Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytsky on the Unity (Sobornist) of Ukraine

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of the views of one of the most interesting Ukrainian historians of the XXth century, Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytskyi, on the problem of the unity of Ukrainian lands. He believed that the Act of January 22, 1919, promulgated by the Directory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, became the starting point of this issue. Since that time, all Ukrainian political programs have not ignored the issue of the unity of Eastern and Western Ukraine. The main achievement in the implementation of this issue in 1921-1941, before the beginning of the Second World War, was cultural rapprochement, unification of the literary language, spelling, and erasure of cultural differences. The Second World War brought fundamental changes. Then, under the conditions of first Soviet, then German, and later again Soviet occupation, there was a meeting between Western and Eastern Ukrainians. Lysiak-Rudnytskyi relegates the stigmatization of the mentioned events to the background. The inclusion of the territory of Western Ukraine into the USSR was accompanied by great suffering of the people. It was unity under a foreign yoke. Lysiak-Rudnytskyi believed that the matter did not end there. This could not prevent numerous personal contacts between the natives of the east-central and western lands. In this way, a new all-Ukrainian unity was formed, which will become the bearer of the future of the Ukrainian nation. In parallel with this, the integration of the Ukrainian emigration took place. It also included people from all regions of Ukraine. An example is the Ukrainian National Council, created in the spring of 1947 – summer of 1948 to coordinate the actions of Ukrainian parties and organizations. Ivan Lysiak-Rudnytskyi also addressed the problem of Crimea and its inclusion in Ukraine in 1954. In his research, he substantiated that geopolitical and economic factors determine the organic affiliation of the Crime an peninsula to the Ukrainian mainland.