Socio-Economic Policy of the WUPR in Academic Publications: A Historiographical Analysis

Abstract

In the article is given a shot to analyse the current state of research on socio‑economic policy and socio‑economic processes in the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (WUPR) / the Western Region of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (WRUPR) in modern Ukrainian national historiography during the period of nowadays independence. It considers the dynamics of how those problems are addressed, as well as the depth of their coverage in monographic publications, which are traditionally related to academic.

The most representative publications are discussed in the article, which, in our opinion, allow us to form a general understanding of how these problems are determined in national historiography. The author has revealed how socio‑economic processes and socio‑economic policy of the Western Ukrainian state were illustrated in M. Lytvyn’s and K. Naumenko’s works, as well as in collective monographs edited by Professors O. Karpenko and M. Kuhutiak, and also in the four‑volume edition of the Encyclopedia of the WUPR.

The author draws conclusions that at the first stage of studying the history of the WUPR, beginning in the late 1980s, researchers devoted their primary attention to the study of state‑building processes, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, the Galician Army, and, in general, to the study of national military development, including the military operations from November 1918 to the winter of 1921. A kind of culmination of this type of study, in our view, can be considered the monograph by M. Lytvyn and K. Naumenko entitled History of the WUPR. It may rather be called the forerunner of academic publications. The issues in question are already briefly examined in this monograph. The issues found a broader coverage in collective monographs edited by Professor O. Karpenko and, in particular, by M. Kuhutiak. The authors of the chapters dealing with socio‑economic processes and socio‑economic policy of the WUPR/WRUPR, drawing on a solid source base, analyzed the functioning of state institutions that were expected to respond to challenges of this nature.

Particular attention is given to the most recent academic publication on the history of this state — the Encyclopedia of the WUPR. The author points out the profound, detailed analyses conducted by the authors of those articles on various aspects of the socio‑economic policy of state‑building and its interaction with the governmental structures of the UPR in this domain.

The socio‑economic policy of the WUPR/WRUPR in academic publications is analyzed in the context of its territorial existence, covering the period from October 1918 to June 1919.