CREATIVE AND PUBLISHING HISTORY OF MYKHAILO HRUSHEVSKYI’S STORY “THE LAST KUTIA”

The Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevskyi is most renowned for his academic and publicist works. However, he also left behind a considerable literary legacy, with only a small part of it published during his lifetime. Soviet authorities suppressed the study of Hrushevskyi’s works, labeling him a ‘bourgeois nationalist.’ Today, research on all Hrushevskyi’s writings can be freely conducted and has already made significant progress. This research focuses on Hrushevskyi’s story “The Last Kutia,” one of his earliest works. Drafts and final autographs of the early version, along with fragments of the final recension bearing the author’s notes, are preserved in the archives of Kyiv and Lviv. The reconstruction of the story’s creative history is based on archival materials, including correspondence, diaries, and memoirs. The first version of the story was written in 1884 when Hrushevskyi was still a student at a gymnasium in Tiflis. The plot of the story reflects certain biographical events from the author’s life. Hrushevskyi sent the completed work to I. Nechui-Levytskyi, who edited it. In 1885, Nechui-Levytsky forwarded the work to Lviv, proposing it for publication in the newspaper “Dilo.” However, some Ukrainian publications in Galicia were restricted from circulation in Russia-controlled Ukraine due to censorship, and Hrushevskyi was unaware that “Dilo” published “The Last Kutia” in 1887. In 1891, Hrushevskyi decided to revise the story, reducing the text by one-third and adding two new substantial passages that significantly altered the fate of the main character. The second version emphasizes social motives, especially the role of women in family and society. The text, reconstructed from several archival fragments, was published in 2012. An analysis of the plot, language, and textual changes made by Hrushevskyi reveals the development of his unique voice, civic stance, and writing style. The paper also examines the timeline of the story’s publication and offers an explanation of why the initial publication of “The Last Kutia” was not recorded in Hrushevskyi’s bibliographies.