MORAL AND SPIRITUAL FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDEPENDENT UKRAINIAN STATE IN THE VIEWS OF V. K. LYPYNSKY

Abstract

The views of the national historian and political scientist, representative of the conservative trend of Ukrainian socio-political thought V. K. Lypynsky on the moral and spiritual factors and the role of the national aristocracy in the creation of an independent Ukrainian state have been considered. His vision of the genetic connection between the state and the nation and the leading role of elites in their development has been revealed. The author emphasizes the fundamental importance of the priority of creating the institution of the state over cultural issues in the processes of nation building. The problem of the foundations of integration of national minorities into the Ukrainian nation has been revealed. The scientist understood the conceptual model of the Ukrainian nation as a union of all national communities living on the territory of the state, based on the principle of a sense of territorial patriotism, not ethnic affiliation. That is, the thinker saw the path to building an independent, sovereign state and nation as the path of voluntary association of all citizens living together in the same territory. The criterion for distinguishing between the concepts of «patriotism» and «chauvinism», which are varieties of nationalism, the leader of the Ukrainian nation-building considered the attitude to the state in terms of their state-building (patriotism) or destructive (chauvinism) potential. An analysis of the thinker’s reasoning on the problem of nobility and aristocracy, the lack of which he saw in the contemporary Ukrainian elite, has been carried out. The scientist argued that without the existence of an independent state, the future of the Ukrainian nation would remain under threat, and that is why he suggested the leading strata to unite and focus their efforts on building the Ukrainian state. V. K. Lypynskyi’s views on the prospects for the development of a national state are based on the idea of territorial patriotism, where the key role in nation-state building should be played by the factors of unity, high morality and spirituality, but not by ethnic affiliation. At the same time, preserving, protecting, and disseminating the Ukrainian language and culture is extremely important for preserving the identity and distinctiveness of the Ukrainian people.