Artem KOKOSH the PROBLEM of UKRAINIAN ETHNOLOGY IN

2019, Volumul XXV Revista de etnologie și cultuRologie E-ISSN: 2537-6152 125 Artem KOKOSH THE PROBLEM OF UKRAINIAN ETHNOLOGY IN PANTELEIMON KULISH’S SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE Rezumat rical and ethnographic works. Describing the main features Problema etnologiei ucrainene în patrimoniul of Ukrainians in P. Kulish’s works and comparing them with ştiinţific al lui Panteleimon Kulish the information provided by other Ukrainian historians of Panteleimon Kulish este considerat o personalitate the XIX century the author also analyses the formation of importantă a naţiunii ucrainene, ce prezintă interes şi în the historian’s ideology, social and political views. zilele noastre. Relevanţa lucrării constă în determinarea Key words: Ukrainians, biography, Panteleimon Ku- locului istoricului în viaţa culturală şi ştiinţifică a Ucrai- lish, scientific heritage. nei şi a ideilor sale despre identitatea poporului ucrainean. Articolul descrie şi analizează principalele gânduri ale lui Panteleimon Kulish (1819–1897) is a famous P. Kulish despre naţiunea ucraineană, istoria şi caracte- Ukrainian historian, writer, folklorist, and public fig- risticile sale principale pe baza operelor istorice şi etno- ure who greatly contributed to the ideological and grafice. În lucrarea lui P. Kulish principalele calităţi ale organizational formation of Ukrainian history. He is ucrainenilor sunt descrise şi comparate cu informaţiile known by his literary works, among which the his- furnizate de alţi istorici ucraineni ai secolului al XIX-lea şi se analizează formarea ideologiei istoricului, punctele sale torical novel ‘Black Council’ has the leading place, istorice, sociale şi politice. as well as his views on the history of Ukraine, folk- Cuvinte-cheie: ucraineni, biografie, Panteleimon Ku- loristic achievements, and the “kulishivka” phonetic liş, patrimoniul ştiinţific. spelling. P. Kulish’s creative works and ideology under- Резюме went some changes during his lifetime. Before his Вопросы украинского народоведения в научном exile to Tula in 1847, P. Kulish had been forming and наследии Пантелеймона Кулиша developing as a folklorist, writer and poet having a Пантелеймон Кулиш считается важной фигурой vision with romantic ideas with the focus on ethnic украинской нации, а его личность вызывает инте- individualism of Ukrainians. In those times, he met рес в наши дни. Актуальность работы заключается в the representatives of Ukrainian, Polish and Russian определении места историка в культурной и научной intelligentsia: Mykhailo Maksymovych, Mykhailo жизни Украины и его идеях о самобытности украин- ского народа. В статье описываются и анализируют- Yuzefovych, Mykola Kostomarov, Taras Shevchen- ся основные мысли П. Кулиша об украинской нации, ko, Michał Grabowski, Kostiantyn Swidzynski, Petro ее истории и основных характеристиках на основе Pletnyov etc. Since 1840s, P. Kulish had been formed его исторических и этнографических работ. Описы- as a historian. In 1840, he wrote his first historical ваются основные качества украинцев в творчестве novel ‘Mykhailo Charnyshenko, or Malorosia Eighteen П. Кулиша и сравниваются с информацией, представ- Years Ago’, which he published with the support of ленной в работах других украинских историков XIX M. Yuzefovych. Later on, in 1846 he published an- в., а также анализируется формирование идеологии other historical novel ‘Black Council. The Chronicle исследователя, его исторические, социальные и поли- of 1663’. Some years after the exile in Tula, the his- тические взгляды. torian published ‘Notes on Southern Rus’ (1856), for Ключевые слова: украинцы, биография, Панте- which he had obtained sources at the beginning of леймон Кулиш, научное наследие. the 1840s. This work described the past and mod- Summary ern times of Ukrainians, their traditions and culture, The Problem of Ukrainian Ethnology in the best way. The change of the historian’s views in Panteleimon Kulish’s Scientific Heritage from romantic to critical is seen in two historical Panteleimon Kulish is considered to be an important works ‘The History of the Reunification of Rus’(1874– figure of the Ukrainian nation and his personality presents 1877) and ‘The Separation of Malorosia from Poland’ interest nowadays. The thesis timeliness lies in the necessity (1887–1889). to define the historian’s place in the cultural and scientific An important period in P. Kulish’s life began life of Ukraine and to refer back to his ideas about Ukrai- upon his entering Kyiv University in 1837. There, nians’ originality. The goal of the paper is to describe and the young student got under the influence of his analyse P. Kulish’s main thoughts about the Ukrainian nati- professor, a famous ethnologist, publisher and di- on, its history and main characteristics based on his histo- 126 E-ISSN: 2537-6152 Revista de etnologie și cultuRologie 2019, Volumul XXV rector of the almanac Kievlianin Mykhailo Maksy- of people and its poetry was noticeably useful for movych1, who drew his attention to the collection him and was good food for his mind, able to digest of ethnologic resources. Kulish became acquaint- and absorb it” [15, p. 322-324]. ed with Maksymovych’s works while studying at In the 1840s Kulish got acquainted with oth- Novhorod-Siversky gymnasium. P. Kulish bought his er representatives of intelligentsia. He met a stu- collection of Ukrainian folk songs published in 1834 dent of Kyiv University Vasyl Bilozersky, his future and M. Kostomarov bought the same book on the wife’s brother. At that time, he got acquainted with same day in Kharkiv. “Both of us, on the same day Taras Shevchenko whom he did not like “because changed from Russian into Ukrainian narodniks”, – of his cynicism”. To tell the truth, soon they be- wrote P. Kulish in his autobiography [18, p. 37]. came good friends – “began to travel around Kyiv, Kulish made a review of archives at institutions to draw, to cook fish on the bank of the Dnieper”. and monasteries in Kyiv region in the summer of Also, at Mykhailo Yuzefovych’s Kulish met Mykola 1883. During his ethnologic trips, the historian got Kostomarov, who was a teacher at a gymnasium [1, acquainted with a Polish writer, historian and ex- p. 118-120]. Under the influence of Kyiv intelligen- pert of Ukrainian history, Michał Grabowski. Kulish tsia, romantic history writing of that time, influenc- wrote the poem ‘Ukraïna’ in Oleksandrivka village, es of preromantic enlightenment in Herder’s and Chyhyrynpovit, at Grabovski’s villa. In the letter to Rousseau’s version and based on the ethnographic Mykhailo Yuzefovych of 31 June 1893 the historian materials, Kulish came to the conclusion about the wrote, “Grabowski is a clever and bright mind… he distinctiveness of the Ukrainians, their great history told me a lot about our history, which we, the Dnieper and originality [21, p. 78]. Ukrainians, couldn’t dream about” [21, p. 5-7]. Later on, together with T. Shevchenko, V. Bilo- The historian got to know the national folklore zersky3, M. Hulak4, O. Markovych5, Kulish joined and legends better, which he thought to be “a sin- the creation of Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. cere expression of people’s thoughts and views on its Then he wrote two works: ‘Tale of the Ukrainian history” [3, p.121]. If not to take into consideration People’ (1846) and ‘Ukrainian National Legends’ these national legends, one cannot see historical (1847). In ‘Tale of the Ukrainian People’, a work for events and include them into the nation’s life, fate older children, the historian placed some lessons of and nature. That is why Kulish studied them as the Ukrainian history. He confirmed that a nation with- main source of the Ukrainian history. He wrote down out its religion could not be a nation. Losing the re- legends about the Zaporozhians, gaidamaks, time of ligion was the first step to its assimilation by another Polish domination on the Right bank and got enough nation. P. Kulish also wrote about national leaders’ information about historical events in the suburbs of role, who lead the nation in problem situations. He the old hetman capital Chyhyryn [17, p. 17]. In the described some examples in ‘Tale of the Ukrainian letter of 31 July 1843, Kulish wrote, “Now, I am like a Peolpe’: Nalyvaiko, Pavliuk, Triasylo who rebelled bee going to, onto into? a honeycomb. When I meet against Polish oppression. All of them were support a grey, I do not leave it until I squeeze out of him for the nation, when it seemed to stop the existence the aromatic flower of the national poetry, either in [7, p. 382]. a legend, or in a song. Studying these Ukrainian an- The other work, ‘Ukrainian National Legends’ tiques improves me as the study of sculpture antiques was the collection of ethnography and folklore ma- improves a painter” [18, p. 38]. terials. This book was published with the help of Jo- Kulish really impressed Grabowski. The lat- syp Bodiansky6, a professor of Moscow University. ter mentioned it in the letter of 31 July 1843 to his In fact, it was a collection of legends that P. Kulish friend, the Polish writer Józef-Ignacy Kraszewski2, wrote down while travelling in Ukraine. After each “In his speech, full of ardour, of real poetry and story, the historian wrote from whom and where he sources impressed me especially. He thought nation- had got the legends, which were thematically divided al songs and true people’s thoughts to be these sourc- into three chapters: “Historical Legends”, “Fantastic es, but in this subject, outdated and ordinary done Legends” and “Mixture”. On the pages of the collec- by our pedants-folksmen, his thoughts were so juicy, tion, there are stories about the Zaporozhians, Cos- and consideration of art was so right that I could not sacks, Tatars, legends of the Golden Gates, wars of but wonder and enjoy that precision. He studied the Khmelnytsky, Mazepa and Paliy, legends of Kyrylo people as an alive book; he showed me a big volume Kozhumiaka, scenes of the domestic everyday life [8, of Ukrainian songs, which was collected more sys- p.

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