« 2019. #2 (146)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2019, 2 (146), 387—402

UDK 061.2(=161.2:73)”1967″
DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2019.02.387

THE FIRST WORLD CONGRESS OF FREE UKRAINIANS: ON THE WAY TO CONSOLIDATION OF THE WORLD UKRAINIANITY

YATSIV Andriy

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1421-6518

Master of History,

Deputy Director,

The International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations,

Lviv Polytechnic National University,

32A, Stepana Bandery Street, 79013, Lviv, Ukraine

Contacts: Е-mail: yatsiv@gmail.com

Abstract. The article covers the preconditions, preparation and course of the First World Congress of Free Ukrainians, held in 1967 in New York, USA.

Today, under conditions of challenges facing Ukraine due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation and the accompanying «hybrid» threats confronting both Ukrainian and Western societies, a comprehensive study of the history of WCFU-UWC and valuable experience of this coordinating superstructure of the Ukrainian diaspora, which in conditions of statelessness was able to unite the world Ukrainianity and become a powerful socio-political factor in the international arena, is relevant.

The purpose of the article is to investigate the preconditions and the course of the First World Congress of Free Ukrainians in 1967 as an important factor in consolidation of the world Ukrainianity in the second half of the 20th century. The object of the study is the Western Ukrainian Diaspora and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians. The subject of the study is the process of consolidation of the Ukrainian diaspora in the middle of the 20th century, preparation and holding of the First World Congress of Free Ukrainians in 1967.

The methodological basis of the study relies on a comprehensive academic method based on the principles of objectivity, historicism, descriptive, systemic, structural, typological method and causal analysis of material presentation. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using its conclusions to broaden theoretical basis of Ukrainian diaspora studies and the Ukrainian socio-political view of the 20th century.

Despite numerous historical, ideological and organizational obstacles, the efforts made by the Western Ukrainian diaspora to prepare and convene the WCFU proved not to be in vain. The congress consolidated the dispersed communities of the Ukrainian diaspora and became a factor of national upsurge in Ukrainian communities and the media of the diaspora. The WCFU programmatic manifestations gave a clear understanding of the challenges and problems faced by the Ukrainian people in the second half of the 20th century, as well as formulated clear objectives for the Ukrainian diaspora and mechanisms for their implementation, providing new approaches to the activities of the Ukrainian diaspora structures for the next decades.

Keywords: Ukrainian diaspora, Ukrainian World Congress, the First World Congress of Free Ukrainians, State Independence of Ukraine, Vasyl Kushnir, Yosyp Lysohir.

Received 26.02.2019

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