Mykola Ivanovich Kostomarov (, ,
Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov) (
May 16,
1817, vil. Yurasovka,
Voronezh Guberniya,
Russia -
April 19,
1885,
Saint Petersburg, Russia), of mixed
Ukrainian and
Russian origin, is one of the most distinguished
Ukrainian and
Russian historians, a Professor of History at the
Kyiv University and later at the
St. Petersburg University, an author of many books, including his famous biography of the seventeenth century
Ukrainian Cossack Hetman,
Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and his fundamental 3-volume "
Russian History in Biographies of its main figures"
("Русская история в жизнеописаниях её главнейших деятелей").
Historian
As a historian, Kostomarov's writings reflected the romantic trends of his time. He was an advocate of the use of ethnography and folksong by historians, and claimed to be able to discern the "spirit" of the people, including "national spirit", by this method. On the basis of their folksongs and history, he claimed that the peoples of what he called
Northern or
Great Rus' on one hand and
Southern or
Little Rus' on the other (
Russians and
Ukrainians, respectively) differed in character and formed two separate nationalities. In his famous essay "Two Russian Nationalities" (
"Две русские народности"), a landmark in the history of Ukrainian national thought, he propagated what some consider to be the stereotypes of Russians inclined towards
autocracy, collectivism, and state-building, and Ukrainians inclined towards liberty, poetry, and
individualism.
In his various historical writings, Kostomarov was always very positive about
Kyivan Rus', about what he considered to be its
veche system of popular assemblies, and the later
Zaporozhian Cossack brotherhood, which he believed in part was an heir to this system. By contrast, he was always very critical of the old
Muscovite autocracy and its leaders. In fact, he gained some popular notoriety in his day by doubting the story of
Ivan Susanin, a legendary martyr hero viewed as a savior of Muscovy.
In the realm of his work with folklore, he wrote the short story, "Animal Riot," which takes Russia as its analogue, and imagines a revolution of farm animals. Originally written in 1879-80, and published in 1917, the work has been cited as a possible antecedent to
George Orwell's
Animal Farm.
Religion
Kostomarov was a very religious man and a devout adherent of the
Orthodox Church. He was critical of Catholic and Polish influences on Ukraine throughout the centuries, but, nevertheless, was considered as more open to Catholic culture than many of his Russian contemporaries, and later, the members of the Slavic Benevolent Societies.
Cultural Politics
Kostomarov was also active in cultural politics in the
Russian Empire being a proponent for a Pan-Slavic and federalized political system. He was a major personality in the Ukrainian national awakening, a friend of the Ukrainian poet
Taras Shevchenko, a defender of the
Ukrainian language in literature and in the schools, and a proponent of a populist form of
Pan-Slavism, a popular movement in a certain part of the
intelligentsia of his time. In the 1840s he founded an illegal political organization called the
Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius in
Kiev (for which he suffered arrest, imprisonment, and exile), and through the 1860s to the 1880s, as a university professor, scientist and well-known writer of political essays he continued to promote the ideas of federalism and populism in Ukrainian and Russian historical thought. He had a profound influence on later Ukrainian historians such as
Volodymyr Antonovych and
Mykhailo Hrushevsky.
Writer
Kostomarov was also a
romantic author and
poet, a member of the
Kharkiv Romantic School. He published two poetry collections (
Ukrainian Ballads (1839) and
The Branch (1840)), both collections containing historical poems mostly about
Kyivan Rus' and
Bohdan Khmelnytsky. His poetry is known for including vocabulary and other elements of traditional
Ukrainian folk songs. He also wrote historical
dramas, however these had little influence on the development of Ukrainian theater. He also wrote
prose in Russian, and Russian mixed with Ukrainian, but these also are considered insignificant.
See also
