“JAPHETHIAN” EUROPEANNESS AS THE BASIS OF THE CULTURAL GENESIS OF UKRAINIANS IN THE WORK OF THE STATE SCHOOL OF HISTORIOGRAPHY

Abstract

This article offers a comprehensive analysis of «Japhethian» Europeanness as a foundational concept in the cultural genesis of Ukrainians within the theoretical framework of the statehood school of Ukrainian historiography. The study argues that an adequate understanding of the formative and educational potential of Ukrainian culture is possible only by exploring its historical roots, which are intrinsically linked to the broader European cultural community. Drawing on E. B. Tylor’s classical conception of culture as a complex whole encompassing symbolic forms, norms, and practices, the article pays particular attention to the notion of "Japhethicity". Here, this is understood not in biological or racial terms, but as a system of shared values and mental-cultural orientations that unite the peoples of Europe through a common classical heritage, Christian principles, and developed social institutions.
The analysis shows that leading representatives of the Ukrainian statehood school of historiography — including V. Lypynskii, D. Doroshenko, M. Chubatyi, M. Korduba, I. Krypyakevych, O. Shulhyn, S. Shelukhin, and others — consistently substantiated the historical and mental Europeanness of Ukrainians. These scholars emphasized the crucial role of statehood, national elites, legal traditions, and the integration of Ukrainian history into the wider European context. This perspective stands in marked contrast to the populist («narodnik») historiographical tradition, which tended to reduce nationhood to ethnicity and the peasantry while neglecting the significance of state-building. In particular, V. Lypynskii asserted that without a state, a nation remains merely an ethnic community and that political nationhood is achieved through the presence of a hereditary elite, a coherent state ideology, and an agrarian cultural foundation.
The works of O. Shulhyn and B. Krupnytskii underscore the ethno-cultural affinity of Ukrainians with other European peoples and advocate for the rejection of "Asiatic" models of statehood in favor of European political traditions. Drawing on the concepts developed by M. Chubatyi, M. Korduba, I. Dzhydzhora, S. Shelukhin, and I. Krypyakevych, the article concludes that the statehood school historians recognized the multicomponent nature of Ukrainian genesis, openness to external influences, and the decisive role of Western European (Norman, Lithuanian, Celtic, Byzantine) factors in shaping Ukraine’s political, legal, and cultural identity. The individual contributions of these historians to the development of nation-building concepts, state-centered approaches, the formation of a national elite, and the appropriation of European values in Ukrainian historical discourse are also examined.