Image of the Galagan family in the historiography of the late nineteenth – early twentieth centuries
Authors: Dodukh Valerii ,   Oles’ Honchar Dnipro National University,
Published: July 2024

The purpose of the study is to conduct an analytical assessment of the Galagan noble-foreman family image formation and evolution process in historiography of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The methodological basis of the work was formed by the basic principles of the historiographic image theory, aimed at identifying genesis, formation and evolution of understanding of the Galagans’ role in historiography. The following methods are also used in the work: historical, analytical, genetic, comparative, biographical, method of studying the products of activity.The scientific novelty is the fact that the Galagan family is first considered through the prism of the theory of the historiographical image. Conclusions. Through the efforts of a small but very active constellation of Ukrainian scientists, Galagan family was included in the scientific circulation. For three decades, their image has undergone significant transformations. Although Alexander Lazarevsky was quite critical of the Galagans, especially representatives of the first generations, the pages of the magazine «Kievskaia starina», on the contrary, showed mainly positive aspects of their activities, special attention was paid to the last representative of the family, Grigory Galagan Jr. The publication of Andronik Stepovych had a specific structure and was based on sources of various genres: from memoirs to an unpublished article authored by Grigory Galagan Jr., which was devoted to the history of his family. The publisher allowed the reader to see how Gregory Galahan Jr. assessed his ancestors and get acquainted with the memories of his son Paul. The chapter on Gregory Galahan Jr., which Stepovich wrote personally, is evidence of the author’s extremely respectful attitude towards his hero. The images of the father and son of the Galagans, which are idealistic in their content, are significantly different against the background of less emotional and ambiguous assessments of their ancestors. Vadim Modzalevsky in his work depersonalized Galaganov and equated them to ordinary representatives of the nobility of Left-Bank Ukraine. But this is due to the restrictions imposed on the genre of his work, a genealogical essay, which was supposed to contain only basic information about members of noble families and the connections between them. The most complete, multifaceted images had the first and penultimate male members of the genus. The image of Ignat Galagan in all works is mostly negative, his immoral actions, greed, low intellectual level are brought to the fore, although evidence of personal courage and the ability to «make his way in life» also take place. Grigory Galagan Jr., on the contrary, receives an extremely positive assessment, his image is used as a symbol of Ukrainian patriotism and a role model. Other members of the family are presented in a much less vivid form. We can say that they are presented as authoritative, but typical Ukrainian landowners having both positive and negative features.