The dissertation based on the processing of large amount of sources and taking into consideration the achievements of Ukrainian historiography clarified the role of Ukrainian literary and sociopolitical magazines in national revival and consolidation of society around the idea of gaining independence of Ukraine in the period of perestroika. The dissertation research provides a complex analysis of the conceptual and thematic peculiarities of Ukrainian journalism during the period of perestroika at the level of topics, ideas, tendencies. The interpretation on the pages of literary and sociopolitical magazines relevant to issues of national historiography has been clarified.
The role of magazine journalism in the processes of national revival has been shown and its impact on public opinion and public consciousness formation has been revealed. For this purpose, the classification of non-fiction materials published in the magazines “Kyiv”, “Vitchyzna” (“Motherland”), “Zhovten” (“October”) (“Dzvin” (“Bell”)), “Prapor” (“Flag”) (“Berezil”), “Dnipro”, “Zoloti vorota” (“Golden Gate”), “Pamyatky Ukrainy” (“Sightseeing Of Ukraine”) during 1985-1991 years has been carried out based on thematic content and dynamics of the output. In particular, the attention is focused on the coverage of sociopolitical, historico-cultural and socio-economic issues that have not been practically studied in such an area. It has been established that the subject matter of sociopolitical and literary magazines has undergone significant changes. The issues of ideology and Communist Party construction had been sidelined and gave the way to the topics of democratization, multiparty, national revival, native language, national symbols, national history, economic reform, church renaissance and such factors of national revival and Ukrainian civil society development as formation of civil society, formation of historical consciousness, assertion of Ukrainian national identity and transformation of the economy.
Among the articles and intelligence articles featured in literary fiction and socio-political magazines, the most prominent were materials on the Holodomor of 1932-1933, the liberation struggle of the early twentieth century, Stalinist repression, Executed Renaissance and other “white spots” of Ukrainian history. There was widespread publicity and resonance with articles that told readers about the concealed names of repressed Ukrainian figures – politicians, scientists, writers and artists, including dissidents, human rights activists, and Sixties.
Historical preservation work, stories about the past of individual cultural sites, and the theory and practice of restoration, museum, and heritage preservation activity were in the field of view of the national magazines of the second half of the 1980s – early 1990s. Along with sociopolitical issues in the cultural and educational topics of magazines, an important place was occupied by publications of ethnology direction.
The conducted research made it possible to make a reasoned conclusion about the representativeness of the source base available on the pages of literary and sociopolitical magazines. The analysis made it possible to identify areas of historical reconstruction of the history of Ukraine during perestroika period 1985–1991. Besides that, the analysis made it possible to significantly supplement, along with modern research of other historians – to clarify the picture of the restructuring process development in Ukraine, including the capture the dynamics of transformation of Ukrainian journalism system.
