A little-known narrative of Ukrainian political emigration in Czechoslovakia: assessment of the revolutionary experience and idea of the liberation struggle

• Main Author: L. V. Doiar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Publishing House "Grani" 2017-07-01
• Series: Granì
• Subjects: постреволюційна українська еміграція; празький гурток українських есерів; нова парадигма визвольної боротьби українського народу; наративні джерела; мемуари; епістолярій
• Online Access: https://grani.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/976
• ISSN: 2077-1800; 2413-8738

This article is devoted to the revolutionary struggle of the Ukrainian people in order to build their own state. The exile stage of the liberation struggle has been investigated by the author. This stage happened after the defeat of the revolution. Its members, while in exile emigration, were trying to comprehend what happened, to rethink it, to assess achievements and to conceptualize the future of the Ukrainian liberation process. During the investigation, the materials of the Central State Archive of higher authorities and government of Ukraine, sources from private funds of М. Shapoval, M. Balash, М. Timchenko; the fund of Prague group of the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party; funds of the Committee on commemoration of M. Shapoval; Funds of Ukrainian Social Institute (Ukrainian Sociological Institute), Ukrainian Free University, Ukrainian Economic Academy, established by Ukrainian emigrants on the territory of First Czechoslovak Republic, have been used. The above-mentioned sources are mainly narrative. Due to their disorder and dispersion, they still are little known. Moreover, the factual weakness of the narrative is its personal attitude, documentary non-proven, and, hence, its possible uncertain nature. However, the author does not exclude the fact that small attention to the exciting content of the post-revolutionary exile epistolary is explained by the dual unacceptability of its content: the Soviet historiography was unable to study it because of its ideological censorship restrictions and prohibitions, and modern historiography does not want to focus on defamatory assessments and interpretations on the liberation struggle of 1917-1921, especially heard from emigrants. Thanks to some openness of the participants of the revolution, which were very sincere in their stories due to the pain of defeat and grief of their exile status, and although biased at the same time, we can get some knowledge about atypical verbal history, that belies the sacramental picture of the events of 1917 -1921’s in Ukraine. The subjective view on the key figures of the revolution that we got from its witnesses, but not from grateful descendants, is a significant factor in further pursuit of truth. In addition, sources, which had been elaborated in the article, illustrate the paradigm of the post-revolutionary Ukrainian liberation movement, born by Prague group of emigrants led by M. Shapoval.