Українознавство (Sep 2019)
Apologetics and Criticism of Pseudoscientific Hypotheses of the Ukrainian Ethnogenesis: a Historiographical Discourse
Abstract
The article outlines the main stipulations of pseudoscientific hypotheses of the Ukrainians’ origin and presents their critical analysis, reflected in the works of modern domestic researchers. It is revealed that the restoration of Ukrainian statehood at the end of the 20th century increased public interest in ethnogenetic issues and led to the emergence of multiple theories on the origin of Ukrainians. It is found that according to Yu. Shylov, the Ukrainian ethnogenetic model has the following form: Arattians – Trypillians – Aryans – Slavs – the Rus’ people – Ukrainians. According to the views of Yu. Kanyhin, Ukrainians are the direct descendants of Aryans, the “people of God”, mentioned in the Bible and endowed with a special messianic role. The concept of I. Kahanets states that the Ukrainian people have three separate ethnic groups, which were successively changing each other, namely the Antes, the Rus’ people, and Cossacks (to whom all modern Ukrainians belong). According to P. Kononenko’s views, the Trypillian civilization was the Ukrainian civilization, and the great-Ukrainian ethnos was finally formed on the basis of the Antes-Sclaveni state associations by the synthesis of the Slavic matrix and the Dinaric, Armenoid, Nordic impurities. According to the concept of S. Plachynda, the Ukrainian nation was born in the Palaeolithic, finally formed in the Neolithic, and had subsequently conquered almost all of Eurasia. According to V. Bebyk, the chain of formation and transformation of the Ukrainian ethnic group looks as following: Teukrs – Scythians – Aryans – Ukrainians. It is shown that the contemporary representatives of quasi-theories of the Ukrainians’ prehistoric origin are united by the idea of the exclusiveness of the Ukrainian ethnogenesis and the messianism of the Ukrainian people. It is proved that the overwhelming majority of these researchers neglect the scientific substantiation of their own concepts, thus misleading not only ordinary Ukrainians but also completely discrediting Ukrainian science in both European and world scientific discourses.
Keywords
