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[UNDERGROUND OUN PRINTING] Vkazivky bat’kam u vykhovanni ditey [i.e. Guidelines for parents in raising children]

Item #2334

[Bigen’, Rivno area]: Drukarnia OUN im.Yakova Busla-Kyivs;kogo, 1949. [12 p.] 14,4x10 cm. No wrappers as issued. Slight stains, otherwise in good condition.

During the Second World War and after its end until the mid-1950s the underground network of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of the Bandera direction of the OUN(b) was active in most regions of Ukraine. This political force tried to win the independence of Ukraine in an armed struggle.

The publishing activity of the OUN during the war and after its end was an important addition to the armed resistance: with the help of printed publications, the OUN tried to convey its goals and tasks to the population.

The editions came out in short-lived underground print shops and small presses, that were very short-lived and often were closed by authorities within months of the first editions: also only a handful of edition would be printed in them in small print-runs. The NKVD and MGB units considered closing down the presses one of their priorities in the fight against Ukrainian nationalism.

The OUN printers were prepared for this and were quick to disperse and open a new print shop: according to the count of Oleksandra Stasyuk, the author of ‘Pidpil’ni drukarni OUN. Lviv, 2011’, in 1941-1953 at least 160 identifiable presses existed. Their numbers rose after 1944, when the underground had to face the Soviet authorities: this decision was taken by the head of publishing and propaganda sector of AOU P. Duzhyi at OUN meeting, that took place in October of 1944 in the village Voluyiki (Lviv region). The changed was called for as with arrival of Soviet troops multiple underground printing facilities were discovered and shut down: in 1944 alone 18 presses were shut down.

Our edition comes from the second period of existence of underground press in Ukraine in 1940s: after initial shock of the establishing of Soviet control, the underground was able to restructure itself and found new levels: that included the new wave in the underground literature. By Stasyuk’s estimate in years 1948-1949 as many as 200 editions and leaflets per year were prepared and printed by the presses: the highest number since the begging of the struggle.

However by early 1950s, MGB agents have trained their units to discover the underground bunkers, in which the printing took place, more efficiently: to identify them, the Soviet penal authorities widely used an agent's net, organized raids on villages and combing forest areas, involving sometimes up to two thousand soldiers in these operations. This is how printing houses were exposed and liquidated.

Most of the editions printed by OUN presses were aimed at the population of Ukraine and had a goal in agitating the masses against the Red Army and anything Soviet. This one, however, seems more to be aimed at OUN members themselves, in their relationship with their children.

One of the core problems that Ukrainian families face, according to the anonymous author of the brochure, is that the children are forced to become a part of Soviet education system and are exposed to Soviet propaganda.

Although, according to the author, fathers are busy helping OUN to succeed and mothers are burdened by the excessive amount of labor put upon them by the Soviet chiefs, the parents have to spend more time with their children to explain the evil of the Soviet (Bolshevik) state. Some of the advices include forbidding the children to read Soviet books, to join pioneer and Komsomol organization, destroying the communist posters and the images of the leaders (the symbols of enslavement). A separate mention is given to Stalin, which is called a tractor to the Georgian nation and not ‘sun, friend, father and a teacher’. The advice to explain to children the faultless of the statement, that Russian and Ukrainian nations are brothers are also included: ‘Russian nation is not an elder brother to us, our guardian and saver. Russian bolsheviks are enemies of Ukrainian nation, its torturers and oppressors’.

Overall an interesting edition on the struggles of children’s upbringing in after-war Ukraine.

No copies found in the Worldcat.

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