ENThe article attempts to explain the causes and manifestations of the transformations of historical thinking of the researcher of the history of law of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Onikii Malinovsky (1868–1932). The author came to the conclusion about the gradual «migration» of a scientist from the space of «supranational» Russian imperial historiographical culture to the national Ukrainian. The reasons for such changes are seen in the integration of the scientist in the context of the scientific and social life of Soviet Ukraine during the Bolshevik Ukrainization period, the probable strengthening of his Ukrainian ethnic loyalty. National reform in Ukraine led to a national-cultural upsurge (the «Red Renaissance») and the spread of national consciousness in the intellectuals' circles. These general processes «hurt» and O. Malinovsky.