The Civilisational Enemy: Images of Russian Imperialism in the Interwar Political Thought of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists

Abstract

The article reconstructs the attitude of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists towards Russian imperialism in the interwar period based on journalistic texts. The OUN activists regarded it as a permanent phenomenon, existing both in the times of tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union and also present among Russian émigré groups. In the view of Ukrainian nationalists, this imperialism was a product of a specifically Russian spirituality and was thus characterised by oriental features. In turn, they considered its policy towards Ukraine to be a colonial one. In the second half of the 1930s, a belief in the far-reaching crisis of Russian imperialism became widespread in OUN thought.