V. Jagić and ukrainian question: The letter to F. E. Korsch

Abstract

One of the key-points of the socio-political discourse in the Russian Empire in the XIX ‒ early XX centuries was Slavic question. Ukrainian question was its particular manifestation. The aggravation of discussions on the Slavic issues, as a rule, followed the dynamics of foreign policy. Interest in the Ukrainian issue increased due to the adoption of censorship measures by the Russian state, which varied from tightening to softening of the censorship regime. The Ukrainian question in Russian socio-political thought was debated mainly in the discussion, if the Ukrainian («Little Russian») people represent an independent ethnic group or is a local version of the «Great Russians». Depending on the answer to this question, the ideal structure of the Russian state was going to be worked out. The Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences took an active part in the discussion of the Slavic question in general (and that of Ukrainian in particular) and in the adoption of appropriate measures, acting as an expert body. Discussions were conducted not only at the institutional level, but also at the private one. In research literature, the scholarly world on this issue is divided into two camps, one of which (liberal-nationalist) was represented mainly by P. B. Struve, and the other — by his numerous opponents (for example, by F. E. Korsh). As documents from the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences show, the history of discussion on the Ukrainian issue before the First World War was broader, more scholars, also representing the Academy of sciences were involved. In particular, the position of one the most prominent European Slavist of the late XIX ‒ early XX centuries I. V. Jagić deserves attention. His position on the Ukrainian problem, which worried Jagić for several decades, is especially pronounced in the last letter to F. E. Korsh dated April 9 (22), 1912.