The Canteen Phenomenon in the Everyday Practices of Students in the Under-Russian Ukraine in the Last Quarter of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to show the history of the emergence of such a phenomenon of student everyday life as the canteen; to demonstrate the conditions of its functioning and to prove the unalternativeness of its existence as a place where the students of the Under-Russian Ukraine in the last quarter of the 19th – early 20th centuries were fed. The methodology of research is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison, systematization), special-historical methods (historical-structural, constructive-genetic, historical-comparative) with scientific principles of objectivity, systematicity, historicism. Scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in national historiography, there was nade an attempt to outline the phenomenon of the student canteen as an integral part of the daily life of young people who received their education in higher educational institutions of Under-Russian Ukraine in the last quarter of the 19th – early 20th centuries; the value of student food was demonstrated and the myth of the "perpetual student" popular in Soviet historical science was destroyed. Conclusions. The appearance of the student canteen, without which it is impossible to imagine a modern higher education institution, as an integral part of student daily life, became possible in the last quarter of the 19th century. This was a natural phenomenon, taking into account the growth in the number of students, the democratization of its social composition, the expansion of the network of higher education institutions, the abolition of state-financed student institutes existing at the universities of Under-Russian Ukraine, the increase in the level of self-identification and self-organization of students, etc. Being an institution that is certainly necessary for the systematic organization of food for a large number of young people, the canteen eventually turns into one of the places of revolutionary student activity. The offered meals, although they were often available to students, were not always of high quality and sometimes led to the appearance of chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in young people. Nevertheless, alternative food establishments (pasta restaurants, restaurants, private canteens), due to their elitist and expensive nature, were popular only among wealthy students. For underprivileged youth, the student canteen, in fact, remained an alternative form not only of organizing cheap food, but also an integral part of everyday life, as evidenced by numerous memories of students and student art.