Volyn’s Ukrainian conspiratorial parties and Volyn Prosvita: Activities and Evaluation of the Second Rzecz Pospolita Government Politics

Abstract

The research is devoted to the issues of emergence, development and activity of the Ukrainian conspiratorial parties in the interwar period. The importance is placed on the interpretation of the social-economic and social-political situation in Volyn in that period in terms of those parties’ ideology. The activities of the parties were carried out in co-operation with such organizations as VUO, “Prosvita” and other structural units of “Prosvita”. The process of institutionalization of these political entities in the 30's of the twentieth century has been revealed and analyzed. The author argues the role and influence of the Volyn organization of “Prosvita” on the political and cultural life of the region, including the unfavorable attitude of the Polish administration to their activities, repression and prohibitions, which restrained the development of the society and its structural units, such as Enlightenment Houses, Folk Choirs, “Native Hut” and others. In the "Volyn politics" of Henryk Józewski there was no place for the activities of “Prosvita”. In the letter from the Volyn Voievodship Directorate to the Minister of the Interior Affairs on November 7, 1927 it has been pointed out: "Cultural and educational society "Prosvita" in Volyn has never been purely educational institution, since we can clearly trace political tendencies in its activity". The authorities prohibited to register the branches of "Prosvita", often destroyed their property. In order to fill up the created educational and cultural vacuum, H. Józewski promoted the formation of a network of a new type of social organizations, which became known as the "Enlightenment Houses". Supporting the Voievod’s (the governor) policy, the Volyn Ukrainian Association had become an organizer of the new cultural and educational societies. In fact, the VUO assumed the idea of the Enlightenment movement and became an agent of it in the region. Reduction of the number of "Prosvita" organizations and increasing the number of "Enlightenment Houses" was an indicator of the pro-government policy of the Rzeczpospolita Polska in Volyn. The ideology of pro-government conspiratorial parties, operating in Volyn, as well as the ideology of the VUO was formed on the basis of the Ukrainian- Polish cooperation, often neglecting the interests of the Ukrainians.