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[ANTI-SOVIET] Stalinizm [i.e. Stalinism]

Stsiborskii, M(ykola)

Item #2310

Stated 3rd edition. [Munich]: Vydavnytstvo im. Khvilovoho, 1947. 48 pp. 18,5 x 13,5 cm (7 ⅓ x 5 in). Illustrated publisher’s paper cover. In Ukrainian. Overall good condition, but a small tear throughout the block around the staple. Untrimmed. Owner’s inscription M. H. Haidak in period pen on the title. Spots on p. 39.

Anonymous striking cover design in black and red features a (Soviet) soldier’s shoe with thorns embedded in the sole.

Mykola Stsiborskyi (1898-1941) was among the top most educated people in Ukrainian nationalist movement. While many younger nationalists coming from scouting movement were simply
guerillas, Stsiborskyi was a brilliant thinker and manager. He led Legiia ukrainskykh natsionalistiv that with time developed in OUN and eventually became OUN vice-chairman. His critical analysis
of contemporary ideologies, including Ukrainian provincialism and a subconscious need to side with a stronger ally is what restrains development of Ukraine. Stsiborskyi was probably the first
among the nationalists to introduce a serious ideological basis: and the content of the proposed book clearly shows why people listened. Stsiborskii analyses ways in which imperial past,
political radicalism, moral nihilism and ingrained sense of messianism led Bolsheviks into shaping a vulgar quasi-religious cult instead of a political party. According to Stsiborskii, Lenin’s grandiose
maximalism was destined to degenerate into inhumane and primitive collective “robotic” existence, one that is fundamentally flawed in denying the spiritual life of a human being. The book states that this denial actually was the real though a never voiced goal of stalinism. It cemented the authoritarian Stalin’s regime and created a “heaven on Earth” for a selected few - based on the struggles of the masses that willingly embraced the terror. Stsiborskii moves on to describe the economic program of the Soviet state, from military communism through NEP to state capitalism
rooted in metropolitan-centric imperialism. He is on the spot with the criticism of the Soviet state effort to monopolise the post-imperial national revival processes across different ethnicities. The book concludes with a call to action: “Moscow imperialism must be destroyed”. Stsiborskii explains how soullessness drives the omnivorous state expansion and forecasts an imminent large war: which indeed happened in two years after the article’s 1st publication.

Printed in a German Ally-governed displaced persons camp. Various bibliographies indicate that Vydavnytstvo im. Khvilovoho was based in Munich and was a OUN-supported anti-Soviet publisher active in 1947 and 1948. Those were the most active years of DP camp cultural life and OUN was not only enlightening the masses, but still hoping to recruit new forces to fight for
Ukrainian independence within the weakened USSR. The edition is stated as 3rd, two previous editions of this essay are known: Prague, 1938 and Prague, 1942. Compared to earlier editions, the
text main seems to be unchanged.

Price: $350.00