THE MAIN DIRECTIONS OF ARTS ACTIVITY OF UKRAINIAN CULTURAL PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (1991 – 2014 YEARS)

Abstract

The process of rapid formation of Ukrainian public organizations in Russia had begun in the wake of the nationalcultural revival in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The quantity of similar organizations had gradually increased from 28 in 1992 to 156 in the first half of 2010. The cultural associations had been dominating among the public organizations created by Russian Ukrainians and the results of their activity in the development of different direction of Ukrainian art had been the most significant. The most successful directions of arts expression of the Ukrainian diaspora of Russia during the 1990s – the first half of the 2010-s had been organizing periodically repetitive festivals of Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian national holidays, their participation in general Slavic cultural events and national holidays of Russian people of other nationalities. As such activities didn’t have a socio-political background, activists of Ukrainian public organizations had managed to receive financial support for their purpose from representatives of central and local Russian government institutions within the framework of general cultural programs, but any concrete programs and plans for support to the Ukrainian diaspora hadn’t introduced during this period. The main forms of Russian Ukrainians’ work with children and young people had been studying with children the national traditions of the Ukrainian people, their involvement in folk holidays, the organization of summer children's camps for the study of the Ukrainian language and culture (Republic of Bashkortostan), participation in the establishment of similar camps in Ukraine, organization of courses on the study of theUkrainian language, etc. The representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora of Russia during 1991 – 2014 had failed to introduce any permanent all-Russian periodicals that would receive systematic state support from the Russian or Ukrainian authorities. Some local public organizations from some regions of Russia periodically had managed to publish Ukrainian-language newspapers, receiving financial support for their purpose from local administrations or sponsoring funds. The most successful of such publications had been the newspaper "Krynica", a Ukrainian-language periodical of Bashkortostan, and the socio-political newspaper "Voice of Ukraine in Western Siberia", which had been printed by representatives of the Ukrainian organization of the Tyumen region "Batkivshchyna". Ukrainian organizations in Russia during the 1990s – the first half of 2010 had failed to receive state support for the introduction of Ukrainian radio programs and television programs that would be broadcast on the territory of all Russia, but some public organizations from different regions of Russia had managed to negotiate with local radio and television and the local state administration regarding the organization of Ukrainian radio broadcasting and separate TV broadcasts at the regional level. The longest and most successful Ukrainian radio programs had been Samara programs "Veselka" and "Promin" due to the significant financial support of the regional state administration of Samara region and Orenburg program "Kobzar" whereas the deputy head of the Orenburg regional public organization "Ukrainian cultural and educational society named T.G. Shevchenko" S. B. Kabanova had been working as a journalist at the Orenburg Regional Radio. The representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora during the 1990s and early 2010s repeatedly had made attempts to introduce TV programs in the regions, in particular, in Moscow, Tyumen, Surgut, Orenburg, Samara, Petrozavodsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, etc. However, any successful project hadn’t introduced due to the relatively high cost of television programs and the lack of constant state or sponsorship support. Ukrainian public organizations in Russia during the 1990s and the first half of the 2010s had also carried out separate and haphazard arts activities in the field of fine arts and decorative applied art,  mainly in the form of exhibitions of works of Ukrainian artists that hadn’t become systematic. The most of such exhibitions had carried out in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The difficult position of the Ukrainian community in Russia in condition of the Russian-Ukrainian military confrontation is also worsening due to the anti-Ukrainian attitude in relation to them from Russian pro-government media, so at the present stage Ukrainian public organizations are in urgent need of organizational and financial support from Ukrainian authorities and public organizations.

Key words: Ukrainians of the Russian Federation, national and cultural need, festivals of Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian folk festivals, initiation of youth and children's organizations, mass media, fine arts, decorative applied art.