Novorossiya or the eternal ukrainian lands? The Northern Black Sea region and the Azov Sea in the 17th–18th centuries in the interpretation of Ukrainian textbooks

Abstract

Aim. To identify and determine which ideas about the past of predominantly Russian-speaking territories are formed among the students and with the help of which techniques official educational goals are implemented in Ukrainian textbooks.

Methodology. The article analyzes the educational narrative from the viewpoint of its compliance with scientific facts and interpretations. At the same time, certain techniques are revealed (omission of some facts and exaggeration of the historical significance of others, etc.), the use of which creates a negative image of Russia’s role in the fate of Ukraine as a whole and always.

Results. The veiled and sometimes direct falsification of the history of the Northern Black Sea region and the Azov Sea region and the relationship of the Ukrainian people with Russia has been revealed. The following facts are hushed up: Russia’s support for the national liberation war against the Polish-Catholic gentry; political and economic benefits from the accession of the Hetmanate to Russia; the creation of new cities and conditions for development, industry, trade, culture. The main thing that disappears from the history of the multiethnic settlement of the Black Sea and the Azov Sea is the donation of the Wild Field and other lands conquered by Russia to the settlers, including the Ukrainians.

Research implications. The research has established the role of Ukrainian school textbooks in the formation of nationalist ideas about the past, in particular, the myth of the exclusive historical right of Ukraine to the multiethnic and predominantly Russian-speaking territories of the Northern Black Sea and the Azov Sea.