“How I like English Lords...” Perception of British Culture by Ukrainian Local Nobility of the 19th Century: The Case of the Galagan Family

Abstract

The article deals with the attitude of the Ukrainian nobility (the landowners of Poltava and Chernihiv governorates) to the British culture of the Victorian era on the example of the Galagan family. Based on the study of diaries, correspondence, and memoirs, it was found that the perception of British culture by the Ukrainian nobility took place thanks to learning English and getting to know English literature and art. In particular, the aesthetics of English romanticism was attractive, which was perceived in a wide range, from admiration for J. G. Byron's poetry to affection for "English parks", according to the model of which the park in Sokyryntsy, the ancestral seat of the Galagans, was laid out. The British were invited to Ukrainian noble families as mentors of children. Communication between tourists from Ukraine and Britain was of great importance while travelling in continental Europe. After all, Ukrainian travellers visited Great Britain, where they could directly get acquainted with its economic achievements and sociocultural structures. Based on these communications Anglomania spread among the highest layers of the Ukrainian nobility, to which the Galagans belonged. It was an idealization of the socio-political system of Victorian Britain, which seemed attractive as an alternative to the bureaucratic absolute monarchy that existed in the Russian Empire. Thus, the Anglomania of the nobility was one of the forms of opposition to absolutism. At the same time, Anglomania could combine with other oppositional ideologies platforms, in particular with Slavophilism, as shown by the example of Hryhorii Galagan.