Against the backdrop of the value problems of modern Europe and Polish-Ukrainian relations, the life and work of Viacheslav Lypynski is a vivid example of constructive values and Polish-Ukrainian understanding.
Born in 1882 to a Polish family of right-bank gentry, Viacheslav Lypynskyi adopted Ukrainian identity at a young age in a Ukrainian environment. He addressed his family with the words: “We must go to those whose bread we eat and whose land we live on.” Although Lypynsky did not find understanding in his family, he continued his studies at European universities and took an active Ukrainian civic position. During the Ukrainian State of Hetman Skoropadsky, Lypynsky worked in the government and diplomatic service. After the defeat of the Hetmanate, in exile, Lypynsky created scientific historical and political works that became the foundational basis of Ukrainian political science and historical scholarship.
In contrast to socialism, which was popular at the time and captured the minds of many scholars and public figures, Lypynsky emphasizes historical experience rather than social utopias that would only lead to ruin. The scholar proposes conservative values of a strong state, respect for historical traditions, and support for the Ukrainian hetman as a legitimate vector for uniting Ukrainians in the struggle for independence.
Many of Lipinski’s ideas were realized by Ukrainians only after the full-scale invasion of 2022. In particular, the phrase “No one will build us a state until we build it ourselves. And none of us will make a nation until we want to be a nation” was realized by the masses only after the failed hopes for foreigners to either reform us or protect our country. Time has shown that we need to grow up and get rid of illusions. Ukrainians have had to see in practice the truthfulness of the conclusions of the founder of Ukrainian political science, Vyacheslav Lypynsky, whose experience has been updated again. Previously, Lypynsky was not mentioned because of Soviet censorship, and after gaining independence, they sought authority among other classics, avoiding conservatism.
Lypynsky was the author of the statehood concept of Ukrainian history: the state should be the basis for creating a nation. In his most famous work, Letters to Brothers Farmers, Lypynsky characterized three types of government, among which he distinguished ochlocracy-the power of the mob and dictatorship, democracy, and classocracy. The latter was supposed to be the rule of a moral elite headed by a British-style monarch-a ruler who does not directly rule but unites the country with his symbolic authority. Today, the institution of monarchy seems outdated, but Lipinski argued that every state in history has emerged on a monarchical basis. Even the United States had a long period of British monarchical rule, from which it derived its traditions. In the context of the civil war, the person of the hereditary hetman, according to Lipinsky, was to become a guarantor of stability in the country and save the nation from the chaos of hostility.
Despite modern ideas about politics, it is worth recognizing that the history of Ukraine in the twentieth century would have looked much less tragic if, instead of the Bolsheviks, Hetman Skoropadsky had remained in power and handed over power in the monarchical tradition. And after the state was strengthened, Lipinsky believed, democracy could be considered, which, however, he criticized for a number of shortcomings and weaknesses in the struggle for independence.
It is significant that, following the monarchist idea, at the end of his life Lipinsky quarreled with Hetman Skoropadsky in exile, believing that the monarch should be a model of virtue and bear more responsibility than other citizens. “To save the monarchy from the monarch” – this principle in European history has often served as a safeguard against voluntarism and arbitrariness of rulers and later became the basis for the establishment of democracies.
Today, Lypynsky’s legacy and political science recommendations are relevant for creating a stable, harmonious, strong, and prosperous state based on conservative values that build, not destroy.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk