State-forming activities of Longin Tsegelsky during the years of national liberation struggles (1918–1921)

The purpose of the article is to study the place and role of L. Tsegelskyi in the context of national liberation struggles of Ukrainians, analysis of the main directions of his socio-political activity and their interrelationships, as well as the formulation of broader conclusions regarding the political elite of that time and the ways it chose to implement the tasks of the national movement. The methodological basis of the research is based on the use of various general scientific and historical approaches. The basis of the work is the principles of objectivity and historicism. The biographical method, which involves the study of historical events through the prism of the lives and activities of individual figures, played an important role in the research. Scientific novelty consists in a new approach to posing a problem and its comprehensive disclosure, which includes a new understanding of facts and documents, their theoretical interpretation and the development of one’s own explanatory model. The novelty of the research results lies in the inclusion of new archival materials, publications, documents, press sources, memoirs and scientific literature in scientific circulation. The results of the research show that Longyn Tsegelskyi was at the center of events that influenced the formation of the Ukrainian national idea during the liberation struggle. Relying on the serious research of Ukrainian historians, ethnographers and politicians, he substantiated the uniqueness and independence of the Ukrainian nation, refuting the claims of Russian and Polish chauvinists about the Ukrainian people as an unformed ethnic group, a part of other peoples. He greatly contributed to the development of national consciousness, which became a decisive factor for the nation’s self-assertion.