MYRON KORDUBA DURING UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION (BASED ON MEMOIR SOURCES)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of Myron Korduba’s biography during the period of revolutionary events based on his memoirs. It has been found out that the problem of reconstruction of life and work of M. Korduba during the Ukrainian revolution was quite an issue for his contemporaries (e.g., O. Popovich) and researchers of our time (especially I. Fedoriv, O. Pikh, V. Pedych, V. Telvak and others). It has been indicated that in their research memoirs of M. Korduba were used only sporadically, which makes it impossible to display a full biography of the scientist. This is why the research is topical. The aim of the article is a reconstruction of the life and work of M. Korduba during the Ukrainian revolution based on his memoirs.

It has been investigated that from the first days of October 1918 M. Korduba actively participated in the national liberation struggle of Ukraine. He became a member of the National Committee, took part in its organizational and international meetings. As a lieutenant of the committee, he participated in the formation of the Ukrainian National Council. By his initiative, the council was convened in Chernivtsi November 3, 1918, which proclaimed the peaceful transition of power in the region to Ukrainians. M. Korduba took an active part in the process of Ukrainization of political life in Bukovina, which was stopped by the Romanian occupation of land. M. Korduba was elected as Provincial Committee ambassador to Kyiv, where he sought help from the Hetman Skoropadsky. However, an armed conflict between Hetman and Directorate made the assistance impossible and Bukovina was fully occupied by Romanian troops.

As a result, it has been noted that the memoirs of M. Korduba revealed significant information which uncovered the little-known pages of his biography. It has been proved that a remarkable scientist appeared to be a bright representative of Ukrainian intelligentsia: responsible for the fate of people, proactive in finding opportunities to realize assignments entrusted to him, tolerant and respectful to his opponents. It has been indicated that due to his efforts, Ukrainian Bukovina felt itself the master of its life and tried to realize the dream of statehood at least for this brief period of time. However, the objective historical circumstances (lack of statehood experience, small amount of intelligentsia, more advanced organization of his neighbors), led to the defeat of the Liberation Struggle in Western Ukraine. The further involvement of Korduba’s discourse of his memoir materials, can reveal little-known pages of the biography of this prominent figure.