Картографічна пропаганда в українській іншомовній пресі в Європі (1900―1920-ті рр.)

Abstract

This paper seeks to develop new avenues for a study of the Ukrainian foreign-language press in Europe during the Ukrainian Revolution (1917―1921s). Specifically, it aims to explore the so-called «cartographic» argument in the editorial policies and content of these periodicals issued in West European languages in the West European countries. More specifically, we seek to study map propaganda on the basis of the content of the Ukrainian press published in the West European languages in Europe during the Paris Peace Conference (1919―1920s). The latter aimed at justifying the territorial integrity of Ukraine in terms of the Ukrainian terrains in the Eastern Europe and its representation in the European maps. It originated in the early 1900s, specifically, in Austria, and more specifically ― in the Ukrainian German-language reviews («Ruthenische Revue» and «Ukrainische Rundschau»). In our view, the Ukrainian post-WWI map propaganda was inspired by the Count M. Tyshkevych (Tyszkiewicz) and S. Sheloukhine, specifically, their groundbreaking work «Documents historiques sur l’Ukraine et ses relations avec la Pologne, la Russie et la Suede (1569―1764) publies avec notices explicatives et cartes par le C-te Michel Tyszkiewicz…» (Lausanne, 1919). We argue a specific correlation between map representation of respective stateless people and a justification of its nationstate aspirations in the European public sphere. Specifically, it has been argued that the cartographic propaganda was an element of strategic communication of the «territorialization of national identity» of Ukrainians in the internationally recognized borders of the UNR (according to the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty of Feb. 1918). The findings of this research prove an existence of continuum of map propaganda in the transnational media discourse transcending temporal and spatial boundaries. The follow-up studies on the research subject are to explore a persistence of the media patterns of map representation of the Ukrainian ethnic terrains in the media discourse, specifically, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian «hybrid war» (since 2014). More specifically, a promising and relevant avenue is to study «map propaganda» over the question of belonging of the Crimea and its map representation in Ukrainian, Russian or in the Western public realms. Keywords: map propaganda, historical maps, ethnic terrains, Ukraine, Ukrainian, press.