Marchuk V. Petro Fedun in the Ukrainian National Liberation Movement. 1940s - 1950s.

On the basis of analysis of archival materials, published sources, Ukrainian and foreign scholarly literature the author studies the evolution of Petro Fedun's worldview and investigates his participation in the national liberation movement, in particular his activity in the structures of the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army), UHVR (Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council) that were responsible for propaganda, and in the organization of their publishing houses in the late 1940s - 1950s. The thesis also includes analysis of social and political views of Petro Fedun. The author defines three periods of the activity of Petro Fedun in the Ukrainian national liberation movement: 1)1942 - summer of 1944: Fedun worked in the OUN structure of "Yunatstvo" (Youth) and edited magazine "Yunak" (Young Man); 2) summer of 1944 - winter of 1951: Fedun worked in propaganda apparatus of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. During this time Fedun steered political and educational work, first in the UPA-West (1944-1946), and then in the whole UPA (1946-1949); he was the head of the department of OUN propaganda (1946-1948), and was the leader of UHVR Information Bureau (1946-1951); 3) 1948 - December of 1951: Fedun was one of the leaders of liberation movement in Ukraine. During this period Fedun was associated with the Provid (Leadership) of OUN (1948-1951) and was co-opted to the UHVR, where he became a deputy head of the UHVR Secretariat (1950-1951). It is noticed that themes of Fedun's works changed with the course of time: at first he focused on ideological and programmatic subjects, and then in the late 1940s his texts obtained outspoken anti-Soviet character. The works of Petro Fedun touched upon such problems as domestic and foreign policy of leadership of the USSR, critical revision of the ideological foundations of Bolshevism, ideological and political essence of OUN-UPA-UHVR activities, prospects of national liberation struggle etc. The author highlights the role of P.Fedun in the transformation of the key ideological principles of Ukrainian politicians in emigration. Discussions that were conducted abroad caused personal disagreements that led to the next split in the Ukrainian nationalist camp in 1954. The conflict was at first caused by the critical attitude of some activists of Ukrainian emigration toward representatives of the ZCh (Foreign Divisions) OUN, in particular S.Bandera and circles close to him. Their ideas were directed at solving the problems that appeared in Ukraine in the process of the liberation struggle. In this conflict Petro Fedun acted, on the one hand, as one of the leaders of national liberation movement in Ukraine, and, on the other hand, as ideologist and publicist. The ideologist belonged to the avant-garde of Ukrainian national liberation movement in the late 1940s - beginning of the 1950 s .