Polikarpenko H.Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during World War II.[Unpublished], 1951

“The experience of past years, however painful it may be, must not be forgotten or left to gather dust in oblivion.”

H. Polycarpenco. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during World War II / edited by B. Mykhailiuk. Fourth enlarged edition.

[B. M.]: Na Chuzhyni, 1951. — 147 pp.: photographs. Printed in Canada.

Softcover with a grey-blue paper cover and printed title page. The cover is soiled and worn, with brown stains; along the spine on both the front and back covers is a strip of rust stains and wear, and on the back cover, three round dark stains; on the upper left of the front cover, a ring-shaped stain. The block paper shows natural yellowing, with a stain at the top and a dog-eared bottom corner of the title page. Illustrations: portraits of Ye. Konovalets and A. Melnyk, a photograph of Konovalets’ grave in Rotterdam, and an emblem featuring a trident and sword. Condition: good.

The book is of historical and documentary value as a diaspora account of the OUN’s activities during World War II.

INFORMATION

Three editions of the same book in a single year—and they all sold out: this is how the editor describes the fate of this work, which first appeared in 1947. The author provides an overview of the Ukrainian liberation forces during World War II based on materials and documents from various political parties, as well as facts and accounts from participants in the events from different political backgrounds. The chapters cover the preconditions for the struggle, the years before the war, and the split in the OUN in the spring of 1940. The list of sources includes wartime press (from the Berlin-based Ukrainian Visnyk to the Krakowskie Wiadomosci), underground publications by the OUN and UPA, and, for the fourth edition, the White Book of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Postii, 1940) and B. Mykhailiuk’s work, Bandera’s Revolt (1950).

The author signed the title page with only initials. In research, the work is attributed to the Melnykite wing of the OUN, and the 1940 split is presented from that wing’s perspective.

The fourth edition has been enlarged and prepared under the editorship of B. Mykhailiuk. According to his preface, the first edition appeared in 1947 in cyclostyled form in one Western European country; that same year, the work was republished in another country, and part of the material, titled “The OUN in the War of 1939–1945,” was published in photographic form. Other OUN publications from the 1940s were also issued under the “Na Chuzhyni” imprint. On separate sheets are portraits of the first leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Colonel Ye. Konovalets (1891–1938), and the next leader of the Organization, Colonel Andrii Melnyk (1890–1964). The editor describes the first 1947 editions as bibliographic rarities.