TOP-persons of the Kharkiv locus, or The role of names in the construction of city images

Based on the analysis of modern guides to the city of Kharkiv, the author madean attempt to single out those people who can be considered TOP-person ("mostoutstanding people") in local history. In total, the author analyzed 24 guides from the end of the 19th century and up to the present. The names found on the guide pages have been recorded in the appropriate database. The author stated the principles of construction of this database and possible interpretations of the obtained results. It contains two fields – "faces" and "mentions". In the first box, those names found on the guide pages were recorded, and in the second box, those ratings that accompany a specific name were recorded. Along with fixing a person's name, a social or professional characteristic (scientist, military, architect, statesman, etc.) was also mentioned. In the "mention" field, depending on the nature of the mention of a person, a coefficient was stated: if the name was mentioned without a rating, it is a factor #1 (1 point), a combination with such epithets as "known", "prominent" and the like – a factor #2 (2 points), more or less a detailed characteristic of the activity, first of all from the point of view of impact on the development of the city – factor #3 (3 points). As a result, it allowed to create a certain hierarchical name system and to separate "TOP-person" of them. In the long run, it will allow you to see a system of names in the dynamics, when some persons will fall out of the list of leaders at certain periods and others will be included in this list. It will also be important to capture changes in terms of increasing or decreasing attention to a particular category of people (social and professional characteristics). As a result of the analysis, the author identified alist of those historical figures who primarily form the "face of Kharkiv". The top five looks like this (in alphabetical order): O. M. Beketov, V. N. Karazin, G. F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, G. S. Skovoroda, T. G. Shevchenko. These personspresent Kharkiv mostly as a city of science, education, culture and certify its affiliation with Ukraine.