РЕЦЕПТИВНА ГРУШЕВСЬКІАНА: ЕПІСТОЛЯРНИЙ ВИМІР

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to elucidate the heuristic potential of epistolary materials to recreate the reception of M. Hrushevsky’s scientific works by his contemporaries. The methodological basis of the research is an interdisciplinary approach. The approach emphasises structural and functional systematic analysis of historiographical facts, comparative and historical methods based on objectivity and historicism principles. In the research periodisation, classification and typologisationmethods have been used. The novelty of the study consists in the comprehensive analysis of the epistolary aspect of receptionof M. Hrushevsky studies. The Conclusions. The research has convincingly proved the particular importance of the epistolary documents for the recreation of the reception of M. Hrushevsky. It has been confirmed that due to the prevalence of correspondence as a communicative practice at that time, letters represent a more comprehensive range of evaluative interpretations of M. Hrushevsky’s works comparing to critical reviews of his works. Moreover, the epistolary materials help discover “private” reviewers who, for various reasons, did not publish their impressions. Among them, we have found both well-known Ukrainian intellectuals and their Russian and Western colleagues. Epistolary evidence has also helped clarify the differences between public criticism and private assessments, the particularities of popular reception, and discover original historiographical observations that have never become public. Finally, the correspondence proves that M. Hrushevsky searched for reviewers of his works actively and reproduces M. Hrushevsky’s attitude to the discussions of his previously unknown texts. This evidence calls for a more intensive and coordinated search for new epistolary sources and draws more attention to the collections known nowadays. Keywords: M. Hrushevsky, epistolary documents, reception, historical thought of the end of the XIXth – the first third of the XXth century.