Hyrych Ihor

Svitozar Drahomanov in the post-war period (1945-1958): Federalism and the European unification movement

Section: Biographical research

Abstract: The article’s purpose. To investigate the contribution of Mykhailo Drahomanov’s son to the theory of federalism and his participation in the international movement for the unification of Europe, which led to the creation of the EU on the basis of Svitozar Drahomanov’s previously un published letters to politicians and scientists of the Ukrainian diaspora in Germany and the USA, which have been found in the archive of UVAN (USA) and his previously unresearched journalism in the post-war period. Also to accurately establish S. Drahomanov’s place among other political forces of Ukrainian left-leaning political emigration in Western Europe and the USA. Methodology. The approach is based on the application of integrity principles of historical source sresearch and objectivity. Comparative-historical, typological, descriptive, anthropological, biographical and psychoanalytic methods were used, which enabled the understanding of Svitozar Drahomanov’s contribution to the political life of the Ukrainian diaspora and his influence on the burgeoning unification processes of the 1940s and 1950s that eventually led to the creation of the EU. Scientific novelty of the research. For the first time, S. Drahomanov’s letters to V. Miiakovskyi, V. Doroshenko, S. Baran, etc., which had been preserved bothin the USA (UVAN archive) and in Ukraine (TsDAVO of Ukraine), were putinto scientific circulation. S. Drahomanov’s intellectual heritage in Ukrainian and American newspapers (“Svoboda”, primarily), has been studied. Svitozar Drahomanov’s participation in the pan-European unification movement has been researched. It’s been noted that the establishment of the European Union was assessed by S. Drahomanov as the implementation of Mykhailo Drahomanov’s federal concept. S. Drahomanov’s contribution to the development of the theory of national federalism has been emphasized. Conclusions. Svitozar Drahomanov was one of several Ukrainian emigrants who tried to connect the Ukrainian non-communist movement outside the Iron Curtain with the European unification movement. He proposed an original interpretation of federalism as the highest stage of state development, when individual independent states are united into a supranational union – the EU.

Keywords: Svitozar Drahomanov, Ukrainian political emigration, European unification movement, federalism, nationalism, independence.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.25.085     Citation

• Hyrych Ihor (M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies, NAS of Ukraine, Ukraine, Kyiv, [email protected]) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9999-5620

Cite:
Hyrych Ihor (2024). Svitozar Drahomanov in the post-war period (1945-1958): Federalism and the European unification movement. Biographistica Ukrainica, (25) 85-109. (In Ukrainan). https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.25.085

References:

1. Hyrych, I. (2021). Oleksandr Ohloblyn i UVAN u SShA [Oleksandr Ogloblinand UVAN in the USA]. In Akademichna tradytsiia ukrainskoho zarubizhzhia: Istoriia i suchasnist. Liber amicorum na poshanu prezydenta UVAN u SShA prof. Alberta Kipy [Academic tradition of Ukrainian abroad: History and modernity. Liber amicorum in honor of the president of UVAN in the USA, prof. Albert Kipa] (pp. 156-210). New York, NY: UVAN u SShA; Kyiv, Ukraine: Prostir. [In Ukrainian].
2. Skrypka, T. (2012). Svitozar Drahomanov (1884-1958). Lesia Ukrainka: Dolia, Kultura, Epokha, 2, 179-185. [In Ukrainian].
3. Skrypka, T. (n. d.). Pid pokrovom rodu Drahomanovykh-Kosachiv [Under the auspices of the Drahomanovy-Kosachi family]. Tamara Skrypka: personal site. [In Ukrainian].
4. Turynska, Kh. V., Erdevdii, M. A., and Mehela, R. R. (2014). Ideini peredumovy ta zmist teorii federalizmu yak osnovy yevropeiskoi intehratsii [Ideological prerequisites and content of the theory of federalism as the basis of European integration]. Rehionalni Studii, 9 (spec. iss.), 130-139. [In Ukrainian].