Modern Ukrainian historiography on the problems of protecting state secrets in Ukraine (1991–2025)

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of modern Ukrainian historiography concerning the problems of protecting state secrets in the period of 1991–2025.

The research methodology is based on the historical-typological method. Its application in the article enabled the classification of scientific works on the problems of protecting state secrets into specific areas, as well as their systematization. The study also employed the historical-comparative method to analyze the evolution of researchers’ views on these problems.

The article analyzes the work of Ukrainian researchers dedicated to current issues of ensuring the protection of state secrets and systematizes their contributions. Furthermore, the evolution of scientific views, approaches, and directions regarding these problems is traced chronologically. The analysis was conducted on scientific works that served as the foundation and determined the subsequent methodology for research on this issue within domestic historical science.

The scientific novelty lies in the substantiation of the historiographical direction of research – the protection of state secrets – and in the identification and definition of its key researchers within the specified chronological framework. The study also classified and systematized the main areas of scientific research concerning the protection of state secrets. The conclusions demonstrate that the historiography of protecting state secrets encompasses the following research areas: the organizational principles of secret office management, the permitting and admission procedures, its technical and cryptographic protection, criminal, administrative, and organizational-legal regulation of protecting state secrets, the history of protecting state secrets and the institutions responsible for its provision, the genesis of the system of this important type of secret information, and the protection of classified information of NATO and the EU in Ukraine.