Ukrainian encyclopedistics in wartime (based on the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine) (Scientific review paper)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (Ukrainian: Entsyklopediia Suchasnoi Ukrainy) as one of the priority Ukrainian academic scholarly publications in the context of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, and to outline the editorial team’s priorities in responding to the new challenges of the time. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and consistency. General scholarly methods were used, including analysis, synthesis, description, and generalisation. The authors report on the peculiarities of preparing the paper volumes of the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine, emphasise the importance and necessity of producing a complete set of EMU volumes for the cultural development of the state and building the state’s information ecosystem. At the same time, they draw attention to the fact that paper encyclopedia publishing needs more funding than it currently has (in recent years, the shortage of funding has been compensated by reducing the quality of printing and the circulation of edition volumes). The article also covers the encyclopedia’s digital counterpart (EMU website as an online encyclopedia). In particular, it was found that the indicators of the online encyclopedia visits and pageviews are increasing every year. Moreover, in a turbulent 2022 of full-scale war, the website traffic was the highest ever. The language specificity of the online encyclopedia’s visitors is in the focus of the authors as well. The authors state that the war negatively impacts various spheres of life in Ukraine including academic encyclopedistics and suggest that the editorial and publishing process relating to the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine should be revised. It is concluded that it is economically expedient to focus on the EMU’s online version during the war. Along with this, there is a possibility of a complete blackout of Ukraine, which could be caused by Russian airstrikes on the country’s critical infrastructure. In such a situation, the editorial team’s planned direction for the next year(s) of activity regarding online encyclopedia development unfortunately seems problematic as well.