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Andrey Artemenko
creation of the Ukrainian state, a democratic republic in the structure of the Slavic federa-
tion with the exclusion of any restrictions
of freedoms of speech,
assemblies, conscience.
In due course extreme historical circumstances forced Ukrainian adherents of liberal-
ism to leave behind the idea of the federal future of Slavs and to head for the construction
of an independent Ukrainian state.
In M.P. Dragomanov’s works one can see the influence of the Kiev legal doctrine of
the second half of the Õ²Õ century. His vision of the federation of Slavic peoples became
an ideal of politicians almost before the declaration of the Fourth Universal of the Central
Rada. Members of such a state, namely, nations, are personified and acquire features of
organizations. The nation becomes the subject of legal relations in the federation.
The people should have an independent political organization which could become
the basis of the people’s state life. This idea became the program of activity of liberals in
the 90s of the XIX century. It is genetically connected with the development by the Kiev
legal thought of the idea of the state as the subject of law. M.I. Palienko, M.M.Kovalevsky,
L.J. Petrazhitsky, B.A.Kistjakivsky perceived the state as a legal person and state bodies as
its representatives. They believed that state power is a phenomenon of collective-psycho-
logical character. In the opinion of representatives of this trend, the state always displays
a certain legal organization of public relations.
M.I. Palienko insisted that the state is “a legal moral person”. In his work “Suverenitet.
Istoricheskoje razvitie idei suvereniteta i ejo pravovoe znachenie” he claims that a state
carries attributes of the organization of sovereign unions. State power is based on psycho-
logical features of acceptance by individuals of the situation of submission and manage-
ment. Mental features of those who create the union define its character. Thus, the state
turns into
a system of sovereign unions, a peculiar hybrid of civil society and federation.
In his letter to I. Franko M. Dragomanov wrote: “Principles of modern world civ-
ilization that mostly correspond to the progress are liberalism in its most consecutive
form and federalism in affairs of the state”. While supporting the federalist position, M.P.
Dragomanov did not support isolation of Ukraine from Russia. But, being afraid of even
a potential threat of limitation of human rights by a strong centralized state, he found
it necessary to reorganize the Russian empire into a free confederation of independent
regions (created not necessarily on the ethnic basis) in which the decisions were to be
made, first of all, at the local level. In due course M.P. Dragomanov’s ideas were adopted
by
Michael Pavlik,
Ivan Franko, Bogdan Kistjakivsky.
The Ukrainian national movement changed drastically at the end of the Õ²Õ century
when it became clear, that political apathy, kulturnichestvo (aspiration for enlightenment
activity among intelligentsia) and neglect of social and economic sphere was pernicious
for the national movement.
At the end of 1895 the Ukrainian radical party officially accepted the program of
struggle for political independence of the Ukrainian people and as a first step put forward
the demand to divide Galicia into Ukrainian and Polish parts. However, the idea of the fu-