Mykhailo Drahomanov

Mykhailo Petrovych Drahomanov (September 18, 1841 - July 2, 1895) was a Ukrainian political theorist, economist, historian, philosopher, ethnographer, and public figure. Drahomanov is regarded as one of Ukraine's first socialist activists.

While continuing to pursue his academic career, Drahomanov was a leader of the Kiev Hromada (later known as the Old Hromada). As a member of the Russian Geographic society, he established contacts with Ukrainians of Austria (in Galicia). Under his influence, the Academic Circle in Lemberg (today Lviv) adopted the Ukrainian democratic platform.

In 1876, Drahomanov became a spokesman for Hromada in Western Europe, settling in Geneva, Switzerland. Between 1878 and 1882, he published a Ukrainian political magazine Hromada and a number of Russophone pamphlets. Drahomanov also founded a Ukrainian socialist organization, the Geneva Circle. In 1886, his political stance became incompatible with Hromada, resulting in

Drahomanov's legacy can be found throughout the Ukrainian tradition of leftist political parties and political activism. In the late 1870s, he personally influenced a handful of younger Ukrainian intellectuals in Habsburg Galicia, most notably Ivan Franko and Mykhailo Pavlyk, both of whom accepted his ideas but later reworked them to fit their own mold. These intellectuals established the first Ukrainian political party, the Ruthenian-Ukrainian Radical Party, in 1890. Because this party's program was socialist, it can be considered one of the first socialist parties in Eastern Europe.

Drahomanov attempted to popularize an orthographic reform named after him, the Drahomanivka. The former "Kyivan State Pedagogical University Named After Maxim Gorky" was renamed "Kyivan State Pedagogical University Named After Mykhaylo Drahomanov" in Kyiv in 1991. The university was granted "National University" status in 1997.