Sylka O. The formation and activity of the public organizations in a Ukrainian village in the late 19th - early 20th centuries (based on the materials of the Left-Bank Ukraine)

The dissertation is devoted to the complex study of the formation process and activity of the public associations of a Ukrainian village on the Left-Bank Ukraine in the late 19th till early 20th centuries. The originality of the conceptual design is to attract the rural component to the all-Ukrainian system of statutory public associations, that worked during the formation period of civil society in the Russian Empire. The range of rural public associations has been ascertained, identified and analyzed, the organizational principles, content, forms, methods and results of their activity are discovered owing to the critical analysis of the historical sources, the achievements of historiography and the latest methodological approaches. The separate sector of public associations formed in the structure of civil society in the Russian Empire during its institutionalization process at the beginning of the 20th century. Their aim was to represent the interests of various social groups. Agricultural and bee-keeping associations, voluntary fire companies and brigades, community-building companies, societies of sobriety, rural departments of all-Russian associations, charitable and educational associations organized their activities within the rural Left-Bank Ukraine. The dissertation argues that the presence of the public agricultural association and 2-3 other public unions of another direction in each county and district administrative-territorial center are the minimum number required to confirm the existence of a rural voluntary statutory movement in the Left-Bank Ukraine in the early 20th century. It has been established that the indicators of agro-educational movement were far behind the indicators of cooperative grouping in the same regions, as of charitable, cultural-educational, fire and other indicators too. Some of the rural NGOs have reached the age of 10. The activities of majority rural NGOs were not interrupted by the events of the First World War. Moreover, it has been detected and confirmed the appearance of new associations during this period that worked in the areas of care, charity and enlightenment. The events of the February Revolution of 1917 did not affect the number of rural NGOs significantly. This year we state the activities of new agricultural companies. And only the socio-political events of the late 1917-1921 led to the decline of activity and the actual self-dissolution of rural NGOs.