Бретонські національно-культурні рухи XIX – першої половини XX століття в оцінках Михайла Драгоманова та Ольґерда-Іполита Бочковського

Abstract

The article deals with the views of two Ukrainian thinkers, Mykhailo Drahomanov and Olğerd-Ipolyt Bochkovsky, on the contemporary nation-building processes which took place in the Breton society. The aim is to reveal the main opinions of Drahomanov and Bochkovsky regarding the course of linguistic and cultural movements in Brittany. The authors briefly characterize the three waves of the Breton linguistic and literary movement, and dwell in detail on the analysis of two Ukrainian historiographical sources. Mykhailo Drahomanov’s first article «The Neo-Celtic and Provençal Movement in France» of 1875 was a detailed political study of the first Emsav, of which Drahomanov was a contemporary. The second article, «Young Brittany and Neo-Breton activism», 1932, belongs to the Ukrainian sociologist and historian Olgerd-Ipolyt Bochkovsky and is the result of a detailed analysis of the Breton national-cultural movement of the first half of the 20th century up to the time of writing the article, comparing it with the 1st Emsav of the 19th century. Both thinkers, reflecting on the course of the Breton national and cultural revival, first of all payd attention to measures for the revival of the language and the promotion of Breton-language literature. Drahomanov leaded to the idea that national literature would be the fundamental basis for building national identity. Bochkovsky, among whose ideological inspirations was Drahomanov, also emphasized the measures taken by his Breton contemporaries to improve the language and polish, modernize and elevate literature. Being a supporter of nation-building «from the elites down», he welcomed a similar strategy of the Breton Gwalarn movement – to train educated elites to then influence the entire Breton community through them. The detailed attention of Ukrainian intellectuals to the national and cultural movements in Brittany was caused by the need to find models for the Ukrainian national movement at various stages of its development in the second half of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, and also testified to the good awareness of both thinkers regarding current social and political issues and local events in European countries.