Volodymyr Kubiyovych's Public and Political Activities During World War II (1939–1945)

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of the main directions, content and significance of V. Kubiyovych’s public and political activities during the Second World War. V. Kubiyovych’s participation in the creation of the Ukrainian National Union and the Ukrainian Central Committee is analyzed. The directions of V. Kubiyovych’s public and political activities in the specified historical period are highlighted (organizational, representative, publishing, cultural and educational, charitable, military and political). The role of V. Kubiyovych in the formation of the “Galicia” division is clarified, and his steps towards the reorganization of the activities of the Ukrainian Central Committee at the final stage of the Second World War are highlighted.

It is established that V. Kubiyovych’s public and political activities in 1939–1945 were closely connected with the Ukrainian Central Committee and were aimed at protecting the interests of the Ukrainian population of the western lands of Ukraine occupied by the Nazis are confirmed. The assessment of the British scientist J. Armstrong, who considered V. Kubiyovych to be a leading figure among contemporary Ukrainians who did the most to support Ukrainianness. It is stated that V. Kubiyovych collaborated with the German occupation authorities. However, this collaboration was not political in nature, since V. Kubiyovych headed a charitable organization and did an extraordinary amount to save Ukrainians from hunger and repression, cared for the growth of Ukrainian public, cultural, educational and religious life, took care of the Ukrainian press and the publishing of scientific and literary literature. It is difficult to overestimate the scale of his multi-vector activity, the result of which was the concentration of the efforts of hundreds of Ukrainian public figures on the preservation, and occasionally the development of non-political areas of the life of Ukrainian society. Thousands of Ukrainians owe him their lives, the opportunity to find employment and survive in difficult conditions of war and occupation. Dozens of organizations and institutions of cultural, educational, economic, charitable orientation were able to continue their work under the auspices of the UCC headed by V. Kubiyovych. At the same time, the article proposes a periodization of V. Kubiyovych's public and political activity during the Second World War.