Ukrainian Liberal-Democratic Parties in the Russian Empire at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century in Political Journalism 1905—1917

Abstract

The purpose is to study the process of forming of historical knowledge about Ukrainian liberaldemocratic parties in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century in journalistic works of 1905—1917. The methodological basis is a historiographical analysis of political journalism of the given period based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. The scientific no velty lies in an attempt to reveal, first of all, the signifi cance of the works of active participants of the Ukrainian national-political movement in the historiography of Ukrainian liberal-democratic parties that were formed and operated in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Conclusions. From the formation of Ukrainian liberal-democratic parties in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century and by 1917, a relatively small number of works of a publicistic nature were published, in which certain aspects of the history of the UDP, URP, and UDRP were studied. Their historiographical analysis shows that, in contrast to some assessments established in historiography, the first noticeable results were already achieved in the coverage of the Ukrainian party liberal-democratic movement in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, quite successful attempts were made to single out the ideological, theoretical, and organizational origins and prerequisites for the creation of Ukrainian liberal-democratic parties, to determine the common and different points in the program demands of the Ukrainian liberal-democrats and Russian cadets, to identify the main party demands for reforming the state system of the Russian Empire, and to clarify the reasons for the unification of the UDP and URP. The publications gave an ambiguous assessment of the internal party position of the UDRP, the political and cultural and educational activities of the party, the tactics of the party during the elections to the State Duma, the role of the UDRP in the organization of the Ukrainian parliamentary club and defining its platform. In general, in the political journalism of 1905—1917, the authors formulated their assessments of the activities of the Ukrainian parliamentary club in the First and Second Dumas, a series of conclusions that have not lost their historiographical significance even today. However, some authors’ assessments were affected by their political beliefs, and coverage of the activities of Ukrainian liberal-democratic parties was rather fragmentary.