Social and political views of Orest Zybachynskyi

Abstract

Based on historical and problem-conceptual methods, the article provides a comprehensive analysis of the particular views of the prominent representative of the twentieth century Ukrainian free movement’s intellectual elite, Orest Zybachynskyi, on social and political processes, in particular, the constituents and ruinous forces of the development of political institutions, first of all, the state, its relationship with the church, the role of national and social revolutions, political ideologies and corresponding practices of their implementation.

It is stated that the basis of the Ukrainian thinker’s system of views lies in his idea of svobodarnist as a continuous movement towards freedom in all spheres of social and political life. Zybachynskyi considered the national principle of humanity development to be primary, and national independence to be a postulate that could not be omitted, only implemented. He regarded national independence and political freedom as self-sufficient values and prerequisites for the socio-economic freedom of a man and a nation. Orest Zybachynskyi’s legasy comprises the substantiation of ways of Ukraine’s liberation and determining its role and place in the world history and in the development of humanity.

The peculiarities of Orest Zybachynskyi’s views are based on the concepts of “community” and “society” and their content when analysing various aspects of social and political life, in particular, consequences and prospects for the practical implementation of these or other political ideologies.

The article reveals Zybachynskyi’s assessment of nationalism, socialism, communism and democracy as political ideologies and corresponding practices called by social and political systems of “thinking and taking action”. It points out that Orest Zybachynskyi, from all current political systems and methods of government, identifies Western democracies as partly compliant with the greater forms of human development. According to him, new dimensions of democracy, based on the integral ideal of freedom, would be able to ensure the freedom of individuals, groups and peoples of humanity.