On December 23, 2025, on the occasion of the Day of Employees of the Diplomatic Service of Ukraine, a presentation of the selected works of Oleksandr Shulhyn (1889–1960) – the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Ukrainian diplomat, scholar, prominent politician and statesman, who was an active participant and witness of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921, as well as a figure of the Promethean movement – an international liberation movement of peoples oppressed by Russia (Shulhyn O. Selected Works / compilers Olena Leontovych, Valentyna Piskun; Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Source Studies of the NAS of Ukraine. Kyiv: "Ludmyla Publishing House", 2025. 136 p.) – took place at the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine’s Institute of Book Studies.
The event was opened with a welcoming speech by the director of the Institute of Book Studies of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Halyna Kovalchuk.
The book was presented by its compiler, head of the Department of Source Studies of Modern Ukrainian History at the M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Source Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Valentyna Piskun, and Ukrainian diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine from 2007 to 2009, Volodymyr Ohryzko.
Valentyna Piskun spoke about the work on the publication, noting that it mostly contains articles by Oleksandr Shulhyn translated from other languages. In particular, there is a translation of an article that had never been published or translated in Ukraine before, but is interesting because it was addressed more to a foreign audience than a Ukrainian one, as it was written in English in 1935 and published in an English-language Slavic journal. Its title is "Ukraine and Its Political Aspirations." In this article, the author writes about the distinctiveness and statehood of Ukraine as an accomplished fact. The idea of a future independent Ukraine is a recurring theme in several of Oleksandr Shulhyn’s publications.
Characterizing his contribution to the development of Ukrainian scholarly thought on the global stage during the interwar and postwar periods, the scholar stated that he was one of the most powerful classical historians, politicians, and also – in the good sense of the word – propagandists of Ukraine abroad. Until his last days, even in exile, he remained a true Ukrainian. Valentyna Piskun is convinced that all of Oleksandr Shulhyn’s works published in various European editions should be issued and that this should be done under a state program, as he defended the statehood of an independent Ukraine at a high diplomatic and journalistic level for many years.
Volodymyr Ohryzko highly appreciated the work of the compilers of the presented book – Olena Leontovych and Valentyna Piskun – and thanked them for their deep research into the figure and creative legacy of the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UPR, Oleksandr Shulhyn. According to him, Valentyna Piskun presented Oleksandr Shulhyn as a symbol of the builder of Ukrainian diplomacy of the new era, a researcher with a deep scientific-philosophical approach to the analysis of historical events. In Volodymyr Ohryzko’s opinion, Oleksandr Shulhyn’s works, including the latest edition of his selected articles, pave paths from the past to the present, look beyond historical horizons, help shape our current consciousness, and even in times of war make us feel like a nation confident in its future and ready to fight for it.
Afterwards, a lively discussion took place, in which guests and invited scholars also participated.
At the end of the event, the head of the Department of Foreign Ukrainica at the Institute of Book Studies of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Candidate of Historical Sciences Yaroslav Bondarchuk, thanked the participants for the active and engaged discussion.
According to information from the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine
