Information Activities of the Ukrainian Diaspora in the Czechoslovak Republic (1930-1931)

The article deals with the informational component of the attempt to unite Ukrainian emigration in Czechoslovakia in the period of collision of the old political concepts of the Ukrainian National Republic and the hetmanate with the young nationalist movement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The purpose of the article is to find out the nature of information activities of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Czechoslovakia in the period of active attempts of its ideological and political consolidation on a democratic basis in the Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations. An analysis of the content of the press body of this association – the Bulletin Vistnyk – will help to understand the reasons for the defeat of the integration project in the environment of Ukrainian emigration in Czechoslovakia. The chronological boundaries are due to the period of active publishing of the Union. The subject of the study is the Ukrainian diaspora in Czechoslovakia, and the subject matter is its informational activity within the framework of the mentioned edition. The main sources of this article include the materials of the Central State Archives of Foreign Ukrainians, documents of the Central State Archives of higher authorities and governments of Ukraine as well as the articles published in the Tryzub Weekly, Memorandum to the League of Nations. The research implements structural and problematic methods for its analysis. The results suggest that in the Bulletin Vistnyk, the Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations tried to promote the idea of uniting different organizations around a certain goal – the fight for their own statehood.


Introduction
The defeat of the liberation competitions of 1917-1921 became a defeat for the Ukrainian national movement, which was, above all, a military-political one. At the same time, the idea of creating an independent state, free cultural and socio-economic development strengthened and developed. In Soviet Ukraine, this is proofed by the policy of Ukrainization and in emigration -by attempts to unite national political organizations on the platform of creating an independent state and supporting Ukrainian culture. The purpose of this article is to find out the nature of information activities of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Czechoslovakia in the period of active attempts of its ideological and political consolidation on a democratic basis in the Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations. The chronological boundaries are due to the period of active publishing activities of the Union. The subject of the study is the Ukrainian diaspora in Czechoslovakia and its informational activity.

Methodology
The main source of this research paper is the material in the Central State Archives of Foreign Ukrainians. In particular, fund 15 -Collection of magazines, newspapers, and bulletins published in Ukraine and abroad -contains issues of the Bulletin " Vistnyk" for 1930Vistnyk" for -1931; documents of the Central State Archives of Higher Authorities and Government (fund 3992) -minutes of meetings, regulations, statutes of individual Ukrainian organizations in Czechoslovakia.
In addition, the supplementary sources are articles and messages in the weekly "Tryzub", a printing body of the Ukrainian military and political emigration published in Paris in 1925-1940Tryzub" of Ukrainian Emigration in France); Memorandum of Representatives of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations to the League of Nations, published in Prague in 1939(Memorandum of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations…, 1939. For collecting data, the authors skimmed the whole array of available printed editions of the Ukrainian Diaspora of Czechoslovakia. Then, the writings which remain important and relevant today have been chosen for analysis. The structural method helped to organize the array of data contained in the Bulletin "Vistnyk", to highlight the aspects corresponding to the stated theme and to structure them. The method was used in the analysis of the internal organization of the Union -the creation of the Council of the Union, the Board, as well as the documents that were to be used by the member states of the Union (the Charter).
The application of the problem method made it possible to clarify the issues covered on the pages of the publication and to show the key causes of misunderstandings, conflicts that have constantly arisen in the environment of the Ukrainian emigration of the Czechoslovak Republic, united in communities, societies, and unions. We singled out the issues, which were of particular interest to the readers, first and foremost, such as: obtaining passports for the possibility of further residence and employment in the Czechoslovak Republic, the socio-political, economic situation on the territory of Ukraine, the activities of the Union, and the fulfillment of its tasks.

Literature Review
A large number of scholars have addressed the issues of the number of Ukrainian emigrants in the Czechoslovak Republic, the reasons for their unification into various societies, unions, communities, key aspects of the activities of the created organizations, and their printing bodies. Some of them covered the general aspects of the stay of Ukrainian emigrants in this country, their cultural and political activities, the attitude towards the emigrants of the central government (Danylenko, 2001(Danylenko, , 2004Brovchenko, 2007;Vidnianskyi, 1997;Pop & Pop, 2008;Vlasenko & Safonenko, 2006), others researched only certain emigrant cultural, scientific, educational, or economic organizations (Vlasenko, 2017;Bytiuk, 2010;Yavorskyi, 2016).
The Ukrainian historian O. Danylenko drew attention in his studies to the process of the Ukrainian immigrant environment formation in the Czechoslovak Republic (Danylenko, 2001(Danylenko, , 2004. The author provided statistics on the number of Ukrainian emigration and its social structure. He paid particular attention to the coverage of the activities of the Ukrainian Public Committee, which was a consolidating nucleus in the 1920s and provided material, social assistance to Ukrainian refugees, and recorded their numbers. O. Danylenko concluded that the Ukrainian expatriates in Czechoslovakia continued their activities in the homeland, that is, they resumed political struggle and defended their own vision of ways to restore the state. S. Vidnianskyi, a well-known Ukrainian scientist and a specialist in world history chose the issue of scientific, cultural, and educational activities of Ukrainian emigrants in the Czechoslovak Republic as the topic for his research. In particular, he studied the Ukrainian Free University (UFU) in Prague. Analyzing an array of archival sources not previously studied, he showed not only the process of founding, forming the teaching staff of the university, its further functioning, but also drew attention to the importance of UFU for the development of Ukrainian national idea, for the development of Ukrainian science and culture, its spread in the world (Vidnianskyi, 1997).
The historian V. Vlasenko, a specialist on the issues of inter-war Ukrainian emigration, helps to look at the problem of informational activity of Ukrainian emigration in the Czechoslovak Republic more widely and at a slightly different angle. The author analyzed the participation of Ukrainians in scientific events on the territory of Czechoslovakia and showed the problems that did not allow Ukrainian immigrants from different countries to consolidate in order to fight for a common goal. The author identified the following problems: material hardship and lack of scientifically significant developments that could be presented to the general public of the scientific community (Vlasenko, 2017).
Yu. Pop and I. Pop, specialists in Slavic studies, chose the analysis of the program documents content of the Ukrainian emigrant organizations in Czechoslovakia as the object of their research. They determined that program documents and emigrant periodical publications mirrored the political confrontation between different groups, communities, unions, and had a negative impact on the development of a single line in defending the idea of autonomy and independence of the Ukrainian state (Pop & Pop, 2008).
In general, it is worth noting that Ukrainian researchers more often address the general aspects of the problem of Ukrainian emigration activity in Czechoslovakia, while specific issues (activity of particular groups of separate organizations, vectors of cooperation between them, etc.) are still insufficiently researched.

Discussion
Since 1926, the thesis of the need to create a unified association of Ukrainian emigration in the Czechoslovak Republic has been increasingly heard among the leaders of the societies, primarily divided by political views. Thus, a joint meeting of representatives of the Union of Ukrainian Organizations in the Czechoslovak Republic and the Provisional Council of the Association of Ukrainian Emigration in the Czechoslovak Republic (attended by S. Rusova, N. Grigoriev, M. Halagan, L. Beach, E. Golovinsky) found that the two organizations had a common purpose to protect the interests of Ukrainian emigration. Therefore, it was envisioned that both organizations would hold nationally-held actions with common agreement until a joint apolitical patronage body was formed. Since that time, active work has begun to create such a joint organization.
The Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations in the Czechoslovak Republic (hereinafter -the Union) emerged in 1930 and consolidated five associations, including the largest in whole Czechoslovakia -"The Ukrainian Community" (Pop & Pop, 2008, p. 65-66). Prior to the merger of organizations between their representatives, several months of negotiations were held, including the Ukrainian All-Union Workers' Union (UАWU) (chairman I. Bezetsky), the Ukrainian Committee (chairman F. Shvets), the Ukrainian Community in the Czechoslovak Republic (chairman M. Halagan), the Cuban Community in the Czechoslovak Republic (chaired by P. Makarenko), the Ukrainian Unity Society in Prague (chaired by R. Karatnytsky, since 1931 -I. Semianchuk) (Bulletin "Vistnyk"…, s. 5). Most comments were made by the Ukrainian Committee -F. Shvets (a fellow member of the Directory) and L. Klimenko convened a meeting of representatives of Prague's Ukrainian student organizations to discuss issues regarding the formation of the Union. Following the settlement of all sorts of organizational misunderstandings, key foundations of the unification were drawn up, which further served as the basis for the Union Charter.
The draft Charter states that it includes independent, apolitical public, professional, educational, cultural, and economic organizations. When they enter the Union, they retain their independence. The membership of the organization was carried out by the Board of the Union and approved by the Council of the Union at its meeting via 2/3 votes of those present. Thus, the governing body of the Union was the Council of the Union, which consisted of representatives of all member organizations. One representative was nominated by the organization with 20 to 50 members, two -if it numbered from 51 to 75 members, three -if the number of its members was from 76 to 100, and those with more than 101 members submitted from the first hundred -3 representatives, from each successive hundred -one representative.
All meetings were to be convened by the Board and held once a year (regular) and when necessary (extraordinary). A presidium of 3 members would direct them -Chairman, Deputy and Secretary. Decisions were to be taken by an absolute majority of the Council's representatives present at the meeting, but no less than three organizations must have been present. The Board was responsible for approving the plan of activities, electing the Board and the Control Commission, issuing instructions, etc. (Minutes of the meetings of the Board…, s. 4).
The executive body was the Union Council, which was to represent the organization in the international arena, to protect the interests of Ukrainian emigration, and to fulfill the decisions of the Council of the Union. The Statute stated the responsibilities of the Control Committee, which was to check the cashier, the accounts of the Union and make observations. The question of Union financing was resolved as follows: the cash was made up of contributions from Union organizations, profits from Union enterprises, donations and gifts, loans, etc. (Minutes of constituent assembly…, s. 126-130).
It was finally developed and presented at an organizational meeting of the Council of the Union with the participation of 23 delegates on July 12, 1930, signed (including by F. Schwetz on behalf of the Ukrainian Committee, although subsequently declared to be withdrawing) by the Union members for the approval of the Provincial Government (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 5). Subsequently, the Unity Ukrainian Community in Bratislava and the Ukrainian Community in Brno joined the Union.
The head of the Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations in the Czechoslovak Republic became M. Halagan, the deputy was I. Belzetsky, the secretary was V. Grechishkin (a member of the UAWU board), the treasurer was R. Karatnytsky, the assistant clerk was D. Kulikovsky (the deputy chairman of the Internal Affairs Department), and O. Boyu was Secretary of the Ukrainian Community in the Czechoslovak Republic -Organizational referent, cultural and educational referent -P. Makarenko (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 6).
The Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations in Czechoslovakia was influenced by the nationalist ideas of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), E. Konovalets, and therefore pursued an appropriate policy, first and foremost, in the fight for the declaration of independence of Ukraine. In addition, the Union supported criticism by nationalists of other ideological-political parties and organizations (Bohuslavskyi, 2008, pp. 341-342).
Reminding readers of the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Warsaw Pact, the authors pointed out that this fact divided Ukrainian emigration into two warring camps: on the one hand, supporters of the Ukrainian National Republic UPR-oriented, and on the other, active nationalistcongressmen who were opposed (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 12-14). The contradictions within the Ukrainian emigration to Czechoslovakia have led to constant misunderstandings and political strife and enmity between its representatives. Mutual accusations, the search for a scapegoat, political heterogeneity (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 14-15) led to the dispersion of a large Ukrainian diaspora and prevented the unification of a common goal to restore Ukrainian statehood.
Many accusations were made from the pages of the Bulletin addressed at the head of the Main Ukrainian Emigration Council, O. Shulgin, co-editor of the Paris-based weekly "Tryzub," and to those authors who referred to individual representatives of the Union or its activities. For instance, in the message "On clean water!" (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 18) the author accused A. Shulgin of making false allegations, and other contributors to the magazine -of diminishing the number of members of those organizations of Ukrainian emigration that were members of the Union (Zhenevets, 1930, p. 14). In another article, the authors condemned the behavior of O. Shulgin, who "... is exposed as a guardian of Ukrainian emigration ... beyond which Ukrainian emigration organizations are not allowed to act in defense of their interests ..." (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 33). The Chief Ataman of the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic A. Levitsky and the Main Ukrainian Emigration Council were accused of refusing to protect the rights of Ukrainians in Western Ukraine because they were, according to the defendants themselves, part of another state, and should not interfere with its internal affairs (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 27). The fact is that the members of the Union had sharply negative attitudes to the signing of the Warsaw Pact between S. Petliura and Y. Pilsudski, according to which East Halychyna retreated to the Commonwealth (Datskiv, 2015, p. 126.). Therefore, the representatives of Ukrainian political emigration were accused, first of all, of their unwillingness to unite their efforts to restore Ukrainian statehood, to favor the Poles and to persistently slander the members of the Union.
The main task of the Union was covered in the first issue of the Bulletin "Vistnyk", which was published in July 1930. In particular, it began with an article -an appeal by the Board of the Union of Ukrainian Emigrant Organizations in Czechoslovakia. The authors noted that the need to consolidate forces in order to protect their own interests was increasingly mentioned in the Ukrainian immigrant community, because Ukrainian emigrants were not just refugees but active fighters for the liberation of their people. However, at the same time, the emigrants were grouped into numerous associations, but at odds with each other (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 2). Key issues were the organization of the Labor Office, which would help Ukrainian expatriates to get a job faster not only in Czechoslovakia but also in other countries; provision of education and training of children; organizing a library for reading, various courses, abstracts, etc. (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 2).
One of the key issues raised on the pages of the Bulletin was the discussion of the distribution of Nansen passports to the Ukrainian emigrants. It was in 1930 that a Memorandum to the League of Nations (Memorandum, 1939) was signed on April 30 by representatives of the Ukrainian emigrant organizations in Czechoslovakia (the Internal Affairs Service, the Ukrainian Community in Czechoslovakia, the Ukrainian Committee in Czechoslovakia), stating that the draft is incorrect because, according to it, Ukrainian emigrants must be renamed Russians either by nationality or state affiliation. This would lead to the loss of their nationality and national name. United by a common idea of emigration, it was possible to defend the opinion that the Ukrainian national-state identity should be indicated in the passports of immigrants from Ukraine to Czechoslovakia (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 2). The process of creating, discussing and signing the Memorandum lasted almost 4 months, as the process involved forces with different political orientations. For the first time, this organization was established as a firefighting and physical culture society in the village Zavallia (now located in Ivano-Frankivsk region) by public-political activist K. Trylovsky in 1900. After 14 years, there were more than 1000 such societies in Galicia (Yakymovych, 1990, p. 58). In honor of the 12th anniversary of the proclamation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, a festive concert was held, where M. Halagan, D. Kulikovsky, and the Ukrainian Academic Choir performed (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 36). In January 1931, a festive evening of Ukrainian and Czech Christmas carols was organized, as well as a commemoration of the anniversary of the proclamation of the Unification Day of Ukraine, in which not only organizations -members of the Union but also other organizations of Ukrainians in Prague -took part. The Presidium was composed by Professor I. Gorbachevsky, Professor F. Shcherbin, Professor S. Shelukhin and General M. Omelyanovich-Pavlenko (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 50). On June 20, 1931, a solemn meeting was held commemorating the 15th anniversary of the death of I. Frank. Speeches were made by R. Diminski and L. Biletsky, who drew attention to the ideological creativity and literary activity of the artist (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 72).
The authors and the theme of Ukrainianization were not overlooked. In March 1931, the section on Soviet Ukraine indicated that Kyiv was the main center of Ukrainian cultural life, since there were museums, the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (O. Bogomolets), universities, scientific and educational institutions. To reduce the influence on the population of religion, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was transformed into a museum. Ukrainianization was also carried out in the Caucasus (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 53).
The authors of the publication strongly reacted to the situation on Ukrainian lands -readers were informed about the mobilization of Ukrainians, about the state of science and church life, about arrests of Ukrainians and the national policy of the Soviet authorities. The situation on Western lands was considered separately (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 23). The authors state the facts of accusations and imprisonment by the Polish authorities of Ukrainians belonging to the Ukrainian liberation organizations, "The Prosvita", "The Lug", "The Sokil" societies, as well as the dissolution of these societies and reading room throughout the Polish territory under Polish rule (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 53-56). Already at the end of March 1931, a protest rally against Polish politics in Western Ukraine was organized in Prague by the Contact Committee of Ukrainian Expatriate Organizations in the Czechoslovak Republic. Representatives of 40 Ukrainian emigration organizations and protest committees were present. T. Los and M. Nishchy led the action. It aimed to appeal to the League of Nations to protest against the liquidation of Ukrainian cultural, educational, accountant, and other organizations and to publish a book on the Polish pogroms and to disseminate information on the state of affairs through the political and public bodies. It was also proposed to create a Ukrainian National Council, which would be a non-partisan, political and public body and would provide comprehensive assistance to the Ukrainian people in their desire to restore their own state (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 59).
The mentioned Contact Committee was established during October 1930 by representatives of the OUN to protest against the anti-Ukrainian policy of the Commonwealth. Among all established and coordinated OUN protest committees, Czechoslovakia was the most numerous -it included over 60 political, civic and cultural organizations active in the Czechoslovak Republic. In the OUN environment, the activities of the protest committees were considered not only in terms of effective pro-Ukrainian propaganda abroad, but also as an opportunity to unite disparate Ukrainian groups in which nationalists would play a key role (Havryshko, 2014, pp. 179-180).
In general, consideration of the political, socio-economic situation on Ukrainian and Western lands was one of the key issues in the publication. The authors set out the task, and also the task of all emigration, of creating a body for outreach work in the international arena. First of all -to make sure that the Ukrainian nationality is indicated in the passports of emigrants not only in Czechoslovakia but also in other countries. According to the authors, the propaganda body should be national, not individual groups or organizations (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 26-27).
The Bulletin "Vistnyk" also described the steps taken by the Union Government to legalize its activities and approve the Charter, establish contacts with representatives of Ukrainian emigration in other European countries, to convene the Ukrainian emigration congress, to create a census of the Ukrainian emigration, etc. (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 15-16).
On October 25, 1930, a constituent assembly of the Council of the Union was held, attended by representatives from the UAWU, the Ukrainian Community in the Czechoslovak Republic, the Cuban Community in the Czechoslovak Republic, the Ukrainian Unity Society in Prague, and the Ukrainian Community in Berne. After discussing further plans for the Union's activities, a new Board was elected, with M. Halagan as its chairman, and I. Belzetsky, V. Grechishkin, D. Kulikovsky, R. Karatnitsky, M. Lorchenko, and Y. Moralevich as members (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 36). The Union administration negotiated with the Czech Foreign Ministry and the State Statistics Bureau on the number of Ukrainian emigrants in the republic. However, in the statistical letters filled in by emigrants upon entry, there was no division of emigrants from former Russia into nationalities, there was only a column on religion. And this allowed at least to calculate the number of immigrants from Western Ukraine. The Board sought to obtain from the Statistical Office the total number of Ukrainians and their distribution by profession. Negotiations were ongoing (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 73).
It is worth noting that the Union had indeed fulfilled the tasks that were set at its creation. The Supporting Referendum actively worked, one of the important tasks being to equalize the rights of immigrant Ukrainians from the former Austro-Hungary and from the former Russian Empire (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 16).
In addition, the body informed the emigrants about the countries where they could emigrate and get a job (primarily the USA and Lebanon). The Union's government, through negotiations, was granted the right to issue guarantees to Ukrainian expatriates on loans from International Labor Government funds in Geneva (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 47).
The Provisional Board of the Union negotiated the organization of preparatory and first classes for children in the Ukrainian high school in Zhevnytsia. In the end, the Ministry of Schooling and Public Education of Czechoslovakia approved the plan of enrollment not annually, but bi-annually and only for the first grade, because there was a lack of funds for the preparatory class (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 17). At the same time, in the summer of 1931, the Czechoslovak authorities announced that the Ukrainian University, the Pedagogical Institute, and the Ukrainian Gymnasium should be eliminated due to lack of funds for their maintenance (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 90).
The establishment of a public library-reading room was started, first of all, for Ukrainian emigrants living in small Czechoslovak towns and villages. It was also planned to create a traveling library that would serve small communities of Ukrainians throughout Czechoslovakia (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 83).
A separate column in the Bulletin covered the events in the environment of the union organizations. The March issue reported that on January 17, 1931, a general meeting of the Ukrainian Community was held in the Czechoslovak Republic, at which the leadership of the organization was elected. M. Halagan continued to chair, P. Makarenko was deputy, and I. Neskhodovsky was secretary. The same action was carried out by the Ukrainian Unity Society in Prague. According to the results of the voting, I. Semianchuk became the chairman, I. Rybak was the deputy, and M. Makukh was the secretary.
In May 1931, the UAWU Congress noted the plight of Ukrainian emigrant workers and decided to consolidate their own forces to combat the phenomenon. Members of the Board were also elected -I. Belzetsky (chairman), D. Kulikovsky (secretary), S. Salinsky (treasurer), G. Statnikov (accountant).
In March 1931, the branch of the Ukrainian Community in Liberec organized a holiday "Like Once in the Native Land", where the members of the branch sang and danced in national dress. The event received overwhelming feedback and was well received by the locals. In early April, the Ukrainian Community in Brno hosted a party for its members and guests, the proceeds of which were earmarked for the renovation of the monument to Ukrainian soldiers buried in a local cemetery.
The Cuban Community in Czechoslovakia held an annual meeting on April 25, 1931. The chairman was L. Beech, who introduced the organization to the activities of the organization in 1930. The new leadership of the Community was elected -Chairman -P. Makarenko, Deputy -V. Hontar, G. Loshenko -Secretary. A new branch of the Ukrainian Community was also organized in Pzhibram, which included 12 members (Bulletin "Vistnyk", s. 74-76).