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Ulas Samchuk | |
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| Born | (1905-02-20)February 20, 1905 |
| Died | July 9, 1987(1987-07-09) (aged 82) |
Ulas Oleksiiovych Samchuk (Ukrainian:Улас Олексійович Самчук; 20 February 1905 – 9 July 1987) was aUkrainian writer,propagandist,[1][2][3] publicist,journalist, and a member of theGovernment of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile.[4] He was a member of theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists, aNazi collaborator,[5][6][3][7] and notedantisemite.[8][3][9]
Samchuk was born on 20 February 1905, in the village ofDerman (now Derman Druha,Rivne Raion,Rivne Oblast,Ukraine). From 1917 to 1920 he studied at a four-grade elementary school in Derman. In 1921–1925 he studied at theKremenets Ukrainian privategymnasium. Before he finished his secondary education, he was called up for service in thePolish Army in 1927, and laterdeserted in August of that year, escaping to Germany. In Germany he worked delivering coal, and with the help of a supportive German family, Samchuk continued his studies at theUniversity of Breslau.
In 1929, Samchuk moved toPrague,Czechoslovakia. He was attracted by the city's vibrant Ukrainian community and theUkrainian Free University in which he enrolled, and where he graduated in 1931.
In 1932, while in Prague, Samchuk first heard about theHolodomorfamine, and traveled back into Soviet Ukraine to witness the event firsthand. In response, Samchuk wrote the novelMaria (1934), the first literary work about thefamine, and village life at the time.[4] In 1937, on the initiative ofYevhen Konovalets, a cultural office of the Ukrainian nationalist leadership headed byOleh Olzhych was established. Prague became the centre of the Cultural Office, and one of the main institutions was the Section of artists, writers and journalists, chaired by Samchuk.
While Samchuks pre-war works did not appear antisemitic, to the contrary, they had described a childhood with close Jewish friends. During the war period his writings would go in the opposite direction, and would praise Hitler and call for support of the German army, while urging support to fight the "Judeo–Bolshevist" regime of the USSR,[1] also espousing the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine. He wrote: "Where the Ukrainian state will be built, there will be no Jews there."[10]
In 1941 he returned toVolyn as a member of one of theultranationalistOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists marching groups, where during 1941–1942, worked for theNazi's, within theReichskommissariat Ukraine, as chief editor of the pro-Nazi newspaperVolyn. During this time, he notably wrote of theBabi Yar massacre “Today is a great day forKyiv, the German authorities met the passionate desires of Ukrainians, ordering all Jews, of which there are still 150,000 remaining, to leave Kyiv.”[11][12]
On September 1, 1941, shortly before the Babi Yar massacres Samchuk wrote on page 2 of Volyn: “The element that settled our cities, whether it is Jews or Poles who were brought here from outside Ukraine, mustdisappear completely from our cities. The Jewish problem is already in the process of being solved.”[13][14][15]
Later that month, in the article "Zavoiovuimo misto" (Let's conquer the City) Samchuk added the following: “All elements that reside in our land, whether they areJews orPoles, must beeradicated. We are at this very moment resolving theJewish question, and this resolution is part of the plan for theReich’s total reorganization of Europe.”[8][16][17][18] "The empty space that will be created, must immediately and irrevocable be filled by the real owners and masters of this land, the Ukrainian people"[1][19][17]
TheJewish Bolshevism theme would run throughout his articles during the war period.[20] As an example on 30 November 1941, he wrote on witnessing the aftermath of destruction inTernopil, caused during fighting betweensoviet partisan andNazi forces, "All this occurred because of the will of the sons ofIsrael, who could find no better way of saving their nativeSoviet Union then by setting fire to the town as soon as the German army entered."[1]
He remained the chief editor of the Volyn newspaper until March 1942. In February 1942, after Nazi authorities implemented a stricter media censorship on the subject on Ukrainian independence. In Issue 23 of Volyn on 22 March 1942, Samchuk penned an emotional editorial article "Tak bulo – Tak bude" (This is how it was – That is how it will be) that espoused Ukrainian independence, resulting in him arrested and imprisonment by the Gestapo.[21][22] He was released about one month later, and then began working for theAllgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst.
With soviet forces approaching Galicia, and Samchuk fearing repercussions for being aNazi collaborator he then fled to NaziGermany in 1944, where he founded and headed the literary-artistic organization MUR.
In 1948, he emigrated toCanada and became the leader of theSlovo Association of Ukrainian Writers in Exile.[23] Along with publishing several books during his time in Canada, he also contributed articles regularly to the Ukrainian Quarterly.[24][25][26] It was also during this time that his works would paint Jewish characters in a positive light, It has been purported by some scholars that his later works were a form of "expiation and atonement".[27] In particular the novel, 'What fire does not heal(Choho ne hoit ohon)', had been called an "act of repentance".[27]
He died in Toronto on 9 July 1987[28] and is buried at theSt. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery inOakville, Ontario.
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He published his first short story, "On Old Paths", in 1926 in theWarsaw magazineNasha Besida. In Samchuk'sVolyn trilogy (I–III, 1932–1937), a collective image of a Ukrainian young man of the late 1920s and early 1930s is derived, which seeks to find Ukraine's place in the world.
From 1929 he began to collaborate regularly with theLiterary-Scientific Bulletin,The Bells (magazines published inLviv),The Independent Thought (Chernivtsi), theNation-Building (Berlin), and theAntimony (without a permanent location).
Samchuk concurrently wrote the novelKulak(1932) about the eternal commitment of the Ukrainian peasant to tilling the land and the undying optimism of farmers. His next important work was the two-volume novelThe Mountains Speak (1934) which exploredCarpatho-Ukraine's struggle against Hungary.[4]
In 1947 he completed the dramaNoise of the Mill. The unfinished trilogyOst:Frost Farm (1948) andDarkness (1957), which depicts the Ukrainian man and his role in the unusual and tragic conditions of interwar and modern sub-Soviet reality.
The topics of Samchuk's final books are about the struggle of theUkrainian Insurgent Army inVolhynia (the novelWhat Doesn't Heal Fire, 1959) and the life of Ukrainian emigrants in Canada (On Hard Land, 1967). Memoirs ofFive to Twelve (1954) andOn a White Horse (1956) are devoted to the experience ofWorld War II.[28]
In April 2023, in the Holosiivskyi district ofKyiv, a street was named in honor of Samchuk.[29]
