Mykhailo Dragomanov's page

   Dragomanov Mykhailo Petrovych (30 (18) September 1841, Hadiach, Poltava region - 2 July (20 June) 1895, Sofia) - Ukrainian publicist, historian, philosopher, economist, literary critic, folklorist, and public figure.   One of the organizers of the "Old Community" in Kyiv. He was an associate professor at Kyiv University (1870-1876). After his dismissal for political unreliability, he emigrated to Geneva, where he headed the center of Ukrainian political emigration (1876-1889). Professor at the University of Sofia (1889-1895).

   M. Dragomanov's parents, small landed gentry, descendants of Cossack officers, were educated people who shared liberal views for their time. "I owe a great deal to my father, who developed my intellectual interests, with whom I had no moral disorder and no struggle..." Mykhailo Dragomanov later recalled. From 1849 to 1853, the young man studied at the Hadiach District School, where, among other disciplines, he studied history, geography, languages, and was fascinated by the ancient world. The curious boy continued his studies at the Poltava Gymnasium. These were the times of accumulating knowledge, expanding his field of interest, and being fascinated by the latest political trends. M. Dragomanov's extraordinary determination, diligence, and education impressed his teachers. His sister Olga (the future writer Olena Pchilka, Lesya Ukrainka's mother) recalled that "books... Mykhailo read so many books and such authors at the gymnasium that many secondary school students of later times... would be surprised to hear that among those authors were such... as Schlosser, Macaulay, Prescott, Guizot." In the autumn of 1859, M. Dragomanov entered the Faculty of History and Philology at Kyiv University. Here he had much wider and greater opportunities to improve his general education and to become more fully and vividly acquainted with the social and political processes that were constantly emerging in the turbulent student environment. The University of those Times was one of the most important centers of scientific, cultural and social life. To a large extent, this was due to the merit of its trustee, the famous surgeon M. Pirogov, who "allowed de facto academic freedom in Kyiv, similar to the European one". M. Dragomanov tried to keep up with and organically combine the process of studying with practical public work, which was prompted by the political moods awakened by the general situation.

   A milestone in the development of M. Dragomanov as a political and public figure was his speech over Shevchenko's coffin in Kyiv when the ashes of the great Kobzar were being transported to Chernecha Hill. The words spoken by the then-young speaker: "Anyone who goes to serve the people, thereby puts on a crown of thorns," proved to be prophetic. In 1863, M. Dragomanov became a member of the Community. These associations emerged as a form of awakening the consciousness of the national intelligence to the knowledge of Ukrainian literature, history, culture, folk life, and law. Later, in the 1970s, new, young Communities appeared, whose charters already raised the question of Ukraine's "independent political existence" with an "elected people's government". Since the mid-1960s, M. Dragomanov's development as a scientist has been closely linked to his journalistic work. In fact, in these works - historical, ethnographic, philological, and sociological - M. Dragomanov's emphasis involuntarily shifted to the political background of the issue in question. In 1871, the Kyiv University sent M. Dragomanov abroad. Instead of the planned two years, the young scholar stayed there for almost three, visiting Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Florence, Heidelberg, and Lviv. A special place in M. Dragomanov's political and journalistic activity is occupied by Galicia. He was one of the first to try to awaken Galician public life and raise social consciousness. M. Dragomanov's three-year foreign tour was extremely fruitful for the young scientist. He was now able to critically examine and evaluate his beliefs, comparing them with the vivid Western European experience. The onset of reaction and the reintroduction of oppression against the reviving manifestations of Ukrainian culture forced Dragomanov to go abroad and become a political emigrant. In the autumn of 1875, Mykhailo Dragomanov traveled to Vienna through Galicia and Hungary intending to create a center of national political thought and launch a Ukrainian newspaper. M. Dragomanov created a progressive social and political collection "Gromada" in Geneva in the autumn of 1876. Five volumes of the collection were published. The main theme of "Gromada" was to provide as much material as possible for the study of Ukraine and its people, their spiritual endeavors and aspirations for freedom and equality among the world community. In the second half of the 1980s, Dragomanov was invited to cooperate with several leading publications in Galicia. According to Ivan Franko, the formation and development of radical movements in Western Ukraine was the last and perhaps the greatest joy in Dragomanov's life. In 1889, Mykhailo Dragomanov was invited to the Chair of General History at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Sofia University in Bulgaria. The name of M. Dragomanov was associated in the minds of the progressive public with the struggle of the Slavic peoples for freedom, autonomy, and brotherhood.

   A balanced and insightful politician, M. Dragomanov was tormented by the stifling atmosphere in society that existed in the Russian Empire regarding national minorities. It was the period before another total assault on the freedom-loving mood of the people. "The depressed state of mind is greatly increased by the realization of the sad state of affairs in Ukraine," Lesya Ukrainka testified about the last days of Dragomanov's life. Temporary improvements in his general condition contributed to bursts of creative inspiration, but his unexpected death from a ruptured aorta on 20 June 1895 ended the life of the great scientist and public figure. Dragomanov was buried in Sofia. M. Dragomanov's literary views M. Dragomanov in his scientific and literary-critical works of 70 - 90 years ("Literature of Russian, Great Russian, Ukrainian and Galician", 1873 - 1874; "Letters to Naddniprians'ka Ukraine", 1893 - 1894; "Celebration of Shevchenko's anniversary in "Russian society", 1873). War with the memory of Shevchenko, 1882; Taras Shevchenko in another man's house named after him, 1893, etc.) demanded that literature should be guided by the principles of fidelity to the truth of life, corresponding to its time, and reach the depths of social life with its problems and heroes.

   Of great importance was Dragomanov's development of the concept of the nationality of literature. He emphasized the historicity of this category, which, constantly evolving, updating its content and form, showed a deep sensitivity to the social and aesthetic needs of the people. Supporting the truly folk in the works of Ukrainian writers, M. Dragomanov waged a decisive struggle against pseudo-folklore, provincialism, and limited literature. He was one of the first in Ukrainian literary criticism to analyze romanticism as a trend in art, which in previous decades had played a positive role in the formation of national literature, arousing interest in oral folklore, ethnography, and mythology of Ukrainians. This created the preconditions for realism, which began to dominate Ukrainian literature in the second half of the nineteenth century. The very concept of realism in Dragomanov's aesthetics is interesting, as it is based on the requirement of a trendless, objective portrayal of life. Underestimation of the advantages of the realistic way of reflecting reality led to the fact that some Ukrainian writers (for example, O. Storozhenko) painted abstract schemes rather than living people, were fond of didacticism, while artistic creativity requires "bringing to the stage existing, not imaginary persons and situations".

   The scholar associated the achievements of realism in Ukrainian literature with the works of Taras Shevchenko, Marko Vovchok, Panas Myrnyi, Ivan Nechuy-Levytskyi, and partly Yurii Fedkovych. Being engaged in comparative literary studies, Dragomanov promoted the importance of universal aesthetic values in the development of the culture of the Ukrainian people.

   Mykhailo Dragomanov - a prominent figure of Ukraine: on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of his birth - this is the title of the electronic collection of digitized publications from the rare books collection of the Scientific Library of the Mykhailo Dragomanov Ukrainian State University, which also contains other text, photo, video materials and electronic bibliographic resources.