This website is dedicated to the joint Swiss-Ukrainian research project “Mykhailo Drahomanov: Switzerland on Ukraine’s Intellectual Map of Europe”.

The newsfeed reports on activities and upcoming events, new publications, and news around the project network.

The project is funded by the Ukrainian-Swiss Joint Research Programme SNSF and NRFU.

Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841-1895) is a major figure in Ukrainian intellectual history and a key contributor to late 19th-century debates on the creation of a Ukrainian nation-state. Forced into exile in 1876, Drahomanov found refuge in Geneva (until 1889) where he developed an intense publication activity, becoming the foremost advocate for Ukrainian independence in Western Europe.

Although scholars usually acknowledge his Swiss exile as an important stage in his intellectual development and refer to his interest in the social and constitutional arrangements of the Swiss Confederation, comparatively little is known of his Genevan years, his engagement with European debates, and his understanding of Swiss politics. This project aims to fill this gap. 

Drahomanov wrote several texts on Swiss history, its constitution, cantonal autonomy, Swiss political culture, and the relation between local communities and the Swiss federal state. By focusing on Drahomanov’s dealing with Swiss and European history and politics, the project aims not just to contribute to the rich scholarship on Drahomanov, it also opens up new perspectives for the study of the late 19th and early 20th-century Ukrainian political and social debates by locating Drahomanov and his work in a wider European setting. Furthermore, it aims to situate modern Switzerland and Swiss federalism within the wider European debates on the ‘national question’ and underscore its appeal to Ukrainian thinkers who insisted on the multi-national character of Ukraine and who saw federal structures as a remedy to the centralisation of the Russian empire. And, finally, it establishes a platform for the comparative study of both Swiss and Ukrainian visions of a wider European federation that were being discussed at the time. READ MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT →