Ukrainian historical novel by Pavlo Zahrebelnyi in the stream of new historical fiction: the world context

The article determines the peculiarities of the Ukrainian historical novels by Pavlo Zahrebelnyi with regard to the general tendencies of the world literature development, particularly in the context of Slavic fiction evolution. The Ukrainian historical novels under a totalitarian Soviet regime assumed a difficult duty, dictated by an imperative need, to awaken the national memory. The following world-wide tendency of literature development in the twentieth century as breakaway of historical novel writing from the real, historiographical representation of reality to the generalized and conditional, philosophical and mythological one was commented upon. The literature sought to renew the national identity, to surround the identity of Ukrainian world with its original, unique language, culture, history, and national character. History, historicism, historical memory, traditions, heredity, folk character, all these concepts became widespread, demonstrating a growing interest to the aspects that covered them. History, the past have become a kind of tool when writers lifted the identical and national roots from the depths of a human personality. It demonatrated whereby people stay as people, peoples stay as peoples, and an individual human being stays a person as a nation witness, and, therefore, as a whole humanity witness. It illustrates how the Ukrainian historical fiction since the 1960s, having at its origins different causes also moved in this direction, and Pavlo Zahrebelnyi's creative work became one of the most impressive examples of the breakaway from the principle of the past fact presentation to its philosophical understanding in terms of the present day and personal spirit. It analyzes how the writer who actively studied many historical sources and new historical concepts in the process of his creative activity on historical works gradually comes to the creation of his own history concept, which largely keeps up with such a historical direction.