96
Tamara Zlobina
people, especially the youth, perceive these messages, and how they can adjust it to the
culture of other Ukrainian regions.
Ukrainian public space and culture can differ inside not only one city but also inside
the whole country. Most studies of Ukrainian culture are influenced by different ideologi-
cal purposes, for instance, to construct some national identity, to find a basis for a political
nation or to divide Ukraine into regions with incompatible cultures. Ukraine as a bor-
derland experiences influence of different cultural formations and political forces. This
country is under the influence of the European Union, global mass culture and consumer-
ism, Russian politics, Eastern and Western Christian churches. It also has its post-Soviet
specificity and historical memory about a long way to national independence. There are
original traditions and rites of ethnic Ukrainian culture transformed by modern life chal-
lenges. Contemporary Ukrainian culture is an unstable mixture of political ideologies,
cultural narratives and subcultural representations, which can be changed in a moment.
The absence of the main doctrine has resulted in cultural diversity and transformation
processes often inspired by local people. Lviv case shows how narratives can differ from
one another: an official doctrine from intellectual writings, a tourist myth from the point
of
view of local dwellers, etc.
When observing Ukrainian public space one can enjoy an interactive multiplicity of
official ideologies and alternative narratives, which form specific Ukrainian identity. Of
course, all these examples which I have described above are just some comments con-
cerning certain phenomena. But some phenomena couldn’t be seen anywhere else except
the public space and every day culture. They are spheres that often remain without any
attention. It is worthwhile mentioning that due to a low level of attention the public space
is still public, serving as a place of meetings and communications with Another. Ukrainian
Rodina-mat’ and Lavra
(photo taken from http://www.ljplus.ru/img/d/a/dalaz/Kiev04.jpg)
98
One of priority directions of historiography of the Republic of
Belarus is the study of the evolution of Belarusian movement and
the formation of national idea. Efforts of Belarusian researchers at
the turn of the XXth–XXI st century were quite fruitful. Works of
Aleksey Kavko, Jury Turonok, Mikhas’ Bich, Stanislav Rudovich, Oleg
Latyshonok, Evgeny Mironovich, Paul Tereshkovich, Sergey Tokt’
have considerably deepened the knowledge of the process of the
Belarusian national-cultural Revival in the widest understanding of
this concept. But attempts to construct a conceptual scheme of the
Belarusian national movement development and the working out of
the Belarusian national idea during the XIXth – the beginning of the
XXth centuries deserve special attention.
Firstly, we shall remind of the scheme offered by Aleksey Kavko
in the encyclopedic article
Belaruski natsyjanalna-vyzvalenchy ruh
1
(1993). The author has identified two main stages of the Belarusian
movement, namely, “the initial subconscious movement “in itself”,
realized basically within the limits of the Polish national-liberation
process (1794–1863)”, and the movement “for itself” with the un-
derstanding of actually Belarusian national interests and aspiration
to its own statehood (1864–1918). Unfortunately, this concept did
not become the subject of discussion.
The book of Polish researcher Ryshard Radzik
Mi dzy zbiorowo ci
etniczna a wspólnota narodowa. Białorusini na tle przemian naro-
dowych w Europie rodkowo-Wschodniej XIX stulecia (Lublin, 2000)
became an important step in the study of the problem. However, it
did not lead to any heated discussion though it shall be worthwhile
to mention the review by Evgeny Mironovich who paid attention to
the absence in the author’s list of the Belarusian Revival initiators
of representatives of the local orthodox elite
2
. It is also necessary
Ales’ Smolenchuk
litvinisM, West-russisM and the Belarusian idea.
the xixth – the
Beginning of the xxth century