Dmytro Yavornytsky’s Police Dossier in Historiographical and Source Interpretations: on the Problem of Constructing the Image of a “Persecuted” Scholar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2026.01.138Keywords:
Dmytro Yavornytskyi, personal file, Police Department, source studies, historiography.Abstract
The aim of this publication is to investigate the role of Dmytro Yavornytsky (1855—1940) and his circle in shaping his own biographical canon, as well as to determine its influence on the creation and consolidation of dogmatic interpretations of controversial episodes of the scholar’s life in Ukrainian historiography. Based on the analysis of the personal police file on the historian, initiated by the Department of Police of the Russian Empire in 1899, the article examines the issue of the actual political persecution of Yavornytsky under the tsarist regime and outlines the specifics of the interpretation of this source by Soviet and contemporary Ukrainian researchers. The methodology of the study includes the principles of historicism and a comparative-analytical approach to the evaluation of sources and historiography. Conclusions. The analysis of sources proves that the image of Dmytro Yavornytsky as a “victim of the tsarist regime” began to form as early as 1913 within his inner circle. At the same time, Yavornytsky himself influenced the interpretation of his biography and consciously maintained this image during the Soviet period, which can be regarded as a manifestation of compelled conformism. Over time, it was cemented by Soviet historiography and turned into an axiomatic thesis inherited by modern scholarship. The analysis of the police file demonstrated that, as of 1900, Yavornytsky had not been under secret surveillance, had not been subjected to administrative exile, and was considered politically reliable. However, the established biographical canon caused researchers either to ignore this evidence or not to be ready to properly analyze it.
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