The Image of Germany and the Germans in Ukrainian Historical Thought from the End of the XIX Century until the Beginning of the Second World War

Abstract

First, the article gives an insight into two main contradictory national narratives, existed in Ukrainian historical thought from the end of the nineteenth century until the beginning of the Second World War and summarizes the most important works, involving on the question of the differences between quite distinct historical storylines of shared pages in the history of both nations. Second, the author focuses on the question of the differences between general theoretical doctrines in Ukrainian historical thought and defines divergent attitudes to Germany and the Germans. Third, the analysis presented above provides a basis for a complete understanding of the peculiarities of the role and place of Germany and the Germans in the framework of the appearance of Ukraine within a contested European arena. In that regard, Ukrainian historians of the populist direction followed the general pattern of East-European historiographies, which universally adopted the national paradigm. They believed that Germany could have interest in separating Ukraine from Russia. The historians of conservative direction supported the idea of building dynastic Hetman State based on the British parliamentary monarchy model. However, conservatives found it possible that not only hetman, representing local elite, could be considered as a candidate for monarch, but a representative of the German Hohenzollerns, including the Emperor Wilhelm’s son Joachim among others.

The author’s analysis carried out in the article on the problem of deriving the image of Germany and Germans by representatives of two distinct historiographical directions of Ukrainian science at the end of the XIX – in the first half of the XX century provides an opportunity to understand the origins and content of the attitudes of various groups of Ukrainian intellectuals towards Germany in the modern Ukrainian state.