REASONS FOR FAILURES OF THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION ON THE PAGES OF OLEKSANDR BARVINSKYI`S «MEMOIRS OF MY LIFE»

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyze the views of one of the leading Ukrainian politicians of the late nineteenth – first quarter of the twentieth century, Alexander Barvinsky, on the reasons why Ukrainian state-building competitions of 1917–1921 failed, which he expressed on the pages of his unpublished memoirs. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, a scientific approach, a verifying approach, the author’s objectivity, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-system) methods. One of the leading methods used by the author is a biographical method that allowed, through the prism of Oleksandr Barvinskyi, Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Julian Romanchuk biographies, to find out the conservative politician`s vision on reasons for the defeat of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic. The scientific novelty is the following: in the article fragments of unpublished parts of the Oleksandr Barvinskyi’s memoirs are used, which have never been the object of study before. Thanks to this, for the first time Oleksandr Barvinskyi’s retrospective view on the analyzed phenomenon has been clarified. Conclusions. Barvinskyi’s view on the problems of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic is a classic example of conservative socio-political analysis. In Barvinskyi`s opinion the main responsibility for the fall of the two Ukrainian states lies on Mykhailo Hrushevskyi and Julian Romanchuk. According to Barvinsky, their policy and activities were the reason for the unpreparedness of Ukrainian society on both sides of the Zbruch River to use the historical chance that Ukrainians gained during 1917–1921.