The article highlights the problem of using the sociological method of content analysis in the study of anarchist documents in Ukraine. Using the experience of scientists who used sociological methods, 171 leaflets were analyzed using the named method and conclusions were drawn regarding the scientific potential and importance of a comprehensive analysis of sources. Anarchist leaflets had signs of mass sources: circulation, typicality of form and content. A large number of documents were removed, requiring comprehensive research. The documents were analyzed according to their content. The unit of analysis was determined by the number and frequency of use of the specified categories in the text of leaflets and proclamations. The following categories were selected: political opponents and direct enemies against whom anarchists spoke out – “capital”, “authority”, “state”, “private property”, “parliament”, “socialists”, “bourgeoisie”; the main ideological principles of anarchism – “freedom”, “anarchy”, “uprising”, “riot”, “revolution”, “general strike”; tactical means and methods of struggle used by anarchists – “terror”, “expropriation”, “bomb”, “murder”, “undermining”; the nature of the anarchists’ actions and the expected effect of them – “destroy”, “revenge”, “destroy”, “death”, “violence”, “blood”, “revenge”. The analysis of the leaflets was carried out through the study of key words, the frequency of use of which allows us to summarize the nature of the content, purpose and orientation of the documents. The analysis of the documents allows us to state that: the anarchists’ leaflets were aggressive in nature, they contained calls for crimes that were veiled by ideology and justified by the circumstances of the people’s lives. In them, the anarchists openly called for murders, robberies, regardless of any victims. This allows us to conclude that it was radicalism in statements and unlimited terror in actions that were the reason for the popularity of anarchists during the revolution of 1905–1907. The created tables and diagrams allow us to take a comprehensive look at the historical and political aspects of the activities of the anarchist movement in Ukraine.
Svitlana Zelentsova (Wed,) studied this question.