S. Jazavita, PhD student

Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuanian

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2017.132.1.16


ILLUSION AND REALITY OF STATEHOOD: THE SEARCH FOR PARALLELS BETWEEN THE LITHUANIAN ACTIVIST FRONT AND THE ORGANISATION OF UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTST


he present article analyses the relationship between the Lithuanian Activist Front and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and their activity parallels in order to reach the Lithuanian and the Ukrainian independence in 1941. The research focuses on the attempts of the OUN and the LAF leaders to project the future Lithuanian and Ukrainian states in the 'New Europe' headed by Germany. Reaching for counterbalance against the USSR and the Communist ideology, the LAF and the OUN organizations aimed at taking into consideration the military and political power of Germany, while Škirpa, the leader of the LAF, coordinated his activities with the OUN leaders, Stetsko, Yaryi, and Bandera. Fanatical chiefs of the Third Reich manipulated with the Lithuanians and Ukrainians' feelings of revenge against the Bolsheviks and the will to feel Europeans; however, they involved a part of Lithuanians and Ukrainians to the massacre of Jews rather than allowed to contribute to Wehrmacht fight against the USSR. Important lesson here that Lithuania and Ukraine did not obtain any independence but just became a part of the Third Reich, which controlled the so called 'New Europe' at the time.

Key words: The OUN, the LAF, Kazys Škirpa, Stepan Bandera, 'New Europe,' German policy in Central Eastern Europe during WWII, Antisemitism

References

1. GRYBAUSKAITĖ, D (2015) Po Ukrainos būsime mes. Delfi.lt. [Online] February 7. Available from: http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/dgrybauskaite-po-ukrainos-busime-mes.d?id=67111888 [Accessed: 28th January 2017].

2. Representative examples: LANDSBERGIS, V. (2015) Ukraina keistoje Europoje, arba neišduokime patys savęs. Delfi.lt. [Online] October 4. Available from: http://www.delfi.lt/news/ringas/politics/vlandsbergis-ukraina-keistoje-europoje-arba-neisduokime-patys-saves.d?id=69180662 [Accessed: 28th January 2017]; AŽUBALIS, A. (2016) Derybos ES: ar leisime parduoti Ukrainos suverenitetą? (2016) Delfi.lt. [Online] March 7. Available from: http://www.delfi.lt/news/ringas/politics/a-azubalisderybos-es-ar-leisime-parduoti-ukrainos-suvereniteta.d?id=70622452 [Accessed: 28th January 2017].

3. JOKUBAITIS, A., LOPATA, R. (2014) Lietuva kaip problema. Vilnius: Tyto Alba.

4. KASČIŪNAS, L. (2014) Ką laimėjo ir ką pralaimėjo Kremlius Ukrainoje. Delfi.lt. [Online] October 2. Available from: http://www.delfi.lt/archive/l-kasciunas-ka-laimejo-ir-ka-pralaimejo-kremlius-ukrainoje.d?id=66011360 [Accessed: 28 January 2017].

5. MAŽEIKIS, G. (2014) Kovojama už vizijas ir vertybes, o ne už struktūras. Delfi.lt. [Online] December 18. Available from: http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/g-mazeikis-kovojama-ir-mirstama-uz-vertybes-ir-vizijaso-ne-strukturas.d?id=66709022 [Accessed: 28th January 2017].

6. ŠKIRPA, K. (1973) Sukilimas Lietuvos suverenumui atstatyti. Washington; [s. n.].

7. Hitler's Table Talk 1941 – 1944. His Private Conversations (2000). New York: Enigma Books.

8. ROSSOLINSKI-LIEBE, G. (2014) Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist. Fascism, Genocide, and Cult. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag.

9. ROSSOLINSKI-LIEBE, G. (2015) The Fascist Kernel of Ukrainian Genocidal Nationalism. The Carl Beck Papers in Russian & East European Studies, 2402.

10. HIMKA, J. P. (2011) The Lviv Pogrom of 1941: The Germans, Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Carnival Crowd. Canadian Slavonic Papers. 53 (2-3-4), 209-243.

11. HIMKA, J. P. (2008) Obstacles to the Integration of the Holocaust into Post-Communist Eastern European Narratives. Canadian Slavonic Papers. 50 (3/4), 359-372.

12. MARPLES, D. R. (2007) Heroes and Villains. Creating National History in Contemporary Ukraine. Budapest; New York: Central European University Press.

13. MAGOSCI, P. R. (1996) A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

14. RUDLING, P. A. (2011) The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in Manufacturing of Historical Myths. The Carl Beck Papers in Russian & East European Studies, 2107.

15. YEKELCHYK, S. (2009) Ukraina. Modernios nacijos gimimas. Vilnius: Baltu lanku leidyba.

16. HUNCZAK, T. (2006) OUN-Between Collaboration and Confrontation with Nazi Germany. Ukrainian Quarterly. 62 (2).

17. HUNCZAK, T. (1986) Ukrainian – Jewish Relations during the Soviet and Nazi Occupations. In: Boshyk, Yu. (ed.) Ukraine during World War II: History and its Aftermath. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, pp. 39-57.

18. EIDINTAS, A. (2001) Lietuvos žydų žudynių byla: dokumentų ir straipsnių rinkinys. Vilnius: Vaga.

19. TRUSKA, L., VAREIKIS, V. (2004) Holokausto prielaidos: antisemitizmas Lietuvoje: XIX a. antroji pusė-1941 m. birželis = Preconditions for the Holocaust : anti-semitism in Lithuania : second half of the 19th century – June 1941. Vilnius: Margi raštai, 2004.

20. DIECKMANN, C., SUŽIEDĖLIS, S. (2006) Lietuvos žydų persekiojimas ir masinės žudynės 1941 m. vasarą ir rudenį. Vilnius: Margi Rastai.

21. JEGELEVIČIUS, S. (2006) Birželio sukilimo varomųjų jėgų klausimu. Lietuvos katalikų mokslų akademijos metraštis. 29, 121-139.

22. JAZAVITA, S. (2015) Diplomatic Activities of Kazys Škirpa, the First Lithuanian Envoy to Poland, in March – December, 1938. Europa Orientalis. Studia z Dziejów Europy Wschodniej i Państw Bałtyckich. 6, 91-117.

23. Statiev, A. (2010) The Soviet Counterirsurgency in the Western Borderlands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

24. BROWNING, C. R. (2007) The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press; Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.

25. SNYDER, T. (2011) Kruvinos žemės: Europa tarp Hitlerio ir Stalino. Vilnius: Tyto Alba.

26. SMETONA, A. (1990) Rinktiniai raštai. Kaunas: Menta.

27. J. P. (1917) Iš Kijevo lietuvių gyvenimo. Lietuvių balsas. April 13.

28. George Economos Dies (1994). The Washington Post. February 17.

29. BALKELIS, T. (2013) From Imperial Soldiers to National Guardians: German and Lithuanian volunteers after the Great War, 1918 – 1919. In: Arieli, N., Collins, B. (eds.) Transnational soldiers: foreign military enlistment in the modern era. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 127-144.

30. PIOTROWSKI, T. (2000) Genocide and Rescue in Wołyń: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against the Poles During World War II. [s. l.]: McFarland & Company.

31. ANUŠAUSKAS, A. (2014) Lietuvos žvalgyba 1918 – 1940 metais. Vilnius: Versus aureus.

32. Lithuania's minister in Germany K. Škirpa report to minister of foreign relations J. Urbšys, 1939, January 4. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 671, ap. 1, b. 15, l. 9.

33. Lithuania's minister in Germany K. Škirpa report to minister of foreign relations J. Urbšys, 1939, January 12. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 671, ap. 1, b. 15, l. 22.

34. Lithuania's minister in Germany K. Škirpa report to minister of foreign relations J. Urbšys, 1939, January 20. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 1, b. 39, l. 18.

35. BOYD, C. (1982) The Extraordinary Envoy. General Hiroshi Oshima and Diplomacy in the Third Reich, 1934 – 1939. Washington: University Press of America.

36. CANNISTRARO, V., WYNOT, E. D. (eds.) (1976) Poland and the Coming of the Second World War. The Diplomatic Papers of A. J. Drexel Biddle Jr., United States Ambassador in Poland 1937 – 1939. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

37. USA ambassador in Poland A. Biddle report to secretary of state C. Hull, 1938, December 06. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. R-952, ap. 1, b. 66.

38. KRAWCHENKO, B. (1986) Soviet Ukraine under Nazi Occupation. In: Boshyk, Yu. (ed.) Ukraine during World War II: History and its Aftermath. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, pp. 15-38.

39. TRUSKA, L. (2002) Kas traukė į Rusijos glėbį. Geopolitinė Lietuvos orientacija 1918 – 1940 metais. Darbai ir dienos. 30, 39-48.

40. KASPARAVIČIUS, A. (2004) Shared Destiny: Lithuanian State and Diplomacy between the two World Wars. Lithuanian foreign policy review. 13/14, 48-70. USA Cordel Hull, mentioning, that both USSR and Germany are occupants and Lithuania is orientated to USA and Great Britain, 1941, September 03. In: Dapkute, D. (ed.) Antano Smetonos korespondencija 1940 – 1944 m. Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto leidykla, 1999.

42. KLIMAS, P. (1991) Lietuvos diplomatinėje tarnyboje 1919 – 1940 m. Vilnius: Mintis.

43. "Voldemarininkai" group consisted of young military officers, mainly aviators, who were upset against A. Smetona regime and believed in his formier friend and prime minister Augustinas Voldemaras. "Voldemarininkai" was known for their sympaties to Germany.

44. Former "Voldemarininkai" report to K. Škirpa, 1940, August 28. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.

45. MANNERHEIM, C. G. (2012) Legendinio maršalo atsiminimai. Iš anglų kalbos vertė Virginija Martinkienė. Kaunas: Obuolys.

46. SOLZHENITSYN, A. (2002) The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation. New York: Harper Perennial Modern

Classics.

47. LUKAS, D. (2006) Kauno radijo stotis mena istorinius išbandymus [journalist interviu with 1941 June uprising fighter Jonas Venckevičius].

Delfi.lt. [Online] June 9. Available from: http://www.delfi.lt/verslas/medija/kauno-radijo-stotis-mena-istorinius-isbandymus.d?id=9821376 [Accessed: 28th January 2017].

48. SUBTELNY, O. (1986) Soviet Occupation of Western Ukraine, 1939 – 41: An Owerview. In: Boshyk, Yu. (ed.) Ukraine during World War II:

History and its Aftermath. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, pp. 5-14.

49. LAISVĘ, I. 1941, June 24.

50. K. Škirpa's 1940 July project "Memorandum to Lithuanian Nation". In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.

51. K. Škirpa, Fight! Efforts to save Lithuania, Part I. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 581.

52. K. Škirpa's 1940 July project "Memorandum to Lithuanian Nation". In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.

53. K. Škirpa, lecture "Sketches of Lithuanian actyvist front platforme", 1940, November 17. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius,f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.

54. SUŽIEDĖLIS, S. (2001) Penkiasdešimtmečiai metų praėjus: lietuvių tautos sukilimo ir laikinosios vyriausybės istorijos interpretacijų disonansai. In: Eidintas, A. (ed.) Lietuvos žydų žudynių byla: dokumentų ir straipsnių rinkinys. Vilnius: Vaga.

55. Lithuanian Activist Front memorandum "Brothers and sisters Lithuanians", 1941, June. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 1398, ap. 1, b. 1.

56. Lithuanian Activist Front memorandum "Cancellation of hospitality to Jews". In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.

57. TATARŪNAS, L. (2009) Žydai Lietuvoje pirmosios sovietinės okupacijos metu (1940 – 1941 metais). Istorija. 73.

58. LOWER, W. (2005) Nazi Empire Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

59. GUDAITIS, L. (1990) Lietuvos aneksija. 1940 metų. dokumentai. Vilnius: Periodika.

60. Protocol of Lithuanian Activist Front constituent assambly, 1940, November 17. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.

61. WALLER, J. H. (1996) The Unseen War in Europe: Espionage and Conspiracy in Second World War. New York: Random House.

62. WEINBERG, G. L. (1995) A World at Arms. A Global History of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

63. BOYD, C. (1993) Hitler's Japanese Confidant: General Hiroshi Ōshima and Magic Intelligence, 1941 – 1945. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.

64. LIULEVICIUS, V. G. (2000) War Land on Eastern Front. Culture, National Identity and German Occupation in World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

65. TAUBER, J. (2015) The Wild East: German Impressions of Lithuania, 1915 to 1918. Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis. XXXI, 171-183.

66. VAREIKIS, V. (2009) Antrojo pasaulinio karo pabaiga Rytų Prūsijoje: faktai ir istorinės įžvalgos. Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis. XVIII, 87-108.

67. DIECKMANN, Ch. (2007) Savivaldos politikos galimybės vokiečių okupuotoje Lietuvoje. In: Anušauskas, A. et al. Lietuva Antrajame pasauliniame kare. LII, pp. 125-134.

68. LOCHNER, L. P. (ed.) (1948) The Goebbels Diaries 1942 – 1943. New York: Book Club edition.

69. Lithuanian Activist Front authority's memorandum "Indications for Lithuania's liberation", 1941, March 24. In: Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas, Vilnius, f. 648, ap. 2, b. 582.