Topical History: B. Hrinchenko and the Creation of Textbooks in Ukrainian

Abstract

The article reflects the author’s version of the disclosure of the contribution of the Ukrainian writer, teacher, educator, public figure Borys Hrinchenko (1963–1910) in the creation of abcbooks, textbooks for primary public schools in the Ukrainian language in the conditions of prohibitions by the imperial Russian authorities on the publication and distribution of Ukrainian-language scientific, educational, religious texts.
The purpose of the article is to highlight and analyze the B. Hrinchenko’s contribution (1881–1910) to primary education in the native language of Ukrainians. Objectives of the study: determining the socio-historical context of the problem of persecution of Ukrainians in Russian Empire in the XVIII–XIXth centuries; justification of the steps and stages in the creation of B. Hrinchenko’s Ukrainian-language educational books “Ukrainian Grammar for Teaching Reading and Writing” (1907), “Native Word” (1912); general didactic characteristics of these books; substantiation of the importance of constant updating in the national memory of the achievements of the best patriotic representatives as an important commemorative practice.
The theoretical bases of the study were: the theory of cultural memory as an image of the collective past, endowed with the function of identification (M. Halbwaks, 1952); the concept of national identity by E. Smith (Smith, 1998); approach to understanding history as a myth by J. Armstrong, 1992). In combination, these theoretical positions provide compelling reasons for viewing the past not as a stable given, but as a changing object, subject to interpretation, and also as an important factor in building a nation.