The dissertation for PhD degree in History, specialty 07.00.06 – historiography, source study and special historical disciplines. – M. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies, Kyiv, 2018.
In this thesis, for the first time in Ukrainian historiography, the journalism of the prominent Ukrainian historian, public and state figure, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, was analyzed as a source of research on social and political thought in Ukraine at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For the first time, the author focuses on the texts of M. Hrushevskyʼs journalistic speeches, which are considered as a self-sufficient historiographical source and source of cultural-intellectual, social and political history of Ukraine. Other complexes – from official to personal – are involved in the study of sources of journalistic works, the interaction of diverse materials, the coverage of a broad field of social, political, and cultural contexts.
Regarding the abovementioned, in order to realize the goals and objectives of the thesis, a comprehensive approach to the disclosure of the information potential of the main source complex is proposed. In the historiographic aspect, it is the coverage of the concept and editorial policy of the main speakers of socio-political thought at that time – «Literary and scientific Herald» and «Selo» – there M. Hrushevsky addressed to readers and published his other public speeches. In this same aspect, the journalistic works of the scientist became important benchmarks in the study of polemical space, which contributed to the modernization of Ukrainians of that time. The implemented approaches allowed for the first time to consider the texts of social and political works of the scientist as a source on which the imperial administration and censorship built up concept of struggle with the Ukrainian movement. In a new way, against the backdrop of M. Hrushevskyʼs public initiatives, the ideological and thematic evolution of his journalism was uncovered and analyzed.
The role of M. Hrushevsky as the speaker of the Ukrainian idea is clearly seen through a wide range of journalistic writings, to which contemporaries attributed the role of «truly historic documents». The main platform for the dissemination of the main postulates of socio-political thought during the investigated period was based on the initiative of the scientist’s «Literary and scientific Herald». Its Ukrainian, communal character was the basis of the concept and editorial policy of the journal. The scientist paid special attention to the illustrated weekly edition «Selo», taking care of the urgency of the national awareness of the multimillion peasantry of Great Ukraine.
The role of the spokesman of the Ukrainian idea is vividly expressed through the reception of the journalistic works of M. Hrushevsky, the research of which takes an important place in the thesis. Polemic attacks of opponents in various environments of Ukrainian intellectuals excited numerous public initiatives of M. Hrushevsky and his public speeches. However, as it was noted by the contemporaries of M. Hrushevsky, the struggle was led on two fronts. That is why we focus on the poorly-studied problem – «totalitarian» / «closed» reception.
Key words: Mykhailo Hrushevsky, journalism, Ukrainian movement, socio-political thought, historiography, source aspects, reception, polemics, censorship.
