Social and Political Activity of Borys Hrinchenko on the Eve of the Elections to the I-st State Duma of the Russian Empire (from the unpublished Publicistic legacy of the writer)

The publication is devoted to the analysis of the discovered at the Manuscript Institute of the National Library of Ukraine named after V. I. Vernads'ky (MI NLUV) original document – the article by Borys Hrinchenko «Liars» («Pidbrehachi»). This article was written as an operative reaction to current social challenges in the run-up to the elections and elections to the I-st State Duma of the Russian Empire in the Kyiv Governor-Generalship in late 1905 – early spring of 1906. The aim of the study is to introduce into scientifi c circulation the unpublished and little-known journalistic heritage of B. Hrinchenko, which allows us to specify his political views, socio-political and educational activities during the revolutionary upheavals of 1905–1907. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematics, objectivity, anthropologism. General historical methods of analysis and synthesis and special-historical methods (historical-genetic, historicaltypological, comparative) are used. The scientifi c novelty of the publication is due to the source and historiographical value of the journalistic and public educational works of B. Hrinchenko considered in the comparative analysis, in particular the fi rst published article «Liars» («Pidbrehachi»). Conclusions. In the given document B. Hrinchenko considers some political brochures published in the printing house of the Podolia's governor. The author appeals to the well-understood image from G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko's story «The Liar» («Pidbrehachi») and debunks the propaganda stamps and outright lies imposed by the authorities on the uneducated masses. In an artistic and polemical form, B. Hrinchenko substantiates the essence of the promised civil freedom in the Manifesto of October 17, 1905 (which is based on four things: inviolability of the person, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of meetings and associations). The correspondence of the ideas expressed in the document with other journalistic and public educational works of B. Hrinchenko and program documents of the Ukrainian Democratic-Radical Party is revealed.