Zinoviy Knysh.Rozbrat: Memories and Materials on the Split of the OUN in 1940–1941. Toronto, [n.d.]

“Both factions of the once powerful Organization competed with burning fanaticism for exclusivity and victory.”

Zinoviy Knysh. Rozbrat: Memories and Materials on the Split of the OUN in 1940–1941 / cover by Ivan Keivan.

Toronto: “Sribna Surma,” [n.d.]. — [431] pp., 24 illus. — Printed by the Kyiv Printing House, 686 Richmond St., Toronto (Printed in Canada). Print run not stated.

Softcover edition: a diagonal divides the cover into cream and red fields; the broken ornamental border and titles are rendered in stylized lettering. The front cover is clean, with a few spots on the cream field and a dark mark near the right edge. The back cover has darkened, with brown shadows along the edges, pencil marks at the top, and minor rubbing along the right edge; the mirror image of the front cover shows through the paper. The block’s paper is yellowed, and its edges have darkened to a yellow-brown color; there is a dark spot on the title page. Condition: good.

Lifetime edition. The book has historical and cultural value and is of collector’s interest.

INFORMATION

The book is about the 1940 split that divided the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists into two factions: one that remained under the leadership of Colonel Andriy Melnyk, leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, and the Revolutionary Leadership of Stepan Bandera. This is a collection of memoirs and documents compiled by one of the leaders of the Melnyk faction. The first chapter, “How Doubt Is Born…,” begins in September 1939; it is followed by accounts from participants in the events, including Engineer Fedir Yatsura, and excerpts from R. Lisovyi’s (V. Rudka) work “The Split in the OUN” (1949). The twenty-four illustrations include portraits, photographs, and a plan of the Vronky prison; among them are Roman Shukhevych as a gymnasium student and in the uniform of the UPA, Yevhen Onatskyi, Yulian Vasyian, and Yaroslav Baranovskyi.

Zinoviy Knysh (1906–1999) was a lawyer and historian born in Kolomyia. From 1924, he was a member of the Ukrainian Military Organization, arrested three times by Polish authorities, and sentenced in 1931 to eight years in prison. From 1940, he was a member of the leadership of the Melnyk faction of the OUN, and from 1949, he lived in Canada; he organized and funded the Sribna Surma publishing house, which published this book.

The edition was printed by the Kyiv Printing House in Toronto. The cover was designed by Ivan Keivan (1907–1992), a painter, graphic artist, and art historian, and co-founder of the Ukrainian Association of Fine Artists in Canada. Knysh also dedicated 1939–1941 to “Before the March East” and “The Twelfth Hour Strikes”; “Rozbrat” was republished in 2019 by Folio Publishing.