Knysh, Zinovii (ed.).Silver copy. Collection 2: The Beginnings of the UFW in Galicia.Toronto, 1963

“...there must have been some purpose—to give us the opportunity to speak and to pass on to future generations our experiences, our feelings, our successes or mistakes and failures.”

Sribna Surma: Articles and Materials on the Activities of the Ukrainian Military Organization. Collection II: The Beginnings of the UVO in Galicia / compiled, arranged and edited by Zynoviy Knysh.

Toronto: Sribna Surma, [1963]. — 166 pp.: illus. — Printed by Novyi Shliakh, Winnipeg.

In a publisher’s hard binding: covers bound in purple-grey textured paper imitating leather; on the upper cover, the title, collection number, subtitle, compiler’s name, publisher and place are printed in red; the lower cover is plain. The covers show minor light scuffs and scratches, and the lower cover has a separate spot mark; natural yellowing of the edges and paper. The text block is firm, the pages are clean. “1962” is handwritten in ink on the title page. Condition: very good.

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

INFORMATION

The compiler collected and published these materials at his own expense: in the introduction, Zynoviy Knysh writes that the periodical planned at the 1960 congress of former UVO members in Cleveland never came to fruition, so he decided to continue working on it himself—with his own efforts and resources. The second collection of “Sribna Surma” is devoted to the origins of the UVO in Galicia. Osyp Navrotsky dates the beginning of the organization’s founding to the second half of August 1920 and describes its first steps in Lviv; separate sections are devoted to Colonel Yevhen Konovalets and Stepan Fedak’s shootings in Lviv in 1921—with recorded testimonies and reviews from the Polish press of the time. This is followed by a selection of newspaper reports on arson, explosions and sabotage in Eastern Galicia, an index of names, and lists of sources, illustrations and donors.

Zynoviy Knysh (1906–1999) was a lawyer, activist of the UVO and OUN, and a historian of their activities. He lived in Canada from 1949, where he organized and funded the Sribna Surma publishing house. The volume is illustrated with portraits of participants in military uniforms, including Dmytro Paliv and Osyp Navrotsky.

The collection was printed in Winnipeg at the Novyi Shliakh printing house (New Pathway Publishers); the publisher listed on the title page is “Sribna Surma,” Toronto.