Images of the Ukrainian village of the second half of the 19th – early 20th century in the prose of Dmytro Yavornytskyi
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Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this article is to identify the main characteristics of the lives of peasants and landed gentry in the post-reform period as represented in the prose works of Dmytro Yavornytskyi.
Scientific novelty. For the first time, the author analyzes the vision of peasant issues and the specific features of landed gentry life under conditions of capitalist modernization in Dnipro Ukraine (using examples from the Kharkiv and Katerynoslav regions), as interpreted by a renowned historian who was also a writer.
Conclusions. The prose works of Dmytro Yavornytskyi offer a comprehensive portrayal of peasant–landowner relations, as well as the transformations that occurred in the lives of both social estates. The novella Our Fate Is God’s Will demonstrates the opportunities peasants gained in the post-reform period to accumulate wealth through honest labor, while simultaneously emphasizing the precariousness of this path due to the dependence of a labor-based household on adult sons. The author shows that their loss (through death, separation into independent households, or departure for seasonal work outside the village) led to the destruction of the parental household. The novella also identifies the reasons for the failure of peasant children (illustrated by the Vitriak family) to adapt beyond the rural community, including estate-based restrictions, lack of education, the pressure of traditional values, the destructive influences of the external world (the city or the Russian Imperial Army), and denationalization. Yavornytskyi further reveals and characterizes the factors that formed the preconditions for the peasant revolution of the early twentieth century, in particular by suggesting the demise of the old peasant way of life and the emergence of a new generation of peasantry.
An analysis of Yavornytskyi’s short story collection Among the Landowners indicates that large landowners also failed to adapt to semi-market economic conditions (losing land, intensifying the exploitation of peasants, while hostility between the two sides was mutual). It is concluded that Yavornytskyi portrayed various types of large landowners characteristic of contemporary society. The issues raised in his prose resonate with the findings of modern agrarian historians.
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References
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