Volyn tragedy of 1943 in contemporary Russian historical science and journalism

Abstract

The article analyses the main tendencies and peculiarities of functioning of certain aspects of Ukrainian-Polish relations during the Second World War in Russian historiography and journalism. The need to rethink the historiography of the Volyn tragedy in Russia is long overdue, so the role and importance of the identification function of historiography itself and the observance of the principle of objectivity in scientific and historical works have grown. Historiography provides a choice of research strategies, cognitive models, conceptual positions, and finally theoretical foundations for analyzing the past. In view of this, the purpose of the article was to synthesize and analyze the work of Russian scientists, to identify the main directions and to establish links between scientific and social discourses. The methodological basis of exploration was the principles of historicism, systematicity, objectivity. The methods of historiographic analysis and synthesis, genetic, problem-chronological, comparative, retrospective, predetermined by the research topic are used in the work. These methodological foundations allowed us to trace the evolution of historiographical discourse in Russia, its structural and institutional forms during the 1990s - the first decades of the 21st century. n historiography, given their mobility, are also subject to the method of description, that is, the disclosure of typical properties, features, differences, quantitative and functional characteristics. It is argued that the overwhelming majority of Russian authors portray Volyn events within the established post-Soviet narrative with correspondingly negative evaluations of the Ukrainian underground against the Polish population, describing them as genocide or ethnic cleansing. At the same time, the presence of a liberal trend in Russian historiography, which tries to avoid radical judgments, is noted. Negative Ratings and Plots: Volyn-related events regularly appear in the media, perpetuating the negative stereotype of a "Bandera" (and sometimes just a Ukrainian) in Russian society. The results obtained in the course of the study are actualized in view of the active use of the theme of Volyn events in the conditions of the Ukrainian-Russian war. Keywords Volyn tragedy, Russia, historiography, journalism, propaganda, UPA.