Image construction strategies Ukrainian national history at the beginning of the XX century

Abstract

The purpose of the article was to identify and present the process of developing basic strategies for the formation in the early twentieth century. image of an integral Ukrainian national history in the works of professional scientists. The use of methods of historiographic analysis and synthesis, along with the comparative method, made it possible to substantiate the scientific and social relevance of the study and achieve the goals set. The main results of the work were: the identification of external and internal prerequisites for the nationalization of Ukrainian historical writing in relation to historical science; determination of the repertoire of basic texts in which the construction of the national Ukrainian historical narrative began; analysis of the genesis of strategies for the formation of a «long» Ukrainian history in the works of the classics of national historiography, who were the first to dare to accumulate regional histories of the imperial historiographic space into a new historiographic hierarchy; comparison and analysis of scientific approaches, concepts and stylistic features of «big Ukrainian history» by M.S. Grushevsky, A.Ya. Efimenko and N.N. Arkasa. Scientific novelty is determined by the fact that the first popular national narratives are considered in a comparative perspective as the basic options for current competitive strategies for representing the Ukrainian past. The conclusions point out that the causes and prerequisites for the nationalization of Ukrainian history were the social and political modernization of society in the second half of the 19th century, the politicization of social movements that demanded their historical legitimation, the growth of literacy among the general population, and their active involvement in social and political processes. The historiographic prerequisites were: the formation of a corporation of professional historians and its various institutions, the accumulation of a significant array of professional historical information, the creation in the middle of the 19th century. regional histories of ethnic Ukrainian territories Using the typology of interaction between historical writing and historical memory proposed by A. Megill, it is determined that the popular texts of M.S. Grushevsky and M.M. Arkas is vividly represented by its affirmative and didactic segments, which oriented historiography towards projects that agitated the society of that time and, with the help of historiography, constructed the historical memory desired at the moment. Unlike its competitors, the work of A.Ya. Efimenko turned out to be close to analytical historiography, separating itself from historical memory and opposing itself to it as a critical text, the author of which tried not only to understand the complexities and contradictions of the historical process, but also to bring the public closer to a professional understanding of history; noted that the prevailing at the beginning of the twentieth century. strategies for constructing an integral and continuous Ukrainian history, despite all attempts to modernize them, still remain in the arsenal of modern historical science.