he genesis, dynamics and current state of scientific discourse on the problem of the famine of 1921–1923 in the Ukrainian ssr in Ukrainian historiography

Abstract

The aim of the article is a conceptual understanding of the genesis, development,
and current state of the scientific controversy on the issue of the famine of 1921–1923 in Ukrainian
historiography based on a critical analysis of historiographical sources.
The scientific novelty of the publication is determined by the analysis of the conceptual
foundations of the scientific heritage of Ukrainian historians on the problem of the famine of 1921–
1923 in Ukraine.
Conclusions. Studies of the famine of 1921–1923. in Ukrainian historiography, it was initiated by
North American historians of the Ukrainian diaspora in the colonial-imperial discourse, according
to which the famine was seen as a consequence of the colonial policy of the Russian occupation
government aimed at plundering Ukraine’s resources and denationalizing Ukrainians. On the
basis of this methodological approach, the concept of predetermination of this famine was formed
«starvation politic» the Bolsheviks, which aimed to use crop failure to suppress the insurgency of
Ukrainians. In the 1950s, to characterize the famine of 1921–1923, the term «artificial famine»
was used, as previously used as a functional synonym for the Holodomor of 1932–1933. Since
the 1980s. Lenin’s «hunger policy» began to be considered as a model of J. Stalin’s organization of
the Holodomor of 1932–1933., and since the 2020s. – as a component of the policy of genocide of
Ukrainians by the Leninist-Stalinist leadership.
The domestic historiography of the problem was formed within the Soviet historiographical
process. The fundamental principles of the Soviet concept of famine were laid down in the writings
of party-Soviet leaders of the early 1920s. on the principles of Marxist-Leninist methodology. Its
class, party, and imperial character methodologically, factually, and thematically limited the study
of the history of famine. Finally, the Soviet ideological construct of the history of the famine was
formed by Russian historians in the 1970s. from certain historical mythologemes. He imagined
an imperial-colonial myth that concealed the true cause of the famine in the Ukrainian SSR – the
anti-Ukrainian colonial policy of the Moscow party-Soviet center. The Soviet myth of famine served
as an integral component of ideological colonialism in Ukraine. Positive changes in national
historiography have emerged since the second half of the 80s. Ukrainian scientists have attempted
to find new theoretical and conceptual foundations for studying the history of famine.
Defining the conceptual foundations of modern national historiography of the first mass
artificial famine in Soviet Ukraine, it is worth noting that its development began in line with the
totalitarian paradigm, while imperial-colonial discourse remained on the margins for some time.
Trying to break out of a rather mechanistic scheme of covering Soviet history, the researchers
resorted to the methodological experience of foreign Western historiography. They did a lot to clear
the historiographical space from the imperial-colonial myths of Russian historiography. Since the
2000s. the history of the first famine in Soviet Ukraine begins to be considered in the discourse of
genocide. The peculiarity of the development of the Ukrainian historiography of the first Soviet
famine in recent times was the spread of its interpretation, first as artificial or deliberately organized,
and over time, on the basis of the discovery of previously unknown facts of mass famine in 1922–
1923, not only in officially starving (southeastern), but also in other areas – as «mass artificial».