socio-cultural environment. The research is based on ego-documents — diaries and correspondence from the Galagan family archive. Special attention is paid to toponymes and ethnonymes in these texts. It is shown that the spatial representations of Hryhoriy Galagan were a complex system that developed under the influence of the socio-cultural sphere in which he lived. Thus, humanitarian geography is represented as a discursive practice due to social and political interests. The article deals, in particular, with such spatial constructs as “Little Russia”, “Ukraine”, “Russia”, “Rus”, “Europe”, as well as related communities — “Little Russia people”, “Russian people”, “Europeans”. Galagan’s spatial and ethno-national ideas are shown as a very dynamic system that was constantly changing under the influence of socio-political and ideological movements, such as the Polish uprisings of 1830–1831 and 1863–1864, the rise of Slavophilia and Ukrainophilia. Attention is paid to the importance of travel for the development of the system of spatial and ethno-national structures. In addition, the conditionality of this system with ideas about history is proved. The issues raised in this article will contribute to further in-depth research in cultural anthropology, as well as be useful to historians working in the biographical genre.