MEMOIRS OF DANYLO SHUMUK AS HISTORICAL SOURCE

Abstract

There is considered the informational potential of the documents of personal origin, such as memoirs. Memoirs are the important sources in historical events study through the prism of the author’s subjective perception, so far as he is able to refute or confirm the official point of view on certain facts, or show the situation from a completely different angle.
The article analyzes the memories of the Ukrainian dissident and political prisoner Danylo Shumuk. In historiography, this issue has not yet been resolved.
Danylo Shumuk is a Ukrainian political prisoner, a member of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, a member of the Ukrainian word association of writers «Word».
He is the author of the books of memoirs «On the Eastern horizon», «Life Sentence», «From Gulag to the free world» and other.
In the USA and Canada, his memoirs were issued by the Ukrainian diaspora in the 80’s and 90’s of the 20th century. The memoirs of Danylo Shumuk caused a great deal of discussion among the Ukrainian public.
Most of the dissident’s memoirs have not been published. Today it is stored in archives and individual museums. These memories are very valuable because they are written in the earliest.
They provide information on important events of Ukrainian history of the 20th century. Many of the dissident’s memoirs were published in Ukrainian newspapers in France, Canada, USA, Poland, Ukraine.
The paper shown the specifics memoir sources, it defined information opportunities of memoirs.
The terms of writing and publishing the personality memoirs, the possibility of using them as a source for the history of Ukraine of the twentieth century are disclosed.
Separately, attention is paid to the peculiarities of such a source, the need for a critical approach to their study.