Shevchenko N. The history and culture of Kyiv Rus in the scientific heritage of M.O. Maksymovych

The thesis is a complex investigation of the historiographic contribution of M.O. Maksymovych in the history and culture study of Kyiv Rus. The state of scientific working out the problem in historical literature is comprehensively analyzed in the thesis, the formation of M.O. Maksymovych's scientific outlook is observed. The influence of ideological and scientific factors on research and organizational activity of M.O. Maksymovych is studied in the context of social-political situation in the Russian Empire of 30-70-th of the XIX century. The major themes and priorities of his scientific activities were appointed. The analysis of scientist's views on the Rus origin was accomplished, the approaches and means of solving "Varangians problem" were discovered as compared with the works of predecessors and contemporaries; the study of his controversy with M.P. Pogodin concerning the Kyiv Rus heritage was deepened; further struggle of historiographies for the Kyiv Rus legacy right was traced. Besides the contribution of M.O. Maksymovych to the research of Christian antiquities and spiritual culture of ancient Kyiv is interpreted. Scientific aspects of the Kyiv Rus culture which were based on his long-term studios on "The Song of Igor's campaign" were interpreted and generalized by the scholar.