IMAGE OF FOREIGN COLONIZERS IN A TOWN ENVIRONMENT IN THE SOUTH OF UKRAINE IN TRAVELLERS’ NARRATIVES AT THE END OF THE 18th – THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the image of foreign colonizers in a town environment in the South of Ukraine described in travellers’ narratives at the end of the 18th – the first half of the 19th century. In the second half of the 18th century the incorporation of the southern Ukrainian region into the Russian Empire, as a fact in itself, promoted a great interest in the region all over the world, which caused springing up a new kind of tourism – travels to countries whose culture was very different from that of the West Europe. As a result, visitors described their travels in narratives which were published afterwards and it gave rise to a new literary genre – “travellers’ narratives”. In these narratives authors described their own vision of the processes which were taking place on the territory of the South of Ukraine at the end of the 18th – the first half of the 19th century. Nowadays these travellers’ narratives (“travels”) are important informational sources in regard to history of the region, as they contain a lot of information which was not saved in other documentary and statistical sources. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientism, historical methods, verification, author’s objectiveness, the frontier theory, human dimension, regionalism, and also on the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization), special and historical (historical and genetic, historical and typological, historical and systemic) methods. The Scientific Novelty. Views of travellers on foreigners in the cities of Southern Ukraine at the end of the 18th – the first half of the 19th century is researched for the first time in Ukrainian historiography. The Conclusion. During their own travels visitors characterized towns of the region as well as peculiarities of their social and economical, cultural development. The image of foreigners, who settled on the territory of the region during the colonization’s process, was brought into focus in their numerous descriptions. In their memoirs a plenty of attention was paid to the image of foreigners in towns in the South of Ukraine. In particular, travellers focused on peculiarities of a local everyday life, culture of various nationalities, inhabitants’ interaction with government, their attitude to modernization process as well. The major attention in the article is paid to differences in taking a new social and cultural reality in the southern Ukrainian region by the English and American travellers, on the one hand, and by the Russian visitors, on the other hand. The research resulted in creating a whole image of foreigners in towns in the South of Ukraine during the period under analysis.