Dmitry I. Chizhevsky about the Ukrainian-Russian Cross-Cultural Communications (To the 125 Anniversary since His Birth)

Abstract

The full philological and philosophical impact of the work of Dmitry Ivanovich Chizhevsky, sometimes called the “Nestor of Slavic studies”, is considered in this work. His work is characterized by a focus on the cultural unity of peoples – the Slavic area, Europe as a whole, and the whole world. Chizhevsky emphasized the lack of alternative cultural unity at any historical time for any of these peoples. The contents of two of his most important works that reference perspectives on Ukrainian-Russian cross-cultural interaction are analyzed: his works on the history of Ukrainian literature and on the reception of Hegel’s philosophy by representatives of the Slavic people. It is noted that Chizhevsky was very attentive to manifestations of Russian social thought. He considered that the “cardiocentric” philosophy (focusing not only on lines of thought, but also on movements of the heart), which started with Grigory Skovoroda and was transferred by “little Russian” Pamfil Yurkevich to his apprentice Vladimir Solovyov, was acceptable for Russian philosophizing in the future. In some areas of current spiritual life, “fights for Chizhevsky” not only continue, but are intensifying, although it is not battling for him that is needed, but studying his heritage in the sphere of Slavic philology. Chizhevsky strictly scientifically proved: the evolution of the “spirit” of any Slavic nation is not possible without consideration of all its Slavic and European ties; for him, fruitful differentiation and mutual evaluation of cultures requires that the code of one culture needs to be interpreted by comparison with others. On his 125th anniversary, Dmitry I. Chizhevsky reminds us that he, as a great Slavic scholar, was “political” only in the identification of the importance of cross-cultural communications.