MILITARY HISTORICAL WORK IN CAMPS FOR INTERNED SOLDIERS OF THE UPR ARMY: CONTEMPORARY NATIONWIDE HISTORIOGRAPHY

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of modern national historiography regarding military-historical work in camps for interned soldiers of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The methodological approaches of national historians to the coverage of this topic are characterized. Historiographical sources on the problem for 1993–2022 were identified, systematized and analyzed, and their classification was carried out. A comprehensive study of the sources made it possible to comprehensively analyze the historiographic work of modern national specialists regarding the main directions of the military-historical work of the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic in emigration in the camps for the interned Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
It is shown that the involvement of archival materials previously hidden in Soviet special repositories, the use of sources from foreign archives, museums, and private collections made it possible to raise the coverage of the problem outlined in the article to a higher level, which was evidenced by the appearance of a number of articles, brochures, monographs, and protected dissertations. In them, the researchers clearly formulated the reasons that forced the Government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in exile to actively carry out military-historical work in the internment camps, and found out the objective and subjective factors that inhibited it. National historians characterized the measures of the military leadership of the UPR Army aimed at overcoming them, highlighted specific successes in this work, its impact on raising the morale and fighting spirit of interned Ukrainian soldiers. From historical oblivion, the names of many active participants in this activity – members of the State Party of the Ukrainian People's Republic, military personnel of various ranks, education and culture figures, ordinary Cossacks who ended up in internment camps – have been returned.
It was noted that despite certain successes, some negative trends were also revealed in the coverage of military-historical work in the camps for the interned Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In particular, the degree of activity in researching this issue varies. The first decade of the XXI century. is characterized by the development of many aspects of the specified problem, the printing of a number of publications of various genres. But in the period from 2001 to 2022, a kind of «historiographical pause» occurred in the development of research on the problem, which manifested itself in a decrease in the number of studies, the appearance of works with an impoverished historiographical base, a weak substantive and analytical component.
The article shows that a number of aspects of the problem under consideration still require additional study. The basis for the successful implementation of this task is a significant expansion of the research source base, first of all, due to the development of the sources of the archives of the countries where the internees are located.