On the history of Ukrainian archeography: deformations of a source, “resistance of a material” and transformational processes (1940s–1980s)

Abstract

The history of the Ukrainian archeography occupies a special place among the directions of archeographic activity, since it is not only a separate research topic, but also acts as a research method, and in some definitions of archeography is an integral part of its subject. The history of the Soviet archeography in the 1940–1980s is the history of an auxiliary historical discipline, which since the late 1950s has attempted to become a separate science. In accordance with this, certain changes took place in the theory and methodology of archeography, which made it possible to establish the Ukrainian archeography institutionally and scientifically in the early 1990s. It is worth noting that drastic “civilizational” changes in the Ukrainian humanitarian field are caused by the foundation in late 1988 of the Archeographic Commission of the AS of the UkrSSR. It is the research in the field of the history of archeography that turned out to be an effective method of overcoming crisis phenomena in the Soviet science and facilitated the search for other senses of archeography. During the Soviet period, an integral theoretical and methodological system of the Ukrainian archeography proper did not form, that could not have happened under the conditions of the domination of the all-Union center. But at the same time, the intellectual atmosphere in the Ukrainian SSR was filled with the intentions of independence in various spheres of life: literary, artistic and even party. This was naturally reflected at the level of the Ukrainian Soviet archeography. Despite the fact that within the framework of which concept – “historical source” or “monument” – Ukrainian Soviet archeographers worked, abstract formulas of theory and methodology were filled with concrete content. This content, related to the specifics of Ukrainian historical documents (mainly XIV–XVIII centuries) led to the transformation of the existing foundations of theory and methodology.