HALYCHYNA IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF MYKHAILO HRUSHEVSKYI (1885–1894)

Abstract

The paper investigates the interest of Mykhailo Hrushevsky in Halychyna and his first contacts with local populists (narodovtsi) in 1885–1894, before moving to Lviv, where he later would become famous as a scientist and cultural-public figure. Emphasis is placed on M. Hrushevskyi's early interest in Ukrainian activities in his youth. He considered sub-Austrian Halychyna a potential center of the national movement under the «Ems Ukaz» (Ems decree) of 1876 and repressions against Ukrainians in Russia. As stressed, in the diary, which the young Mykhailo kept since 1883, he regularly wrote down his impressions of events in Halychyna. Under the ideological influence of V. Antonovych, O. Konyskyi, and I. Nechui-Levytskyi, through the mediation of members of Kyiv society «Stara hromada», he, in the mid-1880s, he worked out the relationships with the Halychyna populists (O. Barvinskyi, I . Belei and others), and was published in the local press. With the I. Nechui-Levytskyi's support, in June 1885, was published the first article of M. Hrushevskyi in the newspaper «Dilo». Later he repeatedly published his works in the updated magazine «Pravda» (since 1888), which became an all-Ukrainian periodical (published in Lviv since 1867, intermittently). It was discovered that at the suggestion of O. Konyskyi M. Hrushevskyi prepared an article under the pseudonym M. Serhienko, which opened the first volume of «Notes of Shevchenko Scientific Society» in 1892 and marked the beginning of his many-years collaboration with scientific journals in Halychyna. Furthermore, highlighted that M. Hrushevskyi, as well as ukrainophiles of Naddniprianshchyna (the territory of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire), to create the best conditions for the development of Ukrainian national movement in Halychyna, supported the policy of the Polish-Ukraine mutual support, known in history as the «New Era» (1890–1894). In the context of the «New Era» policy, from 1891, M. Hrushevskyi's moving to Halychyna to head the Department of History of Ukraine at the Lviv University, was discussed. People of Halychyna insisted on the candidacy of Professor V. Antonovych, who was a scientific supervisor of M. Hrushevskyi; I. Belei and O. Barvinskyi even visited Kyiv in 1893 to persuade him to agree to move to Halychyna, but to no avail. In the autumn of 1894, M. Hrushevskyi on the recommendation of V. Antonovych, for patriotic reasons, headed the newly created department, which started a new Halychyna period in his life and work (until 1913). The scientist's multifaceted activity is revealed, which was an essential tool for constructing the historical memory of Ukrainians: he contributed to the organization of extensive publishing activities in the Ukrainian language, the development of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, founded his historical school, a prominent representative of which was I. Krypiakevych.