Ukrainian cultural-historical pantheon in the regional journalism of the first quarter of 19th century (Skovoroda, Mazepa, Khmelnitsky)

On the upsurge of national self-consciousness in the first quarter of the nineteenth century Ukraine faces a problem of defending the independence of its region, the originality of the language, national culture, historical path and literature. The traditional imperial view on Ukraine as a remote province of the Russian Empire, and its literature as the "secondary" one which bears a distinct provincial nature, was overcome also through the consistent creation of the complete Ukraine's image in Ukrainian fiction and journalism. The cultural and historical pantheon which constitutes the most significant names of cultural people and historical figures of Ukraine becomes the most important component of Ukraine's image from the "internal" view. Among these figures one of the first ones is G.S. Skovoroda - a Ukrainian philosopher and theologian, poet and fabulist of the eighteenth century. With regard to the attempts to give an objective description of his personality there is an interesting article which is placed in one of the numbers of "Ukrainsky Vestnik" - "Skovoroda, Ukrainian Philosopher", and has a threefold composition (a kind of "thesis", "antithesis" and "synthesis") where the volumetric image of the Ukrainian philosopher is consistently built by correlating opposite viewpoints (Gustav Hess de Calve and I. Vernet) and by the introduction of Skovoroda's "voice" given in his letters. B. Khmelnitsky, one of the central figures in Ukrainian fiction, does not lose its exclusive position in periodicals as well ("Ukrainsky Jurnal", "Ukrainsky Vestnik", "Kharkovsky Demokrit"). When analyzing the image of the Ukrainian hetman we pay special attention to the key points: the integrity of the image, the extreme degree of idealization (the enlargement of exploits, parallels with the heroes of antiquity, criteria of selecting historical episodes and biographical facts, direct names, characteristic epithets, etc.), accentuation of the belonging to Little Russian Cossacks with the simultaneous balancing on the verge of the Russian and Polish world. It indirectly draws Khmelnitsky's image to the sphere of the dispute between Russia and Poland on the membership of Ukraine. I. Mazepa's role, who is a traditional Khmelnitsky's antipode, is transformed in Ukrainian periodicals of the first quarter of the nineteenth century: the typical opposition of the images loses its tension not by Mazepa's "rehabilitation", but as a result of the reduction of his being mentioned. However, the ideological charge of the image remains the same and involves betrayal, cunning and guile ("About Little Russia", "Historical Notes on Little Russia"). In general, cultural and historical pantheon of Ukraine is remarkable for the breadth and simultaneous concentration on the era of Ancient Russia and the present time (from the time of the Hetmanate). The names of the historical figures connected with the period of the Polish-Lithuanian dominion in Ukraine fall out of sight on the strength of the mismatch with the consistently formed image of the heroic past of Ukraine.

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