The Kherson branch of Ukraine’s Sociological Association and the Totem Center of Youth Initiatives have established a new Internet resource, “A Path through Cultures” (http:// www. tavriya.info) as part of the “Multicultural Taurida” project being carried out by the Ukrainian Peacemaking School, the local authorities, and with support from the British Embassy in Ukraine.
The portal contains a sizable amount of information on the history, culture, traditions, and outstanding personalities of various ethnicities who have left an imprint on the territory of present-day Kherson oblast and the adjacent areas. The website offers a number of culture routes: Polish, Greek, Russian, Jewish, Armenian, German, Moldovan, and Ukrainian. The material was selected in such a way that one can not only read the text and watch historical and contemporary photos, but also follow the described routes and visit interesting places. Those who worked on the site’s content are local area researchers, historians, and researchers of various ethnic groups, particularly Mykola Homaniuk, Serhii Diachenko, Mykhailo Boiko, Yehor Sydorovych, and others. There will also be new routes and chapters with articles about ethnic and cultural communities of the entire Taurida.
Still in the making, in cooperation with Kherson State University’s Department of Socioeconomic Geography, is an electronic supplement to the site, “An Atlas of Taurida’s Ethnic Groups,” to be illustrated with the photographs of people, interesting objects, and maps of ethno-cultural tourist itineraries.
“We follow the slogan ‘Together on the Same Land’ on the basis of which different ethnic groups have been maintaining good-neighborly relations for centuries. But, no matter who our ancestors were by origin, we are all now a Ukrainian political nation,” Mykola HOMANIUK, cofounder of the “Path through Cultures” project comments to The Day. “We show that polyethnicity in the south makes us particular in a good sense of the word. We would also like people, who read our materials, to discover something new and come to Kherson oblast to see the diversity of the multicultural heritage of our region.”
