Domanytskyi Viktor.The Nation-Building Role of Hetman Mazepa.Chicago, 1960

“Mazepa the Hetman was highly respected in the Cossack land, where the people are generally freedom-loving and proud and little love those who rule them” — Jean Baluze.

Viktor Domanicki. The Nation-Creative Role of Hetman Mazepa: Address Delivered at the Jubilee Ceremonies Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Death of Hetman I. Mazepa in Detroit, Minneapolis, and Winnipeg / with a Foreword by the President of the Ukrainian Free Academy in Canada, Prof. Dr. Yar. Rudnytsky; with a Portrait of the Hetman by the artist Oleks Buławiński.

Chicago, Illinois: published by the author, 1960. — 50, [2] pp.: portrait. — Printed by the Ukrainian-American Publishing and Printing Co., Inc. Parallel English title: The Nation-Creative Role of Hetman Mazepa. Price on the back cover: $2.00.

Published in a softcover of cream-colored paper by Oleks Buławiński: the author’s name and title are in a drawn, handwritten style; at the bottom is the publisher’s emblem — a trident against a saber and an unfurled scroll, with the year below it. Both sides have numerous foxing spots and stains, heavier on the back; near the top edge of the front cover, closer to the right corner, there is rubbing with loss of the top layer of paper; on the left edge of the back cover — a strip of rubbing with similar loss; small creases along the edges. The text block is stapled and sturdy; there are rust marks on the spine fold around the staples. The paper is slightly yellowed along the edges, without tears. The number “420” is written in pencil on the back cover. Condition: good.

Published during the author’s lifetime. The book has historical and cultural value and is of collecting interest.

INFORMATION

In the foreword, Yaroslav Rudnytsky (1910–1995) calls Domanicki the initiator of “Mazepa Year” in America, and this pamphlet is the main text of that campaign. The address was delivered in 1959 in Detroit, Minneapolis, and Winnipeg, and on November 22 it was presented as the keynote report of the jubilee session of the Ukrainian Free Academy in Winnipeg. The author examines the state of knowledge about Mazepa, his nation-creative activity and internal state-building policy, the Hetman as a statesman and diplomat, the Russian government’s anti-Mazepa actions, the significance of the Battle of Poltava and the Mazepian emigration; the book concludes with a bibliography of selected literature. In the section “From the Author,” Domanicki explicitly admits that he is not a historian and proposes a “nation-creative method” — hypotheses where documents are lacking.

Viktor Domanicki (1893–1962) — agronomist, sociologist, and cooperative activist, younger brother of the historian and Shevchenko scholar Vasyl Domanicki, and a full member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. From 1924, he was a professor at the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy in Poděbrady and taught sociology at the Ukrainian Free University in Prague; after the war, he headed the Ukrainian Institute of Technical and Economic Sciences, later moved to the United States, and died in Minneapolis.

The pamphlet was published by the author at the Ukrainian-American Publishing and Printing Co. in Chicago; its publication was made possible by the benefactors named in the acknowledgments — Ivan Fur, Neonila and H. Hordiienko, Mykola Anastasiievsky. The inside covers contain a call by the Initiative Group for collective patronage of the author’s works, with a list of planned publications. Oleks Buławiński painted the portrait of the Hetman at the author’s request specifically for this book; he also designed the cover and created the publisher’s emblem for all of Domanicki’s subsequent works.