HISTORICAL-GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF UKRAINIAN STUDIES: CONCEPTUAL-METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES AND MAIN DIRECTIONS

Abstract

Relevance of the study. To understand the genesis and features of the formation of modern physical-geographic and socio-geographic realities, it is important to reconstruct the development of geographical space and its individual components throughout historical time. Such needs are provided by historical geography as an integral scientific discipline that was formed on the border of historical and geographical sciences. But due to the inertia of past approaches in Ukraine and some other states, historical geography is often unreasonably combined with the history of geography and some other disciplines. In view of this, it is important to specify the subject of historical geography, outline its place in the system of sciences and highlight the main directions of Ukrainian historical and geographical research. In the process of substantiating the conceptual and methodological foundations of the historical geography of Ukraine, it is also necessary to indicate how to count historical time and its periodization. It is also conceptually important to determine the driving forces of historical socio-geographic development. In this context, there is a need to clarify the significance and level of influence of the natural environment on the development of human society, to substantiate some general trends in the course of historical and geographical processes. The subject of the study is to determine the essence of historical and geographical analysis, to highlight the main directions of historical and geographical research in general and in Ukraine in particular, to determine the driving forces of sociogeographical development and the prospects for understanding its general trends. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the conceptual and methodological foundations of Ukrainian historical and geographical research. The research methodology implements a comparative analysis of literary sources, a deductive approach to substantiating the conceptual provisions of historical geography, based on the scientific foundations of geography and history, as well as the method of historical and geographical periodization. Research results. The subject of historical geography is specified, current directions of Ukrainian historical and geographical research are highlighted. The historical and geographical periodization of the past of Ukraine and methodological approaches to determining the territorial basis of Ukrainian historical and geographical research are substantiated. Conclusions are drawn about the determining role of the combined action of all factors in historical and geographical processes. The mechanisms of influence of the natural physical-geographical environment on the social and geographical sphere throughout historical time are highlighted. The focus is on individual dependencies in the mutual influences of territorial-political and ethnogeographical factors in the historical and geographical development of Ukraine. Practical significance: substantiated conceptual and methodological foundations of historical and geographical analysis can be used in conducting regional historical and geographical research, refuting unreliable misleading narratives about Ukraine. Conclusions. Ukrainian historical and geographical analysis is aimed at revealing changes in the natural-geographical and socio-geographical environment throughout historical time, starting from the appearance in the 9th century. on the territory of Ukraine of the first ethno-political formations known from written sources. The main divisions of historical geography are historical physical geography, historical social geography, historical integral geography, the structure of which corresponds to the corresponding components of geographical science in general. Given the cognitive and practical needs in the process of Ukrainian historical and geographical analysis, the study of mutual influences in the course of ethno-geographical and territorial-political processes is of leading importance, which reveals both the prerequisites of Ukrainian ethnogenesis and the trends of ethno-demographic and ethno-social development. In the methodology for assessing the significance of various driving forces of socio-geographical development at historical stages, the principle of taking into account the combined action of all factors (ethno-national, religious, state-political, economic, etc.) is decisive, which is able to provide an understanding of the mechanism and vector of evolution of the socio-geographical environment. An objective analysis of the problem of the influence of a natural-geographical factor on socio-geographical processes requires not so much broad generalizations as, first of all, the study of specific mechanisms of interaction of elements of the natural-geographical and socio-geographical environment, taking into account the fact that the action of natural factors on socio-geographical processes has a specific-historical and largely mediated nature. The result of the interaction of nature and society at different stages of historical development is the formation of cultural landscapes that determine the appearance of different parts of the earth’s surface. Further research on this issue should be aimed at substantiating a holistic system of conceptual foundations of historical geography, which requires the deployment of specific studies of the geographical situation in historical sections and diachronic analysis of the evolution of individual geographical objects throughout historical time.