POLITICAL UKRAINOFILISM IN THE CULTURAL EDUCATIONAL AND PUBLIC ACTIVITIES OF PANTELEYMON KULISH

Abstract

The article researches a little-studied page in P. Kulish’s cultural, educational and public activities — political Ukrainophilia, which, according to his own definition, he hid «under a lampshade» all his life, calling himself only a culturalist. In fact, an analysis of Kulish’s creative activity gives grounds to consider him a political culturalist. It was his culturalism that became decisive in establishing P. Kulish, from the 60s to almost half of the 70s of the nineteenth century, as the main driver of political Ukrainophilia in Galicia. At present, this aspect of P. Kulish’s activity has not been studied sufficiently by domestic researchers. Much more attention has been paid to the study of the complex nature of his controversial actions, which were mainly related to the worldview evolution of his views in the context of his acquired knowledge and experience. Under such conditions, it would be legitimate, when studying P. Kulish’s creative work, to abstract from character flaws, which would allow for a more objective assessment of his work. It is this methodological principle that the authors rely on when analysing the manifestations of political Ukrainophilia in P. Kulish’s cultural, educational and public activities. These Ukrainophile manifestations are revealed through the prism of P. Kulish’s love for Ukraine, because it is «one mother for all of us» and it matures on the basis of Ukrainian cultural traditions and their regulation by the customary law of national life.