The ‘Change of Signposts’ in the Ukrainian Emigration : A Contribution to the History of Sovietophilism in the 1920s. With a Foreword by Frank Golczewski

The failure of the attempts to create a Ukrainian state during the 1917-21 revolution created a large Ukrainian emigre community in Central Europe which, due to its experience of fighting the Bolsheviks, developed a decidedly anti-Communist ideology of integral nationalism. However, during the 1920s some in the Ukrainian emigration rejected this doctrine and began to advocate reconciliation with their former enemies and return to Soviet Ukraine. This included some of the most prominent figures in the Ukrainian governments set up after 1917, for example Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, and Yevhen Petrushevych. On the basis of published and unpublished writings of the Sovietophile emigres, Christopher Gilley reconstructs and analyzes the arguments used to justify cooperation with the Bolsheviks. In particular, he contrasts those who supported the Soviet regime because they saw the Bolsheviks as leaders of the international revolution with those who stressed the apparent national achievements of the Soviet Ukrainian republic. In addition, Gilley examines Soviet policy towards pro-Soviet emigres and the relationship between the emigres and the Bolsheviks using documents from historical archives in Kyiv. The Ukrainian movement is compared to a similar phenomenon in the Russian emigration, -Smena vekh- (-Change of Signposts-). The book contributes to the study of the era of the New Economic Policy and Ukrainianization in the Soviet Union as well as to the histories of the Ukrainian emigration in the 1920s and of Ukrainian political thought. Contents Acknowledgements Glossary Foreword Introduction Ukrainian Sovietophilism and the Problem of Smenovekhovstvo 1 Russian Smenovekhovstvo Overview Smenovekhovstvo and the Bolsheviks Conclusion 2 The Ukrainian Emigration: Roots, Contexts and Developments The Ukrainian Populist Heritage The Ukrainian Revolution The Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s The Ukrainian Lands under Polish Rule The Ukrainian Emigration Conclusion 3 Volodymyr Vynnychenko and the Foreign Group of the Ukrainian Communist Party Introduction Vynnychenko’s Reassessment of the Ukrainian Revolution The Foreign Group of the UKP and Nova Doba Vynnychenko’s Mission to Moscow and Kharkiv Nova Doba and the Impact of Vynnychenko’s Return to the Emigration Vynnychenko and the Soviet Ukraine after the closure of Nova doba Conclusion 4 Mykhailo Hrushevskyi and the Foreign Delegation of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries Hrushevskyi and the UPSR The Creation of the Foreign Delegation of the UPSR Boritesia-Poborete! The Attempt to Legalise the UPSR Hrushevskyi’s Return to the Ukraine Conclusion 5 The Change of Signposts in the Ukrainian Emigration The Growth of Smenovekhovstvo in Berlin The Ukrainian National Committee The Amnesty for Interned Petliurists Ivan Kobza and the Ukrainian Democratic Agrarian Party The Hrekov Group and the Creation of a Ukrainian Nakanune Nova Hromada Conclusion 6 West Ukrainian Sovietophilism Ievhen Petrushevych and the Government of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic Émigré Military Organisations and Galician Internees Sovietophilism in the Western Ukraine The Union of Ukrainian Citizens in France Conclusion 7 The Immigration of East Galician Intellectuals to the Ukraine Mykhailo Lozynskyi Iuliian Bachynskyi Antin Krushelnytskyi Conclusion 8 Ukrainian Smenovekhovstvo and the ‘Turn to the Right’ Conclusions The Development and Importance of Ukrainian Sovietophilism Russian and Ukrainian Smenovekhovstvo Appendix Biographical Details of Prominent Figures in the Ukrainian National Movement and the Ukrainian Soviet Republic Bibliography The failure of the attempts to create a Ukrainian state during the 1917-21 revolution created a large Ukrainian émigré community in Central Europe which, due to its experience of fighting the Bolsheviks, developed a decidedly anti-Communist ideology of integral nationalism. However, during the 1920s some in the Ukrainian emigration rejected this doctrine and began to advocate reconciliation with their former enemies and return to Soviet Ukraine. This included some of the most prominent figures in the Ukrainian governments set up after 1917, for example Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Ievhen Petrushevych. On the basis of published and unpublished writings of the Sovietophile émigrés, this study reconstructs and analyses the arguments used to justify cooperation with the Bolsheviks. In particular, it contrasts those who supported the Soviet regime because they saw the Bolsheviks as leaders of the international revolution with those who stressed the apparent national achievements of the Soviet Ukrainian republic. In addition, it examines Soviet policy towards pro-Soviet émigrés and the relationship between the émigrés and the Bolsheviks using documents from historical archives in Kyiv. The Ukrainian movement is compared to a similar phenomenon in the Russian emigration – Smena vekh (‘Change of Signposts'). The book thereby contributes to the study of the era of the New Economic Policy and Ukrainianisation in the Soviet Union, as well as to the histories of the Ukrainian emigration in the 1920s and of Ukrainian political thought.