The Role of Ethnic Tradition in the Development of Ukrainian Identity (As Seen by Yevhen Malaniuk)

Abstract

Avant-garde models of Ukrainian national and cultural identity in the first half of the twentieth century were frequently formed in opposition to the earlier ethnographic concept. The dominance of the Romantic cult of ethnic tradition and the folklore and nativism influences on the native culture throughout the nineteenth century urged the new generation of Ukrainian intellectuals to give the national culture a modern form. In his many articles and historiosophic essays Yevhen Malaniuk spoke in opposition to absolutisation of folk culture as the only inheritor of ethnic tradition values. “Little Russian mentality” was also subject to Malaniuk’s scrutiny, as in his opinion it had its roots primarily in the ethnographic approach, and was perceived by him as a disease affecting the national consciousness of the Ukrainian people.