Mykhailo Drahomanov

Mykhailo Petrovych Drahomanov
Native name	Михайло Петрович Драгоманов
Born	(1841-09-18)September 18, 1841 Gadyach, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	July 2, 1895(1895-07-02) (aged 53) Sofia, Principality of Bulgaria
Occupation	Economist and historian
Nationality	Ukrainian

Memorial plaque dedicated to Drahomanov in Sofia

Mykhailo Petrovych Drahomanov (Ukrainian: Михайло Петрович Драгоманов; September 18, 1841 – July 2, 1895) was a Ukrainian intellectual and public figure. As an academic, Drahomanov was an economist, historian, philosopher, and ethnographer, while as a public intellectual he was a political theorist with socialist leanings, perhaps best known as one of the first proponents of Ukrainian autonomism.

Biography

Mikhaylo Drahomanov was born in 1841 to a minor noble family of Cossack ancestry. Both his father, Petro Yakymovych Drahomanov, and his uncle, Yakiv Yakymovych, held fairly liberal views and sympathised with the Decembrists. His uncle in particular spent time in prison for participating in the secret Society of United Slavs. Mykhailo Drahomanov started his education at home, followed by studies at the Gadyach school and then at Poltava senior school. Drahomanov moved to Kiev to continue his studies at the St. Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev, and while there he was present during the transfer of Taras Shevchenko's remains from Saint Petersburg to Taras Hill, giving a speech over his tomb when it stopped in Kiev. In 1863 he graduated from university with a degree in History.

Drahomanov lectured at the University of Kiev from 1870 to 1875, but after the promulgation of the Ems Ukaz and its restriction on the use of the Ukrainian language, the authorities clamped down on Ukrainian national activities and he emigrated to Geneva. In emigration he continued his political, scholarly and publishing activities. In 1885–95, he was a professor at the University of Sofia. Drahomanov wrote the first systematic political program for the Ukrainian national movement. He himself defined his political convictions as "ethical socialism," and was deeply impressed by socialist literature as a teenager.

Political activity: Hromada and Socialism

Further information: Hromada (secret society)

While a student and a professor in Kiev, Drahomanov was one of leaders of the Kiev Hromada (later known as the Old Hromada). Being a member of the Russian Geographic society, he established contacts with Ukrainians of Austria (in Galicia). Under his influence, the Academic Circle in Lemberg (today Lviv) adopted the Ukrainian democratic platform. In this context, and under accusations of separatism, Drahomanov was removed from his chair at the University of Kiev by Russian authorities, leaving the country soon after.

In 1876 Drahomanov became a spokesman of Hromada abroad (Western Europe) while settling in Geneva, Switzerland. Between 1878 and 1882 he published a Ukrainian political magazine Hromada and number of Russophone pamphlets. Drahomanov also created a Ukrainian socialist organization, the Geneva Circle. In 1886 his political stance became not aligned with the political views of Hromada, which resulted in a rift between them, and the society in Ukraine losing its financial support.

Personal life

Several members of Drahomanov’s family were relevant in their own right. He was an uncle of Ukrainian poet Larysa Kosach (better known as Lesya Ukrainka) and brother of Olha Drahomanova-Kosach (Olena Pchilka). By his wife, actress Ludmila Dragomanova, he had a daughter, Lidia Shishmanova, wife of Bulgarian writer and politician Ivan Shishmanov.

Legacy

The lasting legacy of Drahomanov can be discerned in the whole Ukrainian tradition of leftist political parties and political activism. He personally influenced a handful of younger Ukrainian intellectuals in Habsburg Galicia in the late 1870s, first of all Ivan Franko and Mykhailo Pavlyk, both of whom adopted his ideas, but reworked them later according to their own mould. In 1890 these intellectuals founded the first Ukrainian political party - Ruthenian-Ukrainian Radical Party. The program-maximum of this party was socialist and therefore the party can be seen as one of the first socialist parties in Eastern Europe.

Drahomanov tried to popularize an orthographic reform, called the Drahomanivka after him.

In 1991, the former Kiev Pedagogical Instituted named after Maxim Gorky was renamed as the Kyiv Pedagogical Drahomanov Institute. In 1997, the institute was granted "National University" status, being subsequently designated National Pedagogical Drahomanov University.

Literature

1. Hornowa E. Problemy polskie w twórczości Michala Drahomanowa. – Wroclaw, 1978.
2. Rudnytsky Ivan L. Essays in Modern Ukrainian History / Ed. by P.L. Rudnytsky. – Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, 1987. – 499 p. Drahomanov as a Political Theorist – P. 203 – 253. The First Ukrainian Political Program: Mykhailo Drahomanovʼs “Introduction” to Hromada. – P. 255 – 281. Mykhailo Drahomanov and the Problem of Ukrainian-Jewish Relations. – P. 283 – 297.

External links

• Biography of Drahomanov at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• “Mykhaylo Drahomanov: A Symposium and Selected Writings”, ed. Ivan L. Rudnytsky, The Annals of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S., Vol. II, Spring, 1952.
• Bibliography of Writings by and on Mykhaylo Drahomanov—nearly comprehensive
• Biography of Drahomanov and his writings (in Ukrainian)
• The Orthodox Nationalist: Mykhailo Drahomanov audio