The Beginning of the Kharkiv Pantheon Formation (on the Materials of Travel Guides of the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries)

Abstract

The author explores the issue of forming the "pantheon" of the most prominent figures in the history of Kharkiv. To this end, Soviet city guides were analyzed. The names found on the guide pages have been recorded in the appropriate database. The author stated the principles of construction of this database and possible interpretations of the obtained results. It contains two fields - "faces" and "mentions". In the first box, those names found on the guide pages were recorded, and in the second box, those ratings that accompany a specific name were recorded. Along with fixing a person's name, a social or professional characteristic (scientist, military, architect, statesman, etc.) was also mentioned. In the "mention" field, depending on the nature of the mention of a person, a coefficient was stated: if the name was mentioned without a rating, it is a factor # 1 (1 point), a combination with such epithets as "known", "prominent" and the like – a factor # 2 (2 points), more or less a detailed characteristic of the activity, first of all from the point of view of impact on the development of the city – factor # 3 (3 points). As a result, it allowed to create a certain hierarchical name system and to separate "TOP-10" of them. In the long run, it will allow you to see a system of names in the dynamics, when some persons will fall out of the list of leaders at certain periods and others will be included in this list. It will also be important to capture changes in terms of increasing or decreasing attention to a particular category of people (social and professional characteristics). In total, more than 650 people were included in the database. The author concluded that in the early 20th century the guides less mentioned statesmen and local administrators, and more of artists, architects, and scientists. Also, the article states that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the list of "local heroes" in Kharkiv has just begun to form. This can be explained by the absence of some known persons in the TOP-10 list. This is partly due to the fact that the guide genre itself has not yet been completed, and the first guides rather resembled information directories and were thematically imbalanced. Nevertheless, this material can be used in studying the initial stage of assembly of the "Kharkiv Pantheon".