This dissertation, based on an analysis of a range of published and unpublished
sources, scholarly literature, and popular science publications, examines the history
and genealogy of the Solonin family—a Cossack-officer and noble lineage— the main
areas of their socio-political, administrative-economic, civic, and socio-humanitarian
activities, as well as their property and social status during the second half of the 17th
century through the early 20th century.
The Introduction justifies the relevance of the study, formulates its purpose,
objectives, object, and subject, and outlines the chronological and territorial scope of
the research; it identifies the scientific novelty and characterizes the practical
significance of the results obtained; it demonstrates the connection between this work
and scientific themes, programs, and plans; it provides information on the
methodological basis and structure of the work, as well as a list of publications and
academic conferences at which the main provisions of the dissertation research were
tested.
The first chapter, «Methodology, Historiography, and Source Base of the
Study», describes the methodology and research methods, reviews the state of
academic research on the topic, and analyzes the source base of the study.
The study of the origins, genealogy, family composition, main areas of activity,
and the financial and social status of the Solonin family was conducted based on the
principles of historicism, objectivity, systematicity, multifactoriality, documentary
evidence, a social approach, and historiographical tradition.
The methodological foundation of the study consists of general scientific
research methods—concrete-search, historical-descriptive, analytical, synthetic,
logical, inductive, and deductive—as well as methods of concretization and specific
historical
methods:
chronological,
problem-chronological,
periodization,
historiographical analysis, critical analysis of sources, retrospective, prospective,
biographical, historical-systemic, structural-personal, comparative-historical, network
analysis, and prosopographic. In preparing this dissertation, elements of the
methodology of new social history were utilized, in particular the scholarly concept of
«people in the background», which characterizes communities that occupied an
intermediate position between the state’s top leadership and the general population.
In the course of preparing this dissertation, the available historiographical
material was identified, analyzed, and examined. An analysis of the existing
historiographical body of work made it possible to assess the state of academic research
on the topic, identify existing achievements, and determine the range of issues
requiring academic resolution. While working on this dissertation, the main stages of
the historiographical development of the issue were identified and analyzed: the first
stage, covering the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century; the second
stage, which corresponds to the Soviet era and spans 1930–1980; and the third stage,
which began with the restoration of Ukraine’s independence and continues to this day.
The greatest contributions to the scholarly study of issues related to the history and
genealogy of the Solonin family were made by V. Modzalevsky, G. Miloradovich, V.
Kryvosheya, I. Kryvosheya, and historians and local historians from the Chernihiv
region. In their studies, they identified the family’s members, specific areas of their
social and political activities, and the financial and social status of its members. Despite
existing historiographical work, there is a need for a comprehensive study that would
characterize the main aspects of the Solonin family’s life and activities.
The source base for this dissertation consists of legislative and public-law acts,
private-law acts, administrative records, descriptive and statistical sources, late
Ukrainian chronicles, and journalistic works related to the social and political activities
of members of the Solonin family. In addition, visual sources were used in the
preparation of this dissertation.
