THE FIRST CONTACTS OF PANTELEIMON KULISH WITH GALICIA (1858–1865)

Abstract

The article covers Panteleimon Kulish’s contacts with Galicia – from his first visit to Lviv in the summer of 1858 and to his transfer to the civil service at the end of 1864 and the appearance of the last pub­lications in the magazines of the “early”populists of 1865. P. Kulish played a special role in the establi­shment of Ukrainian national identity among Galicians, especially in 1867 – early 1870’s and supported the acti­vities of local populists. Considerable attention was paid to P. Kulish’s correspondence with Ya. Holovatskyi af­ter ac­quain­tance in 1858, relations with the leaders of the populists D. Tanyachkevych and K. Klymkovych, Rus­sophile B. Didytskyі and others. Various genre works by P. Kulish – both new and previously published, primarily from the almanac “Kievlіanin”of 1840 and 1841 and the St. Petersburg magazine “Osnova”(1861–1862) – were re­gularly published in the populists’ press in Lviv – magazines “Vecher­nytsia”(1862–1863), “Meta”(1863–1865) and “Nyva”(1865). At the same time, P. Kulish’s works were pub­lis­hed in Russophile (Moscvo­phile) publi­ca­tions – the newspaper “Slovo” and the literary collection “Нaly­cha­nyn”, which, like the populists, in the early 1860’s showed interest in the new Ukrainian literature, the national movement in sub-Russian Ukraine. In the Galician press from 1861 to 1865 inclusive, 24 publications by P. Kulish were published, in the absolute majority in the publications of the populists, and a brochure with the story “Maiden’s Heart”in Lviv in 1862, reprinted from “Vechernytsia”. Kulish’s ties with Galician figures were severed after his appointment as a Russian official in Warsaw amid intensified anti-Ukrainian repression by Russian tsarism under the Valuev Circular of 1863 and an internal crisis in the activities of “early”populists. P. Kulish had the greatest influence among Ukrainian figures on the development of the national movement in Galicia in the 1860’s, was a promoter of the idea of national unity of Ukraine. P. Kulish’s interest in Galicia manifested itself with new force in 1866, but this issue became the subject of a separate study.