The Ukrainian diaspora in the politics and work of Oleksandr Shulhin – Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in exile (1939-1942)

Author

Chekalenko Lyudmyla

doctor of political sciences, professor.

The Ukrainian diaspora in the politics and work of Oleksandr Shulhin – Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in exile (1939-1942)

Abstract

Ukrainian National Republic has appeared unexpectedly on the map of Europe and disrupted European conviction in the incapability of Ukrainian people to have own independent state. UNR has demonstrated successful national-state foreign policy to the whole world, owing to the first Minister of the Foreign Affairs of the independent Ukraine Oleksandr Yakovych Shulhyn.

O. Shulhyn has been appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the UNR in exile for three times. He has headed the government for two years. In such a way Oleksandr Yakovych has become one of the representatives of Ukrainian political diaspora in the Europe. The incomplete list of O. Shulhyn activities in exile in the post-war period includes: the founder and head of Ukrainian Academical Society in Paris (1946–1960); one of the organizers and vice-president (1952–1960) of the International Free Academy of Sciences in Paris; from 1952 – the deputy of the head of Shevchenko Scientific Society in the Europe; active participant of the UNR State Centre in the Emigration. He has supported Ukrainian students, families of the refugees from Ukrainian lands, helped the leading personalities of that time to settle down in the new conditions abroad with the help of this centre. Despite such active and furious work Oleksandr Yakovych has grieved for Ukraine deeply. He has written: ‘I don’t know, if I really can go to Ukraine, but I believe, that Ukraine will be, It must be, It is strong, It is rich. And I think, that those people, who work so hard there, also would like to have own country, to live in their country’. The words of the first Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Ukraine O. Shulhyn have become prophetic. The dreams of many generations have come true. Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine work creatively, teaching patriotic persons, scientific and political generation of Ukraine.

Keywords

UNR, Oleksandr Shulhyn, diaspora, foreign policy.

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