AN UNFINISHED POLEMICS “AMONG OURSELVES”

Abstract

The paper examines the polemical dialogue on the national question between two Ukrainian literary classics, Ivan Franko and Lesia Ukrainka, which took place in the late 19th and early 20th century, as well as its impact on other writers, social, and political figures. There was a noticeable divergence in the positions of two prominent writers, with Ivan Franko criticizing the trans-Dnieper Ukrainian intellectuals for distancing themselves from the people, while Lesia Ukrainka justified their participation in the statewide all-Russian movement. This is primarily explained by the asynchrony of social development in the conditions of the Russian autocratic empire and the Austro-Hungarian constitutional state, but there was still another factor. The views of both Ivan Franko and Lesia Ukrainka were formed under the influence of the social-democratic ideas of Mykhailo Drahomanov. However, by that time, Ivan Franko had already shifted towards national positions, while Lesia Ukrainka continued to share Drahomanov’s principles. The evolution of Lesia Ukrainka’s views suggests that it was rather a temporary misunderstanding than an ideological confrontation with Ivan Franko. During the Soviet period, this opposition articulated by Ivan Franko as the one “among ourselves” and temporary “polemical controversy” (Lesіa Ukrainka) was intentionally ignored, as the communist regime in the USSR made efforts to silence the presence of national movements. Interest in this polemic appeared already in the first post-revolutionary years in Ukraine (Mykhailo Drai-Khmara) and remained vivid within the Ukrainian emigration (Dmytro Dontsov, Yurii Lavrinenko). Subsequently, it was revived in literary works during the period of Ukrainian state independence, with contributions from Ivan Denysiuk, Mykhailo Nechytaliuk, Vasyl Horyn, Halyna Levchenko, Mykhailo Hnatiuk, and Bohdan Tykholoz. The polemic between Ivan Franko and Lesia Ukrainka proves its relevance in current circumstances as well.