Ukrainian press in Great Britain: origin, formation stages, sources, first magazines

Abstract

For the first time the subject of the study is the origin of Ukrainian press and books, preconditions for their appearance and stages of development in Great Britain.The sources of the study are such funds as: Taras Shevchenko’s library-archive funds of the Union of Ukrainians in Great Britain, Ukrainian Publishing Union, Archive of the Ukrainian Press Bureau, located in the Polish Institute of London and British National Library (The British Library) in London, worked out during the author’s internship in London, 2016. specifics of Ukrainian emigration in the UK is substantiated, and on this basis, presented author's conception of the major stages appearance and development periodization of the main Ukrainian centers in this country. According to the chronology, the following stages are singled out. 1902–1908: activity of the first Ukrainian colony in Manchester. 1919–1921: activity of Ukrainian diplomacy mission in London. 1930–1939 — activity of Ukrainian press bureau in London. 1940–1945: arrival of thousands of Ukrainian descent soldiers from the Canadian and Polish military formations of the anti-Hitler coalition countries. May-June 1947: arrival of former SS Galicia division soldiers-prisoners of war from Italian war camps Rimini and Belaria. 1941–1949: arrival of Ukrainian wanderers-migrants from the so-called DP camps. It is proved that the first printed periodical of Ukrainians in the UK was an English-language bulletin of Ukrainian diplomacy mission in London The Ukraine. second English periodical printed body with a clearly defined Ukrainian trace was “The Bulletin” of Ukrainian Press Bureau. research details about the first Ukrainian newspaper in London Nash Klych (“Our Call”). In January 1947, this newspaper was renamed into “Ukrainska Dumka (Ukrainian Thought) which became the organ of the Union of Ukrainians in Great Britain. It is substantiated the reason for appearance in August 1947 of an alternative to Nash Klych and Ukrainska Dumka, magazine of Ukrainians in Great Britain Ukrainskyi Klych. Its main task was to promote the ideas of the Ukrainian national liberation movement and Ukrainian nationalism. On the basis of this newspaper, the magazine «Vyzvolnyi Shliakh» (Liberation Way) will be founded later and also in London will be registered another public institution of Ukrainians — Ukrainian Publishing Union. author analyzes organizational principles of formation, program principles and problems of these first, at the territory of Great Britain, Ukrainian-language newspapers.