Zinoviy Knysh.In the Lion's Den: A Ukrainian in the Polish Underground.Toronto, 1958

“How much stronger both our nations would be if they could live in sensible friendship and harmony, lean shoulder to shoulder, and stand man to man against their relentless enemies.”

In the Lion’s Den (a Ukrainian in the Polish underground) / based on the notes and materials of Tadeusz Gordon, transcribed by Zinoviy Knysh.

Toronto: [Sribna Surma], 1958. — 123 pp. — Printed by The New Pathway, Winnipeg.

Published in a softcover of grey-cream cardboard: the front cover bears the title and publication details in black print; the back cover is plain. The cover is darkened and soiled, with stains and foxing on the front, and moisture marks along the top edge and a dark stain in the center of the back. The edges and spine are rubbed, with small tears along the binding. The text block shows natural yellowing, with occasional foxing on the title page, its verso, and p. 3; the block is firm, and the text is complete. The verso of the title page bears the stamp “Prof. Dr. Petro i Lesia Goy, 430 East 6th St., # 9J, New York, N.Y. 10009 USA”. Condition: good.

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

INFORMATION

On January 13, 1940, a young Ukrainian nationalist crossed the German-Soviet border between the villages of Dakhniv near Lyubachev and Chesanov, obtained documents in the name of Volodymyr Rohoivsky, reached Krakow, and from there Warsaw, where, on behalf of his organization, he joined the Polish underground. The book is his first-person account: a group of twenty men and one woman, service as a courier in the Polish Żydzi organization, illegal printing presses, arrests, Gestapo informants, and underground courts, a Polish order for a Ukrainian, and even a trip to Paris as a Polish courier. The preface explains the background: after the destruction of Poland, the OUN was preparing to fight Bolshevism, while hostility toward Ukrainians was growing in the Polish resistance. The book concludes with a reflection on whether the “curse of destiny” will forever hang over both nations.

Zinoviy Knysh (1906–1999) was a historian and activist of the UVO and OUN, a doctor of law at Lviv University, and was arrested three times by Polish authorities. In 1940, he joined the OUN leadership and the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Nationalist Leadership in Krakow—the very place and time where this story begins. After the war, he was a leader of the OUN(M) in Western Europe and lived in Canada from 1949, where he founded and funded the Sribna Surma publishing house and published a series of memoirs and documents on the history of the UVO and OUN.

Here Knysh acts not as the author, but as a transcriber: the title page explicitly states that he “transcribed” the book based on Tadeusz Gordon’s notes and materials. The edition was printed by the New Pathway press in Winnipeg. The testimony of a Ukrainian who operated within the Polish underground during the German occupation is a rare subject in the memoirs of both nations.