Promotion of the “Ukrainian Question” and Association of Ukrainians Living Abroad as the Key Program Activity Vectors of the Ukrainian Press Bureau in London (1931—1939)

Abstract

The topicality of the article is determined by the novelty of the material. It is based on the analysis of the author’s recent research in the UK of the Ukrainian Press Bureau archives, still unknown to experts in Ukraine. It is about the activities of a small team of Ukrainian diplomats, aimed at promoting the Ukrainian question that was not resolved in Europe after the First World War, as well as at the defense of educational, cultural, and national needs of organized communities of Ukrainian emigration. The main actions of the Bureau, publicized in Europe, are analyzed: the organization of the Rescue Committees of Ukraine due to the Holodomor Genocide of the Ukrainian people organized in 1932–1933 by the Moscow government; the construction of the Ukrainian People’s House in Prague by means of toloka (a Ukrainian tradition when people help building a house without being paid); financial support of such Ukrainian cultural, educational, and sports societies in Western Europe as Plast, Sich, the Society of Supporters of the Ukrainian Business Academy in Podebrady, the Society of Ukrainian Songwriters, the Ukrainian Books Supporters League, the Union of Ukrainian Journalists and Writers. Also, the part of the London Bureau archives focused on correspondence with well-known figures of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, including Yevhen Onatskyi, Sofiia Rusova, and Volodymyr Kysilevskyi, is analyzed. A detailed study of the letters of such figures of the Ukrainian Revival, taken from London archives for scientific circulation for the first time, sheds light not only on some unknown or completely unknown episodes from their life but also adds a new touch to the not yet written, complete and true history of Ukrainian emigration. The emphasis is laid on the necessity of publication of such an epistolary cluster in Ukraine. The material basis of the activities of the Bureau is analyzed on the basis of archival documents. In the context of a present-stage topicality of the Ukrainian state-formation problems and the need for the solution thereof, special attention is drawn to the experience of financing such a respectable state-building institution as the Ukrainian press office abroad by a prosperous but highly patriotic person, who puts the national interests of his people above his personal ones.