Ukrainian education in the political concept and practical activities of Mykola Mikhnovsky

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to analyse the place of the educational factor in the political concept and practical activity of Mykola Mikhnovsky, who at the beginning of the 20th century initiated an independent trend in Trans-Dnieper Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the principle of historicism and the psychological approach, which allow analysing the connection between the language issue and national identity. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the analysis of the education system in the Russian Empire as a means of assimilation of the Ukrainian population into the Russian ethnos. It has been determined that opposition to the assimilationist policy became a means of consolidating the Ukrainians in their struggle for the Ukrainian identity, formation of a modern European nation, and revival of an independent Ukrainian state. The Conclusion. M. Mikhnovsky concluded that the national liberation of Ukraine was impossible without a radical political and socio-cultural break with Russia. One of the most important means of achieving this goal was an effective system creation of the Ukrainian public education. It was education that was to become a powerful factor in the transformation of the Ukrainians into a modern nation capable of the Ukrainian independent building. A century of searches and bloody tragedies had passed before the Ukrainian society realized that the future of Ukraine is impossible without its radical de-Russification, decolonization, socio-cultural distancing from Russia and civilizational reorientation towards Europe. Today, the format of cultural and educational relations between Ukraine and Russia, which was proposed by M. Mikhnovsky, turned out to be quite appropriate. The “window of opportunity” for this opened during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, which began in February of 2022.