The Ukrainian Historiography of the Interwar Period on the Relations of the Lower Zaporizhia Host and Russia in 1654–1775

Abstract

The article deals with the historiographical analysis of the works of Ukrainian historians of the interwar period on the history of the relations between the Lower Zaporizhia Host and the Russian state in 1654–1775.The influence of marxists’ ideology on the research of domestic historians of the above-mentioned problems, first of all, using their class and formational approach, is analyzed, created with the help of the socio-economic formation of Karl Marx and the historical concept of Mikhail Pokrovsky. The main thematic plots of Zaporizhia-Russian relations, which were revealed by Ukrainian scientists in their research, are identified. These include economic relations, foreign policy of the Russian Empire towards the Zaporizhian cossacks, the creation of defensive structures and the Russian-Turkish wars, the influence of the Haydamak and Siroma riots on relations between Lower Zaporizhia Host and Russia, the influence of prominent figures on relations between the two political entities, the reasons for liquidation of the Zaporizhian Sich by the government of Catherine II. A methodological toolkit has been clarified; the source base of their scientific studies is outlined. The social conditions in which researche, namely, during the “Ukrainization”, “new economic politics”, “decossackization” and the total absorption of Ukraine by authorities of the Communist Party; specifics of heuristic and archeographic work of Ukrainian scientists in the 1920s-30s are described, who gradually came under the influence of the Soviet authorities and their political course to study the history of Ukraine and in particular the history of the Zaporizhian Cossacks. The influence generation of historians of this period on creation of two different directions in the Ukrainian historiography of the 1940s and 1980s years – Soviet and emigration scientists.Manuscript received 12.03.2020