Kolodzin, Mykhailo.Ukrainian Military Doctrine.Toronto, 1957

Mykhailo Kolodzynskyi. Ukrainian Military Doctrine. Part One / cover design by B. Stesel’skyi.

Toronto: published by the Association of Former UPA Soldiers in Canada and the USA; printed by the Publishing Union “Homin Ukrainy,” 1957. — 62 pp.: portrait. — (Library of the Association of Former UPA Soldiers in Canada and the USA; Part 2).

Softcover with a dust jacket designed by Bohdan Stesel’skyi: title in red within a black ornamental frame, below which is a sword in a wreath of oak leaves. The back cover features a photographic portrait of the author with a biographical caption. The photograph shows one copy: the cover has slight signs of wear, a small loss of paper at the top of the spine, and the back cover is slightly soiled. The binding is firm, and the pages are clean. Condition: good.

Three copies are available; the condition of each may vary slightly—a photograph of the specific copy can be sent upon request.

The book is of historical and cultural value and is of interest to collectors.

INFORMATION

“Ukrainian Military Doctrine” is one of the major works of Ukrainian nationalist military thought from the interwar period: an attempt to formulate a comprehensive vision of armed struggle for statehood, drawing on the Cossack tradition and the experience of the liberation struggles of 1917–1921. The author analyzes why Ukrainian statehood did not prevail at that time, critically evaluates the path of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, and emphasizes the importance of an independent military ideology. Part One concludes with a reflection on the combat song as a means of education.

Mykhailo Kolodzynskyi (1902–1939) was a member of the Regional Command of the UVO and OUN, chief of staff of the armed forces of Carpathian Ukraine, and commander of the “Organization of the People’s Defense of the Carpathian Sich.” He died in March 1939 in battles with Hungarian troops—just as he is described in the caption under his portrait in this edition.

Part One of the doctrine was published in Toronto in 1957 by former UPA soldiers as the second issue of their library; the cover was designed by Bohdan Stesel’skyi, one of the leading artists of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada.