The thesis presents a historiographical analysis of sources collected over more than 120 years, devoted to the life study, social and educational, pedagogical activities, literary and journalistic works of B. Grinchenko. Based on the analysis, it is proved that an independent branch of humanities has emerged and formed now in Ukraine – Grinchenko’s studies, which consist of numerous, different not only in subject but also in form, format of works – biographical and personalistic (testimonies, memoirs, epistolary), analytical and interpretive (monographs, thesises, essays, scientific articles, reviews), promotional (anniversary, articles and notes).
Due to the change of methodological and ideological approaches of the author-researchers, 5 main periods in Grinchenko’s studies are characterized. Different interpretive and discursive images of B. Grinchenko are represented.
B. Grinchenko’s ideas about the purpose and tasks of the public school in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire were revealed (the last third of the XIX – the beginning of the XX centuries). With his own teaching experience, he was convinced that it was impossible to teach children in a «foreign language» and with «foreign» textbooks, which did not take into consideration either the national identity or the peculiarities of the environment and life of the Ukrainian pupils. He considered such training to be a brake on mental development; it overburdened the education of Ukrainian children, who were constantly forced to make double translations of educational material from a «foreign» language into their native language, and then vice versa. Therefore, B. Grinchenko identified the purpose of the public school and his own activity as the promotion of the organization of the national school by language, content and spirit.
In almost all his pedagogical, literary and journalistic works, B. Grinchenko defended the natural need of a Ukrainian child to learn in his native language. The second part of the educational goal of the activist was the orientation of the public school on the education of the rural population, that was, that the parents of pupils learned to read and write in order to raise the general cultural, educational, intellectual level of the Ukrainian people.
At first, in the 1880th, due to the lack of Ukrainian-language textbooks, B. Grinchenko produced hand-written ABC-books for teaching Ukrainian language for his daughter Nastya and peasant children-pupils. These first attempts became the basis for B. Grinchenko’s creation «Grammar for the Science of Reading and Writing» (1907) and «Native Word» (1912). In his textbooks, B. Grinchenko used Ukrainian folklore as an educational material – accessible in content and important for the formation of national identity of pupils. He started collecting ethnographic monuments in the villages (fables, stories, proverbs, riddles, jokes, proverbs, songs, fairy tales) at a young age. The rich materials on Ukrainian ethnography collected and published together with like-minded people and helpers became an indisputable testimony to the identity of the Ukrainian people that have a unique culture and a rich spiritual world. It is substantiated that they became a didactic achievement of Ukrainian pedagogical thought.
The contribution of B. Grinchenko to the solution of the problem of preparation and publication of the accessible native-language literature for children and public-popular books for adults is highlighted in the thesis. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the educator and his colleges, the publication in the format of cheap popular-educational books was developed and systematized in the 1890s. Such books made an opportunity for ordinary Ukrainians to read (or listen) Ukrainian word, to receive some useful practical and hygiene knowledge. Besides, they helped to realize the idea that Ukrainians belong to a separate from the Russian nation, which has its own language, literature, and original folklore.
B. Grinchenko considered the book as a treasure trove of wisdom, a powerful means of education and personality development, the most important source of education and self-education. He stressed that the book has a unique influence on the problems of personal, civic and spiritual development, promotes interest and respect for knowledge and reading «Ukrainian books», teaches a person to think and learn the native language.
The significance of the «Dictionary of the Ukrainian language» compiled by B. Grinchenko (1902–1907) as a contribution to the development and legitimation of the Ukrainian language is represented in the conditions of sub-Russian existence of Ukrainians, and as a universal information source of the development of national language and culture. It is emphasized that the publication of the «Dictionary» had and has not only linguistic significance, but also pedagogical, cultural, educational and ethnographic.
