Education and Enlightenment in the Cities of the Left-Bank Ukraine from the Perspective of the Correspondents of the Literary and Scientific Journal «Osnova»

Abstract

The article discusses a range of issues related to publications in the journal «Osnova», which cover the educational life of the cities of Left-Bank Ukraine in the 50s — early 60s 19-th century. The basis for the exploration was the articles published in the publication during 1861-1862, that is, from its foundation to its closure. Among the authors who analysed the urban educational space were O. Konyskyi, V. Kulyk, I. Rudchenko, V. Shevych, and others. They focused on the development of women’s education, as well as on the issues of popular, that is, education accessible to the general population. Basically, the authors focused on the processes that took place in the cities of the Poltava province. In the course of the study, it was found that the main issues that worried the correspondents were women’s education and the functioning of Sunday schools, libraries and the distribution and reading of Ukrainian books. During the analysis of publications, it was found that the consideration of issues of education development is fragmentary.  The choice of topics by the authors of the articles was not accidental, because for many members of the editorial board of the magazine and correspondents of the publication «Osnova», the Left Bank was either the region where they were born, or the place where they lived and worked for a long time, and therefore were well versed in the problems of life in the region.