Spiritual education and imperial narratives: the ukrainian past in the mirror of diocesan magazines of the second half of the 19th century

The purpose of the article is to analyze the role of Orthodox spiritual journals of the second half of the 19th century in the spread of imperial narratives about the history of Ukraine. The research is aimed at determining the mutual influence of the publications of ecclesiastical diocesan publications with the state ideology, as well as analyzing the connection of these publications with the modern propaganda of the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church against Ukraine. The methodological principles. Based on the analysis of historical literature and the source base, the article’s author used the methods of historical analysis and synthesis to examine the imperial narratives in the Orthodox spiritual journals of the period under study. The research also uses the comparative method and the method of systematic analysis to study the topics of publications of magazines of individual dioceses, as well as to determine the influence of the views of pre-revolutionary Orthodox publicists on the modern narratives of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding Ukraine. The scientific novelty of this topic is based on an attempt to analyze the variability of the thematic spectrum of historical publications issued in various diocesan journals and on revealing views on interfaith relations in the historical retrospective of Orthodox authors and determining the influence of these views on the beliefs of the hierarchs of the modern Russian Orthodox Church. Conclusions. The authors analyzed the topics of historical publications issued in the unofficial part of diocesan journals in the territory of the Russian Ukraine and the Cholm-Warsaw diocese. Interrelationships and regional differences of imperial narratives in Orthodox diocesan journals were traced. The role of diocesan information in relaying these narratives, as well as their reflection in modern Kremlin propaganda against Ukraine, is highlighted. It is asserted that the diocesan Orthodox publishing houses of the second half of the 19th century played an important role in forming the Russian imperial vision of the past of Ukrainian lands. The study revealed their role in the spread of numerous regional variants of imperial propaganda. The indirect influence of these narratives on Ukrainian national historiography is noted, and the need to distance themselves from them for a better study of the past and opposition to Russian propaganda is specified.