Bohdan Zaklynskyi’s Diary as a Source for Ukrainian History and Culture

Abstract

The diary of B. Zaklynskyi, a Ukrainian educator, folklorist, literature scholar, writer, publisher, sub-lieutenant of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, and full member of Shevchenko Scientific Society, is a unique and rich source for a thorough study of Ukrainian history and culture throughout the period of the First World War, and for understanding the public attitudes of the time, for it contains direct evidence of events recorded as they occurred, as well as provides details of social and cultural life during wartime, which was often ignored by official sources.
The author begins his diary on 12 December 1914, when he arrived in Vienna, and continues it up to 1917. Most of entries were made in 1915 in Vienna, where he worked in the public school division of the All-Ukrainian Cultural Council, and in the village of Zhabie near Kryvorіvnia in the Hutsul region, where he was sent to teach in November 1915 due to health reasons. Some notes were made in Gminda (Lower Austria) in a camp for migrants, where Zaklynskyi’s family was relocated for the second time in 1916. The last entries in his diary were made by B. Zaklynskyi in Pisochna village (Stryi district, Lviv region) in early 1917, when he joined the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen as a sub-lieutenant, received a rifleman's uniform, but because of poor health he could not serve in the field. Therefore, in February 1917, he was appointed as a teacher in Dorohynychi village in Volyn region.
The diary only briefly describes the course of military operations. B. Zaklynskyi focused more attention on his own perception of those events, highlighting certain aspects of the history of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, their role in the formation of the Ukrainian state, and their influence on the youth. He stressed the role of women in the development of the national agenda. The diary entries reflect B. Zaklynskyi’s worldview, his ethical principles, democratic beliefs, and unionist ideals. They reveal the main life priorities of the teacher, trace the formation of his personality as a writer and active social and cultural leader, reflect the authorʼs personal thoughts, emotions, and opinions in dramatic conditions, which enables better understanding of his inner world. The memoirs contain interesting facts about the author and his family’s life. Several poems are also recorded, which is quite a rare genre in the author's heritage. A selected bibliography of B. Zaklynskyi’s works is also provided.