The dissertation is focused on determining the national and patriotic dominant in the publicistic works of S. Rusova – a prominent Ukrainian teacher, writer, theorist of literature, public figure, cultural and educational activist and foundress of the Ukrainian women's movement in Ukraine in the late XIX – early XX centuries.
The national and patriotic dominant should be understood as the extrapolation of ideological and theoretical views of S. Rusova on the author's publicistic works. The ideology of the views consists in forming the national identity of Ukrainians, educational activities of intellectuals, development of education, science, national literature and language, promotion of publishing, improving the welfare of the people, development of civil rights and freedoms of Ukrainians, and joined efforts of different segments of Ukrainians for implementing sociopolitical and cultural projects, financial support for activities aimed at forming a nation-state.
The main periods of publicistic activity of S. Rusova were analyzed and specified chronologically in the thesis in accordance with the topic and the object of the scientific research, with the focus on the formation and development of the national and patriotic dominant in her publications. It was proposed to study the publicistic heritage of S. Rusova according to four periods: 1888−1905, 1906−1916, 1917−1921, 1922−1938. The chronological limits of each period are justified by certain life facts and sociopolitical conditions, which were taking place in the country at that time.
Publicistic works of S. Rusova were systematized according to the genre and thematically: literary critical reviews, critiques, notes; art history articles, problematic and analytical articles, reports on pedagogical topics; biographical, historical and travel essays, works written for women and about women (articles, characteristics-silhouettes, sketches, essays).
Based on the materials accumulated in the process of working with the source base of the scientific research, a bibliographic index of S. Rusova's publicistic heritage was compiled according to periodicals, presented in the alphabetical order, chronological limits being from 1888, i.e. from the appearance of the first article to 1938, when the last publication in S. Rusova’s lifetime was published.
A quantitative analysis of publications was also carried out; it allowed forming a holistic view of the author's publications. S. Rusova published 85 works as separate brochures, 380 publications were printed in 65 different periodicals. The most popular of them were pedagogical and women’s magazines "Light" ("Kyiv"), "Russian School" (St. Petersburg), "Women's Fate" (Kolomyia), "Free Ukrainian School" (Kyiv), "New Ukraine" (Prague), etc.
The choice of periodicals often depended on several main factors: the author’s location at certain periods of her life, the focus of the publication itself and the socio-political events that took place in the country. Graphs representing the author's publishing activity and the frequency of her publications in periodicals of the late XIX – early XX centuries can be found in the appendices to the research.
