The purpose of the article is to clarify the peculiarities of public activity and the scientific work of M. Korduba during the First World War. The methodological basis of the work is an interdisciplinary approach. Particular emphasis is placed on the structural and functional system analysis of historiographical facts and the method of critical analysis of documentary material. The scientific novelty of the article consists in an attempt to comprehensively reconstruct the intellectual biography of M. Korduba during the Great War. Conclusion. In the end, it was noted that the reconstruction of M. Korduba's life and activities during the First World War portrays him as one of the leading representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of the modern era of national revival. Not being a professional politician by his chosen lifestyle, the scientist lively responded to the numerous needs of the Ukrainian public deprived of its own statehood. During the Great War, he directed his energy to the most important areas of national progress: he carried out cultural and educational work among prisoners of war, wrote popular scientific texts necessary for the self-education of the general public, defended Ukrainian interests with a journalistic pen when discussing the model of the post-war world order, etc. But M. Korduba's range of public talents was most fully demonstrated by the events of the establishment of national statehood in the western Ukrainian lands after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was his composure in difficult situations, responsible initiative and public courage that largely made it possible to declare a short-term, but important for the national self-awareness of the people of Bukovyna, political independence. The events of that time crystallized the sobornist convictions of Korduba-politician, as evidenced by the scholar's intellectual biography of the interwar period, in which once again scientific creativity and public service were inextricably intertwined.