Reception of the figure of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi in diasporic historiography: a new historiographic meaningful

Abstract

The article analyzes the first monograph of the historian Mykhailo Sabinskyi “The figure of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi in Ukrainian foreign historiography of the 1940s-1980s.”. The book highlights the complex processes of formation and disciplinary complication of diasporic Hrushevskiana. First of all, the author investigated that the period 1940-1965 is an important stage of Ukrainian diaspora historiography, which marked a gradual departure from the concepts and practices of mainland Ukrainian studies of the previous era and convergence with Western socio-humanitarianism. Next, M. Sabinskyi proved that the centenary anniversary of M. Hrushevskyi was a significant event in the intellectual life of Ukrainians abroad. Despite the stereotyped thinking of some diaspora figures, thanks to extensive media promotion and numerous public and scientific initiatives, it was possible to turn the personal date of the distinguished scientist into a holiday of Ukrainian culture, which is important for the consolidation of the emigrant community. The researcher showed that all this made possible the emergence of L. Vynar's disciplinary initiative to start scientific Hrushevskyi’s studies. The modern historian emphasized that the dynamism of the progress of this field of Ukrainian studies in the following decades allows us to confirm the power of the historiographical impulse given by the anniversary events. In conclusion, the author noted that the diasporic Hrushevskiana appears as a historiographical phenomenon that is complex in its ideological nature and diverse in its forms of realization and stylistic practices. Being a means of inter-party emigration confrontation in the first post-war years, it went through the stages of institutionalization and disciplinary formation during the following decades. As a result, a respectable field of Ukrainian studies emerged, whose representatives systematically interpret the national phenomenon of M. Hrushevskyi in the broad context of his time. It was the solid academic level of diaspora Hrushevskyi’s studies achieved at the end of the 1980s that enabled the significant achievements of mainland historiography in its study of the legacy of the historian after independence.