The Second Italo-Ethiopian War in the publicistics by Yevhen Onatskyi

Abstract

The article analyzes the evolution of the publicist narrative about the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936) of the Ukrainian nationalist intellectual, member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its representative in fascist Italy Yevhen Onatskyi (1894–1979). This evolution is presented in the apology of Italian colonialism and the advocacy of the Ukrainian people’s right to national self-determination.The article discusses Onatskyi’s attempts to distribute his views on Italian aggression among OUN top members and other emigration circle representatives through private correspondence. Based on the analysis of these attempts, as well as considering sources of information about Onatskyi’s contacts with officials of the Mussolini regime, preliminary assumptions are made about the degree of Onatskyi’s involvement in the structure of the Italian governmental propaganda machine.Developing his argumentation, Onatskyi relayed to his readers the theses of Italian imperial propaganda, which this article examines as part of a larger network of rhetoric and themes common to Modern colonial powers. In this context are employed models that allow not only the detection of variations of transimperial themes in the Italian fascist propaganda broadcast by Onatskyi but also to detect peculiarities of its application to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.During 1935–1936, Onatskyi declared the “injustice” of the distribution of colonies between the leading empires, formulated arguments in favor of justifying anti-British sentiment, defended the civilizing mission of the Mussolini regime, appealed to the “barbarism” of Ethiopians using racist rhetoric. In the period of 1936–1937 Onatskyi formulated an interpretive structure that connected pro-fascist, pro-Ukrainian, anti-Ethiopian and anti-Soviet positions into a single authoritarian-nationalist system of views.