History of Ukraine

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Chubina T.D.

(Fire Safety Academy named after the Heroes of Chornobyl, Cherkasy City)

 

FAMILY HISTORY AS MEANS OF STUDYING CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF HUMANKIND (BASED ON TULCHYN BRANCH OF THE POTOTSKYI FAMILY)

 

Human activity is the basis and prerequisite of the human race history, the history of mankind, all the history of culture in general. Culture is a way of regulation, conservation, restoration and development of all the social life, being at the same time the principle of connection with an individual, the means of its joining a social life.

The concept of culture is worth exploring because of correlation with the concept of nature against which culture acts as an extension, converting of what existed, given to a person by nature. It should be noted that transforming and improving nature, people at the same level transform and improve themselves.

The question of progress in culture still remains one of the most complex. Cultural progress can not be determined only by technical improvements or economic progress, though it is clear that even this produces not the last impact. Progress in culture is a continuity of cultural elements and values in the straightforward historical development of society. The main criterion of cultural progress is the improvement of an individual itself, especially moral. It’s morality that ensures preservation of human, personal dimension of cultural and historical movement of humanity. Human vital activity development and progress of culture as a means and form of organization of this vital activity act as a process of resolving contradictions between the potential universality of an individual and its actual limitation by a certain period, by a system of norms and values.

A family history that serves as a constructive means of social, cultural and intellectual history research is relevant in this perspective.

The Ukrainian and world cultural history is represented by a number of prominent families. Among them a special place is held by the Pototsky family multi-faceted activities of which deployed within large temporal and spatial space.

Each generation of the Pototsky family celebrated the presence of extraordinary individuals who made outstanding contributions to the economic and cultural development of the region, the country and the nation. The history of the Pototsky family at the genetic level has proved that heredity has a decisive influence on the spiritual world of an individual.

Ukrainian estates of the Pototsky family at all times, and especially at the end of the XVIII – in the first half of the XIX century, were the outstanding cultural centers, were important centers of spiritual life of the society. For example, manor building, which was actively carried on by the Pototsky family, acted as a synthesis of architecture, plastic arts and nature united in a coherent compositional work. The Tulchyn Estate is an outstanding proof of this fact.

Typically, the center of the estate was a manor house together with farm buildings. The environment in which they existed was the nature – an arranged park, an orchard, a greenhouse, gardens, ponds, pools and decorative water devices – leapers, waterfalls and cascades. The use of plants for space management that constantly changed their appearance made the life of an estate or a manor aesthetically and emotionally unique and original. A modern human can hardly imagine what an important role gardens and parks played in the community life.

Estate owners spent a lot of time in gardens and parks and therefore tried to equip and decorate them as best they could. Peculiarities of architecture, green spaces more or less reflected lifestyles, tastes and cultural level of the estates and manors owners. Old mansions and estates were the special cultural world, nothing to compare with, the environment for communication of artists, writers, philosophers, musicians as well as the world of high architecture, garden and park art.

As a form of nature and various kinds of art synthesis garden and park art was associated with historical styles and developed in interrelation with philosophy, literature, aesthetics of everyday life, art, architecture, music simultaneously reflecting different attitudes of people to nature inherent in each historical era. A new type of garden and park art appeared within a definite period of time in a certain place only when there were created corresponding socio-economic, cultural and historical conditions. From this perspective stylistic image of a park can be regarded as a part of culture of a particular society at a certain stage.

By virtue of the geographical location and historical destiny Ukraine became the scene of lively artistic interactions in multi-national and during the era of feudalism even multi-religious state which was the Rich Pospolyta.

The peculiarity of the manor architecture and garden and park art of the Pototsky family was in their development that took place in the context of all-European culture and reflected its ideological and artistic diversity. Some stylistic features typical of these types of art came to Ukraine from the West earlier than to Russia.

A prominent role of estates, gardens and parks in the lives of entire generations is confirmed by their importance in all forms of art – painting, arts and crafts, literature, poetry and music that constantly and mutually enriched each other.

Gardens and parks were a peculiar kind of extension, addition and lively commentary to the national literature. Over time, they underwent significant transformations caused both by their natural being, which constantly developed and regenerated, and by changing of styles and tastes of the owners. In addition, many gardens and parks were gradually filled with works of architecture and sculpture, new developments enriched their semantic structure and composition. Thus, the monuments of garden and park art were the synthesis of diverse cultures of different times.

Palace-and-park ensembles, home gardens parks, urban gardens were created as a synthesis of architecture, art and nature. Quite often they became a backdrop for scene compositions, literary works including poetry. Estates and garden-and-park ensembles from the foundation time and until the beginning of the XX century were real museums as they contained priceless collections of art and culture works.

"Memorability" of old estates, mansions and parks is of particular value which is due not only to the names of prominent figures of culture and history, but also to the memory of earlier epochs and cultures.

Another socio-cultural phenomenon which is an integral layer of the spiritual culture of the Rich Pospolyta of the XVIII – first half of the XIX century is a generic library of the Right-Bank Ukraine, and in particular the Tulchyn library of the Pototsky family. At the same time libraries were an integral part of the cultural processes within the ethnic Ukrainian lands in the XVIII-XIX centuries which at that time were the part of other countries: the Rich Pospolyta, then the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. Restoration of the history and the collection of the Pototsky family library allow to define its role in the cultural life of society, bibliophily and collecting.

The very fact of family libraries existence shows traditional interest in books, their prominent role in the lives of families, preservation of the library collection integrity and its replenishment.

The acquisition of the past heritage, its critical understanding and use are important terms of gradual motion of modern science as well as the society in general. In this context, this study raises important social and economic, moral and psychological phenomena as charity.

The question of charity in Ukraine has been for long held back and charity itself was considered as biased and prejudiced. But recently the history of charity movement and activities of certain individuals and families attracts increasing attention of historians since charity is an important aspect of community life and relations between the state and civil society.

In the second half of the XIX century Ukraine had an extensive system of charitable institutions and organizations. There were private funds invested into creation and maintainance of shelters, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, public buildings construction. The study of the Pototsky family charity experience helps to solve more deliberately the young generation support problems, meeting its desire for education as well as recovery and enrichment of spirituality and human values in general.

The Pototsky family covers a great period in the history of Ukraine. It is important to emphasize that the Pototsky family were not just spectators or those who fixed events, indeed they were their participants, creators of the socio-political and cultural processes, the founders of cultural traditions and trends.