Shlemkevych, Mykola.The Ukrainian Synthesis or the Ukrainian Civil War.Blomberg, 1949

“To be modest bricks for the building of that invisible homeland, the ordered state of our souls…”

Dr. M. Shlemkevych. Ukrainian Synthesis or Ukrainian Civil War. — 2nd edition / cover by S. Hordynsky.

Blomberg (Lippe): Life and Thoughts, 1949. — 63 pp. — (Life and Thoughts). Printed by the Ukrainian Printingshop “Sahrawa”.

Published in a softcover of grey-green paper: the series title “Life and Thoughts” with an ornamental headpiece; the author’s name and title set in a hand-drawn typeface; the year in a dark panel; on the back cover, the series mark “ЖМ” in a hexagonal frame. On the inside back cover — an excerpt from a review and an announcement of subsequent issues in the series. The edges of the cover are worn and yellowed; the back cover has light spots and small dark specks in the paper. On the reverse of the title page — brown ink transfer stains. The text block is evenly yellowed; on p. 10, a small dark spot; the text block is firm. On p. 3, above the preface to the first edition, an ink inscription in Latin script reads “Donor: M. Stachiw”. Condition: good.

Published during the author’s lifetime. Sviatoslav Hordynsky’s cover is of independent artistic interest, and the pamphlet has historical and cultural value as a relic of the ideological debates of the post-war emigration.

INFORMATION

“Ukrainian Synthesis or Ukrainian Civil War” is Mykola Shlemkevych’s programmatic treatise on the three “creative forces” of Ukrainian history: autocracy (monarchy), democracy (popular rule), and leadership. The author traces them from the princely and Hetmanate eras to the statehood of 1917–1920 and argues that the victory of a single idea is improbable and undesirable, and that the only path to Ukrainian internal peace is their synthesis. The first edition was published in 1946; in the preface to the second, unchanged edition (August 1949), the author writes that over the three years, the ideas of the work have become even clearer, and the struggle of the three ideas in Ukrainian life continues relentlessly.

Mykola Shlemkevych (1894–1966) was a philosopher, publicist, and political figure, and a full member of the NTSh and UVAN. Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna (1926); in the 1930s, he was an ideologue of the National Unity Front and editor of “Peremoha” and “Ukrainski Visti”. A post-war refugee in Vienna and Munich, he became one of the founders of the Ukrainian National-State Union and the Ukrainian National Council, and a member of the MUR. In 1949, he emigrated to the United States, where he founded and edited “Lysty do pryiateliv” and the “Klyuchi” publishing house; he was the author of the books “Zagublena ukrainska lyudyna” (1954) and “Halychanstvo” (1956).

“Life and Thoughts” is a series of pamphlets that the author conceived as concise presentations of his broader works: in the preface, he explains that post-war conditions did not allow for the publication of large books. The second edition was printed at the Ukrainian printing house “Sahrawa” in Blomberg, Lippe. The cover was designed by Sviatoslav Hordynsky (1906–1993), a painter, graphic artist, poet, and art historian, and one of the leading designers of Ukrainian emigrant books.