THE STUDY OF MILITARY HISTORY ON THE PAGES OF MILITARY PERIODICALS OF ODESA BEGINNING OF THE ХХ CENTURY

Abstract

The purpose of our article is to investigate the military periodicals of Odesa in the early twentieth century, in particular, to establish the features of illumination on its pages of military-historical issues. The main sources for us were issues of military periodicals published in Odesa at the beginning of the 20th century. and some press material.A number of circumstances were the prerequisites and driving factors for the publication of military periodicals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. in the largest center of southern Ukraine: 1. The status of Odesa as the center of a large Odesa military district; 2. Permanent deployment in Odesa of a number of regiments, several military educational establishments; 3. Successful functioning of the printing house of the staff of the Odesa military district for a long time, among the publications, which included works on historical subjects; 4. Increasing attention to the army and navy during and after the war between the Russian and Japanese empires; 5. Increasing attention in the Ministry of Defense to the problem of patriotic education of officers and staff; 6. the general rise of military periodicals in the Russian Empire in the early twentieth century; 7. the formation of an officer subculture, which was reflected primarily in the formation of libraries, the construction of a military center on Spiridonovskaya Street with an army cinema, a library, a dining room, etc.; 8. Widespread celebration in the Russian Empire of several historical events, first of all, the anniversaries of the Battle of Poltava, the Patriotic War of 1812. 9. Accumulation of experience (traditions) of the study of the history of the army and navy in Odesa, which were laid down in the first half of the nineteenth century. 10. Establishment in Odesa in 1908 of the department of the Imperial Petersburg Russian Military Historical Society. 11. The role of the individual in history, as several charismatic, motor, individuals have pushed forward the founding of military magazines.Historical topics were present on the pages of these publications on a regular basis, especially in the Russian Warrior and Motherland. The proportion of historical topics was present exactly in the same order from increase to decrease, in which these three magazines appeared chronologically. Relevant articles should be classified into several groups. The first group consists of general essays on the history of the army and navy, which were published in the Russian Warrior. The second group consists of articles about individual wars, battles, alliances, or generally militaryphenomena by the time of the distant past. Genetically related to this, the second group, there are articles, but we consider it appropriate to distinguish into the third group: articles whose genre can be called using the phrase “modern history”, because their authors reflected on the features of hostilities, the causes of defeat of the Russian Empire from Japan. This group refers to the recollections of the participants in this war, which were published on the pages of these editions. The fourth, most numerous, group consists of biographical articles, which revealed the life path of outstanding warlords. At the same time, in a number of other articles that were not purely historical, there was quite often a historical component that was used as edification, teaching historical examples.So, the periodicals of Odesa in the early twentieth century. are a distinct phenomenon in the history of the city’s culture, reflecting the subculture of the military, especially the officers. Despite the fact that the level of most articles did not differfundamentally, naturally taking into account their tasks, they performed an important function of promoting history and enlightenment. However, it cannot be said that the authors resorted to falsifications, manipulations with history, and distortions. Their works were well in line with the level of military-historical research of the time. Obviously, from the modern point of view, Russian-imperial patriotism, which has been imbued with all the articles, is unacceptable. However, the experience of publishing such literature should be taken into account, which is an urgent task in today’sUkraine.