The textbook “Ornamentation and Ukrainian ornament”: culturological analysis

Abstract. Various aspects of ornamentation have been actively studied by various scientists for about two centuries, and they are included in the curricula of many educational institutions at different educational levels. However, for a long time, pupils and students of Eastern Europe haven’t had ornamentation textbooks and guidebooks adapted to the educational process in their native languages. The purpose of this article: to carry out a culturological study of the textbook “Ornamentation and Ukrainian ornament”, prepared for publication by Mykhailo Diachenko in early fileing of 1928. The methodology of the study are the principles of historicism and systematics in combination with historical-comparative and micro-historical methods. The results. The article gives a brief description of the author’s biography in terms of ornamental activities. Originating from the peasant environment of the Kyiv region, he graduated from the Kyiv non-classical secondary school, studied at the engineering department of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute for a year and a half (he did not finish his education due to financial difficulties), and graduated from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Art School. Since 1909 he had been researching Ukrainian folk ornaments and trying to modify them according to the needs of textile production. While working at the Dihtiarivka textile vocational school, he completed the preparation of a generalized ornamental work in the form of a textbook. The review of Stefan Taranushenko, the leading Ukrainian art critic of the late 1920s — early 1930s, highlighted the structure and content of the manuscript of this work, its positive features and shortcomings. One should conclude that family circumstances and, apparently, the unfavorable social and political situation associated with the curtailment of the process of Ukrainization and the deployment of repressive measures of the Bolshevik government against Ukrainian cultural figures, did not contribute to the publication of this paper. The practical significance. The article is of practical importance, since its content can be used in the preparation of modern generalizing works on ornamentation.