Two Nations – Two Formulas of Existence in a Multinational Monarchy. Polish-Ukrainian Polemic about the Article by “Czy będzie sąd”

Authors:

Pages: 311-322

Abstract:

Polish and Ukrainian intellectuals at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Galicia were a generation which wished to change and have a great sense of responsibility for the future. Some of the intellectuals saw the near future as the unification of all the Slavs, for example, this position among Polish scientific community was occupied by Cracow literary critic Feliks Koneczny. However, The Slavophile ideas among the Ukrainians were not quite “popular” in Lviv, that’s why the Polish-Ukrainian dialogue took place in Cracow at the meetings of the “Slavonic Club”. Frequent guests of such meetings were famous Ukrainian writers, critics, scientists. The name of prominent scientist, writer, social activist Ivan Franko never appeared among people involved in Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the Slavophile context. Conversely for Koneczny, Franko's participation in the Polish-Ukrainian dialogue was very important, perhaps even because Franko was one of the key people shaping the views of Ukrainian society at that time, and which had a direct influence on the development of Ukrainian culture. That’s why in 1905 on the pages of “Świat Słowiański” was published an article by S. Jefremow Will there be a court?, to which Koneczny writes a comment by himself, thus throwing light on the understanding of Polish-Ukrainian relations from the Polish perspective. Successively in 1906 one of the key Ukrainian journals in Lviv (“Lìteraturnonaukovij vìstnik”) was published Iwan Franko's article Ukrainian-Polish consensus and Ukrainian-Polish brotherhood (ukr. Русько-польська згода і українсько-польське братаннє) as a response to the questions put in the Koneczny’s text. Why did Jefremow's article raise the Polish-Ukrainian version of the discussion in the Slavic context? My text will be an attempt to answer the question.

Keywords:

Galicia, the turn of the 19th and 20th, Lviv, Polish-Ukrainians relations, Feliks Koneczny, Ivan Franko, Sergij Jefremow, cultural relations, literary relations, identity and cultural distinctiveness

Download

NA