Activities of Prosvita and the Volyn ukrainian association in Volyn in the interwar period

Abstract

According to the authors, the current aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine permanently deprives Ukrainians of any hope of compromise with their north-eastern neighbour, which is trying to prove the invalidity of a self-sufficient Ukrainian statehood in any way, failure of Ukrainians to create and develop their sovereign state. It has done this throughout all previous centuries, in every way destroying any attempts by Ukrainians to cultivate their own identity. This undoubtedly applies to the use of the mother tongue, the activities of all cultural and educational centres, etc. Attempts by Ukrainians to recreate the Ukrainian state after World War I failed due to internal and external factors, among which the Russian played not a minor role. Russia, then a Bolshevik state, saw no other path to its development than ownership of Ukrainian lands and domination of the Ukrainians. To this end, the most brutal methods of persecution of rebellious Ukrainians were used - from the liquidation of any public organizations to the mass destruction of their carriers. During the interwar period, the part of the Ukrainian lands which later, during and after World War II, the USSR (the same Russia, only under a pseudonymise of the federation of "independent" states) seized, in agreement with then Hitler’s Germany, belonged to other states, including Poland. Taking into account what is happening now, the authors would like to dwell briefly on the activities of Ukrainian educational organizations of the time in Volyn, which was under the authority of Poland. The article analyzes the activity and significance of the Ukrainian national cultural centers in Volyn – Prosvita and Prosvita Houses. It is noted that due to the implementation of the “Volyn experiment” voivod H. Yuzevsky destroyed the cultural and educational society Prosvita in the province under various acutenesses and created societies that were supposed to implement the program of governorates. On the basis of the analysis of many facts, the authors came to the conclusion that cultural and educational organizations subordinated to the Volyn Ukrainian Association, contrary to the hopes of the Polish authorities, had little beneficial influence on the development of culture, education, and literature in Volyn. Further experience showed that after the annexation of Volyn to the USSR, using the slogans of liberation of Ukrainians from the Polish oppression, led to the extermination of all centers of both Polish, and Ukrainian cultural and educational activity, because they did not fit into the Soviet interpretation of human rights and democracy as such. There is no doubt that after the end of the current unprovoked bloody war, which Ukraine will eventually win, with the direct comprehensive assistance of the same Poland and the entire civilized world, the problem of eliminating the layers of alienation between Ukrainians and Poles will be viewed from the perspective of what brings us closer rather than separate.