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The Rural Origins of the Communist and Nationalist Movements in Wolyn Województwo, 1921-1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Alexander J. Motyl
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Extract

When two diametrically opposed revolutionary movements gain the support of the peasantry of a given population, it is logical to ask whether this support came from all peasant strata equally or from one in particular. This question is especially relevant to the eastern Polish województwo of Wołyń in the 1930s. Overwhelmingly populated by Ukrainian peasants, the rural areas of Wołyń województwo were strongly influenced by both Ukrainian Communists (represented by the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, Komunistychna Partita Zakhidnoi Ukrainy, or KPZU) and Ukrainian Nationalists (represented by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Orhanizatsiia Ukrains'kykh Natsionalistiv, or OUN).

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 412 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1978

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References

1. Scholarly works on the KPZU are scarce. The most noteworthy include: Janusz, Radziejowski, Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Ukrainy 1919-1929: Wezlowe problemy ideologiczne (Cracow, 1976)Google Scholar ; Ie. M., Halushko, Narysy istorii KPZU 1919-1928 rr. (Lwów, 1965)Google Scholar ; O. Karpenko, “Do pytannia pro vynyknennia i orhanizatsiine oformlennia Kommunistychnoi Partii Skhidnoi Halychyny,” in Z istorii zakhidnoukrains'kykh semet', vol. 2 (Kiev, 1957) ; Roman Solchanyk, “The Foundation of the Communist Movement in Eastern Galicia 1919-1921,” in Slavic Review, 30, no. 4 (December 1971): 774-94; A. D. Iaroshenko, Komunistychna partiia Zakhidnoi Ukrainy—Orhanizator i kerivnyk revoliutsiinoi borot'by trudiashchykh zakhidnoukrains'kykh zemeV (Kiev, 1959). The following works deal with the KPZU's role in Wolyn wojewodztivo: Borot'ba trudiashchykh Volyni za vozziednannia z radians'koiu Ukrainoiu (1929-1939 rr.), vol. 2 (Lwów, 1965) ; M. M. Kravets1, “Revoliutsiinyi rukh na Volyni v period svitovoi ekonomichnoi kryzy v 1929-1933 rr.,” in Z istorii zakhidnoukrains'kykh zemeV, vol. 3 (Kiev, 1958) ; Vasiuta, I. K., Selians'kyi rukh na Zakhidnii Ukraini 1919-1939 rr. (Lwów, 1971)Google Scholar ; I., Zabolotnyi, Neskorena Volyn’ (Lwów, 1964)Google Scholar ; Zil'berman, M. I., Revoliutsiina borot'ba trudiashchykh Zakhidnoi Ukrainy 1924-1928 rr. (Lwów, 1968)Google Scholar.

2. Much has been written about the OUN and the nationalist movement in general; very little, however, is of value to the scholar, except for: John, Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism, 2nd ed. (New York, 1963)Google Scholar ; Roman, Ilnytzkyj, Deutschland und die Ukraine 1934-1945 (Munich, 1955)Google Scholar ; Ryszard, Torzecki, Kwestia ukrainska w polityce III Rzeszy 1933-1945 (Warsaw, 1972)Google Scholar ; Lev, Rebet, Svitla i tini OUN (Munich, 1964)Google Scholar ; Petro, Mirchuk, Narys istorii Orhanizatsii Ukrains'kykh Natsionalistiv 1920-1939 (Munich, 1968)Google Scholar ; Volodymyr Martynets', Ukrains'ke pidpillia vid UVO do OUN (West Germany, 1949)Google Scholar ; Orhanizatsiia Ukrains'kykh Natsionalistiv 1929-1954 (Paris, 1955) ; OUN v svitli postanov Velykykh Zboriv, Konferentsii ta inshykh dokumentiv z borot'by 1929-1955 (Munich, 1955).

3. Mirchuk provides a good example of this tendency: “The intensified revolutionary activity of the OUN was surprisingly fast in liquidating the heretofore fairly strong influence of the Communists and consolidated the influence of Ukrainian nationalism among the broadest Ukrainian masses” (see Mirchuk, , Narys istorii Orhanizatsii Ukrains'kykh Natsionalistiv, p. 454 Google Scholar). Vasiuta is typical of the opposite tendency: “The great ideas of Marxism-Leninism lighted the path of the revolutionary movement in Western Ukraine. Under the leadership of the KPZU this movement developed on the principles of class solidarity and proletarian internationalism. On the basis of the experience of the CPSU and its component part, the CP Ukraine, the Communists of Western Ukraine mastered the legal and illegal forms of struggle and spread their influence over the toiling masses of the village” (see Vasiuta, , Selians'kyi rukh, pp. 62–63Google Scholar).

4. John Armstrong, the only non-Ukrainian Western scholar to have studied Ukrainian nationalism, deals only with the political and ideological aspects of the movement (see Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism).

5. Roy Hofheinz, “The Ecology of Chinese Communist Success: Rural Influence Patterns, 1923-1943,” in Barnett, A. D., ed., Chinese Communist Politics in Action (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969), pp. 3–77;Google Scholar Eugen Weber, “The Men of the Archangel,” in Walter Laqueur and George, L. Mosse, eds., International Fascism 1920-1945 (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), pp. 101–26 Google Scholar.

6. Jeffrey, Paige, Agrarian Revolution: Social Movements and Export Agriculture in the Underdeveloped World (New York: The Free Press, 1975 Google Scholar. Some of the more recent literature dealing with this theme includes Joel, Migdal, Peasants, Politics and Revolution (Princeton, 1975)Google Scholar ; Comparative Politics, 8, no. 3 (April 1976) (special issue on “Peasants and Revolution” ) ; James C. Scott, “Exploitation in Rural Class Relations: A Victim's Perspective,” Comparative Politics, 7, no. 4 (July 1975).

7. Drugi powssechny spis ludnośsci z dn. 9.XII 1931 r., Wojewóodztwo Wołyńskie (Warsaw, 1938), pp. 28-29.

8. Ibid., pp. 297-326.

9. Le premier recensement général de la République Polonaise du 30 septembre 1921, Départment de Wołyń (Warsaw, 1926), pp. 181-85.

10. Ibid., p. 168.

11. Interviews with formerly prominent Nationalists who prefer anonymity.

12. Compiled on the basis of Le premier recensement général, p. 63; and Drugi powssechny spis ludności, pp. 28-29.

13. Compiled on the basis of Le premier recensement général, p. 62; and Drugi powszechny spis ludności, pp. 28-29.