K. Gardetska’s Letter to V. Doroshenko about M.Hrushevskyi’s Stay in Kryvorivnia (introductory article and publication by I. Hyrych)

Abstract

A new source is published, which tells about the significance for Ukrainian culture and for the creative activity of M.Hrushevskyi in the Carpathian village Kryvorivnia.

Scientific novelty and conclusions. An unknown letter-memoir about M.Hrushevskyi’s stay in Kryvorivnia and his intellectual environment there is introduced into scientific context for the first time. The “Hrushevskyi in Kryvorivnia” topic has been studied in sufficient detail. Such local historians and Hrushevskyi scholars as P.Arsenych, S.Pankova have covered it extensively. The letter to the prominent bibliographer and literary critic V.Doroshenko contains an unknown memoir about Kryvorivnia and M.Hrushevskyi, written by K.Gardetska, the daughter of O.Volianskyi, local pastor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin church, and a well-known public figure. The latter had the idea to turn Kryvorivnia into a “holiday resort Mecca” of the Ukrainian cultural elite in the early 20th century. Ukrainian activists did not want to fall behind and seeked to create a Ukrainian cultural environment to counter the Polish and Russian equivalents, like that of the Polish Zakopane, Russian Pushcha-Vodytsia or Vorzel near Kyiv. Due to O.Volianskyi’s efforts, Kryvorivnia became a sought-after summer vacation spot for famous scientists, writers and public figures, such as V.Hnatiuk, I.Franko, M.Hrushevskyi, Lesia Ukrainka, Ye.Tymchenko, M.Kotsiubynskyi, O.Oles, H.Khotkevych, V.Doroshenko and many others, turning into a haven for people who stood at the forefront of the Ukrainian national liberation movement and contributed to the establishment of the socio-cultural foundations of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1921. K.Gardetska herself was also a well-known public figure, journalist, and Ukrainian women’s rights activist in postwar Germany and the United States. In her memoirs, she lists fascinating details of the relationships between Ukrainian vacationers in Kryvorivnia, as well as the years of their stay. She mentions Ukrainians who helped visitors from the Upper Dnipro region to settle in the nearby villages. V.Doroshenko was going to use these materials in his book of memoirs about M.Hrushevskyi, which he never managed to publish.