Slavic Studios of Pavlo Fedorenko

Abstract

The unpublished work of the Ukrainian historian, archaeographer, archivist Pavlo Fedorenko (1880-1962) Porossia in connection with the ethnogenesis of the Slavs is analyzed. The text was delivered by the researcher as a report at the meeting of the scientific and methodological council of the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky Museum on December 2, 1948. The scholar worked as head of department and deputy director of the museum (1948-1954). This work was found among the documents of P. Fedorenko, which were revealed during the scientific processing of the personal archival fund of the Ukrainian researcher Olena Kompan (Institute for Manuscripts of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, F. 297). Pavlo Fedorenko’s significant report (in fact, a scientific article), made in the field of Slavic studies, expands our understanding of the range of the scholar’s research interests. The historian, who was arrested three times for anti-revolutionary activities and sentenced to five years in the GULAG camps, formally relied on the conclusions of Soviet scientists about Kyivan Rus as the cradle of three fraternal peoples. In fact, he performed his work within the framework of the classical approach, laid down in Ukrainian historiography by the works of Mykhailo Hrushevsky. In particular, Pavlo Fedorenko deduces the beginning of the statehood of the Eastern Slavs from the time of the Antes emphasizing that the center of the Antes region was the Middle Dnieper, namely the basin of the Ros river; mainly he preferred to use the term Kyiv state instead of the Kyivan Rus. In his work there are no references to works of K.Marx, F.Engels, V.Lenin, which were obligatory in that time. It was to be hoped that the newly discovered Pavlo Fedorenko's scientific research, will encourage researchers to study the scholar's biography and achievements more deeply, and his figure will be rehabilitated not only on paper but also in Ukrainian historical thought.

Keywords

• p. fedorenko, m. hrushevsky, ukrainian historiography, slavs, antes, porossia, slavic studies, institute of manuscript of vernadsky national library of ukraine.