Ukraine in European Historical Processes. Review of the Monograph Manuscript

• Main Author: Oleh Mashevskyi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Publishing and printing center "Kyivskyi Universytet" 2020-08-01
• Series: Vìsnik - Kiïvsʹkij nacìonalʹnij unìversitet ìmenì Tarasa Ševčenka: Ìstorìâ
• Subjects: european history; ukrainе; great war; ukrainian national liberation struggle; world war ii; ukrainian-russian armed conflict 2014
• Online Access: https://visnyk.history.knu.ua/eng/archive/2020/145-eng/145-15-mashevskyi-eng

The chronological boundaries of the collective monograph cover a long historical period, which extends to the era of European Modernism and continues to the modern (current) history of European Postmodernism. The key thesis of the team of authors of the monograph is the idea of systemic belonging of Ukraine to European civilization as its component, which interacts with other parts of the system. The first chapter of the peer-reviewed collective monograph "European receptions of Ukraine in the XIX century" shows the reflection of the Ukrainian problem in the German-language literature of the first half of the XIX century, taking into account new archival document, the development of Ukraine’s relations with other Slavic peoples is traced, and the peculiarities of Ukrainian-Bulgarian relations are considered as a separate case study. An interesting paragraph of the collective monograph devoted to cultural, educational and scientific cooperation of Dnieper Ukraine with European countries. This information illustrates well how the Industrial Revolution radically changed the face of the planet, brought new scientific experience that gave room for the development of the capitalist system, and with them, the Industrial Revolution brought social problems, environmental disasters that still cannot be solved. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) formulated the "iron law of wages", according to which workers can receive only a living wage. The second chapter of the collective monograph "The Ukrainian Question and Ukraine in the European History of the Twentieth Century" presents an integrated narrative of Ukrainian national history in the light of the European history of the two world wars and their consequences. The First World War, or the Great War, undoubtedly became a turning point in European history and, accordingly, in the national histories of European countries. The historical experience of the Ukrainian national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people for the right to European development is covered in the paragraph of the collective monograph "Ukrainian Diplomatic Service 1917-1924". The vicissitudes of Stalin's industrialization and collectivization and their impact on the Ukrainian SSR's relations with European states in the 1920s and 1930s are highlighted in terms of continuity of ties with Europe. A separate regional example of the situation is covered on the example of the history of Transcarpathia on the eve of World War II. The third chapter of the collective monograph "Independent Ukraine in the European integration space" highlights the features of Ukraine's current positioning in Europe. After the collapse of the USSR, ideological obstacles to the development of globalization were overcome. The American political scientist F.Fukuyama in his work "The End of History" concluded the final victory of liberal ideology. This section of the peer-reviewed collective monograph also highlights the position of the international community on the Crimean referendum in 2014, analyzes the policy of Western European countries on the Ukrainian-Russian armed conflict on the example of the policy of Germany, France and Austria. The research result is a separate model of reality, which is reproduced with the help of a certain perception and awareness of the historian. In this sense, the author's team of the monograph has achieved the goal of creating a meaningful narrative that highlights the place of Ukraine at different stages of modern and postmodern European history. From the point of view of the general perception of the narrative offered to the reader, the authors of the collective monograph managed to harmonize individual stylistic features in a conceptually unified text, the meanings of which will be interesting to both professional historians and students and the general readership.