After all our Hryhoriy Kupchanko: an attempt to re-read the history of the ukrainian scholar, writer, public, cultural and political figure

Abstract

The article makes an attempt to reconstruct the common history of works and days of Ukrainian scholar, writer, socio-political and cultural figure Hryhoriy Kupchanko (1849–1902), using, in particular, method of «reverse» optics, which means the examination of a particular individuality drama «from within». The attempt of reconstruction is largely determined by the attempt of the «Russian world» to present H. Kupchanko as «their own» – as a Moscowphile, as they say. The peculiarities (amount) of the apostasy to Moscowia of this representative of the elite stratum of the Bukovynian peasantry, the pupil of the appanage and Austrian civilization, the interconnection of the apostasy with the external factors, objective circumstances, as well as with subjective factors, the formation of contradictory views of the future scholar in his youth and different lines of his later behavior are elucidated. It turns out that historical fate of the Kupchanko’s family, consistent romanization that took place in Bukovyna in XIX century and led to principal staggering and deformations in the minds of young people in the period of formation of their personalities, worked on these contradictions. Decisive was the support of intellectual-creative efforts of H. Kupchanko by his gymnasium teacher – Bukovynian pedagogue and public figure I. Hlebovytsky and his supporters from Moscowophile circle, support which, maybe, had also a financial «equivalent» and promoted education of the University of Vienna. In the end, some psychological depths of the scholar's and writer’s personality also interfered, and the intensity of this life, the risks of activities, ambiguous relations with fellow countrymen, the extreme vulnerability of character, the complexity of personal destiny, etc., could have come from it.
H. Kupchanko’s position in the Ukrainian nation-building process is interpreted not as purely Moscowphilia, but as Russophile. The pro-Ukrainian orientation of his efforts can be seen in his poetry and scholarly and popular studios, in particular those telling about Bukovyna and other eternal Rus (Ukrainian) lands. In fact it was a form of resistance to Moscowphilia and politics, although this author himself was not fully aware of. H. Kupchanko’s mistakes, however, reflected the general natural difficulties in the development of national self-consciousness, and without them there would be no advancement as such.
The source base of the work was all available corpus of memoirs, biographical, scholarly, popular science, literature and fiction material relating to the subject, including the relevant archival documents.