ІДЕЙНІ ЗАСАДИ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ІМПЕРСЬКОЇ ПОЛІТИКИ У ПРАЦЯХ ЮРІЯ ШЕВЕЛЬОВА

Abstract

The article examines the contribution of outstanding Ukrainian scientist Yury Shevelov about understanding of ideological prerequisites of Russian imperial policy and its basic manifestation in relation to Ukraine. It`s asserted that this problem is present in different works of the scientist and is important for understanding his historiosophical and cultural concepts. It is noted that Yury Shevelov categorically denied a simplified a superficial approach of certain aspects of Russian history, in particular the role of Finno-Hungarian origin in the ethnogenesis of Russians. In a number of his works the researcher pointed out the special importance of Byzantine traditions of state and social life in formation of foundations of Russian imperial policy. Yury Shevelov argued that the omnipotence of the state and the lawlessness of an individual became the defining essential features of the of the existence of the Russian colonial empire. The state skillfully camouflaged its aggressive goals with the interests of the entire nation, which became the basic for intellectual manipulation and speculation. The researcher shows how a distorted understanding of the people takes root in the environment of the Russian intelligentsia, proves that the hypertrophied idealization of the people has nothing to do with its true essence. Yury Shevelov demonstrated this on the example of the work of the world-famous Oleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was unable to overcome imperial complexes in their attitude towards the colonized nations of the Soviet Union. The article points out Yury Shevelov`s emphasis on the continuity between the Russian Empire and the communist USSR, which the researcher regarded as a new form of Russian chauvinism. In some issues the Soviet government even surpassed its predecessors. In particular, as the outstanding linguist Yury Shevelov argued, it was the Soviet innovation that became the intervention in the internal laws of the Ukrainian language, which even the tsarist administration in pre-revolutionary Russia did not resort to. Among the negative consequences of the Russian imperial rule for Ukrainian nation Yury Shevelov particularly singled out the emergence of a complex of provincialism, slave psychology, and orientation towards external power. The constant struggle with provincialism in all its forms became pervasive in the scientist`s creative activity. It is emphasized that in his writings YuryShevelov considered the Russian state as a colonial empire, and the relations between Ukraine and Russia as colonies and metropolises, which are in a state of a great and still unfinished war.