Electronic Information Archival Resources as a Source Base of Ukrainian Studies

Abstract

The article substantiates the source value of electronic information archival resources for the development of the Ukrainian studies; reveals Ukrainian studies context of concepts “electronic source” and “information electronic resource”; tracks transformation of traditional Ukrainian studies as an integrated knowledge system and academic discipline into electronic format. It provides systematized information about information and reference apparatus, web portals, websites of the State Archival Service, central, industry and local archives, their electronic guidebooks, pointers, card-indexes; shows their role in methods of search and detection of documents of Ukrainian studies character.The article considers problems and characterizes meaningful contents of electronic information resources of central historical archives in Kyiv and Lviv, their importance for the study of ancient history of Ukraine, its princely and cossack hetman times, era of national and cultural revival, revolutions and wars. It highlights the central state electronic archives, archives of higher authorities and management, public associations, film and photo archives named after H. Pshenychnyi, archive-museum of literature and art, archives of Kyiv and regions from an angle of possible involvement of their documentary resources into the study of the key concenters of Ukrainian studies: Ukraine-ethnos, Ukraine-nature (ecology), Ukraine-language, Ukraine-nation, Ukraine-state, Ukraine-figures, Ukraine-culture, Ukraine-spirituality, Ukraine-mentality. It is emphasized that to figure out the concenter Ukraine-world, ultimately important are digitized personal funds of Ukrainian emigration activists, Ukrainian State Center and the UPR government in exile, collection of political documents, public and cultural associations in the diaspora stored in the Central State Archives of Foreign Ukrainian Studies. In view of the fact that the problems of historical memory, dramatic pages of the Ukrainian history related to mass repressions, famines, “shot revival”, terror of the communist regime, the Ukrainian resistance movement, the Sixties and dissidents, nationalist underground, activities of the OUN and the UPA take a significant place in the Ukrainian studies domain, documentary evidence, which was saved in paper, audiovisual and electronic formats in the sectoral state archives of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, etc., gain more and more attention. The research distinguishes place and role in the structure of the Ukrainian studies source base of electronic information resources of social networks, Internet communities, including Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, Messenger etc., which are global, dynamic and general in nature. It expresses a warning about the need for critical attitude towards information, gained from social networks, because they are often used for disinformation through fake posts, manipulation of consciousness, for compromising public figures, which was especially manifested in the context of Russia’s occupation-hybrid warfare against Ukraine, powerful information aggression, "war of stories", imposition of the “Russian World” paradigm.The conclusion substantiates that the formation of electronic Ukrainian studies, further involvement in the source database of electronic information resources facilitate the improvement of their role as a system of scientific knowledge and academic discipline.