SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND NATIONAL ACTIVISM OF CAPTURED UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS IN THE WETZLAR CAMP, GERMANY, 1917: CONTENT AND FORMS (Based on the Materials of the “Public Opinion” Magazine)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze various manifestations of social, political and national activism of captured Ukrainian soldiers in the Wetzlar camp during 1917, when the Ukrainian camp community exerted a decisive influence on all aspects of the lives of camp residents and most effectively fulfilled its main mission – the formation of a developed national worldview among Ukrainian prisoners. The research methodology involved the use of problem-chronological, concrete-historical, and comparative-retrospective research methods, the combination of which made it possible to reveal the investigated problem. The scientific novelty consists in highlighting various aspects of the activism of captured Ukrainians based on the use of materials from the camp press. The prisoners of the Wetzlar camp in 1917 had the opportunity to show their activism in many spheres of camp life, in particular, by participating in meetings and elections to the representative bodies of the Ukrainian community in the Wetzlar camp, joining the ranks of politically engaged societies (“Volya”, “Independent Ukraine”, “Sich”), or helping the development of Ukrainian schooling in the Volyn lands through their donations. This, in turn, influenced the change in the worldview of the prisoners, who stopped using cultural and autonomist slogans for Ukraine, instead they declared their devotion to ideals of independence. This was especially evident in the initiative to hand O. Skoropis-Yoltukhovsky an additional “mandate” with the desire to entrust the decision of the fate of Ukraine not to the Russian, but to the national (Ukrainian) constituent assembly. Regular reading of the materials of the camp magazine “Public Opinion” (“Hromadska dumka”) was also one of the ways of forming an active pro-Ukrainian civic position – thanks to the publication's focus on the events of social and political life in Ukraine and Russia. At the same time, the newspaper tried to cover all significant news from the scope of life activities of the Ukrainian community in Wetzlar, which created a sense of belonging to the camp space among the campers. Due to the fact that the newspaper regularly published messages about national, political, and charitable actions planned in the camp, as well as informed about the content and consequences of the work of the elected bodies of the camp community, the captive Ukrainians felt that they were an integral part of Ukrainian society, capable of building their own national life even in difficult conditions of captivity.