Дмитро Дорошенко versus Микола Трубецькой: “Українське питання” в дискусіях 1920-х років

Abstract

The “Ukrainian question” occupied an important place in intellectual and political discussions of the Ukrainian and Russian emigrants of the 1920s. The article draws attention to one of such discussions – between Dmytro Doroshenko and Nikolay Trubetskoy, iconic figures of the Ukrainian and Russian emigrants’ circles. Trubetskoy and other theorists of a new Eurasian direction formed an ideology aimed at restoring the integrity of Russia. The core of the new Eurasian nation was to be the Russian people – “the triune nation” of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians. As heirs of Russian liberal tradition in the “Ukrainian question”, they did not recognize the right of Ukrainians to develop Ukrainian language and culture. The struggle for national statehood in 1917–1921, the active cultural and educational activities of Ukrainian emigration, and even the policy of “Ukrainization” in the USSR were factors that, according to Eurasianists, could lead to emergence of “high” Ukrainian culture and, consequently, individual nation. Therefore, in his works Trubetskoy sought to convince Ukrainians of the perniciousness of their intentions to protect and develop the national culture because it threatens “the common Russian” culture. This position provoked rejection and sharp criticism from the leading representatives of the Ukrainian emigration, in particular, Doroshenko, Mitsyuk and others. In their publications, they argued against the approaches and assessments of Trubetskoy and his associates.