Abstract

The article aims to study the formation and affirmation of A.A. Rusov`s personality as a Ukrainian intellectual and his appearance in the world of the Ukrainian national elite at the post-reform period of the 1860s and 1870s. It is used a personalistic approach, historical-genetic and historical-typological methods. Using archival and published documentary sources, the author shows that A. Rusov got interested in intellectual work since his adolescence and youth. The influential factors of his outlook formation were as follows: his parents influence, gymnasium secondary education, academic and students environment at St. Vladimir Kyiv University. It was found out that while doing Slavic Studies, Alexander Alexandrovich, who was a Russian by ethnic origin, became interested in studying the Ukrainian people, their language, folklore, ethnography, culture. Due to those changes he became a conscious Ukrainian who then joined the Ukrainian national movement. It is revealed A. Rusov's participation in the various national and cultural activities of the Kyiv Old Community and its legal branch – the Southwestern Department of the Russian Geographical Society. It is traced that in the 1870's the main vectors of the intellectual interests of the scientist and public figure were determined. Firstly, they were Slavic Studies, pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical activities. Then he was fond of local and regional statistical researches, determined by his interest to the comprehensive study of the Ukrainian people in the context of so called peoplelovers` (the Narodolubtsies`) worldview. It is proved that in the late 1870's A. A. Rusov became a prominent figure of the Ukrainian national movement who participated in ideological discussions between the Ukrainian “peoplelovers”, liberals and the Russian social-revolutionary Narodniks. It is emphasized that the Ukrainian intellectual and public figure companied for the rights of the Ukrainians to speak their own language, get national education, science, develop culture, implement progressive land taxation and carry on comprehensive study about the Ukrainian people using statistical surveys. The originality and scientific novelty of the article consists in presentation of factual historical knowledge about A. A. Rusov as a Ukrainian intellectual, who joined the world of the national elite generation and combined scholarly studies and social practices of national culture in his activity.