ABOUT THE NEED OF BIOGRAPHY (O potrzebie biografii i problemie biografii)

The author quotes an opinion that in the recent time Ukrainian discourse on issue of history has deeply changed. A previous monopoly of Marxist language has been suppressed and replaced by discourses of modern humanities. This transformation is apparent; however, some Ukrainian critics worried that it might be only a superficial adaptation to a modern paradigm of historical science: Ukrainian scholars conformed to this western standard of scientific discourse, but in reality they do not treat popular terms as an actually working tool for analyzing their own historical problems. In the author's opinion there are some deficient terms among ones so frequently used by Ukrainian historians, such as ‘identity' or ‘biography.' A new approach to biographical issue, especially to writing of biographies of those national activists whose life was affected by cross-cultural influence is a crucial need of Ukrainian historiography.