Volodymyr Antonovych
Encyclopedia
Volodymyr Antonovych was a prominent Ukrainian
historian
and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national awakening in the Russian Empire
. As a historian, Antonovych, who was longtime Professor of History at the University of Kiev, represented a populist
approach to Ukrainian history
.
This approach, which earlier had been exemplified by another historian, Mykola Kostomarov (Nikolay Kostomarov
), took the side of the common people in the recurrent conflicts between the state and the people which had characterized Ukrainian history over the centuries. Kostomarov, Antonovych, and other populist historians saw the spirit of the nation as embedded in the Ukrainian folk
, and saw and the various states that had ruled Ukraine as being exterior to this folk and somewhat foreign.
Nevertheless, in his times he was considered one of the most prominent specialists on pre-history of western Russia.
He was born January 18, 1834 in the village of Makhnivka (Machnówka), Vinnytsia Oblast
, then in the Imperial Russian Kiev Guberniya. His parents were two local teachers of Polish humble gentry
ancestry, though Antonovych later claimed the direct predecessor of his family was a member of the mighty Lubomirski
family. He himself on various occasions claimed his father was either Bolesław Antonowicz or a Hungarian wanderer named János Diday. He grew up in his mother's house in Makhnivka, and in early youth moved to Odessa. Little is known of this period in his life.
In 1830 he graduated from the II School for Boys in Odessa and joined the Kiev University
. Initially he studied medicine, but following the death of his mother he moved to the faculty of history and philology. During his studies he joined the circles of Polish democratically-minded students and took part in the preparations for what became the January Uprising
under the auspice of the London-based Polish Democratic Society
.
In 1857 he co-founded the Związek Trojnicki ("Triple Society", named after three parts of Poland taken by Russia in 18th century: Volhynia
, Podolia
and the Kiev
area). The society was aimed at promoting the liquidation of serfdom and winning the peasants for the case of Polish independence. At the same time it prepared the members for their role in the planned all-national uprising. As such, Antonowicz became one of the prominent examples of the "peasant-lovers
" , a loose group of young artists and political thinkers fascinated with the peasantry as the "core of the nation" and stressing the need to win the peasants for the cause.
However, when the January Uprising
finally started, the society divided. Antonowicz, highly critical of the szlachta
, decided to "go with the people", and left its ranks, instead forming a "Ruthenian" (Ukrainian) society called Kiev Hromada. The conflict between Antonowicz and his university colleagues was further aggravated by the conflict over the Polish language
. While most democratic societies decided to appeal to the tsar
and ask for the Polish language to be promoted to the status of the language of instruction, Antonowicz ultimately opposed those plans. This conflict further strengthened Antonowicz's pro-Ukrainian stance on one side, and the animosity between him and his colleagues on the other, to the extent he was considered a "renegade" by some. About that time he also changed his name to its Ruthenized form and converted to Orthodox faith, common among the peasants living around Kiev, as opposed to Catholicism confessed by the higher strata of local society.
By 1863 the Hromada solidified into a small, yet influential student society. It differed from other patriotic societies at the Kiev University in that it stressed the need of Ukrainian national revival as a separate process, while other similar groups saw it as a part of a wider process, in which the basic aim was the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
. The Hromada started cautious Ukrainian cultural and educational work under the autocratic Russian Imperial regime. Antonovych, now a prominent member of the Ukrainian national movement, criticized the largely Polonized
nobility and gentry of right-bank Ukraine
for what he saw as betrayal of the true national cause and exploiting the peasantry. Antonovych, who himself was of Polish-speaking nobility
from the right-bank, and had probably been influenced by boyhood reading of the pro-Cossack novels of the Polish emigre from right-bank Ukraine, Michał Czajkowski, clearly went over to the Ukrainians at this time.
In the meantime, Antonovych graduated from the university (in 1860) and started his career as a teacher. Initially he taught Latin
at the 1st Kievan Gymnasium for Boys, but the following year he started teaching History of Russia
in the Kiev cadet corps
.
Throughout his career, the imperial censors
and oppressive political atmosphere prevented Antonovych from openly expressing his political views which tended to be egalitarian
and somewhat anarchistic
. In addition to being a populist, he was a pioneer of positivist
methodology in history, the founder of the so-called "Kiev Documentalist School" of Ukrainian historians, and mentor of the most famous of these, Mykhailo Hrushevsky
.
In 1897 together with the Ukrainian szlachtic
Oleksandr Konysky
organized the All-Ukrainian Public Organization.
and the grandfather of Maryna Rudnytska, the Canadian professor in the University of Manitoba
in Winnipeg
. Maryna Rudnytska was the wife of Jaroslav Rudnyckyj
.
His wife was Kateryna Mykolaivna Antonovych-Melnyk (Dec. 2, 1859 - Jan. 12, 1942) who was a Ukrainian historian and archeologist from the city of Khorol
(today - Poltava Oblast
). In 1880s she participated in the archeological excavations near Shumsk
(today - Ternopil Oblast
) and in 1885 visited Ternopil
during her travel around the region. Since 1919 Kateryna worked in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national awakening in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. As a historian, Antonovych, who was longtime Professor of History at the University of Kiev, represented a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
approach to Ukrainian history
History of Ukraine
The territory of Ukraine was a key center of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers. However, the history of Ukraine dates back many thousands of years. The territory has been settled continuously since at least 5000 BC, and is also a candidate site...
.
This approach, which earlier had been exemplified by another historian, Mykola Kostomarov (Nikolay Kostomarov
Nikolay Kostomarov
Nikolay Ivanovich Kostomarov , of mixed Russian and Ukrainian origin, is one of the most distinguished Russian and Ukrainian historians, a Professor of History at the Kiev University and later at the St...
), took the side of the common people in the recurrent conflicts between the state and the people which had characterized Ukrainian history over the centuries. Kostomarov, Antonovych, and other populist historians saw the spirit of the nation as embedded in the Ukrainian folk
Culture of Ukraine
Ukrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with...
, and saw and the various states that had ruled Ukraine as being exterior to this folk and somewhat foreign.
Nevertheless, in his times he was considered one of the most prominent specialists on pre-history of western Russia.
Biography
Vinnytsia Oblast
Vinnytsia Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia.-Geography:The area of the region is 26,500 km²; its population is 1.7 million....
, then in the Imperial Russian Kiev Guberniya. His parents were two local teachers of Polish humble gentry
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
ancestry, though Antonovych later claimed the direct predecessor of his family was a member of the mighty Lubomirski
Lubomirski
Lubomirski family is a Polish szlachta family. The family used the "Szreniawa without a cross" arms and their motto was: Nil conscire sibi ....
family. He himself on various occasions claimed his father was either Bolesław Antonowicz or a Hungarian wanderer named János Diday. He grew up in his mother's house in Makhnivka, and in early youth moved to Odessa. Little is known of this period in his life.
In 1830 he graduated from the II School for Boys in Odessa and joined the Kiev University
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
. Initially he studied medicine, but following the death of his mother he moved to the faculty of history and philology. During his studies he joined the circles of Polish democratically-minded students and took part in the preparations for what became the January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
under the auspice of the London-based Polish Democratic Society
Polish Democratic Society
Polish Democratic Society was one of the most important organizations of Polish Great Emigration in 19th century France. Formed in 1832 from a faction of the Polish National Committee and led by Tadeusz Krępowiecki and Aleksander Pułaski, it argued for the need of drastic reforms in reconstituted...
.
In 1857 he co-founded the Związek Trojnicki ("Triple Society", named after three parts of Poland taken by Russia in 18th century: Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
, Podolia
Podolia
The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
and the Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
area). The society was aimed at promoting the liquidation of serfdom and winning the peasants for the case of Polish independence. At the same time it prepared the members for their role in the planned all-national uprising. As such, Antonowicz became one of the prominent examples of the "peasant-lovers
Chłopomania
Chłopomania is a Polish portmanteau of a Polish language word for a peasant and mania, the equivalent for the Ukrainian language Khlopomanstvo . As a historical and literary term, inspired by the Young Poland modernist movement, it refers specifically to late 19th century Galician intelligentsia's...
" , a loose group of young artists and political thinkers fascinated with the peasantry as the "core of the nation" and stressing the need to win the peasants for the cause.
However, when the January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
finally started, the society divided. Antonowicz, highly critical of the szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
, decided to "go with the people", and left its ranks, instead forming a "Ruthenian" (Ukrainian) society called Kiev Hromada. The conflict between Antonowicz and his university colleagues was further aggravated by the conflict over the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
. While most democratic societies decided to appeal to the tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
and ask for the Polish language to be promoted to the status of the language of instruction, Antonowicz ultimately opposed those plans. This conflict further strengthened Antonowicz's pro-Ukrainian stance on one side, and the animosity between him and his colleagues on the other, to the extent he was considered a "renegade" by some. About that time he also changed his name to its Ruthenized form and converted to Orthodox faith, common among the peasants living around Kiev, as opposed to Catholicism confessed by the higher strata of local society.
By 1863 the Hromada solidified into a small, yet influential student society. It differed from other patriotic societies at the Kiev University in that it stressed the need of Ukrainian national revival as a separate process, while other similar groups saw it as a part of a wider process, in which the basic aim was the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
. The Hromada started cautious Ukrainian cultural and educational work under the autocratic Russian Imperial regime. Antonovych, now a prominent member of the Ukrainian national movement, criticized the largely Polonized
Polonization
Polonization was the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland...
nobility and gentry of right-bank Ukraine
Right-bank Ukraine
Right-bank Ukraine , a historical name of a part of Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper River, corresponding with modern-day oblasts of Volyn, Rivne, Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad and Kiev, as well as part of Cherkasy and Ternopil...
for what he saw as betrayal of the true national cause and exploiting the peasantry. Antonovych, who himself was of Polish-speaking nobility
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
from the right-bank, and had probably been influenced by boyhood reading of the pro-Cossack novels of the Polish emigre from right-bank Ukraine, Michał Czajkowski, clearly went over to the Ukrainians at this time.
In the meantime, Antonovych graduated from the university (in 1860) and started his career as a teacher. Initially he taught Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
at the 1st Kievan Gymnasium for Boys, but the following year he started teaching History of Russia
History of Russia
The history of Russia begins with that of the Eastern Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The state of Garðaríki , which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862...
in the Kiev cadet corps
Cadet Corps (Russia)
The Cadet Corps is an admissions-based all boys military academy which prepared boys to become commissioned officers. Boys between the ages of 8 and 15 were enrolled. It was founded in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire in 1731 by Tsarina Anne. The term of education was seven years...
.
Throughout his career, the imperial censors
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and oppressive political atmosphere prevented Antonovych from openly expressing his political views which tended to be egalitarian
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
and somewhat anarchistic
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
. In addition to being a populist, he was a pioneer of positivist
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
methodology in history, the founder of the so-called "Kiev Documentalist School" of Ukrainian historians, and mentor of the most famous of these, Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Mykhailo Serhiyovych Hrushevsky was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century...
.
In 1897 together with the Ukrainian szlachtic
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
Oleksandr Konysky
Oleksandr Konysky
Oleksandr Yakovych Konysky — was a Ukrainian interpreter, writer, lexicograph, pedagogue, poet, and civil activist of liberal direction. He had several pen names О. Return-freedom , F. Gorovenko, V. Burkun, Perebendia, О. Khutorianyn, and others...
organized the All-Ukrainian Public Organization.
Family
Volodymyr Antonovych is the father of the former Ukrainian minister Dmytro AntonovychDmytro Antonovych
Dmytro Antonovych was a Ukrainian politician and art historian.Professor Dmytro Antonovych was the son of a Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Antonovych, the husband of Kateryna Antonovych, the father of Marko Antonovych and Mykhailo Antonovych.In 1900–1905, he was one of the founders and leaders of...
and the grandfather of Maryna Rudnytska, the Canadian professor in the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. Maryna Rudnytska was the wife of Jaroslav Rudnyckyj
Jaroslav Rudnyckyj
Jaroslav Bohdan Rudnyckyj, OC was a Ukrainian Canadian linguist, lexicographer with a specialty in etymology and onomastics, folklorist, bibliographer, travel writer, and publicist. He was one of the pioneers of Slavic Studies in Canada and one of the founding fathers of Canadian "Multiculturalism"...
.
His wife was Kateryna Mykolaivna Antonovych-Melnyk (Dec. 2, 1859 - Jan. 12, 1942) who was a Ukrainian historian and archeologist from the city of Khorol
Khorol
Khorol is a city in Poltava Oblast, Ukraine. Population is 14,753 . Notable natives of Khorol include Ben-Zion Dinur and Aryeh Dvoretzky....
(today - Poltava Oblast
Poltava Oblast
Poltava Oblast is an oblast of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava.Other important cities within the oblast include: Komsomolsk, Kremenchuk, Lubny and Myrhorod.-Geography:...
). In 1880s she participated in the archeological excavations near Shumsk
Shumsk
Shumsk is a city in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. It is administrative center of the Shumsk Raion. Population is 5,161 ....
(today - Ternopil Oblast
Ternopil Oblast
Ternopil Oblast is an oblast' of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Ternopil, through which flows the Seret River, a tributary of the Dnister.-Geography:...
) and in 1885 visited Ternopil
Ternopil
Ternopil , is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical region of Galicia...
during her travel around the region. Since 1919 Kateryna worked in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.