Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Encyclopedia
Mykhailo Serhiyovych Hrushevsky ' onMouseout='HidePop("5429")' href="/topics/Kislovodsk">Kislovodsk
, 26 November 1934) was a Ukrainian
academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. He was the country's greatest modern historian, foremost organizer of scholarship, leader of the pre-revolution Ukrainian national movement, head of the Central Rada (Ukraine's 1917–1918 revolutionary parliament), and a leading cultural figure in Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s. He died under mysterious circumstances in 1934.
, his parents were Ukrainian) of religious and humanist scholars in city of Chełm, in the Lublin Governorate
of the Russian Empire
(in present-day Poland
). Hrushevsky grew up in the foothills of the Caucasian mountains in Stavropol
and Vladikavkaz
. His spiritual native land became Podolia
in the area of the village of Sestrynivka, Podolia Governorate
, where his mother (Hlafira Zakharivna Okopova) was born, and where her father was a local Russian Orthodox priest. In the same village she married the professor of the Kiev Ecclesiastical Seminary, Serhiy Fedorovych Hrushevsky. Serhiy Hrushevsky's father was a highly decorated official (his awards included the two Orders of Saint Anna and the Bronze Cross, and a title of nobility
). Fedir Hrushevsky was a graduate of the history department of the Kiev University
and later personally blessed his grandson when he was enrolling into the Saint Vladimir University
in Kiev
.
enlightenment
principles with a romantic
commitment to the cause of the nation and positivist methodology to produce a highly authoritative history of his native land and people. Hrushevsky also wrote a multi-volume History of Ukrainian Literature, an Outline History of the Ukrainian People in Russian, and a very popular Illustrated History of Ukraine which appeared in both Ukrainian and Russian editions. In addition to these major works, he wrote numerous specialized studies in which he displayed a very acute critical acumen. His personal bibliography lists over 2000 separate titles.
In Hrushevsky's varied historical writings certain basic ideas come to the fore. Firstly, Hrushevsky saw continuity in Ukrainian history from ancient times to his own. Thus he claimed the ancient Ukrainian Steppe cultures from Scythia
, through Kievan Rus'
to the Cossacks as part of the Ukrainian heritage. He viewed the Halych-Volhynian Principality as the sole legitimate heir of Kievan Rus'. This is opposed to the official scheme of Russian history which claimed Kievan Rus' for the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
and Imperial Russia.) Secondly, to give real depth to this continuity, Hrushevsky stressed the role of the common people, the "popular masses" as he called them, throughout all these eras. Thus popular revolts against the various foreign states that ruled Ukraine were also a major theme. Thirdly, Hrushevsky always put the accent upon native Ukrainian factors rather than international ones as the causes of various phenomena. Thus he was an anti-Normanist who stressed the Slavic origins of Rus', put the emphasis upon internal discord as the primary reason for the fall of Kievan Rus', and emphasized the native Ukrainian ethnic makeup and origins of the Ukrainian Cossacks. (He thought run-away serfs especially important in this regard.) Also, he stressed the national aspect to the Ukrainian renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries and thought the great revolt of Bohdan Khmelnytsky
and the Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
was a largely national and social rather than simply religious phenomenon. Thus continuity, nativism, and populism characterized his general histories.
With regard to the role of statehood in Hrushevsky's historical thought, contemporary scholars are still not in agreement. Some believe that Hrushevsky retained a populist
mistrust of the state throughout his career and his deep democratic convictions reflected this, while others believe that Hrushevsky gradually became more and more of a partisan of Ukrainian statehood in his various writings and that this is reflected in his political work on the construction of a Ukrainian national state during the revolution of 1917-18.
. This organization published hundreds of volumes of scholarly literature before the First World War and quickly grew to serve as an unofficial Academy of Sciences for the Ukrainian people living on both sides of the Russian-Austrian border. After the revolution of 1905 in Russia
, Hrushevsky organized the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kiev
in 1907 that served as a prototype to the future academy of sciences. After the 1917-1921 revolution
, he founded the Ukrainian Sociological Institute in exile in Vienna
, and after his return to Ukraine in the 1920s became a major figure in the newly founded All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev (since 1923).
, he went into hiding. Hrushevsky felt that Skoropadsky had perverted the cause of Ukrainian statehood by associating it with social conservatism. Hrushevsky returned to public politics following the overthrow of Skoropadsky by the Directory
. He did not, however, approve of the Directory and soon found himself in conflict with it. In 1919 he emigrated, having acquired a mandate from the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries to co-ordinate the activities of its representatives abroad.
. In 1934, under the close watch of the Soviet political police he died unexpectedly in Kislovodsk
in the Caucasus
at the age of 68.
and independence that were never completely forgotten during Soviet times and remain important today.
Hrushevsky's portrait appears on the fifty hryvnia note. One museum in Kiev
and another in Lviv
are devoted to his memory, and monuments to him have been erected in both cities. A street in Kiev that bears his name houses the Verkhovna Rada
(parliament) and many governmental offices. The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences recently initiated the publication of his Collected Works in fifty volumes.
The wife of Hrushevsky - Maria-Ivanna Hrushevska (November 8, 1868 - September 19, 1948) was born near Zboriv
(Austria-Hungary
) to Sylvester and Karolina Vojakowski. She met Hrushevsky in Lviv
in 1893 and after three years they married in a town of Skala
near Borschiv
. On June 21, 1900, while living in Lviv
in the family of Hrushevsky was born a daughter Kateryna. Since 1917 Maria was a member of the Central Rada and a treasurer for the Ukrainian National Theater.
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk is a city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, which lies in the North Caucasian region of the country, between the Black and Caspian Seas. The closest airport is located in the city of Mineralnye Vody. Population:...
, 26 November 1934) was a Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. He was the country's greatest modern historian, foremost organizer of scholarship, leader of the pre-revolution Ukrainian national movement, head of the Central Rada (Ukraine's 1917–1918 revolutionary parliament), and a leading cultural figure in Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s. He died under mysterious circumstances in 1934.
Biography
Mykhailo Hrushevsky was born on September 29, 1866 in a Ukrainian noble family (according to Timothy SnyderTimothy Snyder
Timothy D. Snyder is an American professor of history at Yale University, specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Holocaust...
, his parents were Ukrainian) of religious and humanist scholars in city of Chełm, in the Lublin Governorate
Lublin Governorate
Lublin Governorate ) was an administrative unit of the Congress Poland.-History:It was created in 1837 from the Lublin Voivodeship, and had the same borders and capital as the voivodeship....
of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(in present-day Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
). Hrushevsky grew up in the foothills of the Caucasian mountains in Stavropol
Stavropol
-International relations:-Twin towns/sister cities:Stavropol is twinned with: Des Moines, United States Béziers, France Pazardzhik, Bulgaria-External links:* **...
and Vladikavkaz
Vladikavkaz
-Notable structures:In Vladikavkaz, there is a guyed TV mast, tall, built in 1961, which has six crossbars with gangways in two levels running from the mast structure to the guys.-Twin towns/sister cities:...
. His spiritual native land became Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
in the area of the village of Sestrynivka, Podolia Governorate
Podolia Governorate
The Podolia Governorate or Government of Podolia, set up after the Second Partition of Poland, comprised a governorate of the Russian Empire from 1793 to 1917, of the Ukrainian People's Republic from 1917 to 1921, and of the Ukrainian SSR from 1921 to 1925.-Location:The Podolian Governorate...
, where his mother (Hlafira Zakharivna Okopova) was born, and where her father was a local Russian Orthodox priest. In the same village she married the professor of the Kiev Ecclesiastical Seminary, Serhiy Fedorovych Hrushevsky. Serhiy Hrushevsky's father was a highly decorated official (his awards included the two Orders of Saint Anna and the Bronze Cross, and a title of nobility
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...
). Fedir Hrushevsky was a graduate of the history department of the Kiev University
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
and later personally blessed his grandson when he was enrolling into the Saint Vladimir University
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
.
Historian
As a historian, Hrushevsky authored the first detailed scholarly synthesis of Ukrainian history, his ten volume History of Ukraine-Rus, which was published in the Ukrainian language and covered the period from pre-history to the 1660s. In this work, he balanced a commitment to the common Ukrainian people with an appreciation for native Ukrainian political entities, autonomous polities and such, which steadily increased in the final volumes of this, his master work. In general, Hrushevsky's approach combined rationalistRationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
principles with a romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
commitment to the cause of the nation and positivist methodology to produce a highly authoritative history of his native land and people. Hrushevsky also wrote a multi-volume History of Ukrainian Literature, an Outline History of the Ukrainian People in Russian, and a very popular Illustrated History of Ukraine which appeared in both Ukrainian and Russian editions. In addition to these major works, he wrote numerous specialized studies in which he displayed a very acute critical acumen. His personal bibliography lists over 2000 separate titles.
In Hrushevsky's varied historical writings certain basic ideas come to the fore. Firstly, Hrushevsky saw continuity in Ukrainian history from ancient times to his own. Thus he claimed the ancient Ukrainian Steppe cultures from Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
, through Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
to the Cossacks as part of the Ukrainian heritage. He viewed the Halych-Volhynian Principality as the sole legitimate heir of Kievan Rus'. This is opposed to the official scheme of Russian history which claimed Kievan Rus' for the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
Vladimir-Suzdal
The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...
and Imperial Russia.) Secondly, to give real depth to this continuity, Hrushevsky stressed the role of the common people, the "popular masses" as he called them, throughout all these eras. Thus popular revolts against the various foreign states that ruled Ukraine were also a major theme. Thirdly, Hrushevsky always put the accent upon native Ukrainian factors rather than international ones as the causes of various phenomena. Thus he was an anti-Normanist who stressed the Slavic origins of Rus', put the emphasis upon internal discord as the primary reason for the fall of Kievan Rus', and emphasized the native Ukrainian ethnic makeup and origins of the Ukrainian Cossacks. (He thought run-away serfs especially important in this regard.) Also, he stressed the national aspect to the Ukrainian renaissance of the 16th and 17th centuries and thought the great revolt of Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossack Hetmanate of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates which resulted in the creation of a Cossack state...
and the Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
was a largely national and social rather than simply religious phenomenon. Thus continuity, nativism, and populism characterized his general histories.
With regard to the role of statehood in Hrushevsky's historical thought, contemporary scholars are still not in agreement. Some believe that Hrushevsky retained a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
mistrust of the state throughout his career and his deep democratic convictions reflected this, while others believe that Hrushevsky gradually became more and more of a partisan of Ukrainian statehood in his various writings and that this is reflected in his political work on the construction of a Ukrainian national state during the revolution of 1917-18.
Scholar
As an organizer of scholarship, Hrushevsky oversaw the transformation of the Shevchenko Literary Society which was based in the Austrian controlled province of Galicia into a new Shevchenko Scientific SocietyShevchenko Scientific Society
The Shevchenko Scientific Society is a Ukrainian scientific society devoted to the promotion of scholarly research and publication. Unlike the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine the society is a public organization that was reestablished in Ukraine in 1989 after almost 50 years of exile...
. This organization published hundreds of volumes of scholarly literature before the First World War and quickly grew to serve as an unofficial Academy of Sciences for the Ukrainian people living on both sides of the Russian-Austrian border. After the revolution of 1905 in Russia
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
, Hrushevsky organized the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in 1907 that served as a prototype to the future academy of sciences. After the 1917-1921 revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, he founded the Ukrainian Sociological Institute in exile in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and after his return to Ukraine in the 1920s became a major figure in the newly founded All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev (since 1923).
Before 1917
As a political leader, Hrushevsky first became active in Austrian Galicia, where he spoke out against Polish political predominance, against Ruthenian particularism, and in favor of a national Ukrainian identity which would unite both eastern and western parts of the country. In 1899, he was a co-founder of the Galician-based National Democratic Party. This party looked forward to eventual Ukrainian independence. After 1905, Hrushevsky advised the Ukrainian Club in the Russian State Duma or Parliament and advocated Ukrainian national autonomy within a democratic Russia.The Ukrainian Revolution
In 1917, Hrushevsky was elected head of the revolutionary parliament, the Ukrainian Central Rada in Kiev and guided it gradually from Ukrainian national autonomy within a democratic Russia through to completely independent statehood. At this time, Hrushevsky was clearly revealed as a radical democrat and a socialist. Following the German-supported coup of general Pavlo SkoropadskyPavlo Skoropadsky
Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi 3 May 1873, Wiesbaden, Germany – 26 April 1945, Metten monastery clinic, Bavaria, Germany) was a Ukrainian politician, earlier an aristocrat and decorated Imperial Russian Army general...
, he went into hiding. Hrushevsky felt that Skoropadsky had perverted the cause of Ukrainian statehood by associating it with social conservatism. Hrushevsky returned to public politics following the overthrow of Skoropadsky by the Directory
Directorate of Ukraine
The Directorate, or Directory was a provisional revolutionary state committee of the Ukrainian National Republic, formed in 1918 by the Ukrainian National Union in rebellion against Skoropadsky's regime....
. He did not, however, approve of the Directory and soon found himself in conflict with it. In 1919 he emigrated, having acquired a mandate from the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries to co-ordinate the activities of its representatives abroad.
Emigration and Return to Ukraine
While an emigre, Hrushevsky began to adopt a pro-Bolshevik position. Along with other members of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries he formed the Foreign Delegation of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries which advocated reconciliation with the Bolshevik regime. Though the group was critical of the Bolsheviks, especially due to their centralism and repressive activities in Ukraine, it felt that these criticisms had to be put aside, because the Bolsheviks were the leaders of the international revolution. Hrushevsky and his group petitioned the Soviet Ukrainian government to legalise the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries and allow the members of the Foreign Delegation to return. The Soviet Ukrainian government was unwilling to do this. Consequently, by 1921 the Foreign Delegation of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries had ended its activity. Nevertheless, all of its members returned to Ukraine, including Hrushevsky, who went back in 1924.Later years and death
Now back in Ukraine, Hrushevsky concentrated on academic work. Above all, he continued writing his monumental History of Ukraine-Rus. The political conditions prevented his return to public politics. Nonetheless, he was caught up in the Stalinist purge of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. In 1931, after a long campaign against Hrushevsky in the Soviet press, the historian was exiled to MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. In 1934, under the close watch of the Soviet political police he died unexpectedly in Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk is a city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, which lies in the North Caucasian region of the country, between the Black and Caspian Seas. The closest airport is located in the city of Mineralnye Vody. Population:...
in the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
at the age of 68.
Legacy
Although Hrushevsky's political career remains controversial and is viewed by some as having been disastrous. He is presently regarded as Ukraine's greatest scholar of the twentieth century and one of the most prominent Ukrainian statesmen in the country's history. His leadership of the Central Rada and the Ukrainian People's Republic set precedents in parliamentary democracyDemocracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and independence that were never completely forgotten during Soviet times and remain important today.
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
and another in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
are devoted to his memory, and monuments to him have been erected in both cities. A street in Kiev that bears his name houses the Verkhovna Rada
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...
(parliament) and many governmental offices. The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences recently initiated the publication of his Collected Works in fifty volumes.
Family
Mykhailo Hrushevsky had two siblings: brother - Oleksandr and sister - Hanna.- Oleksandr Hrushevsky (1877-1943) was married to Olha Hrushevska (Parfenenko) (1876-1961)
- Hanna Shamrayeva had two children Serhiy and Olha
The wife of Hrushevsky - Maria-Ivanna Hrushevska (November 8, 1868 - September 19, 1948) was born near Zboriv
Zboriv
Zboriv is a small town in Ternopil Oblast, west Ukraine. It is located in the historical region of Galicia. The population is 7,400 . It is administrative center of the Zboriv Raion....
(Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
) to Sylvester and Karolina Vojakowski. She met Hrushevsky in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
in 1893 and after three years they married in a town of Skala
Skala-Podilska
Skala-Podilska or Skala on the River Zbrucz is a town in Ukraine. It was, at one time, named simply "Skala." To distinguish itself from another town with that same name, the town compounded its name, variously, to "Skala on the River Zbrucz," "Skala Podilska" , and "Skala Podolskaya" .-History: ...
near Borschiv
Borschiv
Borshchiv is a city in the Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Borshchivskyi Raion and is located at around . City population is 11,382 ....
. On June 21, 1900, while living in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
in the family of Hrushevsky was born a daughter Kateryna. Since 1917 Maria was a member of the Central Rada and a treasurer for the Ukrainian National Theater.