Anti-Soviet Propaganda Literature Published by the Ukrainian Emigrants in Great Britain (the 1950s—1990s): The Idea and Its Implementation

Abstract

The article is based on the materials of the Ukrainian Publishing Union in London, Ukrainian Union in Great Britain, library collections of the Ukrainian diaspora in Great Britain, as well as those of the British Library in London on Ukrainian books and print media in Great Britain.The notion of “undermining literature” in science and journalism is provided. The author explains the reasons for the post-World War II appearance abroad and spread in the Soviet Ukraine of the print literature against Moscow Bolshevist Government by the decay of the OUN and UPA underground print shops in Ukraine. The article analyzes documents of OUN that determined a new stage of the anti-Soviet propaganda activity with relocation of its center from Munich to Nottingham, and later to London. It explains why it happened soon after the murder of the OUN leader Stepan Bandera. The author researches the anti-Soviet publishing program in London by two subject directions: a) the reprint of the best underground publications made in Ukraine; b) “The Library of the Ukrainian Underground”.The author compiles the list of Ukrainian reprinted editions from two types: rare periodicals from UPA underground print shops and heroic narratives about the rebels’ everyday life.To analyze the “Library of the Ukrainian Rebel”, the author has chosen the editions which had been very strictly prohibited in Ukraine, and thus unknown to the Ukrainian reader. The conclusions emphasize the significance of the Ukrainian materials published abroad, which constituted an alternative to the Soviet propaganda and informed the Ukrainian population on the goals, assignments, progress, and prospects of the Ukrainian national liberation movement for an independent democratic consolidated state.