EN
The article is dedicated to Polish & Russian competition carried out with the help of the printed word and its infl uence on the formation of national identity of the Ukrainian peasantry leaving at the Right-Bank Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twenty centuries. The author analyses famous literary records, published source data and materials from the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv. The article reveals the spheres of Polish social activities, which encouraged villagers to participate in Polish readings in spite of antagonism of Russian offi cial establishments. The author shows the subjects and aspects of reading being very important for patriotic education of the peasantry. It is stated that Polish educational system encouraged social mutual cooperation of the representatives of different social classes by distribution of a wide range of literature. At the same time, an out-dated ideologue of Russian offi cial educational politics prevented the development of various reading practices among the villagers, disabled self-identifi cation of the community and discouraged further transformation of the society. Ukrainian peasantry, reading, Russian and Polish impacts