Социальное объявление развития (english) - (реферат)

The evolutionary stage is identified with the high Renaissance. 1494-1559 – “Italian wars” with the French and Spaniards. 1469-1527 – Machiavelli; 1452-1519 – Leonardo da Vinci; 1483-1520 Raffaello Santi; 1475-1564 – Michelangelo; 1487-1576 – Tiziano Vecellio; 1568-1639 – T.  Campanella – the ideas of utopian communism; 1548-1600 – Jiordano Bruno; 1564-1642 –Galileo Galilei. The economic decline of Italy. Delayed unification of the country divided by controversial interests of Vatican, neighboring countries, and civil discord. 1648-1799–deepening the gap in the social-economic development between the North and South of Italy.

The development of the fourth epochal cycleis connected with the revolutionary tendencies in Europe, initiated by the Great French Revolution (1799-1815–the wars of Napoleon). And though Italy did not demonstrate the single act of social revolution, the results of this process appeared to be achieved in the chain of events– the organization of revolutionaries “Young Italy”(1831), activating the struggle for independence and national unity (1848-1849). And finally, since the moment of creation of the Italian Kingdom–Italy enters the involutionary period of history, marked by the political activity of Garibaldi (1848-1871), the final unification of the country (1871), the seizure of Eritrea (1891) and stirring up its colonial policy. The transformational stage of the cycle was practically realized during the rule of Italian fascists (1922-1943) under the guidance of B. Mussolini, who made an effort to realize the idea of the“Corporate”state, giving a new quality to the colonial policy, turning the Mediterranean Sea into the“Italian lake”in that period. The tendencies of the evolutionary stage of the cycle gathered momentum with the defeat of Italy in the World War II along with development of the democratic lines of the political process (1946– proclamation of the Republic; 1957 – the Rome Treaty on creation of the European Economic Union; 1992 – “clean hands” operation, that transformed the political system of Italy, and so on). Modern Italy is sure to be before the door of the revolutionary stage of the fifth epochal cycle.

    8. 3. Germany

The hypothetical scheme of epochal cycles in the history of Germany may be presented as follows. I-III centuries–the origin of a new subject of history in Europe (the revolutionary phase of the first epochal cycle), which is identified with the onset of Germanic tribes on the Roman Empire. IV-VII centuries–the involutionary stage of development, with the content of feudalization of Germanic tribes, their political subordination to the Empire of Carolus Magnus.

The co-evolutionary stage of development comprises the period of disintegration of the Empire of Carolus Magnus (772-804) which included most Germanic lands within its limits. Verdun (843)– the formal agreement on the division of Carlovingian empire –became the symbol of the new geopolitic situation. Ludwig the German and the Saxon dynasty (919-1024), in fact, closed the transient process, and the country entered the evolutionary period of its history, that takes its beginning since the proclamation of the“Holy Roman Empire”by Otto I (962). The most important historic events are connected with the fight between Germanic emperors of the Franken dynasty (1024-1125) and the dynasty of Staufens (1138-1254) for control over the Northern Italy, and exercising the policy of“push to the East”. The foundation of knightly orders (Teutonic, the Order of Sword-bearers), as the instruments of exercising the colonial policy against the Slavic lands in the East, occurred in the same period. These events became the beginning of the second epochal cycle of development of the country.

The following involutionary period of the cycle is connected with a certain decline of the economy of Germanic lands, caused by the flood of Italian goods from the centers of rapid pre-capitalistic development in North-Italian towns. The co-evolutionary phase of the cycle (since 1356) is connected with the establishment of the powerful Hanseatic trade league in the Baltic region. This league can be in some way compared with the present European Union by monopolizing markets and establishing the control over the neighboring eastern lands. Hanseatic League exerted its influence on the policy of Karl IV (1347-1378). The evolutionary period of the second epochal cycle began with his rule. The period is politically characterized with the growing political fragmentation of Germany, that was reflected in the“Gold bulla”(1356), later referred to by K. Marx as the constitution of split of Germany. The emperor was then elected by the college of electors. This situation remained practically till the middle of the 19th century. One of the reasons for such a situation was the differentiation of economic and political interests of various German lands between the North (Baltic), the East (Slavic lands), and the South (Italy, Mediterranean region).

The new chapter of the history of Germany and the revolutionary phase of the third epochal cycle are associated with the Reformation. Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536), who changed the point of view on the inner world of a mediaeval Christian, may be considered the spiritual precursor of this process. The invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg in 1445 also favored this process. In 1517 Martin Luther (1483-1546) proclaimed his famous 95 theses, based on the absolution of faith. This event made the Catholic hierarchy unnecessary and practically established the direct link between the laymen and God. The revolutionary sentiments quickly spread among the masses, and, already in 1524-1525, Germany was shaken with the Great Peasants' War. The involutionary period of the third epochal cycle, characterized by the leveling of the“patched-up”Germany in the European affairs, begins since 1555, when the Augsburg peace between religions did away with the open enmity between the Catholic and the Protestant based on the principle“whose land – whose faith”. The Holy Roman Empire became the object of expansion of the external forces during the 30-year war (1618-1648) between the European coalitions of Catholic and Protestant states.

Since 1804, with the beginning of wars against Napoleon, Germany enters its co-evolutionary stage of development (1804-1834), illustrated by a rapid development of capitalist relations, particularly in the south of Germany, connected with the economic interests of France. The idea of the political unity of the country, the first step towards which was the creation of the German customs union (1834), is reviving again. However, no nationwide market was created till the unification of Germany (1871).

European bourgeois revolutions of 1848-1849 chronologically concurred with the beginning of the evolutionary period of the third epochal cycle of the German history. That is why, they were not taken up by the inner logic of development of the country and had a formally superficial influence on it. The creation of the National Convent in Frankfurt (1848), that gave a push to the development of democratic ideas in Germany, connected with the national unity, constututionalism, and other aspects, was put into practice only after 100 years during the creation of Federal Republic of Germany. The historical sense of the present evolutionary period in the history of the country was overcoming the historical inertia of the split of Germany, at first in the form of the German Empire (1871-1918), then in the Weimar republic (1919-1933), in the Third Reich (1933-1945), in the Bonn republic (1949-1990), and, at last, in the united Germany (since 1990).

Going by the programmed logic of development, Germany stimulated the European integration process. Especially, this line found its expression in its present status of leadership in European and transatlantic structures, in the“collective leadership in the contemporary world”, as stated by Bill Clinton in 1997. It became the actually incontestable second world leader and the reliable ally of the USA both in the European and world policy. At the same time, according to Jurgen Habermas, since 1960’s, after the youth riots in May 1968, and particularly after the anschluss of German Democratic Republic, the tendency to augmentation of latent crisis phenomena is becoming more and more apparent: in the sphere of politics– the extinction of traditional political parties; in the economy –the growth of devastative globalization tendencies, difficulties of restructuring national industrial sectors, the problems of education and unemployment; in the social sphere–the problems of the European identity of the Eastern Germany, and the responsibility of Germany for forming a common defense and foreign policy of the European Union.

All this strengthens the assumption that Germany is approaching the commencement of the revolutionary phase of the fourth epochal cycle. 8. 4. Great Britain

The peculiarities of the national historical process of Great Britain are connected with insularity of the country, its partial isolation from the European problems and the readiness to be the“Queen of seas”, which have formed the peculiar national character of Great Britain. The first epochal cycle began from the revolutionary events of liberation of the British Isles from the Roman rule and the entrance of Celtic tribes to the way of independent development (407 AD). Since the 5th century, Britain entered the involutionary period, the most important events were the permanent struggle for hegemony between its seven kingdoms: Wessex, Sussex, Essex (Saxon kingdoms), Kent (Jutes’ tribes), Mercia, Northumbria (Angles’tribes). The internal situation was complicated by the struggle against Normans (Vikings). All that created conditions for the unification of kingdoms under the rule of Alfred the Great (871-899).

However, the successes of Anglo-Saxon in the struggle against Vikings appeared to be temporary. In 1017, the Dutch king Knud den Store establishes the Norman domination over Britain. This event symbolizes the co-evolutionary changes in the country that lasted to the battle of Hastings (1066), when almost all Anglo-Saxon aristocracy was exterminated and William the Conqueror established a new aristocracy of the Norman origin in Britain. Being connected, the historical destinies of France and Britain showed themselves during the rule of Henry II Plantagenet (1154-1189). The beginning of the invasion of Ireland (1171) is connected with his name. At the same time, one could observe growing social-political contradictions between landowners during that period, the inheritors of the Conqueror, and a new urban trade-craft elite striving for the political independence.

The mentioned social-political contradiction found its solution in the following revolutionary events, opening the beginning of the second epochal cycle–the Great Charter (1215), the creation of the first parliament (1236), the peripetias of the civil war (1236-1267), the actual defeat of the royal power which allowed one to preserve the idea of parliamentarism as a backbalance to the regality. Since the end of the 13th century, the involutionary period, that lasted to the War of the Red and White Roses (1445), receives its normative background. The most important events of the involutionary period were as follows: the creation of the House of Lords (the representatives of the aristocracy, knightage) and the House of Commons (the representation of urbanites), the epidemic of plague, “the black death”(1349), Peasants' Revolt (1381), the activity of propagandist and Reformer John Wyclif (1320-1384).

The change of the dynasties of Plantagenets and Lancasters on the king’s throne of Britain and the dynastic war of Red (Lancaster) and White (York) roses (1455-1485) symbolized the transitional co-evolutionary phase of the epochal cycle. The political transformation from the limited monarchy to the absolutist monarchy occurred in this period, the process of primary capital accumulation was growing, and the conditions for the first overseas invasions were created.

The evolutionary development is identified mainly with the Tudor’s absolutism (1485-1603) and lasted to 1648. The most important social-historical events are connected with the agrarian revolution, secularization, that stimulated the development of textile industry, with the“bloody”law aimed to create the free labor market for the naissant capitalist structure of the economy. As for the spiritual sphere, the Reformation and the process of creation of the Anglican Church took place at that moment. The most significant figures of the period were Thomas More (1478 - 1535), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The joint-stock East India Company which organized external trade with colonies and stimulated the establishment of the British Empire, was created in 1600.

The revolutionary events (1648-1649), which marked the beginning of the third epochal cycle, were connected with the execution of King Charles I, the proclamation (1654) of Oliver Cromwell as the Lord Protector. In fact, the latter meant the establishment of a radical republican system which became an abnormal event, opening a radical break with the monarchy traditionalism and paving the way to the Great French revolution. The normative involutionary period was virtually established after Cromwell’s death (1658) and confirmed with the restoration of constitutional monarchy (1689) and confirmation of the Great Charter and primary human rights and freedoms.

The main historical events of the involutionary period were as follows: the fight of Great Britain for preserving the empire (the War of Independence of the USA, 1775-1783), the competition with the revolutionary France for the hegemony in Europe and for the repartition of colonies–Trafalgar battle (1805), the continental blockade organized by Napoleon (1806-1814).

The co-evolutionary transitional phase of development, which began in the first quarter of the 19th century, is connected with the transformation of Great Britain into the“world’s workshop”, the industrial revolution, the first parliamentary reform which extended the categories of people who had a right to vote (1832).

The evolutionary period takes its beginning since the middle of the 19th century and is marked by the following significant events: in political history–the classic confrontation between the Liberals (William Gladstone, 1809-1898) and the Conservatives (Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881), the concession of the dominion status to Canada (1867); the colonial Boer War (1899-1902), which virtually opened a new historical period of redistribution of spheres of the colonial influence and forestalled the First World War (1914-1918). In fact, it was the fight for preserving status quo of the British Empire. The main internal political event was the foundation of the Labour Party (1900). Its activity created an alternative to the liberals and Tories at the beginning of the 20th century. When this party came to power (1924), the accents of political struggle shifted from the confrontation“liberals-conservatives” to “labourites-conservatives”. The negative consequences of the Great Depression, the USA being its epicenter, cannot help to influence the situation in Great Britain. However, due to the developed democratic institutions and efficient mechanisms of regulation of the capitalist economy, the depression did not exert so great influence on this country as on the USA.

The evolutionary period of the third epochal cycle is also connected with the disintegration of the British Empire after the Second World War (1939-1945), the changes in the balance of power between Great Britain and the USA, its former colony, the transformation of London to the strategic partner of Washington in Europe. The most outstanding events of this period are as follows: the Labourist government of C. Attlee entered the scene, marking the beginning of the end of colonial policy–the loss of India, a pearl in the crown of the British Empire, the independence of Pakistan (1945-1951); the creation of the British atom bomb during W. Churchill’s second premiership (1951-1955); the Suez crisis (1952-1956); privatization processes in the state sector and expansion of the area for private initiative during the rule of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990); the preservation of Britain’s greatness –the war with Argentina for Falkland Islands (1982); the victory of T. Blair and the“new”Labourists at the parliamentary elections (1997), and a following exclusion of hereditary peers from the poll, the reform in the House of Lords, the peace process in Ulster, decentralization (devolution)–the creation of assemblies in Scotland and Wales; the confrontation between the eurooptimists and eurosceptics on the issue of entering the Monetary union. The analysis of events of the last period gives grounds to assume that Great Britain is standing on the threshold of the revolutionary stage of the fourth epochal cycle. The definition of a new role of the monarchy, the solution of the problems of multiracial society, and the coexistence of various cultural traditions may become the content of that cycle.

    8. 5. France

The hypothetical scheme of development of epochal cycles of the national history of France may be presented in a following way.

The history of France goes back to the period of establishment of the state of Franks. It would be quite natural to assume that the beginning of the first epochal cycle is connected with the revolutionary stage of origin of a new subject of history in Europe. The inclusion of the Frankish state into the Christian civilization is connected with the acceptance of Catholic Christianity (496). The victories of Chlodwig over the neighboring Germanic tribes (481-511) extended geopolitical borders, forming the present territory of France.

The involutionary stage of the cycle had the content of formation of classic West-European feudalist system (511-843), which lasted practically to the Verdun division of the Carlovingian Empire (843). The emerged historical events of the period are connected with the activity of Emperor Carolus Martellus (715-741). Due to his victory over the Arabs near Poitiers (732), the borders of Islamic expansion in Europe were finally determined. The next important figure of the period was Carolus Magnus (768-814). It is his territorial aggrandizements that laid down the background for creation of the united Europe. At the same time, the Carlovingian Empire was not a stable state formation, because it comprised various nations which were at different stages of historical development. All this predetermined the following differentiation of the single state formation and creation of the main states of Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy).

The Verdun division of the Carlovingian Empire (843) became the turning (co-evolutionary) point in the history of France. The truly French dynasty of Capetians, which came into confrontation with the British dynasty of Plantagenets, was created in this period. The King of England Henry Plantagenet invaded the French territory from La Manche to the Pyrenees (1154). The evolutionary period of development of France during the first epochal cycle is marked by the appearance of the urban (burgher) culture and the struggle of towns for trade privileges against feudals. The Sorbonne University arises in 1136. Pierre Abailard (1079-1142) was one of the most prominent professors at this university. Large heretic movements and religious wars with Albigenses (13th century) are also characteristic of the period. French kings gradually restored their control over the territories lost before. Philippe IV (1180-1223) regained Normandy from Britain. Louis IX concluded peace with England (1259), leaving, therefore, only Aquitaine and Gascony under the British rule. The new greatness of France is confirmed by the political control over the pontiffs–the so-called Avignon imprisonment of Popes (1309-1379). The peripetias of the initial stage of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1358) became the historic event of long-duration meaning which stimulated the revolutionary processes of the second epochal cycle. Standing on the edge of ultimate defeat and seeking the ways of attraction of broad masses to take part in the war, the King of France Charles II was forced to call classes in the General states (fore-parliament). The revolutionary processes were followed by Jacquerie caused by a growth of military exactions and the attempts to enslave the population. France was on the edge of catastrophe when it was rescued by Joan of Arc, who liberated Orleans (1429). Since that event, France gained victories over the Englishmen, and, during the rule of Louis XI (1461-1483), the political unification of France came to an end, and the conditions for absolutist monarchy, which symbolizes the peak of the involutionary period in country’s development, were created. Having revived after the Hundred Years' War, France got engaged in the war with Germany and Spain for control over Italy. The protestant heresy appeared during the rule of Francis I (1515-1547).

Social-political contradictions which became more evident due to wars and reformist tendencies of spiritual life, raised the Fronde of civil religious wars (1562-1598), which, in fact, became the expression of co-evolutionary transformational processes. The events of the transient period lasted practically to 1629, when the Edict of mercy gave the freedom of conscience to Huguenots.

The outstanding historical events of the evolutionary period (1629-1789) were as follows: the Thirty Years' War which defined the French hegemony in Europe, a subsequent growth of the French culture, coming back to the early-Italian Renaissance. The spiritual face of the epoch was defined by the works of Francois Rabelais (1494-1533), Pierre Ronsard (1524-1585), Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Jean Bodin (1530-1596) and R. Descartes (1596-1650). The defeat of France in the Seven Years’War (1753-1760), the loss of colonial domains (the province of Quebec in Canada, trade outposts in India), and the ruin of country’s economy, stimulated the deep political crisis of the absolutism system which ended in the burst the Great French revolution (1789-1794). This epochal event, which had a globally historical meaning (for Western, Central, and East Europe, and also for Asia in XIX-XX centuries) resulted in opening the area for development of capitalist relations. The export of revolution during Napoleon’s wars (1799-1814), brought the bourgeois law by means of French bayonets to the most distant areas of Europe. The inability of a final victory of counterrevolution in France demonstrated all the radicality of changes. The restoration of monarchy (1815-1848), opening the involutionary period of the third epochal cycle, was unable to change the bourgeois-democratic character of the state. The efforts to reanimate the absolutism were ruined by the revolts of the people in 1830 and 1848-1849. The following political development of the country predetermined the formation of the Third presidential republic (1875-1940).

The victory of France in the First World War did not strengthen economic positions of the country. Moreover, the ruined Germany could not pay off French military expenses by its reparations. The beginning of the conjuncture economic crisis of the Great Depression (1929-1933) became the turning co-evolutionary point in the development of France. The transient processes in France lasted up to the Algerian crisis (1958).

France enters the evolutionary period of the third epochal cycle with the return of De Gaulle to the political stage of the country.

The most important events of the period were as follows: the entrance of France into the European Economic Community (1958); French nuclear weapon test (1962); the reconciliation between France and Germany, put into life by the treaty between De Gaulle and Adenauer (1963). Student’s disturbances (May 1968) were aimed at democratization of the country’s political system and favored the rejuvenation of the country’s political elite. The enlivening of left-centralist sentiments in the country does not hold any pronounced radical character. The modern policy of France is directed to preservation of the former greatness. Its real economic position among the leading seven industrial states has a tendency to a decline. It shifted from the 4th to the 5th place according to its economic indices in the recent five years.

Quite probably, the evolutionary period of development has not exhausted its potency and will last in the first quarter of the 21st century. 8. 6. Ukraine

For Ukraine, the beginning of the first epochal cycle is identified with sources of Kievian Rus’ history.

It would not be groundless to assume that the revolutionary phase of the cycle is connected with the seizure of power in Novgorod and Kiev by the Norman army of Oleg (882). The establishment of control over the trade way“from Varangians to Greeks”was the sense of the event. The campaigns of Svyatoslav (964-969) also became the content of the revolutionary phase. However, they did not provide for the territorial expansion of Rus to the West, and, moreover, they uncovered the southern borders of the state, exposing them to Khasarian attacks. The entrance of Ukraine-Rus to the involutionary period was connected with the choice of belonging to a civilization and the introduction of Christianity of the Byzantine model (988). The fight for the Kievian throne, which flared up after the death of Prince Vladimir, ended only during the rule of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054). The inner political situation in Kievian Rus stabilized in that period. At the same time, under the influence of the external factor, the split of the Christian church to the Catholic (ecumenical) and Orthodox (right) ones, Ukrainian lands, according to Hrushevsky, lose their own civilizational rhythm of history. The insiccation of the Byzantine sources of culture, to what Ukraine-Rus belonged, did not allow that land to find the rhythm neither in the Catholic nor in Protestant civilizational cycles [63 Hrushevsky M. History of Ukraine-Rus [in Ukrainian]. – Kiev, 1931. – Vol. 9, Part 2. – P. 1507. ]. In fact, the civilizational failure was marked along the Dnieper (“East”– “West”). The fight for political influence in the country stimulated the processes of feudal disunity, confirmed at the meeting of Princes in Lubich (1097), where they made a decision: “everyone holds his own dominion”. The reinforcement of kindred North-Eastern Russian princedoms in the XI century stimulated their struggle against the parental culture of the Kievian Rus. This process was symbolized by the war for the Kievian throne between Izyaslav Mstislavitch and the Prince of Suzdal, Jury Dolgoruky (1147-1149). The situation was complicated with permanent confrontation with the nomadic nations of steppe. The assault of hordes of Polovtsians upon Kiev (1169) did not stimulate any uniting processes in the military and political spheres. Every prince strived for his own victories, trying to prove his right to be primus inter pares. The bright example is the campaign of Severian Prince Igor Svyatoslavich against Polovtsians, which ended in the defeat of Igor by the Polovtsian Khan Konchak (1185).

The peculiar correctives, amended to the historical development of the Ukraine-Rus by the steppian nations, finally weakened the political influence of Kiev as a uniting power of the Slav nations. The situation promoted the appearance of new centers of power–the beginning of a growth of the Galych-Volyn princedom (1199) and princedoms of the North-Eastern Rus.

Transient processes of the co-evolution of the first epochal cycle are identified with defeats of the North-Eastern Rus and the Mogul-Tartarian invasion of it (1237-1238). This period includes: the defeat of Kiev (1240), the creation of“Saga on Defeat of Rus”by monks. In fact, Ukraine-Rus turned into a distinctive defensive line for Europe.

The blossom of the evolutionary period is connected with the strengthening of the Lithuanian princedom that took Ukraine-Rus under its military cover: the campaign of the Lithuanian prince Gediminas to the Kievian princedom (1323). The power of the Lithuanian princedom allowed it to inflict a defeat upon the Mogul-Tartaric horde near the Blue Waters in 1362. However, the military successes, strengthened by the Kievian Union (1385) of the Great Lithuanian princedom and the Kingdom of Poland, weakened the Orthodox hierarchy, especially after the metropolitanate had moved to Moscow (1326). It opened the doors for catholic missionaries to the Ukrainian land, by strengthening the western vector in its culture and, at the same time, stimulating the interconfessional confrontation.

The consequences of Tartar-Mogul destructions became the main reason for the lag of towns of Ukraine-Rus behind the West-European towns in richness, the level of development of guild handicraft, and self-government. Though the town of Vladimir-Volynsky gained the Magdeburg right (1324), in general, the urban culture had not yet reached the West-European level.

Despite the separation of the Crimean Khanate from the Golden Horde (1443), the incursions of nomads on the Ukrainian lands still took place, what favored the emergence of list Cossacks as a special military class, defending the southern borders of the state from incursions. Later, the formations of the Zaporizhzhian Sich appear on Dnieper rapids. The enslaving of peasants intensified in this period. Such a state of affairs cannot help to influence the social-political situation in the Great Princedom of Lithuania. The growing political tension reached their critical point because of active policy of catholicizing the Ukrainian population, finding its expression in the decisions of the Brest synod (1596) on the creation of the Uniate Church. The second epochal cycle. Revolutionary content had the events of the first quarter of the 17th century, connected with the struggle of Ukrainian Cossacks for extending their social rights, the struggle of peasants for liberation from the serfdom oppression of Polish magnates and the struggle of all Ukrainian population for the confessional equality.

The apogee of the events became the War for liberation of the Ukrainian nation under the guidance of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (1648-1654). This period became a divide in the history of Ukraine. However, the high point of restoration of the national statehood of the period of Bogdan Khmelnitsky did not end in success. The Andrusov Peace (1667) between Moscow and Rzecz Pospolita stimulated the geopolitic split of Ukrainian lands: the Left-bank Ukraine remained in the zone of Russian influence, the Right-bank one (except Kiev)–under control of Poland. According to the figural statement of Hrushevsky, the period of Ruin had come, when Ukrainian lands were devastated by almost semicentenary uninterrupted wars.

The period involutionary by its characteristics in the history of Ukraine is connected with its following existence in the borders of Russia. The last attempt of preserving its identity found its expression in the causes that led to events of the Poltava battle (1709). The spiritual front of the period was defined by the works of Hrigory Skovoroda (1722-1794).

Ukraine loses the foretype of its statehood of this period with the destruction of the Zaporizhzhian Sich by Russian troops (1775). The gradual erosion of its social-cultural grounds proceeded. The territorial enlargement at the expense of three divisions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) and accession of the Crimea (1783) led to the spread of serfdom on the peasants of the Left-bank and Slobodian Ukraine at the same time. The“reincarnation”of Ukrainian national spirit was realized in the works of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), what gave an ideological ground to the following generations of freethinking democrats.

The defeat of the Russian Empire in the Crimean War (1854-1856) stimulated reforms, beginning with the abolishment of serfdom (1861). In fact, it became the turning co-evolutionary phase of the third epochal cycle. The bourgeois reforming of economy opened the space for the private initiative. At the same time, the differentiation of the urban Russian-speaking and country Ukrainian-speaking cultures is intensified in the growing processes of russification of Ukraine: the Valuev (1863) and Ems (1876) edicts, that appreciably limited the publishing of books and prohibited the teaching at schools in Ukrainian. All these factors distinctively restrained national-cultural development of Ukraine and manifested in a drop in efficiency of country’s cultural self-realization.

The evolutionary stage of the second epochal cycle was interrupted by the events of the Great October Socialist Revolution (1917-1921). Thus, any accelerated revolutionary processes appeared to be untenable for Ukraine on the whole, and the struggle for national liberation ended in defeat. Appearing in the unit multinational state, the USSR, Ukraine continued its development already in the involutionary period ofthe third epochal cycle. The involutionary stage is connected with the realization of the policy of the “military communism”under conditions of the civil war (1918-1921). The objective specificity of the period, consisting in“acceleration”of the time of historical development and in unique peripetias of the process of mobilization of the“pursuit development”, revealed later. Especially, it can be seen in the transformation of the traditional Ukrainian agrarian society to the“noncapitalist” industrial one, preserving the specific features of “multistructureness”: from the forms of quasistate slavery in the concentration camps, “petty-bourgeois” agrarian production of the “new economic policy” times, to the elements of “state capitalism”. The Second World War (1939-1945) became a tragic trial for Ukraine. It questioned the very possibility of the following historical development as a subject rather than an object of the hostile expansion. On the other side, almost all ethnically Ukrainian territories were included to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, what created the perspective for formation of a political nation.

At the same time, the involutionary period was connected with solution of the tasks of industrial development. The overall nationalization of the objects of property, the collectivization of the agrarian and industrial production, the secularization of the spiritual life did not give any freedom of choice except that defined by the policy of the single governing Communist party and the plans for country’s economic development. Possessing the enormous fertility of both the agricultural area and spiritual space, Ukraine represented an example of the fatigueless supplier of elite personnel to USSR’s bodies. This directly influenced the condition of the national elite. The co-evolutionary phase of the third epochal cycle for Ukraine is identified with the disintegration of the USSR (1991) and the third attempt (after 1648-1654 and 1917-1921) to create a sovereign state.

    8. 7. Russia

Speaking on the historical destiny of Ukraine, Russia, and Belorussia as a basis of the Eurasian civilizational area, one should pay attention to differences in the dynamics of development of epochal cycles of the national historical processes of three Slav nations.

The bright example of such a dissonance is the Russian history. By creating the hypothetical scheme of changes of the epochal cycles, one should pay attention to the“interference”of wave-like cycles of the historical processes within nations which were either forcibly or peacefully included in various times to the Russian Empire as the unique Eurasian geopolitic formation. The conception of Klyuchevsky (1841-1911) concerning the Russian civilization as a peculiar synthesis of the Orthodoxy and Islam seems to be efficient. This conception reflected the main peculiarities of the Russian history in the most adequate manner. The beginning of the first epochal cyclemay be identified with the revolutionary stage, whose political sense is connected with radical changes in the alignment of forces between the parental culture of the Kievian Rus and its northern princedoms. The following events may be referred to this period: the first mention of Moscow in chronicles (1147); the transfer of the“capital”princely throne from Kiev to Vladimir (1157). The seizure and destruction of Kiev by the troops of Andrei Bogolubsky (1169) was the symbolic end of the revolutionary phase.

The involutionary period of the first epochal cycle was developing since the latter half of the 12th century. The Mogul-Tartar invasion (1237-1240) became the defining event for this cycle. The Moscowian state was also forced to stand up to the military threats from the West–the opposition of Alexander Nevsky to the Swedish and Teutonic pressure (1240-1242)–which virtually determined the Eurasian geostrategy of the North-Eastern Russia.

The identification of Moscow as a center of collection of lands (1326) is referred to this period–the transfer of the capital from Vladimir-on-Klyazma. The political reinforcement of the Moscowian princes wasconnected with the successful opposition to the Mogul-Tartars – theKulikovo battle (1380); the defeat of the Gold Horde by Timur-Tamerlane (1395). The seizure of Constantinople by the Turks (1453) favored the emergence of the ideology“Moscow is the Third Rome, there cannot be the fourth”. The collection of lands around Moscow was followed by the addition of the Great Novgorod (1478) and the Princedom of Tver (1485). The victory over the Great Princedom of Lithuania allowed one to annex Pskov and Smolensk to Moscow (1514).

The co-evolutionary transient period is connected with the beginning of the rule of Ivan IV the Terrible. The main events of this period were as follows: the publication of the code of laws (1550); the seizure of Kazan (1552); the establishment of oprichnina (1565-1572).

The evolutionary period of the cycle is connected with the Asian territorial expansion of Russia. In particular, with the campaign of Ermak to Siberia (1581), which ended in the join of the territory that had an area of three Europes. Klyuchevsky said: “The state fattened, and the people languished”. The successes of Russia in the west were not so impressive. The destructive Livonia War (1558-1583) did not allow one to solve the task for the Russia to way out to the Baltic Sea. The country remained terrestrial in the geopolitic sense.

The symbols of the evolutionary period were: the establishment of patriarchate (1589) and“troublous times” (1598-1612), connected with cessation of the Rurik’s dynasty and transition of the scepter to the Romanovs. At this time, the influence of the Moscowian czardom on the European part of Eurasia was strengthening, especially after the joining of Ukraine (1654). The new geopolitical situation on the West was legitimated by the“Eternal Peace”with Poland (1686). The analogous functions in Asia were played by the Nerchinsk Treaty with China (1689).

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