The trajectory of the «Ukrainian project» in the scientific heritage of M. Dragomanov and O. Konysky

Abstract

The article attempts to comprehend the intellectual heritage of M. Dragomanov and O. Konysky as projections of two models of national revival. The analysis is aimed at reconstructing their conceptual positions on political subjectivity, culture, education, language, as well as at identifying contradictions and points of intersection in their ideas about the content of Ukrainian emancipation. It is shown that Dragomanov built the concept of political autonomy through a federalist framework, defending the rational right to self-determination and modern national identity as part of the European political process. At the same time, Konysky saw the nation as a moral and historical community united by language, customs, history, with an emotional experience of belonging. The difference between them was manifested in the attitude towards religion, the legitimization of the national movement, the role of the elite, and the strategies of cultural resistance. A discursive analysis of journalistic, epistolary, and autobiographical sources, including diaries and letters, was carried out, which allowed us to reconstruct not only programmatic positions, but also experiences, doubts, and internal displacements. It was traced how both thinkers, despite their polar intonations – the rationalistic analytical nature of Drahomanov and the emotional irony of Konysky – shaped the actorship of the Ukrainian project, striving to avoid both the extremes of isolationism and the dangers of nationless indifference. It was determined that both trajectories were a response to the colonial situation and an attempt to build a cultural and political space of modern Ukrainianness within the framework of imperial pressure.