ПОГЛЯДИ ЛЕВА РЕБЕТА НА МОВУ ЯК ВАЖЛИВИЙ ЧИННИК ФОРМУВАННЯ НАЦІЇ ТА ЇЇ ДЕРЖАВНОСТІ: ПОЛІТИКО-ПРАВОВІ АСПЕКТИ

The article analyzes Lev Rebet’s views on language as an important factor in the formation of a nation and its statehood, focusing on political and legal aspects. The modern Ukrainian language is a centuries-old heritage of the Ukrainian people. The historical experience of many progressive and organized European states shows that the formation of a people is closely related to the formation of its language. All aspects of social life, the processes of cognitive and creative activity of a person, every moment of his consciousness are accompanied by language. Language is the most important means of communication between people. The preservation, study and development of culture are impossible without studying the language code of the nation (people), without determining the role of language as a form of self-expression of culture and a means of its formation. It is language that determines the ethnicity of the bearers of culture, is an important factor in national development. It is the bearer of the intangible heritage of each people, because it reflects ethnocultural, psychological and mythological ideas and experiences. Language is an important attribute and sign of statehood. It is noted that the contribution of the Ukrainian researcher of the theory and practice of nation-building Lev Rebet, who occupies a special place in the galaxy of Ukrainian lawyers of the 20th century, was significant in the development of the theory of the nation, in determining the importance of language as a prerequisite and consequence of the formation of the nation. He is the author of one of the most complete theories of the origin and development of the nation. According to L. Rebetб language plays an important role in the formation of a nation. In his work “Theory of the Nation”, the scholar emphasized that, given its essential properties (as a mediator in the exchange of ideas and as the inherent creator of all human thought), language seems to be an essential prerequisite for the emergence and existence of a nation. Language, despite religion, most often serves as a criterion of national belonging. To substantiate his political and legal views, L. Rebet turns to history, successfully emphasizing that the acquisition of one’s native language determines a person’s entire life. With the help of language, a person not only communicates with others, learns about the world, etc., but also literally experiences his entire life. Language comes to a person as a phenomenon of revelation, as a great gift from the past, as a rich heritage from ancestors. Through language, a person gains a connection with a huge reserve of energy, which is saturated with language. A person uses this inexhaustible source of energy throughout their life. With the help of words, it evaporates the meaning once poured into them all over again for its own use and all over again actualizes the psychic tension of the people. The entire inner life of the individual and the community, moods, thoughts and aspirations, breaks through words. Therefore, the differences between languages are not only differences in sounds: in each language the past of the people, its character, worldview and competition are hidden. Language is the keyboard of the soul of the people, it is the key to its inner energy. Therefore, the competition for the spread of one's language is the competition for the spread of the possessions of each people, and denationalization consists primarily in imposing one's language on another people. The native language as an instrument of thinking is unique, and a person uses only on another people. The native language as an instrument of thinking is unique, and a person uses only one language in his inner life, even if he knows more languages. Therefore, it is possible to instill a foreign language primarily only in the youth. Language is unique because a person experiences it only once in a lifetime, precisely when, together with its assimilation in youth, he learns the categories of thinking in general, and at the same time all the richness and beauty of life. A person has endured everything with the help of his native language, a person does not experience a foreign language when assimilating, and this makes linguistic affiliation very important in assessing national affiliation. It is emphasized that the analysis of L. Rebet's scientific concept of the prerequisites and consequences of the formation of a nation gives grounds to assert that a nation as a historical community of people plays an important role in the process of forming their territory, economic ties, language, and some features of culture. L. Rebet adhered to the idea of the value of the language of the nation as the highest form of social consciousness, unity, communicativeness and its primacy in the state-building process. L. Rebet believed that “the Ukrainian nation is a spiritual, cultural and political community, and therefore a full-powered and full-fledged nation with a full range of objective and subjective characteristics, which, despite its enslavement and despite obstacles, deploys all possible vital energy”. L. Rebet’s political and legal views already at the beginning of the formation of his civic position acquired a national orientation and had a clear orientation towards the idea of national unity. Prof. L. Rebet noted: “A nation is (along with religion) the highest type of community and because it encompasses the entire life of a person with its influence, at the same time it is the most total union. He emphasized the importance of the countrymen’s awareness of themselves not as “Rusinian, Russian, Little Rusinian, Little Russian, Ruthenian, Subcarpatho-Russian, Rusyn, but the only Ukrainian people who have their own language”. Throughout his life, L. Rebet advocated for the establishment of the Ukrainian idea, the spread of the native language, fought for the recognition and preservation of the Ukrainian language, its study and use in educational institutions, executive authorities, and judicial bodies. An analysis of the scholarly work and public activities of the figure confirms that L. Rebet, defending national interests in the press and implementing educational policy in the state, clearly illustrated those universal, democratic ideals that should lead to the consolidation of Ukrainian lands that for centuries were part of different states. Lev Rebet considered the modern state to be the basis of the phenomenon of the nation in Western Europe, and his statements were reliably substantiated. A separate factor in the growth of the nation, according to Lev Rebet, was the growth of the power of citizenship outside the state, for example, in the development of personal initiative of individual entrepreneurs or in the unification of the intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie of free cities in terms of satisfying their needs and protecting their rights. The fundamental idea of social life according to Lev Rebet's theory of the nation was the idea of popular sovereignty. In one of his works, Lev Roman Rebet wrote prophetic words for our nation: "The Ukrainian people, being in Eastern Europe the people with the oldest agricultural culture, have the ability to also be a spokesman for the advanced thoughts of humanity in those spaces. Ukraine can and should become a model of political culture for the entire environment and, in place of the tyranny that the russian – white and red – empire represented in the East for centuries, show an example of a modern democratic state, where freedom and human dignity are not an empty phrase." Lev Rebet's political and legal views on the genesis and evolution of the nation, the definition of the place and role of language as a prerequisite and consequence of the formation of the nation are relevant today for modern Ukraine, which is fighting for its territorial integrity and state sovereignty. Keywords: political and legal views, nation, language, state, Ukraine.