THE FRONTER AND IT’S COMPONENTS IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to define the concept of the frontier and its components in the historical geography of Ukraine. The concept of FJ Turner's frontier was substantiated in the researches of Ukrainian historians M. Hrushevskyі, S. Rudnytsky, and J. Dashkevych. The source base of the study consists of scientific and cartographic works of historians and geographers. Several aspects of the spatial representation of the frontier are considered – directly in the name "Ukraine", which was identified with the peripheral land and as an integral part of the Ukrainian lands – the Black Sea, the Wild Field, Sloboda Ukraine. It is established that the concept of the frontier as a border or border strip can be considered in the context of the problems of historical geography, and the Ukrainian lands are at the intersection of different border contact zones. The frontier plays a significant role in shaping the ethnic composition of the population, as the contact zone of different ethnic groups is usually formed in such frontline or border areas. A peculiar phenomenon in the context of this concept is part of the Southern Ukrainian territory – Budjak. The opinion is substantiated that the majority of the Ukrainian territory is considered to be a zone of continuous historicalgeographical and chronological frontier.