Pavlovych Y. The image of Belarus and Belarusians in the Ukrainian socio-political opinion (1991–2004)

The analysis of the Ukrainian socio-political opinion on the vision of its development of socio-political processes in the Republic of Belarus in 1991–2004. It was emphasized that the main idea of the work is to recreate the plots related to the perception of socio-political processes in the Republic of Belarus and the Belarusian-Ukrainian relations in the early 21st century. The highlights between Ukrainians and Belarusians in the Ukrainian periodicals and media are analyzed. Consider the role of the Belarusian cultural associations, which operated on the territory of Ukraine. Also available information about the indigenous Belarusian population living on the territory of Ukraine and received Ukrainian citizenship. Presents data about the attitude of Ukrainians to Belarusians for help polls of 1994 and 2004. The analysis of the state of research, the source base and methodological basis concerning the study of the reflection of the sociopolitical processes in the RB in the Ukrainian social and political thought has been improved. The main approaches to defining the concepts of «socio-political opinion» and «public opinion» are generalized. It is noted that socio-political thought is understood as the attitude of social communities to the problems of social life, which manifests itself first in judgments (verbal actions), and then in concrete actions. The attitude of the Ukrainian public to the socio-political processes in the Republic of Belarus in the period from 1991 to 2004 is researched. The opinions of Ukrainian experts and ordinary citizens concerning the problems of holding presidential campaigns and referendums in the Republic of Belarus (through sociological surveys of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Razumkov Center) are presented.