Abundance of Lubok Books in Ukrainian Provinces in the 18th – the forepart of the 20th Centuries

Abstract

Lubok book is considered to be the Russian analogue of the Western folk book (English chapbook, French La Bibliothèque bleue and German Volksbuch) intended for poorly educated and downscale readers. The fact that lubok book is a Russian culture phenomenon justifies the interest in finding out its prevalence in Ukrainian lands as it was lubok book influence that caused Ukrainian readers to became drawn into mass culture of Russian book and in a broader sense – into Russian information space. Although at first Ukrainian provinces were just the territories where Russian lubok printed matter was being sold, later on, pursuit of commercial advantage motivated entrepreneurs to take account of local readers' needs and tastes. The paper describes gradual increase of lubok book occurrence in the printed matter environment of Ukrainian provinces in the 18th – the forepart of the 20th centuries, starting with the situation when Russian-language publications produced by Russian publishers was being distributed by Russian retailers, and until local entrepreneurs mastered that business step-by-step. At first, there appeared Ukrainian publishers in the late 1870's, followed by Ukrainian retailers, and finally towards the close of the 19th century Ukrainian-language lubok book both translated from Russian and original became available with trendy content at that. At the same time printed matter produced by Russian publishers was being specialized. At first, books covering Ukrainian topics appeared, and later on even Ukrainian-language books became available. Eventually in the forepart of the 20th century, Ukrainian intellectuals began to consider lubok book as an intermediary for familiarizing themselves with Ukrainian language and even more broadly – with the Ukrainian national idea. Then lubok stylistics became recognized nationwide and it even was used by the government for ideological influence on population, which most clearly manifested itself with appearance of lubok books on military matters of the Russo-Japanese war and especially the Great War.