MYKHAILO MAKSYMOVYCH’S IDEAS ABOUT AUSTRIAN GALICIA AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPATRIOTS

Abstract

The influence of Mykhailo Maksymovych (1804–1873) on the national movement in Austrian Galicia in the 1830s and early 1870s is highlighted. According to the outstanding ethnographer, Galicia was an integral part of the Ruthenian-Ukrainian space. He made a significant contribution to substantiating the identity and unity of the Ukrainian (“Ruthenian”) language and folklore heritage on both sides of the Austro-Russian border, the common historical past of Galicia with sub-Russian Ukraine. M. Maksymovych never had to personally visit Galicia, but he maintained correspondence with the figures of the “Ruthenian Trinity” I. Vahylevych (since 1837) and Ya. Holovatskyi (since 1838), historian D. Zubrytskyi (since 1839). Short correspondence was infor­mational and scientific in nature, covering the exchange of books, information about scientific and literary life.  M. Maksymovych’s ethnographic activity gave impetus to the intensification of the national movement of Galician Ruthenian-Ukrainians. M. Maksymovych became one of the first popularizers of Galician literary production in sub-Russian Ukraine in the 19th century.

Galicians regularly referred to the scientific authority of M. Maksymovych in substantiating the thesis about the national unity of the compatriots and sub-Russian Ukraine, and on the other hand – about the separation of Ruthenian-Ukrainians (“Little Russians”) from Poles and Russians. Using the creative work of M. Maksymovych in their activities, the Galician national populists from the early 1860s contained a reprint of his own works, material from the almanac “Kievlyanin” (1840 and 1841), which he published, and others. M. Maksymovych had authority among Galicians of different ideological views. In the rivalry of local national populists and Russophiles (Moscowphiles), with their focus on a single Pan-Ruthenian space, the scientist supported the national populist’s current, which clearly testified, in particular, his only personal meeting with Ya. Golovatskyi in the company of several Russophiles emigrating to Russia in 1872.

Keywords: Mykhailo Maksymovych, national movement, ethnography, relations, activist, Galicia.