History of
Ukraine
Korotiayev S.I. (Cherkasy
City)
ON UKRAINIAN HISTORICAL REGIONAL STUDIES DEVELOPMENT
Relevance of
regionality retrospective study is not least due to the historical development
of Ukraine. For many centuries the Ukrainian lands evolved in different systems
of civilization. As a part of various states Ukrainian ethnicity undergone
significant assimilation effects – Russian, Polish, Austrian, Hungarian and
others. Modern Ukrainian regions differ from each other not only in economic
and social structure, but also in social attitudes, different external
orientations of people, ethnic and confession specific problems.
The need for
scientific understanding of the Ukrainian regional structure features generated
in the course of historical development is subject to solving practical
problems: an effective regional policy is not possible with no understanding of
the historical origins of the differences.
Nowadays,
historic regional studies have their own clearly defined subject field and are developed
by means of numerous related disciplines tools. However, due to the lack of
theoretical and methodological rationale they still haven’t held their right
position in the socio-humanistic science system. On the one hand, based on the
heritage of state knowledge, historical geography and "regionality"
in historiography, and on the other – on the achievements of Western and Soviet
regional schools of the twentieth century, historical regional studies develop
their own scientific community based on the enrichment with cultural
achievements, landscape knowledge, archeology etc. The next thing on the agenda
is the task to fit them properly into the system of regional science created in
Ukraine mainly by the efforts of geographers and economists.
Parallel
studies of the components out of which the contemporary system of regional
studies grew shows considerable heuristic possibilities as the problem of "state
knowledge" and "regionality" approaches was in the lack of consistency and the problem of
regional science – in lack of historicism.
Analysis
of the historical regional studies cooperation with neighboring branches of
scientific knowledge – historical, social and economic geography, local
history, archeology, monumentology etc. – leads to the conclusion on almost
unlimited augment scientific knowledge based on interdisciplinarity.
Vagueness
and instability of the term "region" and those derived from it
(regionalism, regionalization, regional historiography, etc.) create essential difficulties
in understanding regional specificity.
Strong
historical foundation is the only possible sustainable basis for a regional
science in Ukraine. Regional studies should be a relatively independent branch
of knowledge with its own space and scientific system of methods and research
tools. The scope of its priority research – natural and resource potential of
regions, production and territorial structure of economic systems, intra- and
inter-regional economic relations, communications system, problems of
administrative and territorial structure.
Region
studies can also offer historians an extra i.e. territorial and dimensional
measurement of cultural history. The issue of the cultural space structure of
regions (with outlining of its scientific and educational, artistic, moral and
ethical blocks) is a prerogative of culturology, but a broad interdisciplinary
perspective for its research opens new opportunities for systematic approach to
explaining the inter-relation of the local and the regional.
Regional
dimension should be present in all kinds of historical and historiographical
works – synthetic and analytical, thematic and problematic, individual, scientific
studies and others. Priorities for regional research interests are to be considered
taking into account both intradisciplinary needs, as well as, especially,
dynamics of geopolitical, ideological and other factors. A comparative analysis
of approaches of historians from different regions to the studies of specific
historical subjects, heredity trends and research schools, as well as regional
characteristics of historiographical styles may become fruitful fields of
scientific inquiry.
Careful
analysis of the potential sources of historiographical base i.e. unpublished
manuscripts, personal files of historians, periodicals archives and more is of
a particular importance for the historical regional studies.
The ability
of the Ukrainian regional studies to overcome the old approaches preconception and
to occupy its niche in the arsenal of socio-humanitarian knowledge crucially depends
on familiarizing itself with advanced research methods and tools for
accumulation and use of information.
REFERENCES:
1. Верменич Я.В. Теоретико-методологічні проблеми історичної регіоналістики в Україні.
– К.: Інститут історії України НАНУ, 2003.
2. Верменич Я.В. Історична регіоналістика в Україні: спроба концептуального аналізу.
– К.: Інститут історії України НАНУ, 2001.
3. Верменич Я.В. Початки національної історичної науки: київські центри регіональних
досліджень у 50–70-х рр. ХІХ ст.
– К.: Інститут історії України НАНУ,1997.