Ofer Dynes

Senior Fellow in the cluster European literatures and their interrelationships

"Versailles in Ukraine or The Invisible Capital of Europe Tulchyn (1773-1860)" explores the literary and intellectual history of Tulchyn (Polish: Tulczyn, now in Ukraine), a pan-European center of enlightenment that developed around the Potocki noble court during the Age of Revolutions. This vibrant hub attracted writers, philosophers, and artists from various backgrounds. My research reveals that between the 1770s and 1830, Tulchyn was not only a political refuge for Polish aristocrats following the expulsion of the last Polish king, but also a sanctuary for European nobles fleeing the Napoleonic Wars, a cultural epicenter for Polish Enlightenment thinkers, an emerging center for Jewish enlightenment, an important Hasidic stronghold, and a rising focal point for Russian liberal thinkers and activists, including the Decembrists. Despite its significance, the intersection of these diverse cultural histories has not been sufficiently explored in scholarship. My project aims to reconstruct the intellectual and cultural life of the Potocki estate in Tulchyn, first under Polish rule and later under Russian rule after 1793.

This research offers a comparative, supra-national approach to European literature, breaking free from nationally determined cultural historiographies and presenting a fresh perspective on the symbolic meaning of Europe. By focusing on one of the easternmost centers of the European Enlightenment, Podolia, Versailles in Ukraine takes cue from Richard Butterwick, who encouraged scholars to look at the enlightenment from its peripheries, where, according to him, the movement’s inner contradictions are more readily visible. Drawing on this insight, the project delves into the intellectual legacy of thinkers whose ideas on social progress, freedom, and emancipation were shaped by the feudal system and radical social inequalities in the symbolic and geographic margins of Europe.