Bibliographic publications on ukrainian statehood 1917–1921: through the prism of rethinking the historical past

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reveal the features of the reflection of national history in bibliographic publications on state-building processes during the national liberation struggle in the Ukrainian lands of 1917–1921 years through the prism of rethinking these events by modern historians. Research methodology: during the writing of the work the principles of historicism, objectivity, systematics and comprehensiveness were applied, as well as – general methods of scientific research – analysis, synthesis, and comparison. Scientific novelty:  for the first time an attempt was made to show the problems of compiling bibliographic manuals on the history of Ukrainian statehood through the prism of the main historical directions research of this problem. Conclusions. Traditional bibliographic publications with this topic are not full-fledged sources of objective information. Incomplete process of rethinking the past, uncertainty of current Ukrainian legislation on these events, lack of unity of views among Ukrainian historians on the statehood of the revolutionary era, as well as – of clearly a defined and consistent state policy of memory on this issue, negatively affected on the bibliographic work on this topic. Such bibliographic publications are often characterized by a discrepancy between their title, the titles of the sections, and the subject matter of the materials presented. The works of the authors of national-democratic directions on this issue in such manuals are in fact hidden behind the names of sections and subsections that do not correspond to them. Misrepresentation of historical events, processes, and phenomena in the names of structural units of bibliographic manuals, the existence of shortcomings of terminological and conceptual apparatus does not contribute to receiving by the readers' objective, scientifically sound information about the state-building and liberation struggles of 1917–1921, hinders the formation in the present and future generations Ukrainians of national consciousness and historical memory of the Ukrainian people.

Keywords: bibliographic manuals, Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), Directory of the UPR, Ukrainian state, Russian-Ukrainian wars of 1917–1920, Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR), national liberation war.