MEMOIR HERITAGE OF LATE PROTESTANT COMMUNITIES OF THE NADDNIPRIANS IN THE MID-19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY AS A CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL PHENOMENON

Abstract

The paper examines the memoir heritage of the late Protestant communities of the Naddniprians in the mid- nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is determined that memoirs are an important part of the source base for the history of any religious movement. The purpose of the article is to study the memoir heritage of the late Protestant communities of the Naddniprians in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. The study used the biographical method to create a portrait of the authors of the memoirs, the psychological method to search for their inner motives and self-criticism, while the historical and comparative method was used to analyse the similarities and differences in the texts. It is established that in the context of studying the memoir heritage, a certain list of scientific problems should be identified that can be studied on their basis: the reasons for the emergence of this genre in the Protestant environment, the authors personal internal motives to describe their own past, the ways of presenting their experiences, the target audience of texts, self-analysis and self-criticism, quantitative and qualitative indicators. It is proved that the authors of the memoir heritage were representatives of different social groups and levels of the spiritual hierarchy of Protestant communities: a significant part of them are memoirs not so much of the leaders of late Protestant communities as of ordinary members who took an active life and religious position.It has been established that today researchers have access to various types of memoir heritage of the Late Protestant communities of the Naddniprians of the mid-nineteenth – first half of the twentieth century: autobiographies, personal testimonies in the form of correspondence or publications, written memoirs and narratives, historical essays, etc. It has been determined that the leaders and members of the communities left up to ten units of the memoir genre, which are important sources on the history – the late Protestant communities of the Naddniprians.It is revealed that the memoir heritage of the late Protestant communities is a unique historical heritage of the past, containing important factual, theological, biographical and chronological material. It is determined that this information is extremely important for understanding the context of the history of the Protestant movement.