THE PROBLEM OF UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE FROM RUSSIA IN THE VISION OF FRENCH POLITICIANS OF THE SECOND EMPIRE

Abstract

The purpose of the article: to analyze the vision of Ukrainian independence in the intellectual environment of French politicians during the Second Empire. Brief content of the work. The author, methodologically relying on Karl Mannheim's idea of a common spatial-temporal space for "generational unions", singles out several French intellectuals who raised the issue of Ukrainian independence in the 1850-1860s, and analyzes their ideas. The opinions of senators of the French Second Empire T. C. Delamarre, L. H. Carnot and P. Mérimée are considered, and a comparative analysis of their concepts is carried out. Conclusions. All political figures paid special attention to the development of the issue of concretizing the ways and grounds for the liberation of Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Poles from the Russian yoke. At the same time, they expressed various conceptual proposals regarding the idea of Ukrainian independence. Delamarre adhered to the civilizational conceptualization, arguing that Ukrainians have the right to their own freedom thanks to a self-identification different from the Russians, which the latter stole from them, as well as a history, language and culture different from the Russians. Carnot and Mérimée adhered to the traditional historical conceptualization, hidden in the past of Ukraine and France. Carnot called on the parliament to support Ukraine as a continuation of French political tradition in the external arena – to actively oppose Russian Panslavism. Mérimée derived his justification from the analysis of the activities of hetmans B. Khmelnytsky and I. Mazepa, whose political steps made possible the emergence of a Ukrainian state, independent of both Poland and Russia.