THE ROLE OF THE UNION OF UKRAINIAN GREEKS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL AND CULTURAL MOVEMENT OF THE GREEK COMMUNITY OF INDEPENDENT UKRAINE

Abstract

The article highlights the activities of the first non-governmental organization of the Greek community in the history of independent Ukraine with the all-Ukrainian status — the Union of the Greeks of Ukraine, the origin of which gave birth to the Greek national and cultural movement on the territory of Ukraine in the late 80s of the XX century and played an important role in the process of its development in the first half of the 90s of the XX century, in particular, consolidating the Greeks of Ukraine around the idea of the revival of Hellenism. Modern Ukraine is a polyethnic country which national composition is represented by more than 100 ethnic communities, whose ancestors settled in various historical periods on its territory, creating compact settlements or living in disperse. Thus, the main task of the national ethnpolitics of independent Ukraine, which chose the democratic path of development, was to meet the socio-economic, cultural and political needs of all ethnic communities without exception. At present, in modern Ukrainian historiography, there are practically no studies devoted to the activities of the Greek community of independent Ukraine. Among the available works, one should mention Serhiy Parkhomenko’s thesis "Cultural Development of the Greek Community of Ukraine in the Second Half of the XX Century" (2003), in which, in particular, the process of structuring Ukrainian Greeks at the end of the twentieth century has been outlined2. Normative legal acts of independent Ukraine in the field of national ethnopolitics, materials of the Current Archives of the Republican Society of the Greeks of Ukraine and its successor – the Union of the Greeks of Ukraine (Statute, Minutes of Sessions, Ordinances, etc.), as well as information gathered from the Internet resources are the grounds of the source base of our research.

Piskizhova, V. (2018). The Role of the Union of Ukrainian Greeks in the Development of the National and Cultural Movement of the Greek Community of Independent Ukraine. Mìžnarodnì zv’âzki Ukraïni: naukovì pošuki ì znahìdki – The International relations of Ukraine: scientific searches and findings, 27, 273-294 [in Ukrainian].