UKRAINE AND UKRAINIANS IN THE POLISH SOCIO-POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF THE FIRST THIRD OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE UKRAINIAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the study is to show the achievements of Ukrainian historiography in studying the attitude of Polish politics in the early twentieth century and the interwar period to the Ukrainian question, to personify the scientific achievements of Ukrainian scientists, to predict the prospects for further scientific research. Research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systemicity, and objectivity. In solving specific problems, methods of historiographical analysis and synthesis were applied. The scientific novelty is that on the basis of a wide range of historiographical sources created by Ukrainian researchers, the process of accumulation and dissemination in time of historical knowledge about the essence of national programs of Polish political circles of the first third of the twentieth century and ways to solve the Ukrainian question. Conclusions. The analyzed problem began to be studied at the scientific level in 1960–80’s. If the representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora only outlined its contours, the historians of Soviet Ukraine (referring primarily to Yu. Slyvka) made an attempt of a professional approach to the subject of research. Modern Ukrainian researchers, applying the latest research practices and Ukraine-centric approach, have made significant progress in the study of the topic. Through the efforts of L. Zashkilnyak, Y. Mykhalsky, V. Repryntsev, M. Zelinsky, Y. Vyalova, V. Komar, Y. Kramar, O. Yurchuk, M. Kucherepa and others, there has been an increase in scientific historical knowledge about the essence of national programs of the main Polish forces politicum in the early twentieth century and in the 1920s and 1930s, in particular, their attitude to the Ukrainian question. It is proved that two concepts concerning Ukrainians were leading – assimilation of national and state. Supporters of the first were representatives of the Polish National Democracy, and the second – supporters of J. Pilsudski. Attempts by Polish Ukrainophiles to impose the idea of territorial autonomy on Ukrainians in Galicia have failed. Theorists of Polish conservatives substantiated the eternal affiliation of "peripheral territories" to the Polish state, and therefore considered the Ukrainian question exclusively as a domestic political problem of a local nature. Among the government programs developed for certain regions of Poland, the most famous is the "Volyn program" of Governor G. Yuzewski. Despite the great achievements in studying the positions of Polish political groups on the Ukrainian issue, there is a need for in-depth study of the ideology and practice of the centre-left and far-left movements. It is necessary to continue consideration of the principles of national policy of small Polish political parties, groups and blocs of liberal and conservative orientations. In addition, this scientific problem has the prospect of research through the prism of biography.