PHOTOGRAPHY AS A SOURCE FROM THE HISTORY OF EVERYDAY UKRAINIAN EMIGRATION IN INTER-WAR CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the photography documentary potential as a visual source for studying the everyday life of Ukrainian intelligentsia in emigration in the Czechoslovak Republic during the interwar period. The purpose of the article is to reveal the possibilities of using photography as a visual source for learning and understanding of the everyday life of Ukrainian intellectuals under conditions of physical separation from their homeland, while at the same time they were full of hope for a return to the restored Ukrainian state. The methodology of the research involves an integral combination of research tools and methods from several socio-humanitarian disciplines, in particular history, sociology, cultural studies, etc. At the same time, the historical and anthropological approaches of the analysis require reliance on special methods of studying everyday life, in particular according to the phenomenology of A. Schutz, and theoretical and methodological recommendations of visual sociology by P. Sztompka. The main volume of photography’s come from the “Prague Archive”, which was consciously formed by the emigrants themselves. After the end of the war, it was transferred to Ukraine under the reparations programme. The Soviet special services censored it, partially destroyed it and distributed it to Central State Archive of the Higher Authorities of Ukraine, Central State Archive of Public Organizations and Ukrainian Studies, H. S. Pshenychny Central State Film, Photo and Audio Archive of Ukraine, Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archive. The archival collections are supplemented by family albums and private collections. The subject area of the article includes photographs of socio-anthropological content, which reflect the public and professional activities of emigrants, socio-cultural events, education, as well as the family and private world, leisure, recreation, entertainment, travel, etc. The scientific novelty of the publication consists in the fact that it attempts to analyze photographs as visual evidence of an everyday life of the intelligentsia in emigration, not limited to their representative, obvious (factual) eloquence regarding the material side of life, but also to reveal their deep symbolic potential for tracking value and axiological characteristics, social attitudes that determined the meanings of the emigrant community's existence. Conclusions. From the available photographs, we can draw conclusions not only about the material side of the everyday life of emigrants, but also about their moods, experiences, emotions, trace the intentions and goals of their activities, analyze the degree of their social adaptation, the ability to accept challenges and the ability to communicate in new circumstances, establish cultural consumption, and clarify taste preferences. The objects of daily use in private space and during public and cultural events recorded in the photographs reveal the desire to preserve one's national identity and contribute to the restoration of the Ukrainian statehood.

Key words: Ukrainian intelligentsia, emigration, everyday life, photography, visual documents, Prague archive, Museum of Liberation Struggle of Ukraine, personal sources, informational and memorial functions of photographs.