Леся Онишко, кандидат історичних наук, учений секретар Національного меморіального комплексу Героїв Небесної Сотні – Музею Революції Гідності.
У статті наведено огляд усноісторичного проєкту "Рефлексії істориків про Революцію Гідності", метою якого стали інтерв’ювання професійної аудиторії для обговорення причин, основних етапів та наслідків Революції Гідності в широкому історичному контексті, а також аналіз протестних рухів, їхнього впливу на суспільно-політичні та соціально-економічні процеси в українському суспільстві крізь призму фахових компетентностей та особистих позицій істориків.
Ключові слова: усна історія, Революція Гідності, Євромайдан, інтерв’ю, історик, проєкт, протестні рухи.
Леся Онишко – історик, кандидат історичних наук. Працює у Національному музеї Революції Гідності з осені 2018 року на посаді вченого секретаря. Випускниця Львівського національного університету імені Івана Франка та Інституту українознавства імені Івана Крип’якевича НАН України. У колі наукових зацікавлень Голодомор, історія національно-визвольного руху на українських землях та сучасних протестних рухів в Україні. Опікується усноісторичними проєктами в музеї.
Lesia Onyshko, PhD (Candidate of Historical Sciences), Academic Secretary of the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum
The Revolution of Dignity in the historians’ reflections
The article provides an overview of the oral history project named “Historians’ reflections on the Revolution of Dignity”, which aims to interview the professional audiences to discuss the causes, main stages, and significances of the Revolution of Dignity in a wide-ranging historical context, as well as analysis the protest movements, their impact on socio-political and socio-economic processes in Ukraine through the prism of personal and professional competencies of historians. Modern historians, studying various social phenomena and chronological periods, have become not just witnesses of the Revolution of Dignity. Many of them supported the protesters and participated directly in the revolutionary events. Special education gave them an opportunity to analyze and comprehend the phenomenon of the Revolution of Dignity from the standpoint of a professional researcher. The combination of professional and personal experience helps historians not only reconstruct the events of the past and clarify the causal links, but also explains the current trends in Ukraine and worldwide via socio-historical processes.
The project started at the end of June 2019 and three dozen interviews have been prepared during the first six months. Most of the interviews were recorded in the Information and Exhibition Center of Maidan Museum in the Trade Union Building in Kyiv. A dozen interviews have been conducted in Lviv, mainly at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Among the respondents, there were mostly professional historians, as well as political scientists and several public activists who took part in mass protests and publicly reflected on the events of the Revolution of Dignity. A problematic semi-structured interview was chosen to implement the project. All interviews are thematic, conditionally divided into two main narrative blocks. The interviews recorded within the project are of interest to both historical and socio-cultural studies. Despite the interpretation of well-known facts, they reveal details that will contribute to a source base of the Revolution of Dignity events and accumulate knowledge about the role of the historians and their influence on social processes. In addition, the results of the project can be used to prepare films and programs, as the respondents were specialists who have the skills to present information professionally. Most of the intervened respondents, analyzing the latest processes in Ukraine, accentuated on the three Ukrainian revolutions in the modern period: the Revolution on Granite, the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity. Although all these events have common features and forms but according to the researchers, their immediate causes and significances were different.
The beginning of the historians’ reflection within the project allows us to say that the theme of the Revolution of Dignity, analysis of its causes, and comparison with the past events are in the attention of modern historians. Despite the different specializations, the vast majority of respondents believe that the main reason for the mass protests in autumn-winter 2013– 2014 was the protection of democratic rights and freedoms, the vital requirement to confirm Ukraine’s civilized choice, protect state sovereignty, fight against Russian aggression, and takeover corrupt Yanukovych’s regime and restore socio-economic justice. Most researchers who specialize in modern history compared the Revolution of Dignity with the Orange Revolution and the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921. In addition, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the participants, who shared their analysis, personal thoughts on the causes, main stages and significances of the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
Keywords: oral history, the Revolution of Dignity, Maidan, interviews, historian, project, protest movements