Chava I. The National Liberation War under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the Polish historiography of the late 19th century till 1939

It is the first time the dissertation has comprehensively studied the reflection of the problems of the history of the national liberation war of the Ukrainian people under the leadership of B. Khmelnytsky in the works of Polish historians of the end of the late 19th century till 1939. The dissertation focuses on identifying the effects of various theoretical postulates of scientific schools and political ideas on the interpretation of historical issues by scientists. The study contains the analysis of the historiographical base of the study, source materials covering unpublished documents and printed works of Polish historians, the use of which was essential in this work. The principles and methods of scientific research used to implement the tasks of the problem are highlighted. The approaches of Polish researchers to the identification of various causes and circumstances that led to the outbreak of the national liberation war are studied. The specifics of the image of the figure of B. Khmelnytsky in the works of historians, their assessment of his personality and historical heritage of his activity are analyzed. The characteristic features of interpretations of the main events of 1648 – 1657 in Polish historiography, and in particular the images of battles between Cossack-Tatar and Polish troops near Zhovti Vody, Korsun, Pylyavets, Zboriv, Berestechko, Batoh, Zhvanets, the siege of Lviv and Zbarazh, are examined. Scholars' assessments of the history of diplomatic relations and the significance of peace treaties between the Polish and Ukrainian sides, in particular the Zboriv and Bila Tserkva treaties, the interpretation of the Moscow-Cossack treaty of 1654 and the Cossack alliance with Sweden and Semyhorod are investigated. The approaches of historians to ethnopolitical processes in Ukraine and the development of Ukrainian statehood are considered. General assessments of the significance of Khmelnytsky region in the fate of Ukraine, Poland and the whole Eastern Europe are analyzed.