Ukrainian intellectual Trokhym Zinkivskyi and preservation of historical memory of Taras Shevchenko

Abstract

The personality of Trochym Zinkivskyi (1861–1891) remains little known and insufficiently developed in modern Ukrainian historiography. The purpose of the article is to study the figure of Trokhym Zinkivskyi in the context of the problem of preserving the historical memory of Taras Shevchenko. Research methods are personalistic, historical-genetic and historical-systemic. Sources: published epistolaries of T. Zinkivskyi and his addressees, memories of contemporaries, biographical articles in the Ukrainian press of the beginning of the 20th century etc. The main results consist in elucidating the peculiarities of the formation of T. Zinkivskyi's worldview under the conditions of the oppression of the Southern Ukrainian lands by the Russian imperial regime, in particular in Berdyansk, Feodosia and Odesa, the establishment of his Ukrainian national-democratic views during his studies and military service in Smila, Shpola and Uman, in Kyiv and St. Petersburg. It is noted that an important factor in the development of his Ukrainian consciousness and identity was his family upbringing, which instilled love for his native language and formed Christian, religious values. A prominent role was played by the reading circle, which included Shevchenkov's «Kobzar» along with other literary works of Ukrainian and foreign writers; as well as Ukrainian folk art. V. Kravchenko, L. Smolenskyi, B. Grinchenko, M. Komarov, and a number of representatives of the Ukrainian colony in St. Petersburg were included in the closest circle of persons who significantly influenced the formation of the worldview of the Ukrainian figure. The article traces the main stages of the intellectual and public activity of the Ukrainian figure in the matter of preserving the historical memory of Kobzar. It is noted that already in the middle and second half of the 80s of the 19th century. T. Zinkivskyi began work in the field of Ukrainian literature, took care of translation activities. In St. Petersburg, he was able to begin wider work for the benefit of Ukrainianism and became an ideological leader of young Ukrainians. The powerful vital energy of the activist was organically combined with consistent and convinced actions in the name of the Ukrainian cause. In the youth group at Shevchenko's anniversary, T. Zinkivskyi read a number of essays, such as «The National Question in Russia», «Shevchenko in the Light of European Criticism», «Young Ukraine» and others. His essay «Taras Shevchenko in the Light of European Criticism», which was read in Ukrainian on the evening of February 25, 1889 in the capital of the empire, was of exceptional importance. This speech, prepared mostly on the basis of French, Austrian, German, and Polish historiographical sources, presented Kobzar as a figure of global poetic scale and destroyed the perception of the Russian metropolitan public about Ukrainians and the Ukrainian language as something provincial and inferior. Conclusions.T. Zinkivskyi became one of the brightest representatives of the «Young Ukraine» generation. The short-lived but important intellectual activity of the ideological leader of young Ukrainians, in particular, speeches at the Shevchenko anniversary, publication of abstracts, epistolaries, drew the attention of contemporaries to the figure of Taras Shevchenko, to his poetic heritage; actualized the issue of preserving the historical memory of Kobzar as a leader of the national values of Ukrainians. It has been proven that during the 1880s and early 1890s, T. Zinkivskyi's intellectual activity contributed to the progress of Ukrainian public affairs and national science, the establishment of Ukrainian national consciousness among the generation of young Ukrainians. The practical significance of the article is that the given material will be of interest to specialists in the context of studying the ethno-national history of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th century. The originality of the article lies in the understanding of insufficiently studied aspects of the activity of the Ukrainian intellectual, who stood at the origins of the idea of «Young Ukraine». Scientific novelty in updating the intellectual activity of T. Zinkivskyi in the matter of preserving Ukrainian national memory and forming national consciousness and identity.