The thesis reveals the role of language in the shaping of Ukrainian national identity from the middle of the 19th c. to the early 20th c. Basing on the wide scope of sources, it demonstrates how the language issue influenced the political processes in which the Ukrainian national movement as well as the authorities of the Romanov and Habsburg empires were involved. In the first chapter of the thesis the literature and sources are reviewed and the interrelations between the language and national identity are outlined. The second chapter puts 'the Ukrainian issue' in the broad context of the inter-imperial relations during the long 19th century. It aims to reveal the approaches of the leading European states towards the minority and indigenous languages. The author focuses on the linguistic policies of London and Paris. In the Habsburg monarchy the speakers of minority languages enjoyed relative freedom in that the linguistic policy of both Cisleithania and Transleithania based itself on the principles of Constitution of 1867, which guaranteed the equality of all languages. However, the application of this legal norm largely depended on the regional laws, which were significantly different in both parts of the dualistic monarchy. The main feature of Russian linguistic policy was its selectivity. Depending on the political situation, the activity of local national movements, any potential for ethnic conflicts etc., the imperial Russification policy could be either slowed down or intensified as required. However, its main goal - the wide dissemination of the Russian language remained unchangeable. The author points out that in the Russian empire the official status of Ukrainian differed significantly from other regional languages because the official ideology considered it just as the dialect of 'All-Russian language'. Being deeply concerned by Polish ethnic nationalism as well as the policy of the rival Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian ruling elite considered the Ukrainian language as a threat to the unity of the 'Russian people'. This caused the adoption of several laws that limited publishing activity in the Ukrainian language, including Valuev's circular of 1863 and Ems Decree of 1876. In the long term the policy of restrictions on Ukrainian appeared to be ineffective. In the Dualistic Monarchy Ukrainian (Ruthenian) enjoyed the status of a regional language, which allowed its use in education, research work, publishing, and even theater. The linguistic policies enshrined in law by the Habsburg Monarchy in Galicia were formulated in the laws of 1867, 1869 and 1907. Which identified Ukrainian as a regional language and, at the same time, provided the status of an administrative language for the Polish language. From the early 1860s several groups of the Ukrainian intelligentsia called the Hromadas were formed in major cities of Ukraine such as Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Odesa, Elisavetgrad and Chernihiv. Their aim was to resist the Russification policy by means of education, art and the research work in the field of Ukrainian history and language. Hromada members organized artistic performances in favour of Taras Shevchenko and published numerous pamphlets in support of the Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian Hromadas emerged in both the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. The author pays special attention to the lesser known Ukrainian Hromada in Krakow (1897-1907). The thesis deals with the efforts of the Ukrainian national movement to extend the usability of the Ukrainian language. The activity of learned societies, such as Prosvita, the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the South-Western branch of the Russian Imperial Geographic Society in field of the Ukrainian philology is discussed. By the end of the 19th c. the speakers of Ukrainian dominated in the majority of the population of today's Ukraine. However, in Ukraine even as late as in the turn of 20th c., the majority of population lived in the countryside. At the same time, the author stresses that the Ukrainians composed the second largest group of the urban population. Thus, between the 1870s and 1897 the number of those urban inhabitants who called Ukrainian their native language reduced significantly. While the Russian language due to its official status was the one of education, science, courts, newspapers etc., Ukrainian was usually treated as a less prestigious language, basically used by the illiterate peasants. Therefore, the Ukrainian intellectuals who shared the national sentiment tried to use the native language on a daily basis. The author describes the everyday language of Drahomanov, Zhytetsky, Lysenko, Kosach, Samiylenko, Starytsky and other families whose members took an active part in the Ukrainian national movement. Contrary to widespread opinion, the author asserts that a lot of Ukrainian entrepreneurs and rich landowners were deeply involved in the process of Ukrainian nation building. Finally, the author refers to the question of how the civil servants in the Ukrainian governorates of the Russian empire treated Ukrainian in the period when the Imperial Centre adopted restrictive measures against this language.
