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Young Radicals and Independent Statehood: The Idea of a Ukrainian Nation-State, 1890-1895

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

John-Paul Himka
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An assumption common to many modern political theorists is that the nation-state is the natural goal of national movements. But for the submerged peoples of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, the formulation of the goal of independent statehood required a leap in ideological development from essentially cultural and social to overtly political nationalism. In this article, I am interested in the ideological leap taken by the Ukrainians, particularly in the role played by the young intelligentsia in the formulation of the goal of a nation-state. My argument has three stages: a narrative account of events, designed to correct misconceptions in the existing historiography and to show that the goal of independence was put forward in the context of a generational conflict within the radical intelligentsia; an examination of the opposing ideas advanced by young and old radicals; and an explanation of why the young radicals could formulate the demand for Ukrainian statehood while their senior contemporaries could not.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , Summer 1982 , pp. 219 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1982

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References

1. Bachyns'kyi, Iuliian, Ukraina irredenta (Lviv, 1895 Google Scholar) (hereafter cited as Ukraina irredenta 1895) and Mikhnovs'kyi, Mykola, Samostiina Ukraina (Lviv, 1900 Google Scholar). Clearly, the most thoughtful presentation of the subject is Ivan L. Rudnytsky's “The Fourth Universal and Its Ideological Antecedents,” in Taras, Hunczak, ed., The Ukraine, 1917-1921: A Study in Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1977 Google Scholar). Rudnytsky calls Bachyns'kyi's and Mikhnovs'kyi's works the “earliest literary expressions” of “the separatist concept” ( “Fourth Universal,” p. 190).

2. I have briefly summarized Drahomanov's biography and the general thrust of his political thought in the Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, vol. 10 (Gulf Breeze, Fla., 1979), pp. 7-9. For a fuller discussion of his political ideas, see Ivan L. Rudnytsky, “Drahomanov as a Political Theorist,” in Mykhaylo Drahomanov: A Symposium and Selected Writings (New York, 1952), pp. 70-130.

3. The early history of radicalism is examined in John-Paul Himka, “Polish and Ukrainian Socialism: Austria, 1867-1890” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1977). A revised version will be published by Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute under the title “Socialism in Galicia: The Emergence of Polish Social Democracy and Ukrainian Radicalism, 1860-1890.” I have also prepared a shorter account that carries the story through 1899 (see John-Paul Himka, “Ukrains'kyi sotsiializm u Halychyni [Do rozkolu v Radykal'nii partii, 1899 r.],” Journal of Ukrainian Graduate Studies, no. 7 [Fall 1979], pp. 33-51). Other works on the subject include Levyns'kyi, V., Narys rozvytku ukrains'koho robitnychoho rukhu v Halychyni (Kiev, 1914 Google Scholar) and Elzbieta, Hornowa, Ukrainski obdz postepowy i jego wspolpraca z polskq lewicq spolecznq w Galicji 1876-1895 (Wroclaw, 1968 Google Scholar).

4. Viacheslav Budzynovs'kyi (1868-1935) was born in Bavoriv near Ternopil, the son of a village school teacher. His father was Ukrainian, but not nationally conscious, and his mother was a patriotic Pole. He attended the Polish gymnasium in Lviv until 1886, when he switched to the Ukrainian gymnasium. He had become a socialist two years earlier after reading an antisocialist brochure by a Polish priest. In the mid-1880s he organized socialist reading circles among gymnasium students and helped edit the Polish socialist newspaper Praca. In 1888 and 1889 he was active in the leftist student movement at Lviv University. In the mid-1890s he wrote several influential pamphlets on agrarian relations in Galicia, and from 1907 to 1918 he sat in the Austrian parliament. Forever ahead of his time, he abandoned his socialist convictions in the late 1890s and evolved into a virulent nationalist of a type foreshadowing that of the 1930s. This evolution was reflected not only in his demonstrative political activity, but in a series of tendentious historical novels. In 1927, however, he was the founder of the short-lived, pro-Soviet Ukrainian Party of Labor.

5. V. Budzynovs'kyi, “Ekshumatsyia i novyi pokhoron,” Dilo, April 13/March 31, 1912, no. 82, p. 2 Google Scholar.

6. Russophilism was a political and cultural orientation toward tsarist Russia. It first emerged among the Ukrainians of Galicia in the 1850s as a reaction to Polish domination. By the 1890s its significance had declined considerably, but vestiges of it survived into the interwar era. Russophilism was one symptom of an identity crisis experienced by the Ukrainians of the Habsburg empire. Another was in the terminology they used to designate their own nationality. At least until the turn of the century, the Eastern-rite, Ukrainian-speaking inhabitants of Austria-Hungary referred to themselves as “Ruthenians” (rusyny) and to their conationals across the Russian border as “Ukrainians” (ukraintsi). As of 1900, nationally conscious Ukrainians in Galicia shunned this distinction and began referring to themselves, too, as “Ukrainians.” The formulation of the goal of national statehood contributed to the terminological reorientation. For the purposes of this article I have retained the original terminology only in quotations from sources; otherwise I make use of a commonly accepted anachronism and call the “Ruthenians” “Ukrainians.”

7. Budzynovs'kyi, Viacheslav, “Avtobiografiia. (Fragment iz posmertnykh paperiv),” in lak cholovik ziishov na pana (Lviv, 1937), p. 13 Google Scholar.

8. Budzynovskii, S. V[iacheslav], Kul'turnaia nuzhda avstriiskoi Rusy, 2 parts (Lviv, 1891), pp. 7 and 112Google Scholar.

9. Okhrymovych, V, “Kul'turnaia nuzhda avstriiskoi Rusy” Narod, October 22, 1891, no. 20-21, pp. 273-75Google Scholar.

10. Ivan Franko, “Shche pro nashu kul'turnu nuzhdu,” ibid., November 20, 1891, no. 23, pp. 309-12.

11. [Ivan Franko and Mykhailo Pavlyk], “Ruske derzhavne pravo i narodna sprava,” ibid., January 1, 1891, no. 1, pp. 8-10.

12. V. Budzynovs'kyi and Ivan Hrynevets'kyi, “Materiialy do revizii prohramy rusko-ukrainskoi radykal'noi partii,” ibid., May 1, 1891, no. 9, pp. 155-59; emphasis in the original.

13. “II-hyi ziizd ukr. radykaliv,” ibid., October 24, 1891, no. 20-21, pp. 266-67.

14. Iuliian Bachyns'kyi (1870-??) was a founder of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party in 1899. He traveled to Canada and the United States in 1905 and 1906 to study Ukrainian emigrant society and subsequently published a valuable account of it (Ukrains'ka emigratsiia [Lviv, 1914]). He returned to the United States in 1919 as the Washington representative of the West Ukrainian government. From 1921 to 1929 he lived in Germany. After spending a few years in Lviv, he emigrated to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1932. He worked in Kharkiv on the editorial board of the Ukrainian Soviet encyclopedia (which to this day contains no entry on him). In 1934 he was arrested and exiled. His exact fate is unknown, but he is presumed to have died somewhere in the GULag.

15. Bachyns'kyi, Ukraina irredenta 1895, p. 74.

16. Iuliian Bachyns'kyi, “Moi spomyny pro Drahomanova,” Vistnyk Soiuza vyzvolennia Ukrainy, August 15,1915, no. 23-24, p. 13. “Po povodu emigratsii” was serialized in Narod, 1893, nos. 4-7 and 14.

17. Editorial note in Drahomanov, M. P., Perepyska, ed. M. Pavlyk (Lviv, 1901), p. 118 Google Scholar. Vasyl’ Hryshko is mistaken in supposing that the series of articles appearing in Narod in 1893 already called for independent statehood (see Vasyl’ Hryshko, “Shliakh do sobornosty,” Suchasnist', 1979, no. 1, p. 55 Google Scholar).

18. The letter was dated March 28/17, 1893 and is quoted in Drahomanov, , Perepyska, p. 118Google Scholar; emphasis in the original.

19. Ibid. Bachyns'kyi, “Moi spomyny,” p. 13.

20. Their correspondence is printed as an appendix to the third edition of Ukraina irredenta (Berlin, 1924) (hereafter cited as Ukraina irredenta 1924), pp. 177-237.

21. Bachyns'kyi, Ukraina irredenta 1895, p. 5 and Bachyns'kyi, “Moi spomyny,” p. 14.

22. The year in which the book actually appeared in print is difficult to determine. Volodymyr Levyns'kyi states that the book was published in 1896 (see Volodymyr Levyns'kyi, “Natsional'ne pytannia v Avstrii i sotsiial'demokratiia,” Dzvin. Zbirnyk, vol. 1 [Kiev, 1907], p. 228). Corroborating this is Pavlyk's recollection that the book had not yet appeared when the fourth congress of the radical party met in Lviv on December 28, 1895 (see his editorial note to Drahomanov, Perepyska, p. 120). But the title page of the book itself bears the date 1895, and Bachyns'kyi specifies in his memoirs that the book was printed in that year (see “Moi spomyny,” p. 14). Bachyns'kyi's memoirs, however, are unreliable with regard to chronology. They refer to the periodical Robitnyk appearing in 1895, although the periodical was not founded until 1896. Franko's review of Ukraina irredenta appeared in an issue of Zhytie i slovo dated 1895, but Bachyns'kyi writes about the review appearing “in 1896 … in the June issue” ( “Moi spomyny,” p. 14).

23. Pavlyk's editorial commentary in Drahomanov, , Perepyska, p. 120Google Scholar. S., Danylovych, Poiasnenie prohramy rus'ko-ukr. radykal'noi part ii (Lviv, 1897)Google Scholar.

24. Editorial commentary in Drahomanov, , Perepyska, p. 120Google Scholar. Cf. Budzynovs'kyi's formula of March 1, 1891: “political independence” and “organization in the form of a state” (see above, p. 222).

25. Ivan Franko, “Ukraina irredenta,” Zhytie i slovo, 4 (1895): 483. These lines were omitted by Bohdan Kravtsiv when he reprinted the review “without any changes, with minor omissions” in Vyvidprav Ukrainy (New York, 1964), pp. 115-38. For another example of how Kravtsiv distorted the thought of Ivan Franko by selective editing, see his collection Ivan Franko pro sotsiializm i marksyzm (New York, 1966).

26. Ivan Franko, “Poza mezhamy mozhlyvoho,” in Kravtsiv, , Vyvid, pp. 139-52Google Scholar.

27. See Volodymyr Doroshenko, “Znachinnia ‘Ukrainy irredenty’ v istorii rozvytku ukrains'koi natsional'noi svidomosty,” in Bachyns'kyi, Ukraina irredenta 1924, pp. xi-xii and Rudnytsky, “Fourth Universal,” pp. 190-91.

28. Part of the series was reprinted as a separate brochure financed by Viacheslav Budzynovs'kyi. See Roman, Stefanovych, Samostiina Ukraina (Lviv, 1900)Google Scholar.

29. Already at the 1897 Shevchenko commemoration in Lviv, the head of the Akademichna hromada, Sydir (Izydor) Holubovych, proclaimed political independence to be the ideal of Ukrainian youth (see Bachyns'kyi, “Moi spomyny,” p. 14). For the events of 1900, see Doroshenko, “Znachinnia,” pp. xii-xiii and Al'manakh “Molodoi Ukrainy” . Spohady pro himnaziini hurtky v Berezhanakh (Berezhany, Munich, and New York, 1954). The most influential publication of the time was a brochure by Tsehel's'kyi, Lonhyn, Rus'-Ukraina i Moskovshchyna (Lviv, 1901 Google Scholar).

30. Originally published in Lviv in 1900, the brochure was last reprinted by Howerla publishers in New York in 1971.

31. Rudnytsky, “Fourth Universal,” p. 190.

32. The young radicals’ rejection of Drahomanov and preference for Marx went back to the late 1880s. See Himka, “Polish and Ukrainian Socialism,” p. 493.

33. Budzynovs'kyi, “Avtobiografiia,” p. 13.

34. Drahomanov to Bachyns'kyi, July 18/6, 1894, in Bachyns'kyi, Ukraina irredenta 1924, pp. 177-78.

35. Franko, “Ukraina irredenta,” p. 482.

36. Drahomanov wrote in 1883: “Social democratic doctrine, also professed by many in Russia as a type of religion, … is more correct as a schematic outline … than faithful as a full representation of reality” (see “Vol'nyi soiuz — Vil'na spilka,” Sobranie politicheskikh sochinenii, 2 vols. [Paris, 1905-6], l:350n).

37. See Kautsky, 's Das Erfurter Programm (Stuttgart, 1892)Google Scholar, particularly the sections on taxes, socialist production, economic significance of the state, and socialism and freedom. There are numerous German editions of this textbook of social democracy and an abridged English translation entitled The Class Struggle (New York, 1971).

38. Roman, Rosdolsky, Zur nationaleh Frage: Friedrich Engels und das Problem der “geschichtslosen” Vülker (Berlin, 1979 Google Scholar).

39. See [Mykhailo Pavlyk], “Karol Marx,” Praca, April 10, 1883, no. 6, p. 21. See also Dragomanov, M. P., Istoricheskaia Pol'sha i velikorusskaia demokratiia (Geneva, 1881), pp. 256–63, 266, 307Google Scholar.

40. [Franko and Pavlyk], “Ruske derzhavne pravo,” p. 9.

41. Ivan Lysiak-Rudnyts'kyi, “Storichchia pershoi ukrains'koi politychnoi prohramy,” Suchasnist', March 1979, no. 3, pp. 104–105Google Scholar.

42. Drahomanov, M. P., “Perednie slovo do ‘Hromady,'” Vybrani tvory (Prague and New York, 1937), pp. 118, 114–15Google Scholar.

43. See above p. 222. According to Franko and Pavlyk, “the extensive development of capitalism today makes political independence of small states almost a complete fiction ([Franko and Pavlyk], ” Ruske derzhavne pravo,” p. 9). The same argument was also advanced by Rosa Luxemburg and criticized by Lenin.

44. See, however, Budzynovs'kyi's description of his meetings with Drahomanov in Vienna. On these occasions Drahomanov did advance anarchist arguments ( Budzynovs'kyi, V., Ishly didy na muky [Lviv, 1925; New York, 1958], pp. 33–34 Google Scholar).

45. Budzynovskii, , Kul'turnaia nuzhda, p. 18Google Scholar.

46. “We, rather, believe that, although ever since Herzen and Bakunin the words federation and even anarchy are sacred works for the Russian socialists, the first practical form of their activity will be Jacobinism and not the sort of federalism we described above” (M. Dragomanow, “Der kleinrussische Internationalismus,” Jahrbuch fur Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, 1, pt. 2 [1880]: 430). “But we are able already at this time to observe a difference between the Polish and Ruthenian socialists: the latter are anarchists, the former — centralists,” M[ykhailo] T[kachuk] [Pavlyk], “Klein-Russland,” ibid., 1879, p. 311.

47. Rudnyts'kyi, “Storichchia,” pp. 98-99.

48. Ukrainets [Drahomanov], “Opiznaimo sia,” Druh, 1877, no. 1, p. 13.

49. Drahomanov, Chudats'ki dumky pro ukrains'ku natsional'nu spravu, cited in Rudnytsky, “Fourth Universal,” pp. 200-201.

50. Ukrainets [Drahomanov], “Opiznaimo sia,” p. 13.

51. M. P. Drahomanov, “Chudats'ki dumky pro ukrains'ku natsional'nu spravu,” Vybrani tvory, p. 305.

52. For the sense in which this is true, see Rudnyts'kyi, “Storichchia,” pp. 91, 96-97.

53. Bachyns'kyi cites the example of the struggle for the “Triune Croatian Kingdom” (see Ukraina irredenta 1924, p. 77).

54. [Franko and Pavlyk], “Ruske derzhavne pravo,” pp. 8-10.

55. Budzynovs'kyi, Ishly didy na muky, p. 28.

56. Ibid., p. 31.

57. The Young Czechs are not mentioned by name in the programs of Budzynovs'kyi and Bachyns'kyi, but see Budzynovskii, , Kul'turnaia nuzhda, p. 121Google Scholar and Bachyns'kyi, Ukraina irredenta 1924, pp. 41-42.

58. The affair is described in Himka, “Polish and Ukrainian Socialism,” pp. 493-95 and Kalynovych, V. I., Politychni protsesy Ivana Franka ta ioho tovaryshiv (Lviv, 1967), pp. 120–34 Google Scholar.

59. The use of this term shows that the Galician police were aware of Eduard von Hartmann's article of 1888 suggesting the creation of a “Kievan Kingdom” to weaken Russia ( “Russland in Europa,” Die Gegenwart [Berlin], 33, no. 3, January 21, 1888, pp. 37-38). The article is discussed and portions are reprinted in Dmytro, Doroschenko, Die Ukraine and das Reich (Leipzig, 1941), pp. 154–57 Google Scholar; there are a number of minor errors in Doroshenko's bibliographical information and reproduction of extracts.

60. Volodymyr Okhrymovych, “Moia pryhoda z shybenytseiu,” in Dei, O. I., ed., Ivan Franko u spohadakh suchasnykiv. Knyha druha (Lviv, 1972), p. 78 Google Scholar.

61. See Pavlyk, M, “Pro rus'ko-ukrains'ki narodni chytal'ni,” Tvory (Kiev, 1959), pp. 416–549 Google Scholar.

62. John-Paul Himka, “Voluntary Artisan Associations and the Ukrainian National Movement in Galicia (The 1870s),” Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 2, no. 2 (June 1978): 235-50.

63. The concept of a generation's entelechy and other sociological assumptions about generations are taken from Karl, Mannheim, “The Problem of Generations,” Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (London, 1952), pp. 276-322 Google Scholar.

64. V., Ihnatiienko, Bibliohrafiia ukrains'koipresy 1816-1916 (State College, Pa., 1968Google Scholar).

65. Rocznik Statystyki Galicyi, vol. 3: 1889-1891 (Lviv, 1891), p. 124.

66. Lozyns'kyi, Mykhailo, Sorok lit diial'nosty “Pros'vity” (v 40-litnii iuvilei tovarystva) (Lviv, 1908), pp. 35–36 Google Scholar.

67. “Chleny tovarystva ‘Prosvita,'” Spravozdanie z dilanii “Prosvity” vid chasu zaviazania tovarystva — 26. lystopada 1868, do nainoviishoho chasu (Lviv, 1874), pp. 26-32.

68. Lozyns'kyi, Sorok lit, pp. 46-47.

69. These problems are treated in John-Paul Himka, “Priests and Peasants: The Greek Catholic Pastor and the Ukrainian National Movement in Austria, 1867-1900,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, 21, no. 1 (March 1979): 1-14 and idem, “Hope in the Tsar: Displaced Naive Monarchism among the Ukrainian Peasants of the Habsburg Empire,” Russian History, 7, parts 1-2 (1980): 125-38.

70. Walentyna, Najdus, Szkice z historii Galicji, 2 vols. (Warsaw, 1958-60), 1:259-86, 2:274–362 Google Scholar.

71. “As far as popular support is concerned, the idea of independent statehood had made headway only in Galicia prior to 1914. It is true that among the literary exponents of the separatist trend we find several natives of the Dnieper Ukraine: Mykola Mikhnovskyi, Viacheslav Lypynskyi, and Dmytro Dontsov. But they were unable to recruit more than a handful of followers among their compatriots in the Russian Empire” (Rudnytsky, “Fourth Universal,” pp. 191-92). I would like to express my deep appreciation to Professors Richard G. Robbins and Frederick Carstensen whose critical comments sharpened the focus of this article and in general enhanced the quality of the presentation.