UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION AND STATE FORMATION: ON ISSUE OF THE PERIODIZATION AND CHRONOLOGY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE OF THE EARLY 20th CENTURY

Abstract

The controversial issue of periodization of the political history of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century, including the period of the National liberation struggle and Ukrainian State entities during 1917–1922 is considered. Scientists and experts have not yet reached a consensus not only on determining the place, role and character of the Hetmanate in 1918 in the latest Ukrainian past, but also about the periodization of the Ukrainian political history of the 20th century, definition of the term and chronological boundaries of the Ukrainian Revolution and Ukrainian statehood, etc. The issue of the periodization of the National liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people from the beginning of the 20th century, the aspiration and purpose of which was to gain and assert its own statehood, had several main schemes, models and periodizations in the national historiography. However, disputes over definitions not only of the chronological framework of this historical path, but also of the interpretations and characteristics of its individual days, periods, and stages are still ongoing in the scientific community. It is up to me, that the times from 1917 to 1922 should be defined as one of the days of the Ukrainian political history of the 20th century, namely: The Day “National Liberation Struggle and Ukrainian State Formation (1917–1922 biennium)”. This title was due to historical processes and components, that took place in the specified chronological period, the logic of interrelated events, factors and circumstances, objective signs of fluidity, similarity and diversity of periods, the identity of the causal effects of both internal and external circumstances and influences, interconnectedness of cultural, social, ideological and political, and state-evolutionary factors of nation-wide significance, the regularity of the beginning and end of the national-political breakdown, holding otvorchyh efforts and organized struggle for their own rights to self-determination of Nation-Ukrainian people. It is the author’s conception of the periodization of this era, that would be discussed in this essay.