Анатоль Вахнянин – педагог-географ, композитор, громадський діяч, політик

Abstract

Anatole Vakhnyanin is one of the most representative of the Galician intellectuals, who in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the conditions of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy selflessly worked on the field of awareness of Ukrainians as a separate nation. Scientific and pedagogical, public-political, musical and cultural activities contributed significantly not only to the formation of the cultural and educational level of the population of Galicia, but also to the close unity of the entire Ukrainian people. In his student years, he started the activity of the student community structures “Hromada” (Przemysl) and “Sich” (Vienna), with whom the memory of Taras Shevchenko for the first time was honored. In Lviv, together with the like-minded people, A. Vakhnyanin initiated the cultural and educational organization “Prosvita” and lead its work in the years 1868–70. He also edited the daily “Pravda” newspaper in Lviv, initiated with the assistance of P. Kulish and O. Konysky and collaborated with other publications, including the “Dilo” Lviv newspaper, in which he published historical and pedagogical explorations, organized the work of music societies “Torban” and “Boyan”, for which he prepared a lot of his own compositions and arrangements of folk songs, and later made a lot of effort in the case of opening of the Higher Institute of Music named after M. Lysenko in Lviv. After graduation from Lviv and later the Przemysl Theological Seminary, A. Vakhnyanin received his first pedagogical experience, teaching rus'ka (Ukrainian), Old-Slavic, Old-Polish and Latin languages in the Przemysl High School for two years. However, he became a real teacher after graduating from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Vienna in Lviv Academic High School with the Ukrainian language of teaching, where he became a professor. During this period (1873) A. Vakhnyanin prepared a “A Short Sketch of the Geography for the Junior Classes of Secondary Schools”, and later, in 1884, he wrote an original Ukrainian-language textbook on geography “Geography textbook for secondary schools”, which for many years was an important source of geographical knowledge for high school students. A. Vakhnyanin throughout his adult life wrote music, although he did not consider himself a professional. The opera “Kupala”, which was set in Kharkiv in 21 years after the death of the composer, became the peak of his composer's art. Extremely diverse range of public-political activities of Anatol Vakhnyanin, who, with the circle of like-minded people, managed to organize the work of several public-cultural structures, in particular Prosvita, and subsequently the political organization “People's Council”, which made his name in Galicia widely popular among Rusyn-Ukrainians, so they repeatedly elected him as a deputy to the Galician Sejm and the Vienna Parliament (1894–1900). Key words: teacher, Professor, author of the textbook on geography, composer, public figure, “Prosvita”, politician, deputy.