The Ukrainian Legal Press of the General Government: The Case of Krakivski Visti, 1940- 1944 by Ernest Gyidel A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History and Classics University of Alberta © Ernest Gyidel, 2019 Abstract The dissertation is a narrative history of Krakivski Visti (Cracow News), the leading legal Ukrainian newspaper of the General Government, which was created out of German- occupied Poland after September 1939 and headed by a prominent Nazi party member Hans Frank until the end of World War II. Unlike most of the legal press in the General Government Krakivski Visti was not published by the occupational authorities directly. Instead it was an unofficial organ of an umbrella organization allowed by Germans, the Ukrainian Central Committee, headed by Ukrainian geographer Volodymyr Kubijovyč throughout the war. The newspaper was born out of Kubijovyč’s desire to have a press organ similar to Dilo, the largest Western Ukrainian daily newspaper during the interwar period. The daily edition of Krakivski Visti appeared in Cracow (January 1940 – October 1944) and Vienna (October 1944 – April 1945). With exception of the first month its chief editor was Mykhailo Khomiak (Michael Chomiak after his immigration to Canada in 1948) for entirety of its existence. Compared to other Ukrainian legal press of the General Government the newspaper enjoyed slightly more freedom, attracted more (and better) contributors among whom were the most prominent Ukrainian cultural figures of the 20th century. It still had to follow Nazi ideological imperatives of the German occupiers, but it also contained its own ideological layer of Ukrainian nationalism (not to be equated with OUN nationalism), which was realized primarily through two groups of original texts. The first was anti-Polish, anti-Russian/Soviet and anti-Jewish materials, which ii identified the “historical enemies” of the Ukrainian nation. On the surface these texts appear as a reflection of the official ideology, but the authors of Krakivski Visti had their own Ukrainian-specific reasons, which had nothing to do with National Socialism, to write them. The second group was texts on Ukrainian history, historical memory and national identity, which were aimed at promoting and strengthening Ukrainian national consciousness. Thus, the ideological space under German occupation was monolithic only on surface and in reality it was multi-layered. Krakivski Visti also proves that besides OUN it is important to recognize the role of other actors in the history of Ukrainian nationalism during the war. iii Acknowledgements It may sound trivial, but this dissertation would not have been completed without my Ph.D. supervisor Prof. David R. Marples and my MA supervisor Prof. John-Paul Himka. Both have helped me beyond count through my years in master and doctoral programs at the University of Alberta and made those years warmer in my memory even though Edmonton has a reputation of a cold city. For my work on the dissertation Prof. Himka has trusted me for over three years with his own set of Krakivski Visti – that set of the daily edition which he inherited from his father-in-law, Mykhailo Khomiak, who was the chief editor of the newspaper. Anyone who knows the true value of this primary source will be able to understand how much it mattered for my research. Prof. Marples has been an exemplary supervisor (a Doktorvater in the literal sense of the word) and always generous with his time and support. Frankly, without him I would have failed to make this far in the doctoral program. It is no secret that finishing a Ph.D. program in North America is becoming increasingly less of a mental and more of a financial challenge. I know a few Ph.D. candidates who failed in the final years of their programs and even more whose programs took extra two or three years to complete because of funding issues. Compared to them I have been more fortunate: for the past three years Prof. Marples has employed me as his research assistant which kept me afloat financially (and mentally probably too). In addition, my research was supported by Ivan Lysiak Rudnytsky Memorial Doctoral Fellowship, Neporany Doctoral Fellowship (twice) iv and a research grant from the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Canada. Two research trips to Ukraine were covered by Dianne Samson Graduate Student Travel Award, FGSR Graduate Travel Award and David Marples Eastern European Graduate Research Travel Award. Both Profs. Himka and Marples have offered numerous comments and corrections to my dissertation draft, improving it immensely. But in the end all responsibility for opinions and accuracy of facts lies with me entirely. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv-v Abbreviations vii Note of transliteration, proper names and translation viii Introduction 1-16 Chapter I. The General Government, the Ukrainian Central Committee 17-71 and Krakivski Visti in 1940-1944 Chapter II. A School of Hate: Images of Poles, Russians/Soviets and 72-153 Jews in Krakivski Visti Chapter III. “A nation aware of its glorious past and national strength, 154-233 will never disappear”: Ukrainian history, historical memory and nation in Krakivski Visti Conclusions 234-243 Bibliography 244-269 vi Abbreviations OUN Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists PAA Provincial Archives of Alberta TsDIAL Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv UAA University of Alberta Archives UCC Ukrainian Central Committee UNDO Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance vii Note of transliteration, proper names and translation The dissertation uses a simplified version of Library of Congress’ romanization of Cyrillic characters. Apostrophe has been omitted everywhere except in quotations and bibliographic records which originally had it. As a rule, I have used spelling of names which reflects their current status, for example Podlasie instead of Pidliashshia or Lviv instead of Lemberg/Lwów. Exceptions have been made for several names with established or preferred spelling in English – Cracow (instead of Kraków), Kubijovyč (instead of Kubiovych) etc. All translations, unless indicated otherwise, are mine. viii Introduction In 1977 an authoritative Polish-Jewish historian, Lucjan Dobroszycki (1925- 1995), writing about the Polish legal press in the General Government, noted that “there is a surprising paucity of work [in the Polish historiography] concerned with the assumptions, methods, and special practices used by the Nazis to influence public opinion. The lack is especially striking on the topic of so important a means of modern communication as the press.”1 At the time when he made this claim only the Polish underground press had been studied, while the legal press published directly or under supervision of the German occupational authorities in the General Government received little attention. The primary reason for such a historiographical situation was the assumption that the phenomenon of the legal press was insignificant and marginal in Polish society, which allegedly followed the Resistance in boycotting the public sphere of the General Government. It took Dobroszycki more than a decade to disprove this assumption and make a convincing claim “that the [Polish] reptile press was well-nigh universally bought and read, despite being published by the detested occupying power.”2 Subsequent studies of the General Government’s legal press support Dobroszycki’s conclusion.3 There is, however, a gap in the 1 Lucjan Dobroszycki, Reptile Journalism: The Official Polish-Language Press under the Nazis, 1939-1945 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 1. 2 Dobroszycki, Reptile Journalism, ix. 3 See: Klaus-Peter Friedrich, “Publizistische Kollaboration im sog. Generalgouvernement: personengeschichtliche Aspekte der deutschen Okkupationsherrschaft in Polen (1939 - 1945),” 1 historiography: the Polish and German language legal press of the General Government have been studied relatively well, while the Ukrainian language legal press has not been so fortunate. My dissertation seeks to correct this imbalance at least partially, focusing on the most important Ukrainian legal newspaper of the General Government, Krakivski Visti (Cracow News), which was published by the Ukrainian Central Committee (1939-45), a legal Ukrainian umbrella organization in the General Government. Primary Sources The dissertation is based primarily on the editorial archive of Krakivski Visti, which is located at the Provincial Archives of Alberta among the papers of Ukrainian journalist, editor and community activist Mykhailo Khomiak. A lawyer by education, Khomiak was one of the editors of the most important Western Ukrainian newspaper before World War II – Dilo (Deed) and shortly after its closure in September 1939 became the deputy editor and then the chief editor of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung 48 no. 1 (1999): 51-89; Klaus-Peter Friedrich, "Die deutsche polnischsprachige Presse im Generalgouvernement (1939-1945): NS-Propaganda für die polnische Bevölkerung," Publizistik: Vierteljahreshefte für Kommunikationsforschung 46 no. 2 (2001): 161-188; Grzegorz Hryciuk, "Gazeta Lwowska" 1941-1944 (Wrocław: Wydaw. Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 1996); Lars Jockheck, Propaganda im Generalgouvernement: die NS-Besatzungspresse für Deutsche und Polen 1939-1945 (Osnabrück: Fibre, 2006); Józef Lewandowski, "Goniec Krakowski" (27.X.1939 - 18.I.1945): próba monografii (Warszawa: [s.n.], 1978); Jolanta Rawska, "Sprawa polska"