Yakiv Orenstein — Publisher-Ukrainophile

Abstract

The purpose is to highlight the little-known facts of the biography and main milestones in the life and work of the famous Ukrainian publisher of Jewish origin, a native of Kolomyia, Ya. Orenstein, to determine his place and role in Ukrainian-Jewish cultural and political relations, to study the cultural and political portrait of the publisher in the first third decade of the 20th century.

Various research methods were used: comparative-historical, problematic-chronological, microhistorical, history of everyday life, and ethnic biography.

The scientific novelty lies in the coverage of little-known facts of his biography and activities in the context of Ukrainian-Jewish and Ukrainian-German relations, which allow us to reveal fully the role of the publisher in interethnic relations, constructive cooperation with Ukrainian political and cultural elites and new archival findings that significantly correct or clarify the known information.

Conclusions. The figure of Ya. Orenstein is one of the most prominent in the Ukrainian cultural and political discourse of the early 20th century. The publisher’s merits in the history of Ukrainian culture include the creation and functioning of the publishing houses “Halytska Nakladnia” and “Ukrainska Nakladnia,” the promotion of Ukrainian books in Europe and America in the interwar period, participation in Ukrainian emigration life.