Malaia Hanna

Prosopography and its potential for constructing a collective portrait of the Ukrainian SSR dissidents (1960s–1980s)

Section: Prosopographical studies

Abstract: The article examines the methodological potential of prosopography as a historical discipline. The aim of the study is to reveal the possibilities of prosopography for constructing a collective biography of the participants in the dissident movement in the Ukrainian SSR. The research methodology is based on prosopography as a specialized historical discipline that enables thei dentification of structures, connections, and mechanisms of identification within a particular community. In this study, prosopography is applied as a tool for detecting the stages of development, logic, and internal transformations of the dissident movement, which lacked formal organization and functioned within the shifting political context of Soviet society. The article emphasizes that prosopography, owing to its capacity to integrate diverse types of sources – from official documents to private materials – not only facilitates the reconstruction of the group’s socio-political profile but also makes it possible to trace the dynamics of its internal relationships. The novelty of the research lies in outlining the challenges of defining the personal composition of the group under study within the socio-political realities of the time. It presents the issues of selection criteria that arise due to the specific nature of the movement – namely, the absence of formal membership, constant changes in social and political conditions, and the variety of the source base. Conclusions. Despite the aforementioned challenges, the article argues that the multidimensional nature of the dissident movement provides unique conditions for applying prosopography analysis. This approach offers an opportunity not only to uncover the social and demographic characteristics of the participants but also to examine the formation of collective identity and network ties. The study demonstrates that the research potential of prosopography extends beyond the reconstruction of a specific group’s history; it also contributes to a deeper understanding of the broader processes of social and political transformation that shaped Ukrainian society in the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, the methodological adaptability and interdisciplinary nature of prosopography make it highly promising for the study of the dissident movement as well as other complex social phenomena that demand interpretation through the lens of both collective and individual experience

Keywords: prosopography, collective biography, memoirs, dissent, dissident movement.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.26.311     Citation

• Malaia Hanna (Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine), [email protected]) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4164-4993

Cite:
Malaia Hanna (2025). Prosopography and its potential for constructing a collective portrait of the Ukrainian SSR dissidents (1960s–1980s). Biographistica Ukrainica, (26) 311-324. (In Ukrainan). https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.26.311

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