Mykhailo Mukhyn on Ukraine and Ukrainians in the Works of Polish Writers of the 1920s–1930s

Abstract

Mykhailo Mukhyn (1894–1974) was a public and political figure, literary critic, and writer who, despite being somewhat overlooked among twentieth-century Ukrainian intellectuals, remains an important voice that cannot be ignored. He actively contributed to a wide range of Ukrainian and émigré periodicals, including The Ukrainian Student (Prague, 1923–1924), Society – La Société (Prague, 1925–1926), Student Bulletin (Prague, 1928, 1930–1931), Literature and Science Bulletin (later Visnyk, Lviv, 1928–1934, 1949) etc. He also worked at the Proboem publishing house in Prague (1939–1943). 

Mukhyn’s scholarly, journalistic, and literary legacy is marked by a consistent Ukrainian-centric perspective, oriented toward nation-building and grounded in historical, political, and ideological analysis. His writing combined cultural criticism with carefully argued factual evidence, often supported by multiple sources. This methodological approach defined his work across different periods: during the Ukrainian national revolution of 1917–1921, his first emigration in interwar Czechoslovakia (Prague, Podebrady, Uzhhorod), and later in Germany.

The article is devoted to an analysis of the response to Ukraine and Ukrainians in Polish literature of the 1920s–1930s through the lens of Mykhailo Mukhyn’s literary studies. Attention is focused on literary texts that represent Ukraine as a distinctive cultural and symbolic space. Mukhyn emphasized the ambivalence of Ukrainian archetypal images: alongside romanticized motifs of the steppe, folklore, and the lost paradise″, ″stereotypical notions appear of the ″chaotic frontier″ or the ″perilous other″. The analysis draws on the works of J. Iwaszkiewicz, F. Rawita-Gawroński, M. Rodziewiczówna, J. Łada, J. Tuwim and others, in which images of Ukraine and Ukrainians are presented in a semi-mythologized form while at the same time carry ideological connotations.

Particular attention is paid to how interwar literature reflected key political and military events, including the November Uprising of 1918, the Polish-Ukrainian war, and the social transformations of the borderlands. The article also highlights the essence of Mukhyn’s criticism and his dialogue with Yurii Lypa in the consideration of the “Ukrainian theme” in Polish prose. At the same time, the analysis is further elucidated through references to the evaluations of Polish critics and contemporary scholars — Olha Hnatiuk, Adriana Koput, Yuliia Artymyshyn, Svitlana Kravchenko, Rostyslav Radyshevskyi, and Sofiia Kohut — which makes it possible to relate literary images with their historical and political contexts.

Accordingly, the study of Mykhailo Mukhyn’s legacy opens new perspectives for contemporary Ukrainian-Polish comparative studies, fostering the integration of historical and literary analysis with an understanding of current challenges of cultural memory and dialogue between the two nations.