Prominent Ukrainian historian Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky (1919-1984) repeatedly addressed the topic
of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917 - the 1920s, especially considering its intellectual origins and
implications in the context of the history of Ukrainian social and political thought. Analysis of
his works shows the manner in which the Ukrainian revolution as an event structures the history
of Ukrainian social and political thought in both senses of the term “history”: as history itself
and as its historiography. Based on this analysis, the article considers changes in the meaning
of the revolution for modern Ukrainians, as well as the credibility - in the context of these
changes - of the classifications of the historiography of Ukrainian social and political thought,
which rest on the key meaning of the revolution for modern Ukrainian history. The article also
supports the conclusion that the rejection of the evolutionary model which I. Lysiak-Rudnytsky
most directly addressed will help to outline a well-balanced and reliable history of Ukrainian
social and political thought without excessive historicism.