СУСПІЛЬНО-ПОЛІТИЧНІ ПОГЛЯДИ Й НАПРЯМИ НАУКОВОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ОЛЕКСАНДРА ЧЕРНЯХІВСЬКОГО

Abstract

In the article, the formation of national beliefs of the well-known Ukrainian public and political figure Oleksandr Cherniakhivsky at the end of the XIX-th century has been analyzed. The significance and influence of the Ukrainian Hromada and its most famous representatives, V. Antonovych, O. Konyskyi, on the development of young O. Cherniakhivsky’s outlook and the formation of his attitude towards the ways of solving the Ukrainian issue in the Russian Empire have been considered. Also, the article analyzes the participation of O. Cherniakhivsky in various cultural, educational and scientific projects in which the scientist had an opportunity to realize that the destructive national policy of the Russian Empire hindered the development of the Ukrainian nation as well as other peoples of the state. On the basis of archival materials and unpublished sources it has been revealed that O. Cherniakhivsky perceived his membership in the "Brotherhood of Tarasivtsy", the participation in the Kyiv Old Hromada, and the organizational work at the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kyiv as a personal contribution to the development of domestic science and, generally, as an opportunity for the Ukrainian people to prove their right to exist as a whole nation in spite of resistance from the Russian power. Furthemore, the social and political convictions of O. Cherniakhivsky and their continuous evolution during the revolutionary period of 1917-1918 and the struggle for independence in 1918-1921 have been investigated. It has been revealed that at that time he gave up the method of revolutionary struggle. Instead, he chose the evolutionary preparation of compatriots to the formation of their own statehood through the establishment of major public institutions such as the Ukrainian People's University, the Medical Faculty, and the Association of Ukrainian Doctors, etc. Moreover, O. Cherniakhivsky considered an established system of scientific knowledge and terminology to be a necessary ingredient of the development of the Ukrainian nation. Therefore, throughout all his life he was engaged in the improvement of scientific dictionaries, terminology and popularization of the Ukrainian scientific language.