Cultural politics of Mykhailo Hrushevsky as an editor of village magazines

The article is dedicated to the reconstruction of cultural politics of Mykhailo Hrushevsky as an editor and author of magazines «Selo» and «Zasiv». It has been proved that the fight against illiteracy of peasants was a priority task for M. Hrushevsky as an editor. An emphasis has been put on the fact that M. Hrushevsky was encouraging peasants for obtaining education as well as he was highlighting the need for bringing up the Ukrainian readership. As it has been investigated, M. Hrushevsky invested efforts in formation of political culture of his reader. He was consistently putting forward the advantages of autonomous form of state organization regarding political tasks of Ukrainians in Russian Douma. However, it has been noted, that M. Hrushevsky was not imposing his own political preferences, but rather pointed on the need of taking into account the national interests. It has been clarified, that the historical component of culture was of significant importance for M. Hrushevsky. His historical ideology can be traced in his texts, focused on historical personalities, memorials and events. The main goal of his historical journalism was to give his readers the feeling of unity of Ukrainian lands. His texts were abundantly illustrated which certainly influenced the enlightment function of his works. The reception of his work in village magazines was investigated as well. Both representatives of intelligentsia and peasantry gave excited feedbacks about his editing in the abovementioned journals'. However, this excitement led to increasing popularity of these magazine, which was noticed by tsar censorship and eventually led to a halt of their publication. The conclusion emphasizes on the objectivity and diligence of the historian in discussion of important questions. What was even more important is that he avoided the moralizing rhetoric's in his writings. The peasants highly appreciated the models of modern Ukrainians and Ukraine (e.g. the ideal of united Ukraine) designed by M. Hrushevsky. It has been proved, that this made magazines the school of national upbringing and led to the popularity of these magazines in broad reader circles.