Two Paths to Independence (on the Geopolitical Projects of M. Mikhnovskyi and D. Dontsov)

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the content of the geopolitical projects of the Ukrainian movement, developed by the renowned Ukrainian politicians of the independence orientation, Mykola Mikhnovskyi and Dmytro Dontsov, on the eve and during World War I.

The scientific novelty is in the fact that, for the first time, the content of the geopolitical projects of the Ukrainian movement, developed by Mykola Mikhnovskyi and Dmytro Dontsov on the eve and during World War I, has been analyzed.

Conclusions. In the period preceding and during World War I, the Ukrainian movement faced the tasks of national-state liberation and achieving unity – the territorial unification of Ukrainian ethnic lands dismembered by neighboring states. The approaching Great War brought hardships and tragedies to the Ukrainian people. Concurrently, it opened up the possibility of uniting Ukrainians within one state. That was a necessary prerequisite for implementing the idea of sobornist (unity), without which the development of the Ukrainian nation, its national revival, would have been impossible. All participants in the liberation movement agreed with that, in particular, M. Mikhnovskyi, D. Dontsov, and their supporters from the independence political camp.

However, there was also a significant difference in their views. It consisted in the choice, in which geopolitical vector Ukrainians should focus on in the future war: whether to align with Russia or Austria and its allies. On that key issue, the views of M. Mikhnovskyi and D. Dontsov diverged. M. Mikhnovskyi believed that the national and political revival of Ukraine was possible through the achievement (at the first stage of the struggle) of Ukrainian autonomy within the Russian state, rebuilt on federal principles, which would create conditions for final liberation and the achievement of independence. D. Dontsov was convinced that the democratic rebirth of Russia was impossible, and the prospect of Ukraine’s liberation lay in the unification of all Ukrainian lands within the Austrian Empire, with their subsequent transformation into an autonomous entity with the prospect of complete independence.