Mikhail Grushevsky biography. Mikhail Grushevsky - the first president of Ukraine? Grushevsky and the Russophiles

Svetlana Pankova

Mikhail Sergeevich Grushevsky(17 (29) 09.1866; Hill, now Chelm, Poland - 11/24/1934; Kislovodsk, Russia) - historian, literary critic, writer, publicist, public figure and statesman. Academician of VUAN (since 1923) and Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929).

Mikhail was born into the family of a graduate of the Kyiv Theological Academy, teacher, organizer of public education, author of the "First educational book of the Church Slavonic language" Sergei Fedorovich Grushevsky. The family of the father came from the Cossacks Grush, the family of the mother - from the Greek Catholic priests Oputskevich.

He graduated from the Tiflis Gymnasium (1880-1886), the Faculty of History and Philology of the University of St. Vladimir (1886-1890) in 1891-1894. - professorial fellow for the title of master of history at the university. Student of V.B.Antonovich. Under his leadership, I prepared a competitive work "Essay on the history of the Kyiv land from the death of Yaroslav to the end of the XIV century." (1891), awarded a gold medal, and a master's thesis "Bar Starostvo" (1894).

In 1894, Grushevsky moved to Lvov and took up the post of professor at Lvov University. At the university, he headed the department of "world history with special emphasis on the history of Eastern Europe" - the first department of the history of Ukraine in Ukrainian lands, and held this position until the outbreak of the First World War (1914).

Grushevsky's scientific contacts with Lvov began as early as 1892. Since 1893, he was a member of the Scientific Society. Shevchenko in Lvov, and in 1897-1913 he was the chairman of the Society. Under the leadership of Grushevsky, the Society developed as a scientific institution similar to Western European academies, it was to become the core of the future Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Under the editorship of the scientist in 1895-1913. 113 volumes of "Notes of NTSH" were published.

Grushevsky initiated the work on collecting sources on the history of Ukraine, which were published in serial publications of the Archaeographic Commission of the NTSh: “Sources on the History of Ukraine-Rus”, “Monuments of the Ukrainian Language and Literature”. In 1906, he began publishing the Ukrainian-Russian Archive. In 1898, together with O. Makovei and I. Franko, he founded and edited the literary and journalistic journal "Literary and Scientific Bulletin", in 1899 he was one of the organizers of the "Ukrainian Publishing Union".

Historical Seminar of the University Department and the Scientific Society. Shevchenko became the organizational centers of Hrushevsky's scientific school, from which emerged a galaxy of famous Ukrainian historians - V. Harasimchuk, I. Dzhidzhora, M. Korduba, I. Krevetsky, I. Krypyakevich, O. Terletsky, S. Tomashivsky and others.

These large-scale historical studies were supposed to serve as the basis for the main scientific work of M.S. Hrushevsky - the multi-volume "History of Ukraine-Rus". Its first volume was published in Lvov in 1898. Grushevsky considered writing such a story a matter of honor for his generation and stubbornly continued to work on it in various, often very unfavorable conditions. The last, tenth volume (dedicated to the events of 1657 - 1659) was published after Grushevsky's death - in 1936.

The "History of Ukraine-Rus" remained unfinished, since the plan chosen for it exceeded the possibilities of one human life. Therefore, in parallel with the work on the fundamental multi-volume history, he compiled concise one-volume essays on the history of Ukraine (“Essays on the History of the Ukrainian People”, 1904, “Illustrated History of Ukraine”, 1913)

In 1897, in the newspaper Delo, Grushevsky launched the cry “We are striving for our university!”, and since then he has led a long-term struggle for the creation of an independent Ukrainian university in Lviv. In 1906, he came up with a program to create Ukrainian departments at all universities in sub-Russian Ukraine. Hrushevsky was the initiator of the creation in Lviv of a public organization - the Society of Supporters of Ukrainian Literature, Science and Art (1904), which contributed to the development of Ukrainian culture and science, supported the creative intelligentsia from all Ukrainian lands.

After the revolution of 1905, censorship conditions in the Russian Empire were eased, the Emsky Decree of 1876, which banned the Ukrainian language, was canceled. Grushevsky sought to take advantage of new opportunities and spread his scientific and social activities in the Dnieper Ukraine. In 1907, he was elected chairman of the newly created Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kyiv, edited its publications - "Proceedings of UNT in Kyiv", "Ukraine". In 1907, he moved to Kyiv the editorial office of the Literary and Scientific Bulletin, the printing of his works. On the initiative and with the participation of the scientist in 1909-1912. popular illustrated national newspapers "Derevnya" and "Zasev" were published.

In 1907, Grushevsky submitted his candidacy for a competition to fill the position of head of the department at the University of St. Vladimir, but because of the chauvinistic mood of the university administration did not receive enough votes.

Grushevsky gained experience as a public figure while still a student in Kyiv under the leadership of Konissky and Antonovich as the head of the Ukrainian community at the Kyiv Theological Seminary. During his stay in Lviv, he, as a subject of the Russian Empire, did not have political rights in Austria-Hungary, but he was constantly interested in politics and was one of the organizers of the first political association in Galicia - the Ukrainian National Democratic Party (1899). In 1905-1906. actively collaborated with the Ukrainian Duma faction in the 1st and 2nd State Dumas of Russia and its printed organ, the Ukrainian Bulletin. He was among the founders and members of the Council of the Ukrainian political party in the Russian Empire - the Society of Ukrainian Progressives (1908).

The beginning of the First World War caught Hrushevsky on vacation in the village of Kryvorivnya (now Ivano-Frankivsk region, and then the territory of Austria-Hungary). With great difficulty, Grushevsky managed to return to Kyiv, where he was arrested on charges of Austrophilism. After a five-month imprisonment in Lukyanovskaya prison, he was sent to Simbirsk. In the autumn of 1915, thanks to the petition of authoritative Russian scientists, he received permission to move to Kazan, a year later - to Moscow. In exile, he continued his scientific work, in Moscow he actively collaborated with the well-known socio-political publication "Ukrainian Life". Only the February (1917) revolution and the fall of the autocracy in Russia allowed Grushevsky to return to Kyiv.

With the creation of the Ukrainian Central Rada in Kyiv in early March 1917, Grushevsky was elected its chairman in absentia. By secret ballot, he was re-elected to this position by the All-Ukrainian National Congress on April 8, 1917. Under the leadership of the recognized, authoritative leader of the Ukrainian movement, the Central Rada in a short time went from the slogans of national-cultural autonomy to the proclamation of the sovereign Ukrainian People's Republic (January 1918) and its Constitution (April 1918). Hrushevsky was the author of the main political documents of the UCR, the main conceptual provisions of the Ukrainian revolution. He worked closely with the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, founded in April 1917.

After the hetman's coup, Grushevsky withdrew from active political activity. In 1919-1924 he was in exile (Prague, Paris, Geneva, Berlin, Vienna). Grushevsky's scientific and publishing activities were concentrated in the Ukrainian Sociological Institute he founded, socio-political - in the leadership of the "Foreign Delegation" of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, editing its printed organ "Fight - Fight!", Creation of the Hungry Ukraine Committee.

In exile, Hrushevsky began work on another scientific project - the multi-volume History of Ukrainian Literature. Its first volumes were printed in 1923; the last, 6th volume, devoted to the literature of the first third of the 17th century, remained in manuscript and was published only in 1995.

In March 1924, Grushevsky returned to Ukraine to continue large-scale scientific research and complete the writing of the fundamental "History of Ukraine-Rus", which could not be done without domestic archives and library collections. Objectively, with his scientific and scientific-organizational activities, the scientist opposed the Bolshevik regime in Ukraine. In 1924-1930, he headed all the main historical organizations of the VUAN: the Department of the History of the Ukrainian People at the Historical and Philological Department, the Historical Section with numerous commissions, the Archaeographic Commission. The newly created Research Department of the History of Ukraine became the center of his historical school. Under the editorship of the scientist during this period, 80 books were published, among them periodicals and serials: "Ukraine", "Scientific Collection", "Studies on the History of Ukraine", "For a Hundred Years", collections of commissions for regional study of the history of Ukraine.

In 1929, Grushevsky was elected an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The result of the organizational, structural, ideological and personnel destruction of scientific institutions headed by Grushevsky was the liquidation at the end of 1930 of the commissions of the historical section, the research department of the history of Ukraine, and the closure of all publications. In 1931-1934. Grushevsky formally headed only the department of the history of the Ukrainian people in the era of commercial capital. During these years, Grushevsky became the object of ruthless unbridled "criticism" (or, simply, persecution), inspired and carried out by the Bolshevik leadership. "Critics" in civilian clothes, without choosing expressions, accused him of various scientific and political "sins".

At the beginning of March 1931, Grushevsky was forced to leave for Moscow, which was officially considered a scientific trip, in fact, an “honorable exile”. Archival sources testify that the organs of the GPU-NKVD began total surveillance of the scientist from the first days of his return to Ukraine; this culminated in the arrest in March 1931 and the charge of leading a fabricated so-called. "Ukrainian National Center" (UNC). A short time after interrogations in Kharkov, Grushevsky was released. An open trial in the UC case did not take place. To date, no documents have been found to unambiguously clarify the circumstances and explain the motives for the release of the scientist.

In 1931-1934. Grushevsky lived in Moscow under constant surveillance by the Bolshevik secret police. He worked on the tenth volume of the "History of Ukraine-Rus", which was prepared for publication by his daughter Ekaterina and published after the historian's death in early 1937. He died in Kislovodsk after a series of surgical operations. He was buried in Kyiv at the Baikove cemetery.

Despite the fact that Grushevsky was not formally repressed by the Soviet authorities, during the entire period of its domination until 1991, his works were not republished; previously published works were removed from libraries and destroyed or transferred to special stores, his name was hushed up in every possible way, and where it was impossible to be silent, he was dishonored by such labels as “enemy of the Ukrainian people”, “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist”, “Austro-German spy” , "a falsifier of the history of Ukraine". Grushevsky's scientific heritage was not studied at that time, and even references to Grushevsky's long-published and formally not forbidden works were not allowed.

The Soviet academician experienced such blessings from the Soviet authorities - for the fact that he was the personification of Ukraine's desire for an independent state existence.

Only in independent Ukraine did it become possible to objectively cover the figure of Mykhailo Grushevsky, to properly assess his contribution to Ukrainian science and statehood, to publish his works and honor his memory. Our website is our contribution to this holy cause.

The childhood of Mikhail Grushevsky

His family was far from the stage, there were no artists among the relatives. But for little Misha, the abilities of a parodist manifested themselves at school age. He first appeared on stage in the third grade, where he parodied the commentator Nikolai Ozerov. He saw such a parody on TV performed by the artist Gennady Khazanov. Although the boy was worried, he managed to perform, and the audience supported him. Later, he performed more than once in a pioneer camp.

Already in high school, not a single school evening could do without Grushevsky. Once, at a rehearsal, he parodied a teacher, so precisely that the headmaster of the school passing by took him by voice for that very teacher, deciding that he was performing on stage.

An important meeting for his future career took place with Mikhail in his student years, when he studied at the Institute of Steel and Alloys. He met with Vladimir Vinokur. Time passed before Vinokur realized that Mikhail had a real desire to get on the stage, and no difficulties on this path frightened him. Only after that, he began to invite Grushevsky to performances so that he could communicate with new people, visit artists, and immerse himself in pop backstage cuisine.

At that time, everything that Grushevsky was doing was called amateur art, for which he received diplomas and thanks, but he really liked it all.

Grushevsky's parody of Gorbachev and Yeltsin - 1990

It was thanks to the perestroika time that he was able to gradually move from amateur to professional activities. To enter the professional stage, an artist's diploma was needed. But in order to get such a diploma, Mikhail would first have to serve in the army, so he decides to stay at the institute. After graduation, Grushevsky got a job as an engineer. It was 1987.

The beginning of the career of humorist Mikhail Grushevsky

M. Grushevsky - Little Red Riding Hood

Fortunately, the team turned out to be in demand, the artists enjoyed success, toured a lot. In their speeches there was a response to many topical issues. Mikhail was the first to parody Mikhail Gorbachev. The number turned out to be "bomb", although many then believed that he was taking risks. Most of all, the interest of the public was fueled by the fact that almost all the numbers where Mikhail performed with this parody were cut out of television. Later he parodied Zhirinovsky and Khazbulatov.

Mikhail Grushevsky on television

The artist is devoted to the stage and treats life with humor. He considers himself a loner and thinks that he could not participate in shows such as KVN. In 2005, Mikhail played composer Nikita Bogoslovsky in the film Star of the Epoch. He was the host of the program broadcast on the REN TV channel. Its name is "Baby Riot". In addition, the voice of Mikhail Grushevsky sounded in the program "Dolls".

Mikhail is on tour abroad. He is always well received both in America and in Israel. According to Mikhail, the foreign audience knows how to leave the burden of their problems outside the concert hall, they come to relax and laugh. He believes that our people, unfortunately, do not know how, and this is always felt.

Personal life of Mikhail Grushevsky

According to Mikhail’s stories, they met, and then they didn’t see each other for a year, then they met again, and again there was a separation for a year, when they saw their future wife again, absolutely unexpectedly got married. He considers himself an impromptu man. In marriage, a daughter, Daria, was born.

Michael says that he was completely ignorant in matters of marriage. Before marriage, he had a two-month experience of a civil marriage and that's it. Therefore, in 2012, the marriage broke up, and with a considerable scandal. It is known that for a long time before the divorce, the couple no longer lived under the same roof.

According to his wife, she wrote the book "Family Life by Shooting Rules" about the midlife crisis and its impact on family life. In addition, after the divorce, Irina switched to a younger fan of Sergei Savin, the winner of the Factor A TV project in 2011. True, this relationship was short-lived.

Soon, joint photographs of the parodist and the young model Tatyana Yakusheva appeared on the network. After that, juicy details about these meetings again appeared in the media. But whether this was true is difficult to say.

At the end of 2014, Mikhail married for the second time. His chosen one was 35-year-old Evgenia Guslyarova, who works as a marketer. They got married on December 30 after the artist's birthday in a narrow circle of relatives, and the wedding celebrations were postponed to the end of January. Lev Leshchenko, Vladimir Vinokur, Alsu, Iosif Kobzon, Dmitry Dibrov, Dmitry Malikov were invited to the wedding.

Mikhail and Evgenia met on vacation in Germany in April 2014, upon arrival in Moscow they began to communicate closely. And a few months later Grushevsky made an offer to his chosen one. For Evgenia, this is the first marriage, she is 15 years younger than her husband.

The couple together organized the agency "Dream Filed", which organizes events.

On May 21, 2015, the couple had a son, Mikhail, who received the name in honor of his star father. Three weeks later, the newly-minted parents celebrated their son's birthday with colleagues and friends in an Italian restaurant.

Mikhail Grushevsky today

A year later, he was a member of the Repeat! on Channel One.

Grushevsky loves football and is a fan of CSKA. He is often invited to commentate on sporting events.

About M.S. Hrushevsky is often said to have invented Ukraine and its history. However, we can only partly agree with this, because. Ukraine was invented long before him. But it was Grushevsky who created the history for Ukraine. And he did this by simply renaming everything Russian into Ukrainian. We'll talk about this.
100 years ago Mikhail Grushevsky was elected President of the Central Rada

Mikhail Grushevsky

The great Ukrainian writer-humorist Ostap Vishny has simply wonderful lines: “Once upon a time, as you know, there was Professor Grushevsky of an unkind, bearded memory. With his scientific intelligence, he finally and convincingly proved that this is the monkey from which, according to Darwin, man originated - so that monkey was from the Ukrainians. And what do you think, it could be so, because during excavations near the Vorskla River, as Professor Grushevsky says, they found two hairs - one yellow, the other blue. So the yellow hair is from that monkey's right ear, and the blue one is from the left. You can't fight facts."

Mikhail Hrushevsky in Ukrainian national mythology is an outstanding personality. Firstly, since it was he who originally created this mythology, and, secondly, because he is considered the “first president of Ukraine” (which, by the way, is fundamentally wrong). That's just about the details of the biography of the "great Ukrainian" today in Kyiv they really do not like to talk. But in vain. After all, it was just a sea of ​​​​everything interesting. In particular, it allows us to understand where the "ancient Ukrainians" and the state "Ukraine-Rus" came from in modern school textbooks...

Mikhail Sergeevich was born in 1866 in Kholm (today it is the territory of Poland) in a respected family. His father was a teacher of the Russian language and the author of a textbook on Church Slavonic, officially adopted by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Empire. Mikhail inherited from his father the copyright to the book, which allowed him to lead a comfortable life, engaging in socio-political and scientific activities at the expense of the state treasury. In his youth, Grushevsky lived for several years in Tiflis, after which he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Kyiv University, from which he graduated in 1890. Thanks to diligent study and the patronage of some teachers, Mikhail remained at the university after graduation, where he defended his master's thesis in 1894, after which amazing metamorphoses began in his life.

Mikhail Grushevsky (sitting first on the right) with his parents, brothers Zakhary and Fyodor, sister Anna. Stavropol, 1876.

Here it is necessary to make the necessary reservation. The term "Ukraine", known from chronicles since the 12th century, has been used exclusively as a common noun for centuries. He designated "borderland". "Ukraine" were both Kyiv and Chernihiv, and Ryazan, Amur. As a more or less established name in relation to the territory of modern Ukraine, it began to be used only from the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century. Moreover, without any ethnic load. Even in "Kobzar" Taras Shevchenko does not have the term "Ukrainian" in principle. The idea of ​​“otherness” of the population of the territory of modern Ukraine arose in the first half of the 19th century at the suggestion of Polish and Russian revolutionaries, who were trying to weaken the Russian autocracy in such a simple way. The “broad masses of the people” clearly identified themselves with the Russian people.

The turning point in what would later be called "Ukrainization" occurred in the middle of the 19th century in Austria. The leadership of the empire realized that the Russian population of Galicia and other lands controlled by Vienna gravitate towards Russia. Therefore, from local Russians, using the method of carrots and sticks (threats and generous promises), they began to forge a new ethnic community - for a start, Rusyns or Ruthenians.

Official Vienna directly conveyed to the Slavic population subject to it that it can count on any support only if it refuses to share ethnic identification with the Russians. Gradually, the Austrian authorities came to the conclusion that they could try to use the “national question” to expand their own borders at the expense of their eastern neighbor. The harmless simplified alphabet - “Kulishovka”, created for teaching peasant children to read and write, was transformed into the Ukrainian national alphabet. On the territory of Little Russia, they began to finance the creation of "cultural and educational organizations" that promote the "otherness" of the population of the southwestern regions of the Russian Empire. They began to explain to the inhabitants of the Carpathians that they are “one people” with the inhabitants of the Dnieper region, but not Russian and not Russian, but some completely separate one. At the same time, representatives of the “newly minted ethnic group” were called differently: Ukrainians, Little Russians, Rusyns, South Russians. The idea of ​​the Austrian government was also liked by the authorities of rapidly growing Germany, which began to show a lively interest in the events taking place in Kyiv.

At this stage, Mikhail Grushevsky was involved in the big propaganda game. In 1894, the Austrian authorities sent him to Lvov, gave him a chair at a local university, and allocated generous funding. Grushevsky, commissioned by sponsors, almost immediately brings to the surface the concept of continuous ethnogenesis of Ukrainians since the existence of Ant tribes and the Old Russian state, which, according to the scientist, was a “Ukrainian power”.

He publishes several small studies on the "history of Ukraine" and sits down to write a multi-volume "History of Ukraine-Rus". In the "competition" for the best "toponym and ethnonym" the terms "Ukraine" and "Ukrainians" win. Grushevsky argues that the term "Ukraine" became a proper name as early as the 16th century, although he does not bother to provide at least some convincing evidence to support his words. From the works of Grushevsky, this unproven statement will wander through the mass of textbooks and manuals ... According to Russian counterintelligence, Grushevsky has been receiving generous rewards from the Austrian special services all this time. With these funds, he produces printed materials, registers public organizations, and takes part in the work of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party.

At the same time, the professor, who retained his Russian passport, is increasingly beginning to visit the empire, where he is actually “under the hood” of counterintelligence officers. In 1910, the gendarmes record Grushevsky's constant contacts with the Austrian consul in Kyiv, to whom the scientist passes some materials. During a search of his apartment, it is established that Grushevsky kept anti-Russian literature and accounting records testifying to his subversive activities against Russia for Austrian money.

Mikhail Sergeevich Grushevsky

In 1914, against the background of the approach and the outbreak of the First World War, Grushevsky sharply activates anti-Russian and pro-Austrian propaganda. During the next visit to Kyiv, he is detained by gendarmes. During a search of Mikhail's place of residence, printed materials with anti-Russian content are again found and he is sent into exile in Simbirsk. However, Grushevsky did not stay there for long. The liberal-democratic intelligentsia is massively supporting him, flooding St. Petersburg with their messages in support of the pro-Austrian professor.

First he was transferred to Kazan, and in 1916 to Moscow. After the February Revolution, he immediately returned to Kyiv, where by that time he had already been elected in absentia to the post of chairman of the Ukrainian Central Rada. Formerly a notorious liberal, Grushevsky “turns to the left” before our eyes and becomes one of the founders of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries. On April 19-21, at the All-Ukrainian National Congress, he was re-elected President of the Ukrainian Central Rada. At the same time, he was not any “president of Ukraine”: his position itself was called differently, and Ukraine at that time did not even have autonomy within Russia.

In November 1917, Grushevsky was elected from the Kyiv district to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In January 1918, he literally spent several days as a virtual “head of state” (the Ukrainian People’s Republic, which already existed only on paper, proclaimed its independence). In early February 1918, representatives of the Central Rada signed a peace treaty with Berlin and Vienna, according to which Ukraine was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary.

In April Pavel Skoropadsky at the suggestion of the Germans, he dispersed the Central Rada, but Grushevsky's career did not end there.

In 1919, the “ex-president of the Central Republic” moved to Austria and even founded a sociological institute, but things were “not very good” for him there (for obvious reasons, the former sponsors were no longer up to him). Therefore, once the head of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, Grushevsky began to ask to be allowed to return to Russia. In the USSR, at that time, a campaign for “indigenization” was unfolding, and the proposals of the fugitive professor turned out to be just in time. In 1924, he was allowed to return, given a professorship at Kiev University, made him a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and appointed to a number of scientific posts. From his submission, the concept of the presence of a separate Ukrainian ethnic group migrated to Soviet textbooks (although not from the time of the Ants, as he would have liked).

In 1931, Grushevsky was detained on charges of "counter-revolutionary activities", but was soon released. But after that, his students and employees were massively repressed. Some historians argue that it was the “ex-president” who could hand them over.

Grushevsky died in 1934. His work in connection with the curtailment of the indigenization policy was banned. Grushevsky's family was subjected to repressions at the denunciation of his own student, Konstantin Shteppa, who was first a White Guard, then an NKVD informer, during the war years an agent of the Nazi SD, and after it was completed, an employee of the CIA ...

Grushevsky's works have always been subjected to fierce criticism from the scientific community. Mikhail Sergeevich usually refused to participate in discussions when he was required to rely on facts (as was the case with Ivan Linnichenko, the creator of the concept of Ukraine simply avoided polemics with him). Both the individual facts cited by Grushevsky and his concept as a whole during the Great Patriotic War were actively used for propaganda purposes by the Nazis, and after 1991, without additional verification, they were transferred to Ukrainian school and university textbooks. And now, on the basis of Hrushevsky's ideas about "ancient Ukrainians" and "Ukraine-Rus", a new anti-scientific Nazi ideology is being forged.

Hrushevsky's portrait flaunts on the Ukrainian 50-hryvnia banknote, a street in the center of Kyiv is named after him, and a monument was erected to him in the Ukrainian capital. But they do not like to remember some details in his biography in Ukraine, as mentioned above. Well, how to explain to schoolchildren and students why the "great Ukrainian" humbly asked to be taken back from "enlightened Europe"? How to comment on the facts of his work for Austrian intelligence? And then - strange loyalty to him on the part of Soviet law enforcement agencies?

Grushevsky's contemporaries did not like him. The writer-humorist Ostap Vishnya devoted a sarcastic material to the anti-scientific ideas of Mikhail Sergeevich under the eloquent title "Thirty Pieces of Silver", a few phrases from which we quoted at the beginning of the article.

Before Grushevsky, the “Ukrainian concept”, which was promoted by the Austro-Hungarian and German secret services, was not harmonious and monolithic. In his science-like fiction, Mikhail Sergeevich tritely deceived people, forcing them to believe in facts he himself invented. Then his concept was adopted by Bandera, who cut under the stories of the former greatness of "Ukrainian Russians", women, children and the elderly on the orders of the Nazis. Today, thanks to fairy tales paid for by the Austrian special services more than a hundred years ago, Ukrainian schoolchildren throw up their hands in a Nazi salute, and blood is shed in the Donbass. If the Austrians chose someone else to replace Hrushevsky, would he be able to act just as effectively? It is not known ... The role of the individual in history should not be underestimated ...

Svyatoslav Knyazev

GRUSHEVSKY, MIKHAIL SERGEEVICH(1866–1934), public and political figure, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national movement, historian of Ukraine and Russia, was born on September 17 (29), 1866 in the town of Kholm, Lublin province (now Chelm, Poland) in the family of a teacher. Soon the family moved to the Caucasus, where Grushevsky spent his childhood and adolescence in Stavropol, Vladikavkaz and Tiflis. After graduating from the gymnasium in 1885, he entered and in 1890 graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Kyiv University. He studied with V.B. Antonovich, under whose guidance, while still a student, he prepared works on southern Russian castles in the first half of the 16th century. and history of the Kyiv land.

Under the patronage of the supervisor, a capable student, a year after graduation from the university, was admitted to the department of history in order to "prepare for a professorship." The young scientist passed the master's (candidate's) exams, in 1894 he defended his master's thesis Bar eldership. Historical essays dedicated to the history of a separate administrative-territorial unit of Poland in the 15th–16th centuries. with a predominantly Ukrainian population (in the same year it was published as a separate book).

After the defense, Grushevsky left for Austria-Hungary, to Lvov, where he took the chair of general history at the local university, which actually became the chair of the history of Ukraine. In Lvov, the scientist headed in 1897. Scientific Society. T. Shevchenko, turning it into a kind of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (historical, philological and natural-mathematical sections worked in the society, a museum, a library, a printing house, a bookstore operated under him), became the editor of the mouthpiece of the Ukrainian intelligentsia - "Notes" of the Scientific Society. T. Shevchenko.

Reading an annual course of lectures at Lviv University, the young scientist at the same time decided to create a generalizing History of Ukraine - Rus(in Ukrainian, volumes 1–10, in 13 books, 1896–1936) . At first, Grushevsky intended to publish a three-volume work. But as the research work progressed, the work grew and in the final version is an unfinished ten-volume book (the author intended to finish the exposition by the end of the 18th century, but brought it only to 1658). In this essay, summarizing the results of his predecessors' research, using data from archeology, ethnography and philology, extensive documentary material from the archives, the scientist argued that the ancestors of the Ukrainians were the ancient tribes of the Ants, the first independent Ukrainian state was Kievan Rus. Unlike most representatives of Russian science, Grushevsky considered the successor of Kievan Rus not Vladimir-Suzdal, but Galicia-Volyn land, which gradually lost its independence and was incorporated by neighboring states - Lithuania, Poland, Hungary. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in his opinion, was the same equivalent center for the unification of the ancient Russian lands, like Moscow. However, as the Principality became Catholicized and Polonized, the contradictions between the Lithuanians and the Orthodox Eastern Slavs (Belarusians and Ukrainians) intensified, and the latter reoriented towards Muscovite Russia. Having lost their independence and being part of the Commonwealth and Moscow Rus, the Ukrainians, Grushevsky concluded, were either simply a passive object of control, or they were in opposition to the authorities. The only content of their history now remains cultural and economic processes. The scientist described the anti-Russian and anti-Polish actions of the Ukrainians sympathetically, although he was far from idealizing the leaders of these actions.

In the most concise form, Grushevsky outlined his concept in an article published in 1904 and which became widely known. Regular circuit« Russian» history and the matter of a rational presentation of the history of the Eastern Slavs. With enthusiasm perceived in the circles of Ukrainian nationalists, the article met, with rare exceptions (A.A. Shakhmatov, A.E. Presnyakov), rejection and condemnation in Russian historiography.

Grushevsky took up political activities in Lvov, joining the party of Galician national democrats. During the years of the First Russian Revolution, the scientist traveled to St. Petersburg to participate in the work of the Ukrainian faction of the First State Duma. In numerous journalistic articles, he advocated the autonomy of Ukraine as part of a federal Russia, called on the government to pursue a policy of stimulating the languages ​​and cultures of national minorities.

On the eve of the First World War, Grushevsky planned to leave the department of Lviv University and move to Kyiv. This was facilitated by contradictions within the Ukrainian national-democratic movement in Galicia. Some of its participants agreed to cooperate with the Poles, which the scientist objected to. In 1913, during the election of a new leadership of the Scientific Society. T. Shevchenko Grushevsky's supporters were defeated, he himself resigned. But the war broke the plan to move. The scientist went first to Hungary, then to Austria. Because of the persecution of the police, who saw him as a Russian agent, he moved to Italy, and then through Romania to Russia. In Kyiv, Grushevsky was imprisoned on charges of collaborating with the Austrians. The authorities intended to send the scientist to Siberia, and only the intercession of some famous Russian historians mitigated the punishment - he was exiled to Simbirsk, then allowed to move to Kazan and Moscow.

After the February Revolution, Grushevsky returned to Kyiv, joined the party of Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), leading the left wing of the party. He was elected head of the Central Rada (Central Council) of Ukraine. Hrushevsky still advocated the autonomy of Ukraine within Russia as a federal democratic republic. After the October Revolution, his political attitudes changed somewhat. Under the threat of an offensive by the Bolsheviks, together with other members of the Central Rada, Grushevsky fled Kyiv and returned to the city with German troops. On January 11, 1918, the Fourth Universal of the Central Rada, drawn up by Hrushevsky, proclaimed the independence of Ukraine.

After the seizure of power in April 1918 by Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky, Grushevsky went into hiding. However, according to contemporaries, they knew about his whereabouts, but did not arrest him, considering it not dangerous. At the end of 1918, when the Ukrainian Directory replaced the hetmanate, Hrushevsky came out of the underground, tried to revive the ideas of the Central Rada, but, having met opposition from the new government, left Kyiv. He lived for a short time in Kamenetz-Podolsky, then in Galicia, went to Vienna, moved to Prague. Gradually withdrew from politics, in 1922 he left the ranks of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, where supporters of the armed struggle against the Soviet regime took over. Grushevsky focused on scientific work: he wrote a multi-volume History of Ukrainian literature, dedicated to the study of Ukrainian spirituality. During the life of the author, five volumes were published, brought to the beginning of the 17th century, the sixth volume was published only in 1995.

Grushevsky was sympathetic to the formation of the USSR and, after receiving permission from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, returned to Kyiv in March 1924. He was elected an academician of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, head of the historical and philological department. Volumes are re-released History of Ukraine - Rus, other of his works were published. The closest assistant of the scientist was a talented historian and sociologist, the only daughter - Catherine (later she was repressed, died in prison).

The attack on the pre-revolutionary professorship undertaken by the communist authorities at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s also affected Grushevsky. His works were ostracized, the scientist himself was suspended from work at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and on March 23, 1931, on the way to a session of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, he was arrested. By that time, the OGPU bodies had fabricated the case of the “Ukrainian National Center”, the head of which was allegedly the old academician. The "Center" was accused of trying to tear Ukraine away from the USSR and restore bourgeois order there. The scientist spent more than half a month in the prisons of Moscow and Kharkov, where he was subjected to intense interrogations. Grushevsky was released after the petition of his cousin, Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR G.I. Lomov-Oppokov. However, the release did not bring joy: the scientist was still persecuted, he lived in Moscow under the vigilant control of the OGPU, he was not allowed to return to his homeland.

Grushevsky died in Kislovodsk (where he was being treated during an operation) on November 25, 1934. He was buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv.

MIKHAIL GRUSHEVSKY

Historian, organizer of historical science, literary critic, sociologist, publicist, writer, political, public and statesman - few of his contemporaries could boast of such a track record. But Mikhail Sergeevich Grushevsky, possessing a colossal capacity for work and remarkable talent, managed to leave a significant mark on the history of Ukraine.

Mikhail Grushevsky was born on September 17, 1866 in the city of Kholm (now the territory of Poland) in the family of a teacher of Russian language and literature in the Russian-Greek-Uniate gymnasium. As the scientist wrote in his autobiography, their family has been known since the 18th century. and came from the Chigirinsky district. Father, Sergei Fedorovich, was an energetic and good-natured man, he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Academy, but refused to be tonsured and devoted himself to teaching. In Kyiv, he met the daughter of a priest, Glafira Opokova, who later became his wife and assistant in all endeavors. The couple moved to Kholm, then to Stavropol, and then to the Caucasus, where Sergei Fedorovich served as an inspector of public schools in the Stavropol Territory, director of all public schools in the Terek region. For his work, he was awarded the rank of real state councilor, which gives the right to hereditary nobility. In addition, S. Grushevsky created one of the best textbooks of the Church Slavonic language, which was reprinted more than once and provided the author with a decent capital. This gave his children - Mikhail, Alexander and Anna - the opportunity to do what they love. It was from his father that Grushevsky adopted love and affection for everything Ukrainian - language, songs, traditions.

Michael's childhood years were spent in the Caucasus. The boy began to read early, having gradually mastered the home library, and through fiction, folklore discovered the land of his ancestors - Ukraine. However, in the period 1869-1876. he stayed three times for quite a long time in Ukraine, in the homeland of his mother in the village of Sestrinovka in the Kiev region.

Passion for history came after enrolling in the 1st Tiflis classical gymnasium, where he studied in 1880-1886: Here Mikhail read a lot, got acquainted with the works of Ukrainian historians, folklorists, ethnographers - M. Kostomarov, M. Maksimovich, P. Kulish and Dr. The young man spent so much time in the library that the authorities appointed him the librarian of the student's book depository.

At first, Mikhail Grushevsky saw his future in fiction, he began to write poetry and prose in Russian, and then in Ukrainian. The road to literature was opened to him by I. Nechuy-Levitsky, to whom the young author sent his poems and the story "The Silent Witness" (in Ukrainian) with a request to publish them under the pseudonym Mikhail Zavoloka. Later, Grushevsky realized his weakness in versification and sent Nechui-Levitsky mostly stories. One of them, "Beh-al-Dzhugur", saw the world in the Lviv newspaper "Delo" in 1885.

But Mikhail Sergeevich did not become a writer: in a difficult struggle, the story, which the young man became interested in at the age of 14, won. A huge role in the development of Grushevsky as a historian was played by the magazine "Kyiv Starina", which he called his real school. In addition, even at the gymnasium, the young man began to study languages ​​\u200b\u200b- Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Serbian, became interested in the history of Russia, the Cossacks, and archeology.

The desire for a deeper study of history led him to Kyiv University, where he spent 1886-1890. On the way to the university, Grushevsky had to overcome obstacles: his father, frightened by recent student protests in Kyiv and afraid of his son's Ukrainian fuse, hesitated for a long time. Reassuring him, Mikhail promised not to take part in student unrest.

July 30, 1886 Grushevsky was enrolled in the historical department of the historical and philological faculty of Kyiv University of St. Vladimir. But the young man, who dreamed of real science, was disappointed: classical philology stood in the foreground, and everything else was relegated to the backyard and limited to general courses - these subjects could not give anything more than what an educated and well-read high school student knew. Despite these circumstances, he continued to study and took his first steps in science under the guidance of Professor V. Antonovich - "the gray eminence of Ukrainian historical science." The interests of the young scientist covered many topics. Already in his third year, he wrote the work "History of the Kyiv land from the death of Yaroslav to the end of the XIV century", for which he was awarded a gold medal. In 1890-1894. Mikhail worked at the University of Kiev as a professorial fellow, and in May 1894, not without difficulties in searching for documentary materials, he defended his master's thesis “Bar Starostvo. Historical essays".

From this moment begins a new stage in the life of M. Grushevsky. In 1894, the 27-year-old master moved to Lviv, where, on the recommendation of Antonovich, he headed the department of "world history with a special review of the history of Eastern Europe."

It was with the University of Lviv, the scientific and socio-political life of Galicia that the subsequent years of the historian's life were connected. The main task was to prepare and teach a course of university lectures on the history of Ukraine, which later became the basis of the fundamental work "History of Ukraine-Rus". In 1897, Grushevsky officially headed the Scientific Society. T. Shevchenko, until 1914 while remaining the head of the historical section and the archeographic commission. Moreover, the Lvov period of his life was marked by his entry into "big politics": in 1899 he became one of the organizers of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party, the leading party in Galicia.

It was a period of active scientific and organizational activity. Thanks to the efforts of Grushevsky, the funds of the library of the society were replenished, the first books began to appear, a museum was founded, scientific commissions of various directions were created, and most importantly, the Notes of the Scientific Society, a universal scientific publication, began to be published, where the works of historians, literary critics, folklorists, public figures were published. Under the editorship of Grushevsky in 1895-1913. More than 100 volumes of "notes" have been published. The creative tandem of Grushevsky and I. Franko (1856-1916) also played a huge role in this, without the help of which the scientist would hardly have been able to master such a titanic work. They united young scientists around themselves, and thus, by the beginning of the 20th century. Lviv became one of the scientific centers not only of the Ukrainian lands, but also of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

An important step towards the popularization of Ukrainian historical science in Europe was Hrushevsky's trip to Paris, where he lectured on the history of Ukraine at the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences in Paris in the spring of 1903. In order to expand scientific contacts, the scientist visited London, Berlin, Leipzig , and upon his return he decided to establish courses for Ukrainian youth in Lviv, solemnly opened in 1904. It was at these courses that lectures on history were given, which later formed the basis of the “Essays on the History of the Ukrainian People” in Russian. Thus, the scientist returned to his long-standing idea to write a book on the history of Ukraine, which he presented as "short and accessible to the public." Fascinated by art, Mikhail Sergeevich also prepared an illustrated history of Ukraine: the first edition in 1911 in 6 thousand copies. sold out in six months - but by the standards of that time it was a serious success.

After the revolution of 1905, a period of some thaw set in - restrictions on the use of the Ukrainian language were partially lifted in the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian-language press became more active, and Grushevsky, having visited Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, decides to return to Kyiv, maintaining close ties with Lvov and Scientific society. T. Shevchenko. In fact, in the period 1906-1914. he lived between Lvov and Kyiv. In Kyiv, back in 1909, a luxurious 6-storey mansion was bought on the street. Pankovskaya with antique furniture and a rich collection of Ukrainian antiquities - books, glass, porcelain, portraits of K. Razumovsky, I. Mazepa, paintings by V. Krichevsky; in addition, Grushevsky had a large collection of personal correspondence of the Ukrainian foreman, acts of the old Kyiv magistrate, several dozen early printed books of the 17th-18th centuries. Mikhail Sergeevich used his collection of art objects for a practical purpose - he illustrated numerous publications on the history of Ukraine, and besides, he was going to write a fundamental history of Ukrainian culture. The revolution of 1905 actualized the Ukrainian question in the Russian Empire and opened the possibility for the founding of the Ukrainian Scientific Society (UNO). The need for a Ukrainian research center in Russian-speaking Kyiv was felt rather acutely. Many Ukrainian scientists took part in the organization of the society, and at the first meeting on April 21, 1907, M. Hrushevsky was chosen as the head. The society united almost all national creative forces, published the journals "Ukraine", "Proceedings of the UNO", "Ukrainian scientific collection", dealt with issues of archeology, ethnography, art history. Leading the work of the society, Grushevsky himself continued to engage in scientific activities.

He did not stop his political activity. In 1908, an illegal cross-party socio-political organization, the Society of Ukrainian Progressives, was created in Kyiv, and M. Hrushevsky became a member of its governing body, the Council. And although the Society was not a political party, in fact, it set itself the task of achieving the creation in Ukraine of national-territorial autonomy within federal Russia.

In 1914, Mikhail Sergeevich was already a famous historian, he was at the zenith of his fame - he himself calculated that over 25 years of activity he created more than 25 volumes of works. Behind the professor was political work in the parties and the ideological leadership of the Ukrainian faction in the 1st and 2nd State Dumas. In addition, already during this period, Grushevsky became the leader of the Ukrainian nation, a popular politician, publicist. It is clear that such vigorous activity could not leave indifferent both the Austro-Hungarian and Russian police.

The First World War began. In one of the articles, Grushevsky criticized the policy of the murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Austrian police opened an administrative case against him. Grushevsky at that time was with his family in the Carpathians, in the village of Krivorovnya, and in such a situation he decided to return to Kyiv. But from August 1914, surveillance of him was also organized by the Kyiv gendarme department. On November 22, Grushevsky arrived in Kyiv through Vienna, Italy and Romania, and on November 28 he was arrested and taken to the Lukyanovsky prison. After 3 months of interrogation, they were exiled to Simbirsk, and from September 1915 to Kazan. Here Grushevsky continued to engage in scientific activities, taught at the university - a kind of shelter for many disgraced St. Petersburg, Moscow and Ukrainian dissident scientists. Together with the scientist in exile were his wife Maria Silvestrovna and daughter Katerina. In the autumn of 1916 they were allowed to move to Moscow, where Grushevsky was under covert surveillance. In addition, he was banned from visiting Ukraine under any pretext.

Together with the Ukrainian community in Moscow - S. Petlyura, V. Vinnichenko, D. Doroshenko, E. Chykalenko, he worked in the Moscow branch of the Society of Ukrainian Progressives, was engaged in organizational and scientific work. After the February Revolution of 1917, the scientist received the long-awaited, hard-won freedom. He was released from supervision, his passport was returned. And immediately Grushevsky stepped up his political activity - he was elected head of the Central Rada in absentia. As he himself wrote, “in Kyiv, the Ukrainians began to organize a political center called the Central Rada, elected me as head and began to call for me to come immediately.”

This period was the peak of M. Grushevsky's political and state activity. He became the ideologist of the Ukrainian revolution and, together with the Central Rada, went from national-territorial autonomy to the idea of ​​Ukrainian independence. He outlined his ideas about the future of Ukraine in numerous publicistic articles published in 1917-1918 - “What kind of autonomy do we want?”, “Who are Ukrainians and what do they want”, “Ukrainian independence and its historical necessity” and etc. In these works, Hrushevsky outlined his own understanding of the national-territorial autonomy, which he considered as a real step towards the independence of Ukraine.

Soon the Central Rada refused to recognize the executive committee of the Provisional Government in Kyiv and issued a declaration granting full autonomy to Ukraine. Grushevsky's attempts to find a common language with the Provisional Government were unsuccessful. Returning to Kyiv, at a meeting of the Rada, he insisted on convening the All-Ukrainian National Congress, which took place on April 6-8, 1917 and brought together more than 600 representatives of many parties, scientific societies, cooperative organizations not only in Ukraine, but also in the Kuban, and Bessarabia, Moscow and Dr. Hrushevsky played a decisive role in consolidating the congress around the idea of ​​full autonomy for Ukraine, and on April 8 he was re-elected head of the UCR. This was the peak of M. Grushevsky's political activity. S. Efremov and V. Vinnichenko became deputy heads. hrushevsky central council

On May 18, 700 soldier delegates who had gathered in Kyiv from the active army also elected their representatives to the Central Rada, a month later about 1,000 delegates to the Ukrainian Peasants' Congress, and then to the Workers' Congress, followed suit. In fact, the Central Rada has become the parliament of Ukraine. At the 2nd Military Congress on June 10, 1917, she proclaimed her First Universal, which declared the autonomy of Ukraine with the following words: “Let Ukraine be free. Without separating from the whole of Russia, without breaking with the Russian state ... ". In accordance with this document, the General Secretariat was created, headed by V. Vinnichenko. If the secretariat concentrated all executive power in its hands, then Hrushevsky remained the uncontested leader of the Ukrainian movement.

The decisive activity of the Central Rada aroused the alarm of the Provisional Government. On June 19, ministers arrived in Kyiv, who, after negotiations, agreed on the autonomy of Ukraine, but with the condition of its postponement until the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. For their part, the Radovites agreed to provide several seats in the UCR to non-Ukrainian revolutionary democratic forces. The parties' concessions were recorded in special declarations. The provisional government also recognized the General Secretariat. The answer to this step was the adoption of the II Universal on July 3, 1917, which fixed that the questions of the autonomy of Ukraine should be decided by the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In fact, the II Universal changed little in the process of creating the Ukrainian state: without denying the independence of Ukraine, it became a step towards its realization.

On September 21-28, 1917, the Congress of Peoples was held in Kyiv, which was attended by representatives of 12 nationalities. M. Grushevsky was elected honorary head of the Congress and in his report insisted on the need for a federal restructuring of Russia, the subsequent federalization of all European peoples and their possible unification into a single world federation. To implement the ideas of the congress, a Council was formed, headed by Mikhail Sergeevich. But the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd on October 25, 1917 nullified all these plans.

The provisional government was arrested, Russia was proclaimed a Republic of Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies, and a government headed by V. Lenin was formed. In Ukraine, three forces opposed: the Central Rada, supporters of the Provisional Government represented by the Kyiv Military District, and the Bolsheviks. Grushevsky and the UCR strongly spoke out against the uprising in Petrograd, declaring their readiness to fight "any attempt to support the uprising in Ukraine." November 7, 1917 The UCR proclaimed the III Universal, according to which Ukraine became part of the federal Russian Republic under the name of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), private ownership of land was abolished, an 8-hour working day was established, and national-territorial autonomy was guaranteed to Jews and Poles. December 27 was proclaimed the day of elections to the Ukrainian Constituent Assembly, and January 9, 1918 - the day of its convocation. The universal was solemnly read out on Sophia Square in Kyiv in the presence of troops, foreign missions, with a prayer service. This document became the most important historical act: after 250 years of captivity, the Ukrainian people officially declared the revival of their statehood.

In addition, the UCR began to disarm the Bolshevik detachments and send them to Russia. Such actions could not fail to cause a proper reaction, and on December 4, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR handed over an ultimatum, according to which it revealed its readiness to cooperate with the UNR, but presented a number of requirements that it was forced to fulfill under the threat of civil war. The ultimatum became not just interference in the internal affairs of the UNR, but also made it completely dependent on the Council of People's Commissars. Increasingly, slogans about the independence of Ukraine were heard, and on January 9, 1918, the IV Universal was proclaimed, which declared Ukraine an independent and independent state. Most likely, the author of this document was M. Grushevsky.

Meanwhile, the confrontation with the CEC of the Soviets of Ukraine continued. Gradually, Rovno, Sevastopol, Yekaterinoslav, Mariupol, Sumy, and Krivoy Rog came under the rule of the Soviets. The ring around Kyiv narrowed; the existing army was not enough, and the heroic death of 300 cadets and students near Kruty did not save Kyiv. On January 25, 1918, members of the Malaya Rada, headed by Grushevsky, left for Zhytomyr. The environment of Kyiv had personal consequences for Grushevsky: his house on the street. Pankovskaya was mercilessly shot from an armored car by the Bolsheviks, a unique collection of antiques was destroyed. At the end of January, Grushevsky suffered another loss - his mother died, the scientist could not even say goodbye to her.

At this time, the Central Rada adopted a number of important laws - on the state emblem of the UNR (trident) and the monetary unit (hryvnia). And in April, with the help of the German and Austro-Hungarian units, Grushevsky and the Central Republic managed to return to Kyiv.

The last chord of the political activity of M. Grushevsky was the adoption of the Constitution of the UNR on April 29, 1918, which proclaimed Ukraine a sovereign parliamentary state, guaranteed the rights of all peoples, divided power into judicial, executive and legislative. According to the constitution, the supreme body of the UNR was the Supreme Assembly and M. Grushevsky was to become its elected head, but in conditions of political instability, when the intentions of the Germans to disperse the Central Rada became obvious, it was necessary to act decisively and Grushevsky was offered to declare a dictatorship and proclaim himself a dictator. The scientist refused, and on April 29, 1918, the Central Rada ceased to exist. M. Grushevsky left the political arena, giving way to a new generation of politicians brought up during the time of the Central Rada.

During Hetman P. Skoropadsky's time in power, the scientist took part in the creation of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, which, however, lasted until the beginning of 1919. When the Directory was in power, there was no place for Hrushevsky in her plans and he decided to leave with his family to Galicia. Agreeing to act as a representative of the Foreign Delegation of the UPSR, in April 1919 he went to Prague via Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk). Thus began his emigration. The years of his stay in exile became a test for Mikhail Sergeevich, not only because of material difficulties, but also because his ideas failed. In Prague, he contacted the Czech socialists, met with Tomas Masaryk, met with British and American diplomats in Paris, unsuccessfully trying to draw their attention to the Ukrainian question. At the conference of the II International in Lucerne (Switzerland), a declaration was approved on the right to state sovereignty of Ukraine and other Eastern European states that found themselves on the territory of Russia. Grushevsky also took part in a number of European conferences in Prague, Vienna, Berlin. His activities at that time were active: he initiated the organization of the "Committee of Independent Ukraine", the publication of the magazine "Eastern Europe" in French and English, which he even partially financed.

In November 1919, Grushevsky and his family settled in Geneva (Switzerland), planning to live there and publish the journal Eastern Europe, but soon returned to Prague, and then to Vienna, where he lived until returning to Ukraine. At this time, he received offers from the universities of Oxford and Princeton, negotiated with Lviv University, and representatives of intellectual emigration from Ukraine came to Baden near Vienna. Grushevsky founded the Ukrainian Sociological Institute in Vienna (1919-1922), which, along with scientific ones, was supposed to perform political functions. The Institute published the journal “Fight, overcome”, which published numerous articles of the scientist, was engaged in publishing and lecture activities, among others, “History of Ukraine” by M. Hrushevsky was published in French.

Over time, the scientist began to think about returning to Ukraine: the Soviet government gave permission for “entry to Ukraine prof. Grushevsky", and on December 31, 1923 he was elected in absentia a member of the VUAN. In March 1924 he and his family returned to Kyiv. The return was a compromise solution, he still hoped for the degeneration of the communist regime. Formally, the residence of the Grushevskys was house 9 on the street. Pankovskaya, but he was badly damaged, and an outbuilding in the yard became a shelter for the professorial family.

The members of the VUAN at that time were outstanding scientists - A. Krymsky,

S. Efremov, D. Bagaliy, M. Belyashevsky and others, they were wary of the return of Grushevsky. The scientist headed the department of the history of Ukraine and the historical section of the VUAN, which at the end of the 20s consisted of the academic department of the history of the Ukrainian people (it initially had two full-time employees - Hrushevsky's daughter Ekaterina and his nephew S. Shamray) and a number of commissions. Hrushevsky fully focused on scientific and organizational activities: under his leadership, archeographic and folklore-ethnographic expeditions operated, the research department of the history of Ukraine was founded, the Cabinet of Primitive Culture was opened at the department of the history of Ukraine, numerous materials were published, including in the journal "Ukraine", which, thanks to the efforts of Grushevsky, became a royalty publication. But the activities of Mikhail Sergeevich were perceived ambiguously: there was no unity in the VUAN, and many scientists (S. Efremov, A. Krymsky) opposed the venerable scientist, reproaching him for flirting with the Soviet authorities. Neither Grushevsky nor his opponents at the Academy accepted the Bolshevik regime, but Mikhail Sergeevich wanted to implement his own model of the Academy and become at its helm. It can be said with certainty that the communist regime "fueled" the conflict in the VUAN in order to use it for their own purposes. The conflict came to a head in 1927. The Central Committee of the CP(b)U supported Hrushevsky as president of the VUAN, since he actually weakened the influence of the more radical wing of the Ukrainian academic intelligentsia. In 1929, he was also elected a member of the All-Union Academy of Sciences, which contemporaries regarded as "a piece of meat thrown by the regime to Ukrainians." But the position of the scientist did not suit the Soviet government either - he criticized its policy towards scientists and cultural figures, accusing it of pressure. And soon the regime stopped hiding that it wanted to get even with Grushevsky for his political past.

The end of the 20s - the beginning of the 30s were terrible times for the Ukrainian intelligentsia - numerous arrests of scientists and cultural figures caused panic in Ukrainian circles. It became obvious that the policy of "Ukrainization" would be curtailed and all those objectionable to the regime would be punished. So, S. Efremov, I. Mandzyuk and others were arrested, and those who remained at large were forced to obey ideological requirements. The Historical and Philological Department of the Academy of Sciences was reorganized, commissions were closed, "cleansings" were carried out in the historical sectors of the VUAN. In 1930, the research department of the history of Ukraine was liquidated, at the same time they stopped publishing the magazine "Ukraine". Grushevsky headed the department of the history of Ukraine during the period of feudalism, but only formally, since back in March 1931 he left for Moscow with his daughter. In the documents of the special services, he was already openly called the "leader of the counter-revolutionaries", he was credited with the founding of the Ukrainian National Center - an all-Ukrainian counter-revolutionary organization. March 23, 1931 Grushevsky was arrested. After interrogations, the scientist, already an elderly and sick man, signed all the papers, admitted all the charges against him and was released. He was allowed to continue to live in Moscow. In the last years of his life, Mikhail Sergeevich was engaged in scientific work - he worked on the continuation of the "History of Ukrainian Literature", published articles, but due to poor health he no longer conducted active public activities, did not even speak at meetings of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In Moscow, he continued to be under the hood of the OGPU, then the NKVD. They were interested not only in the academician, but also in his daughter, who was also observed in 1932. Meanwhile, another attack was being prepared in Ukraine. In September 1934, Grushevsky with his wife and daughter arrived in Kislovodsk, at the resort he talked with many representatives of science and culture, and the Chekists did not stop working out versions about the scientist's intention to flee abroad. But on November 13, Mikhail Sergeevich ended up in the Kislovodsk city hospital with a diagnosis of "Malignant carbuncle of the back, sepsis", he underwent several operations. The scientist's condition worsened, and blood transfusions did not help either. On November 24, 1934, the doctors stated "death with increasing heart weakness." Mikhail Sergeevich was buried in Kyiv, at the Baikove cemetery on November 29. Immediately after the death of the scientist, rumors arose about her violent nature, poisoning. But to this day they have not been able to prove anything.

After the death of M. Grushevsky, V. Vernadsky wrote: “I believed and still believe that Grushevsky did a great job for the revival of the Ukrainian people. A great personality, no matter what they say, who left a mark on the national self-consciousness of Ukraine. How will things turn out in the future? The main thing is not political, but a huge historical and factual thing that remains in the published monuments and materials. I think the depth of his influence after death will become clearer.”

Over time, these words were confirmed.