About the Journal

Ukrainian Historical Journal is an academic journal (founded by the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine and I.F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine) that reflects the main trends in contemporary national historiography, outlines the general range of challenges, problems, opportunities and prospects for studying Ukrainian history and related disciplinary segments in particular.

The journal was founded in 1957. It is published six times a year. Since its foundation, it has been distributed by subscription, and since 2022, it has been available on an open access platform. Printed copies for authors, members of the editorial board, and editorial staff are issued under the state programme for the support of academic publications. The journal is aimed at experts in the field of history, a wide range of researchers, and readers interested in Ukraine’s past. Since 1995, the chief scientific editor has been Valerii Smolii, an academician of the NAS of Ukraine.

UHJ has a long history. It was the first and only professional historical publication in the Ukrainian SSR, appearing during the Khrushchev thaw, a quarter of a century after the liquidation of the journal Ukraine, which had been founded by M. Hrushevskyi. The Soviet era was a complex and ideologically charged time that left a distinct mark on almost all publications. But after the fall of the communist regime, the journal transformed into a research laboratory where experts present their developments, achievements, and findings.

During Ukraine’s years of independence, the journal became open to publications of various kinds, selected on the basis of their scientific merit, novelty, and contribution to fundamental research. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, UHJ was a kind of guide in shaping new domestic historiography. Its pages reflected aspects of history that had long been falsified or silenced, in particular the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917—1921, the formation and establishment of the Soviet totalitarian regime, its consequences in various spheres of public life, the Holodomor of 1932—1933, the period of World War II, and others. The journal played a notable role in popularising the historiographical heritage, publishing sources, and so on.

The Ukrainian Historical Journal reflects the level of domestic historical science and determines the directions for further research. It is an open space where ideas, proposals, and concepts are evaluated. The history of Ukraine is presented from many angles and in various contexts — primarily not as an isolated entity, but as part of European and world past, connected to it, and linked with it. It is this approach that makes the UHJ attractive to professionals from a wide range of specialisations, as it allows them to find out more about the achievements of colleagues from other disciplines or problem areas quickly.

Since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Historical Journal has been covering topics related to the Russo-Ukrainian war, publishing oral history evidence of the Russian occupation’s eyewitnesses, offering security-related materials, publishing discovered historical sources, and actively reviewing publications by foreign researchers.