The influence of Mykola Khvylovy's ideas on the views and activities of Leonid Plyushch

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the influence of the ideas of the Ukrainian writer and publicist Mykola Khvylyovy (1893 – 1933) on the views, public and literary activity of the dissident Leonid Plyushch (1939 – 2015). The methodological basis of the article is the principles of objectivity, comprehensiveness, continuity, and historicism. The work uses methods of analysis and synthesis, problem-chronological, retrospective, typology, and comparison and collation of information from various sources. The scientific novelty is due to the insignificant attention of modern Ukrainian historians to the problem of the connection between the generations of representatives of the “Executed Renaissance” of the 1920s and the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The article traces for the first time the ideological influence of Mykola Khvylovy on the worldview and activities of Leonid Plyushch in the context of the era under study. The authors conclude that a comparative analysis of the ideological heritage of Mykola Khvylyovy and the public and literary activities of Leonid Plyushch has demonstrated the deep continuity of the Ukrainian intellectual tradition of resistance to imperial oppression and the desire for national freedom. Despite the time distance and different historical circumstances, both figures became carriers of a similar ideological code – Ukrainian national communism with a clear European orientation. M. Khvylovy's ideas about the cultural independence of Ukraine, the rejection of provincialism and Russian hegemony, and the search for a new artistic quality became the basis on which L. Plyushch's worldview was later formed. Leonid Plyushch's ideological evolution, his reorientation to Ukrainian national values, resistance to the Soviet totalitarian system, as well as his deep interest in the legacy of the "Executed Renaissance" – in particular, the figure of M. Khvylyovy – testify to the living connection of generations of fighters for Ukrainian spiritual, cultural and political emancipation. His scientific and literary work dedicated to M. Khvylyovy is not only a deep analytical study, but also a moral tribute to his outstanding predecessor. The study revealed a little-studied, but conceptually important aspect of Ukrainian history of the 20th century – the continuity of ideological resistance within the intellectual discourse that united representatives of different generations: from the national communists of the 1920s to the dissidents of the 1970s. Further study of this connection can significantly deepen the understanding of both the nature of Ukrainian resistance and the mechanisms of national identity formation in the difficult conditions of imperial and totalitarian pressure.