MUSEUM PRACTICES IN THE FORMATION OF HISTORICAL MEMORY ABOUT THE COSSACKS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE NATIONAL RESERVE «KHORTYTSIA»)

Abstract

The modern system of dominant culture includes, among other things, the acquisitions of social and humanitarian sciences, historical didactics, inter-pretation of the past by museums, literary imagination, which influences the system of values, the continuity of historical traditions and forms collective historical memory. With the restoration of Ukraine’s independence, the issue of deconstruction of Soviet historical myths was actualized. Among them was the history of the Cossacks, which was presented as an element of the class structure of society. In modern historical discourse, the image of the Ukrainian Cossacks is considered as a frontier community on the one hand and a political and cultural phenomenon on the other.
Museum practices play an important role in the formation of memory about the Cossacks. The history of the Khortytsia National Reserve, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2025, is an illustration of the socio-cultural transforma-tions that Ukraine has undergone. The focus of the Reserve’s current activities: exhibiting objects related to the Cossack era (weapons, household items), presenting thematic areas covering various aspects of the life of the Cos-sacks (spiritual, cultural, economic, social life and the struggle for statehood), paying attention to individual historical figures whose activities influenced the formation of national identity. The following topics are leading for the Reserve: «Clothing of the population of Zaporozhye during the Cossack era», «Pereyaslav Treaty of 1654 – myths and reality», «Spirituality and culture of the Zaporozhians», «Weapons of the Cossack era», «Images of Orthodox saints in the spiritual world of the Zaporozhian Cossacks», « Cossack daily life and traditions». The examples of modern museum practices of the Reserve (exhi-bition, exhibition, cultural and educational, scientific and research activities) given in the article demonstrate the worldview phenomenon of the Ukrainian Cossacks and represent it as the foundation of Ukrainian culture.