Diplomatic Activity of Viacheslav Lypynskyi (1918-1919)

Abstract

The formation of scientific, social and political views of Viacheslav Lypynskyi is shown in the paper. His uniqueness lies in the fact that a Pole by origin, from an early age he became a patriot of Ukraine. He put forward ideas not only for the development of Ukrainian culture in active cooperation with the Polish gentry but also for the independence of Ukrainian state, which were later transformed into the main works of his life on the basis of both scientific and political experience.

It has been found out that along with the evolution of his political stances, the reorientation of his scientific interests took place. If before the national liberation struggles of 1917-1921 the main theme was the participation of the gentry in Ukrainian past, then after the revolution his main attention was paid to state-building processes aimed at building a new powerful Ukrainian state taking into account previous mistakes and the peculiarities of Ukraine’s historical past. V. Lypynskyi tried to put his political instructions into practice. To implement this idea, he started to be engaged in active social and political activities. As early as he was a student he was a member of youth organizations.

The scholar’s state standpoint was widely recognized during the Ukrainian Hetmanate of P. Skoropadskyi, and it was evidenced by the proposal to head a diplomatic mission in Austria-Hungary. Holding that position, V. Lypynsky proved himself as a skilled diplomat and forward-looking politician, step by step defending the territorial, political, economic and cultural interests of his state. Later, finding himself in emigration, Vyacheslav Lypynskyi continued to take an active public position.