Розкопки Золотих воріт, які сталися 190 років тому, створили передумови для сприйняття
пам’ятки як одного з перших у Києві секулярних «місць пам’яті». У статті розглядаються свідчення джерел, які розкривають локальні особливості цього процесу, неоднозначну позицію влади по відношенню до археологічної знахідки, роль приватної
ініціативи та суб’єктивного фактору в запровадженні комеморативних практик. Вперше в історіографії викладено відомості про автора першої книги про Золоті ворота Миколу Самойлова.
The sample of defensive architecture of the 11th century
the Kyiv Golden Gate, excavated 190 years ago,
is a rare example of an archeological site that has not
only survived up today but is also integrated into the
social, cultural and scientific space, has added to the
category of museums, and become a hallmark of Kyiv.
In some publications the modern understanding and
evaluation of the site is extrapolated for the entire
period of its post-excavation existence. It is believed
that the Golden Gate in previous centuries as well
impressed its contemporaries and was the object of interest
of ordinary citizens, and the government used
them as a symbol of a certain political and ideological
nature.
Sources of the first half of the 19th century, close in
time to the excavations of the Gate, allow us to significantly
adjust the idea of the reception of the site in the
social and cultural space of the city. They show that
the authorities showed no signs of interest in using the
Golden Gate to «visualize» the history and create an
image of the «good past» in the mass consciousness.
On the contrary, the first steps to form a «social and
cultural infrastructure of memory» (I. Irvin-Zaretska)
were taken by private persons. The organization and
carrying out of the Golden Gate excavations, efforts to
preserve them, informing the public, making «advertising
» images and inscriptions, demonstration of the
excavation site, and finally writing the first book —
were performed by State Councilor K. Lokhvytsky and
merchant (who received the nobility) M. Samoilov. For
both ordinary fans of antiquities this activity was a social
elevator which raised to higher status floors.
The author of the first book on the Golden Gate
M. Samoilov due to communicative competence was able
to collect the necessary material and mastered in the
merchant milieu the forms of social relations, in particular
the network gift exchange. Relying on the help of Kyiv
Metropolitan Eugene (Bolkhovitinov), amateur archaeologist
K. Lokhvytsky and historian M. Berlinsky, M. Samoilov
created a solid work, which was later used by M. Zakrevsky
and positively evaluated by S. Vysotsky.
Historical sources show that there was no uniformity
in the perception of the Golden Gate even among
the cultural elite, the site was mostly on the periphery
of the attention and care of the authorities. However,
persons who in the first half of the nineteenth century
acted as «mnemonic characters», have laid the foundations
for the interpretation of the Golden Gate as a
«memory place».
