National-Existential Hermeneutics of the Cultural and Historical Being of Ukrainian Identity: Thoughts about the Collective Monograph “Civilizational Ukrainian Identity: History and Present”

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the fundamental markers and national essential codes of the cultural-historical progress of Ukrainian identity based on the historiographic elaboration in the field of identity (national, civilizational), emphasizing the particular importance of the problem raised in the conditions of a borderline situation (borderline situations actualize the need to rethink all components of the nation existence and the search for new paradigms of development) — Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The methodology is based on the complex use of Scientific principles (historicism, impartiality, systematicity, continuity, etc.), as well as the application of general scientific, interdisciplinary, special historical methods (generalization, comparative analysis, intellectual reflection, historiographical analysis and synthesis, historical-chronological, historical-comparative, systematic-structural, historical-genetic, historical-typological, etc.) and approaches (interpretive, cultural-historical, civilizational, systemic, system-thinking, pluralistic, etc.).

Conclusions. The full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war is full of critical situations in which the problems of existence, freedom, civilizational choice, and the formation of a complete national identity acquire a special and exceptional meaning. The Ukrainian reality actualizes the need to understand the national essential codes and outline the worldview guidelines for the nation progress. The difficulties in solving this problem are conditioned by the fact that the various models of national identity generated by discourses do not always correspond to the mental programs of individuals who make up such a community as a nation. By choosing victory in the hard confrontation with the Russian aggressor, we are constructing our civilizational future and building our civilizational subjectivity. In today’s realities, we are witnessing a radical transformation of Ukrainian society, rethinking the value-based paradigm, constructing identity parameters, and forming a new generation of Ukrainians. Turning to the methodology of the national-existential hermeneutics of the cultural-historical existence of Ukrainian identity from the perspective of searching for the national horizon and the civilizational matrix of Ukrainians seems to be extremely important. It is necessary to draw parallels between the events of the past and the present, to study identity factors and their transformation, etc.