Mykola Kostomarov (1817–1885) was best known between the 1860s and 1880s as a prolific and widely read historian of Russia and Ukraine who focused attention on the popular masses as the subject of history. Throughout his life an advocate of the idea of the distinct identity of Ukrainians as a people and of Ukrainian as a language in its own right, in his early years Kostomarov actively contributed to the development of a modern Ukrainian literature as a poet, dramatist, and literary critic. In the mid-1840s, in the spirit of Romantic nationalism and inspired by ideals of pan-Slav solidarity and Christian egalitarianism, Kostomarov and a circle of his friends developed a radical political program for a republican Slavic federation, of which a renascent Ukraine and all other Slavic…
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Citation: Pavlyshyn, Marko. "Mykola Kostomarov". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 April 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13588, accessed 25 November 2024.]
