THE INTELLIGENTSIA AS A DRIVING FORCE OF UKRAINIAN NATION-BUILDING IN GALICIA IN THE LATE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY (ACCORDING TO THE MATERIALS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES OF METROPOLITAN ANDREY SHEPTYTSKY)

Nataliia KOLB, Nataliia MYSAK

https://doi.org/10.33402/zuz.2019-15-114-122

In the late 19th and early 20th century, in Galicia, under the influence of the modernization transformations of the Habsburgs, the processes of formation of national consciousness and identity of Ukrainians, as well as of Ukrainian nation-building were intensified. In the socio-political and cultural life of the region, a decisive role was played by the elite, represented by the Ukrainian intelligentsia. The development of education and science, the liberalization of political life have changed the social face of the elite. The clergy, which dominated the fi rst half of the nineteenth century, were replaced by secular intellectuals: lawyers, teachers, doctors, writers, scholars, artists, etc. Gradually, it took a leading position in the public life of the region and became the engine of Ukrainian nation-building. The role of the national elite in the socio-political transformations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was given considerable attention in pastoral epistles by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. He considered the intelligentsia as moral and spiritual support of the people, the main organizer and promoter of national life, especially in the province. The Metropolitan gave the intellectual elite a central role in the process of becoming a Ukrainian nation. The key to the success of this social group, he considered the cohesion of the clergy and the secular elite, their awareness of the unity of goals and aspirations, the elimination of contradictions, conflicts and misunderstandings in relationships, working together for the benefit of the native people. A. Sheptytsky saw the main tasks of the intelligentsia in activating the educational work among the population, improving its economic knowledge, developing Ukrainian education, especially higher education, and forming the civic and political consciousness of Ukrainians. Describing the elite, Metropolitan considered selflessness and patriotism as its inalienable and obligatory features of that time. At the same time, he strongly criticized the negative socio-psychological qualities of the intelligentsia, which prevented it from fulfiling its mission. A. Sheptytsky considered the greatest defects of the Ukrainian intellectual elite as unreasonable ambition, the struggle for influence in the community, the gradual loss of ethnic and cultural identity, the priority of financial well-being over the service of the people, and the over-enthusiasm for atheistic and socialist ideals.