The urgency of the civilizational affiliation problem in Ukraine doesn’t correspond to its insufficient argumentation in scientific studies in various fields of humanities. Hence, the objective of this article is to generalize the basic principles of "new Europe" by Mykhailo Drahomanov as his civilization priority. The main methodological tools are the imagological strategy of studying the images of "one's own / another's" and the concepts of "civilization image", "civilization identity", "mental map" and so on. The article examines the conceptual understanding of Europe as a civilized community on the basis of various genre works by Mykhailo Drahomanov. The main result of the study was the highlighting of the basic program provisions of Drahomanov's Europeanism. Emphasis is placed on the interpretation of the German factor (Germanism), the difference between "old" and "new" Europe, which Drahomanov was the first in Ukrainian historiography to interpret as two separate civilizations. It has been summarized that the scientist considered the "new Europe" as an unalterable vector of Ukraine's future progress. The article highlights the attributes of Drahomanov's neo-Europeanism: reform movements, secularization of social life, cultural development on the basis of folk tradition, religious tolerance, technical and scientific progress.

Drahomanov linked the civilizational development of Europe primarily with the Western European space, considering Western Europe as a source of civilizing influences on Eastern Europe. It is observed that the Eastern European space in Drahomanov's ideas is not endowed with a clear civilization status. The article analyzes Drahomanov's work "Lost Time" in more detail, in the content of which the idea is read that the entry of the Hetmanate into the sphere of influence of the Moscow Empire suspended the civilizational progress of Ukraine; Ukraine's two-hundred-year stay as a part of the Russian state became a brake on its civilization. In general, Ukraine in this studio is included in the program of civilizational "de-Russianization". It is concluded that in Drahomanov's scientific and journalistic heritage the pro-European civilization orientation was most fully motivated at that time.

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