Ivangorodsky K. The Ethnic history of Eastern Slavs of the pre-Mongol era in contemporary Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian historiographies

In the dissertation are analyzed modern historiographic discourses of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, devoted to the ethnic history of Eastern Slavs communities during the pre-Mongol era. Exactly scientific analysis of that problem is of great importance on the background of the great pressure of ideologies and political engagement, including the absence of such a historiographic study (especially based on a broad comparative approach) until now. We have established that for now in all the historiography, mentioned above, are dominated the models of the East-Slavs’ ethnic history, constructed in the Soviet era. In the study have been found out the state of that topic scientific development, its factual priorities, has been formed representative base of sources, have been developed the conceptual and methodological foundations of the research, has been determined the theoretical specificity of ethno-historical reconstruction, taking into account the main trends in the development of modern ethnological science. Also have been characterized the source study approaches in the newest Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian historiographies, and have been traced the potential of the corresponding verification of sources by historians in the course of «east-slavic» ethnic history study. Described theoretical and methodological models and the difficulties of their application in the ethnohistorical reconstructions of Eastern Slavic communities offered by modern researchers, are convinced us in the urgent need for a radical improvement in this segment of the entire post-Soviet humanities. A detailed analysis of available sources, as well as outlining the weaknesses in theory, methodology and terminology that are involved in solving the problem, allowed us to reveal more deeply the essence of the latest concepts of the Eastern Slavic communities ethnic history proposed by modern Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian scholars, to identify the main research strategy in this area, synchronously comparing the development of the corresponding historical thought in the designated national historiography areas.