Speeches of Vasyl Poletyka as source for intellectual history of Ukraine of first half of 19th century

The aim of the article is to introduce into scientific circulation a set of published and archival speeches by Vasyl Poletyka in order to create additional opportunities for the reconstruction of his intellectual biography and conceptual rethinking of his role in the intellectual space of Ukraine. The methodological basis of the work was the approaches of historical biography, source studies, and archaeography to the analysis and presentation of published and archival materials. An important methodological guideline was also a contextual approach aimed at including sources in the widest problem-thematic and interdisciplinary spaces. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time archival sources are introduced into scientific circulation, the information potential of which is capable of significantly expanding the understanding of V. Poletyka’s public activities, of the intellectual situation in Dnieper Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century, and of the role of the nobility in the history of Ukraine. The circumstances of the speeches’ delivery and subsequent publication are presented in a biographical context. Attention is drawn to the need to consider the proposed texts as an important source for studying Ukrainian oratory and journalism of the first half of the 19th century. The uniqueness of the complex of V. Poletyka’s speeches and the exceptional significance of V. Poletyka in the public space of Left-Bank Ukraine are emphasized. Conclusions. This article completes more than 200 years of heuristic and editorial work on the introduction of V. Poletyka’s complex of speeches into public and scientific circulation. As a result, twelve texts from 1801—1835 were discovered and published. During the speaker’s lifetime, 4 speeches were published, and through further archeographic processing, another 4 were published. The complex of speeches of one of the leaders of the Left-Bank Ukraine nobility of the late 18th — first half of the 19th centuries creates information conditions for studying the content of texts, rhetorical strategies, and material practices in various problem-thematic and disciplinary dimensions.