Activities of the Poltava Vegetarian Society in Early 20th Cent. ; ДІЯЛЬНІСТЬ ПОЛТАВСЬКОГО ВЕГЕТАРІАНСЬКОГО ТОВАРИСТВА НА ПОЧАТКУ ХХ СТ

Abstract

The article for the first time highlights the process of founding a vegetarian Society in Poltava (the second one on Ukrainian territory) at the beginning of the 20th century. The civilizational approaches of the Annals' school constitute the methodological ground of the study. These approaches take into account the influence of socio-cultural factors in a comprehensive way. Everyday life history is one of the scientific directions within which the research took place. The specifics of the topic required using methodologies developed in the European 'food studies' framework.The research relies on methods of system analysis, deduction and induction, chronological method, and others. A year before the actual registration of the Society, a group of activists opened a vegetarian canteen in Poltava, which had to promote vegetarianism. Immediately after opening, it became popular and profitable. At the very beginning, the canteen was serviced by the founders. However, due to a steady increase in the number of visitors, additional personnel was hired. There was an urgent need to create a society that would guide its activities and systematically implement the ideas of the canteen's founders. In the autumn of 1912, the Society was registered and immediately attracted the attention of the local community. The number of its members doubled during the year. The research discovered that since the beginning of the creation of the vegetarian canteen and the Society, City Duma (City Council) had been favourable to them and granted several privileges. Given the favourable social atmosphere and extreme successes, leaders of the Poltava Vegetarian Society were full of well-founded optimism and outlined a broad agenda of actions. However, lack of funds, the inertia of the vegetarian community and issues within the political environment became obstacles to the implementation of the plan. Virtually nothing was implemented. Only the canteen managed to demonstrate notable success. As soon as the Society was founded, the Canteen was transferred to it with no specific conditions or requirements. This transfer provided the Society with significant resources for its activities, so members started investing in canteen development. However, members of the Society firstly could not agree on the main principles of the canteen functioning. Several members voted for the non-commercial place, which had to perform a mainly ideological function. Others tried to make it commercial. Finally, members managed to find a compromise, which allowed to increase volumes and quality of service on one side and keep low prices on the other. However, as a result of such policy, the canteen became a popular elite place and failed to bring significant profits. Taking care primarily of the canteen affairs, the Society decided to conduct an assessment at the end of 1913. The idea was to survey Society members and canteen visitors. The official aim was research on the development of the vegetarian movement in Poltava. Unfortunately, the results of this poll have never been published. At the beginning of 1917, Poltava Vegetarian Society's Council decided to conduct such a poll again. The questionnaire published in the press hardly intended to find out the real state of affairs. All questions were frankly manipulative, pushing the respondents to give an answer required by the authors. The political crisis of 1917 interrupted activities of the majority of Russian Empire vegetarian societies in general and Poltava Vegetarian Society in particular. Keywords: Poltava, vegetarian society, canteen, lunch, questionnaire, O. Volkenshtein, M.Dudchenko. ; У статті вперше висвітлено передумови та процес заснування Полтавського вегетаріанського товариства, етапи його функціонування та розвиток протягом досліджуваного періоду. Визначено його кількісний склад та ідентифіковано основних діячів. З'ясовані основні напрямки діяльності та дана їх оцінка. Проаналізовано позитивні та негативні фактори, що безпосередньо впливали на його функціонування. Ключові слова: Полтава, вегетаріанське товариство, їдальня, обід, анкета, О.О.Волкенштейн, М.С. Дудченко.