Thesis for the scientific degree of candidate of historical sciences in specialty 07.00.01 – History of Ukraine. National University «Chernihiv Collegium» Taras H. Shevchenko. Chernihiv, 2019.
The dissertation is based on a set of written and graphic sources the great part of which was first put into the scientific research. The dissertation exposes church, social and cultural life of the Northern Left Bank of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the periodicals of the Chernigov eparchy. Main stages in the development of diocesan periodicals, the authors ant the sponsorship of the magazines and newspapers, the subjects of publications and their information potential and value were being explored. The dissertation describes the main factors of influence in the development of church periodicals of the Chernihiv eparchy. The huge input in the foundation and development of diocesan publications in the Chernihiv region was realized with the help of the personal interest and support from the influential bishops Filaret (Gumilevsky), Sergiy (Sokolov), Anthony (Sokolov), Vasily (Bogoyvlensky). The teachers of the theological educational institutions also played a significant role in the development of church periodicals. The processes in the church, social and cultural life of the region, the development of the parish clergy, the activities of Orthodox brotherhoods and parish trusteeships were analyzed thanks to the local diocesan publications. The periodical publications discovered the activities of theological educational institutions of the Chernigov diocese. The biographical articles and annotations about church and public figures published on the pages of periodicals (anniversary materials and obituaries) have a great importance to the research. During the revolutionary changes in 1917 the periodicals of the Chernigov diocese reflected on their pages new trends in public life, informed their readers about the activities of the Central Rada, the government of the hetman P. Skoropadsky, the problem of the autocephaly, the ukrainization of church life. The dissertation also highlights the contribution of church publications to the development of local history and to the popularization of the historical past of Chernihiv oblast. The numerous studies, articles, essays, documents and important historical materials were published on the periodical’s pages. The Church publications became a kind of tribune for popularizing the history of the Chernihiv-Northen region. They stimulated the development of local history, ethnographic and archaeological research, Ukrainian studies in the Chernihiv region.
Key words: Chernihiv diocese, periodicals, church, social and cultural life, local history.
