MUSEUMS OF ZEMSTVO SELF-GOVERNMENT IN LEFT-BANK UKRAINE IN LATE XIX – EARLY XX CENTURIES

Abstract

During the imperial period, an extensive network of museum institutions was formed in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire. They worked at higher educational institutions, scientific institutions, city and local government bodies. The Zemstvo reform of 1864, which caused significant changes in the economic and cultural life, had a great impact on the development of Ukrainian museums, albeit with some delay. In Russian-ruled Ukraine, in particular, in the Poltava and Chernihiv regions, both provincial and district zemstvo bodies had museums under their control.The proposed article deals with the history of the creation and activities of museums that worked with the organs of the local government in the late XIX - early XX centuries on Left Bank Ukraine. The initiative of creating museum institutions, the composition of their collection, etc. is analyzed. The article investigates the sources of financing of museum institutions, occurred at the expense of Zemstvo institutions and patrons of art. It covers the scientific activities of zemstvo institutions, their publications, including reports and periodicals. Also attention is paid to the analysis of attendance rates of museum institutions, identified educational opportunities of these institutions. The connection of museum institutions with local authorities was considered. Their influence on the opening of museums, the adoption of collections in the property, further funding, etc. also studied in the article. It was concluded that the museum business occupied a significant place among other cultural and educational activities of the zemstvos of Left-Bank Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period, both provincial and county Zemstvo museums worked in the Ukrainian provinces. The scientists, public figures, patrons of art took an active part in the creation and further work of the zemstvo museum institutions.