From "The Great October Socialist Revolution and the Civil War in Ukraine (1917–1920)" to "Essays on the History of the Ukrainian Revolution" and beyond: transformations of the research paradigm

Abstract

In this article researches the process of changes in the research paradigm of the revolution history. It is shown how the picture of the past transformed under the influence of the changes (“perestroika” in the USSR, its disintegration, the independence of Ukraine proclamation). Ideologized by Soviet science, revolution history became lost its sacred content to the beginning of the “new socio economic system”. Instead of this, was appeared the story of the Ukrainian revolution radically differed from Russian. The main task of Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921 was not to ruin everything that humanity built for a thousand years, but to create onto the old culture foundation the new democratic state. The crossing process to the new understanding of the past was long-term and required not only relevant methodologies, but also conscious social improvement, changes in the generation of historians.