Prosopographic portrait of Ukrainian writers of Halychyna and Bukovyna of the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century

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Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University

Prosopographic portrait of Ukrainian writers of Halychyna and Bukovyna of the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century (review of the monograph: M. Huivaniuk “On the Path of Progress, We are only Stonemasons...”. Ukrainian Literary Intelligentsia in the Social, Political, Cultural and Educational Life of Galicia and Bukovyna (the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century))

Uliana Haliv PhD (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Ukrainian Language

Svitlana Bila PhD (History), Associate Professor of the World History and Special Historical Disciplines Department

24 Ivan Franko Street, Drohobych, Ukraine, postal code 82100

Дрогобицький державний педагогічний університет імені Івана Франка

Просопографічний портрет українських письменників Галичини і Буковини кінця ХІХ - початку ХХ ст. (рецензія на монографію: Гуйванюк М. “На шляху поступу ми лиш каменярі...”. Українська літературна інтелігенція в суспільно-політичному та культурно-освітньому житті Галичини й Буковини (кінець ХІХ - початок ХХ ст.))

Уляна Галів кандидатка філологічних наук, доцентка кафедри української мови

Світлана Біла кандидатка історичних наук, доцентка кафедри всесвітньої історії та спеціальних історичних дисциплін

вул. Івана Франка, 24, Дрогобич, Україна, індекс 82100

Nation-formation processes are fundamental condition for the development of any civil society. In other words, creation of a cultural and spiritual essence, and therefore ethno- mental picture of people. In this context, the Ukrainian state is no exception, which owes its social status - from ancient times to the present day - to political leaders, public, cultural figures in the field of literature, science, etc. It was cultural figures (each in their own region) who actively formed intellectual face of people, were bearers of ideas that laid the foundation for the national revival. Intellectual progress brought new revolutionary tendencies, gave birth to new literary currents, spiritual changes.

The outlined issue was thoroughly and expertly researched by the historian Mykola Huyvaniuk in the monograph “On the Path of Progress, We are only Stonemasons...”. The author's scientific search is marked by relevance and novelty. In particular, a comprehensive approach to the study of the outlined phenomenon, involving historiographical and prosopographical analysis, deserves attention. The historian relies on the achievements of intellectual history, the theory of the nation and the theory of modernity, historical and biographical, historical and genetic, historical and typological, proof-historical methods, content analysis of sources, and the method of variational series.

The monograph consists of five chapters. In Chapter 1 there is highlighted the historiography, source base and theoretical and methodological foundations of the research. The author focuses not only on the works of the Soviet and modern Ukrainian historiography, but also draws attention to the historiography of the Austrian era, the interwar period, and foreign sources.

It is interesting that the issue presented by M. Huyvaniuk in the monograph has not yet been the subject of scientific research, especially in such a complex vision. Therefore, the author's innovation as a researcher of the Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukrainian lands is obvious.

It is worth noting that the author analyses significant achievements of the Ukrainian historiography not only from the point of view of socio-political, but also linguistic processes. In this context, among the others, the research works of Drohobych researchers Iryna Kapanaiko and Olesia Khymyn are mentioned. Unfortunately, the author ignored the research works of I. Franko Studies experts: Mykhailo Shalata, Volodymyr Halyk, and Oleh Bahan, and did not use the works of Lviv historian Natalia Kolb, who wrote about the Greek Catholic priests of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries and their contribution to culture: education, literature, art.

Extensive studies of modern Ukrainian historiography enabled the author to cover a large number of personalities - from Ivan Franko to the figures of the National Academy of Sciences. Instead, the ideologized Soviet historiography is marked by significant gaps and does not provide reliable information. In total, Mykola Huyvaniuk analysed biographies of 83 representatives of the Ukrainian literary intelligentsia. nation galicia bukovina

To study the outlined issue, the author involved a large number of sources, highlighting official documents, letters, speeches, autobiographies, memoirs, periodical materials, and scientific and journalistic works among them. All of them are the reflection of that era. In particular, a selection of Mykhailo Drahomanov's correspondence with Mykhailo Pavlyk, Ivan Franko's correspondence, a large corpus of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi's epistolary, literary speeches of Oleksandr Barvinskyi, Yulian Romanchuk, Kyrylo Trylovskyi, Vasyl Stefanyk, Natalia Kobrynska, and the others were analysed.

It is gratifying that, evaluating the scientific and journalistic works of the literary intelligentsia, Mykola Huyvaniuk focuses on the research works of a national orientation, in which the idea of state-building is outlined for the first time (the work of Yulian Bachynskyi “Ukraine Irredenta”). The author does not ignore works of socio-political, economic, cultural direction. For authenticity, he involves a number of photo documents, which are an eloquent illustration of the social activities of the Ukrainian intelligentsia.

Since the Soviet reception of the intelligentsia's role in society was primitive and distorted, Mykola Huyvaniuk offers a reader, in addition to considering the main methodological principles, his own interpretation of certain terms and concepts: “national movement”, “national idea”, “national consciousness”, “emancipation”, “literary intelligentsia” (the term suggested by the author), etc.

In Chapter 2, “Formation and Structure of the Ukrainian Literary Intelligentsia in the Context of Socio-political and Socio-economic Processes in Galicia and Bukovyna at the end of the 19th century - the Beginning of the 20th Century” there are highlighted main modernization and emancipation processes of the 19th century, which determined the need to increase the number of the main nation's core, its “brain” - the intelligentsia. “Among the representatives of creative intelligentsia,” M. Huyvaniuk notes, “writers, journalists, and editors of the Ukrainian publications, for which we use the term literary intelligentsia, occupied a special place.” They were known to general public of the Ukrainians for their creativity, because with a gradual growth of an educational level of Galician and Bukovyna Ukrainians, the circle of admirers of the Ukrainian fiction word expanded” (p. 124).

It is worth mentioning that the beginning of the Ukrainian national revival in Galicia took place much earlier - in the first decades of the 19th century, while in Bukovyna - in the second half of the 19th century. According to the definition of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, until the second half of the 19th century Bukovyna remained the most backward of the Austrian provinces. Because of the Orthodox faith, Bukovyna had no way to Europe, in particular to Vienna. For a long time, the language of education in Bukovyna was German or Romanian, and since 1817 - also Polish. The expansionism of German culture levelled the feeling of national unity among writers, destroyed creative personalities, and silenced the process of forming the Ukrainian identity. But in the second half of the 19th century national revival covered all areas of a cultural life: literature, education, science, art, politics.

The author of the monograph focuses on the important stages of literary intelligentsia formation, one of which was secondary educational institutions (in particular, classical gymnasiums), as well as higher educational institutions; chief focus is on the activities of student associations that contributed to the formation of national education - “Sich”, “Academic Conversation”, “Mutual Aid Society”, “Academic Circle”, “Soyuz”, “Vatra”, etc.

The researcher's view is also focused on the social origin of the intelligentsia, diversity of life circumstances. For the reliability of information, the author used the personal funds of writers of T Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Literary and Memorial Museum of V. Stefanyk in the village of Rusiv, the funds of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv and other sources. The majority of Ukrainian writers, as it was found out, came from clergy families (26%) and peasant families (25%) and did not have an adequate financial support, but this lack did not prevent them from being active participants in nation-building processes, to establish and popularize the Ukrainian literary language. By the way, a separate section of the monograph is devoted to the issue of the language factor in the context of the Ukrainian nation-building at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.

At the same time, the researcher shows all the complexity of the national and political visions of the Ukrainian writers, some of whom were the Russophiles and the Muscophiles. Mykola Huyvaniuk adheres to the views of the Austrian researcher Anna Veronika Wenland, who believes that the Russophiles, although they had their own specificity, were an important element of the Ukrainian nation-building in the western lands of Ukraine (p. 39). However, in his work he singles out the Russophile literary intelligentsia into a separate group and gives it a separate prosopographical characteristic (pp. 156-159), thus drawing a demarcation line, and the marker is the writers' national identity.

In Chapter 3 a reader is introduced to the literary intelligentsia - the defender of the economic and social interests of the Ukrainian population. Ukrainian literature, according to the author's observation, had a great influence on the strike movement of agricultural workers, on the fight against usury and drunkenness, on the financial illiteracy of the peasantry, etc. (p. 220), was engaged in solving the problem of mass emigration of the Ukrainians overseas.

In Chapter 4 of the monograph there is highlighted the participation of the Ukrainian literary intelligentsia in the socio-political and religious life of Galicia and Bukovyna. The author analyses the experience of the political activity of Galician and Bukovyna writers, in particular the programme principles of the Ukrainian People's Party, reflects on the role of the Ukrainian intelligentsia in election processes, on its church and religious life, as well as its participation in the feminist movement.

Chapter 5 focuses on the educational and scientific activities of the literary intelligentsia. The author managed to trace the main trends of the educational movement, among which are “education of the need for reading and reading culture among the Ukrainian community of Galicia and Bukovyna” (p. 304), the need for quality literary production. In this context, Mykola Huyvaniuk draws attention to the activities of the “Prosvita”, “Ruska Besida” and NTSh associations, the development of Ukrainian schooling.

The peer-reviewed monograph is clearly and logically structured, rich in factual material, characterized by a logical sequence of described events and a complex approach to the study of the outlined issue.

However, we will make some comments regarding the content of Chapter 2. When it comes to the literary intelligentsia in the context of social and political processes, it would be worth mentioning such figures as: a cultural figure Kost Pankivskyi (1855 - 1915), the Galician folklorist and priest Ilia Kuziv (1874 - 1916), Ostap Terletskyi (1850 - 1902), a writer and church figure Kyrylo Seletskyi (1835 - 1918), an ethnographer and public figure Danylo Lepky (1858 - 1912), a linguist Onufriy Lepky (1838 - 1905), a writer Izydor Pasichynskyi (1853 - 1930). At the beginning of the 20th century Volodymyr Birchak (1881 - 1952) began his career in literature. We think that this galaxy of cultural figures would enrich the author's research and satisfy the reader's interest significantly.

In addition, it is not clear from the author's work whom he means under the name “O. Hrytsai”, which he mentions many times in the book. Perhaps, a poet, literary critic and translator Ostap Hrytsai (1881 - 1954) is meant, who published his first poetic works in 1910. Or perhaps, the author meant Olena Hrytsai (the years of birth and death unknown) - a poetess from Drohobych County, who actively published her works in the magazine “Zoria”, the newspaper “Bukovyna”, the magazine for children “Dzvinok” in the 1880s and 1890s. Mykola Huyvaniuk should have submitted full names with the surnames of writers, not just their initials.

But the stated considerations in no way diminish the significance of the monograph, which is an important contribution to the development of literary and historical thought. We note that the author managed to form a large-scale prosopographic portrait of the Ukrainian literary intelligentsia, having found out the social origin of its representatives, their educational level, age and gender characteristics, professional activity, political views and party affiliation, material support. Undoubtedly the monograph will be useful for scholars, local historians, and anyone interested in the historical past of Ukraine.

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