Електронний каталог ННСГБ НААН online
Electronic catalog
NSAL NAAS online

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

09 EMIGRANT LIFE IN EUROPE IN 1931 THROUGH THE PERSPECTIVE OF UKRAINIAN INTELLECTUALS: THE EXPERIENCE OF HLIB LAZAREVSKYI full article
doi.org/10.31073/istnauka202504-09
BEREHOVYI S., SYLKA O.
Pages: 130–158
Summary

This article offers a comprehensive examination of the émigré experience of Ukrainian intellectuals in interwar Europe during the early 1930s, based on the letters of Hlib Lazarevskyi addressed to his brother Borys and preserved in the Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (TsDAVO). Thirty-one letters sent from Warsaw to Paris between 1930 and 1936 have been identified, yet the study concentrates specifically on the correspondence from 1931, as it most clearly reflects a decisive stage in the formation of Hlib Lazarevskyi’s personal and professional survival strategies within the complex political environment of the Second Polish Republic. This period was marked by legal insecurity, prolonged attempts at obtaining proper documentation, suspicions regarding potential connections with Soviet institutions, and his persistent aspiration to reach France as a safer political and intellectual space. The letters are interpreted as part of a broader epistolary corpus of the Ukrainian diaspora and as a valuable information-analytical source that illuminates the social, psychological, communicative, and identity-forming dimensions of émigré life under conditions of surveillance, bureaucratic pressure, mobility restrictions, and emotional isolation. Particular attention is paid to the reflection of everyday practices, professional intentions, participation in the activities of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw, cooperation with Ukrainian émigré periodicals such as Tryzub, and the shaping of historical and political narratives about Ukraine. The article argues that the correspondence of 1931 demonstrates how private experience evolved into a form of analytical interpretation of international realities, political risks, and strategies of persistence available to a stateless nation in interwar Europe. Finally, the study outlines further research perspectives involving the full corpus of letters, as well as the journalistic and literary heritage of the Lazarevskyi brothers, in order to more fully reconstruct the communication networks and intellectual trajectories of the Ukrainian emigre milieu.

Keywords
Ukrainian emigration, interwar Europe, Hlib Lazarevskyi, Borys Lazarevskyi, epistolary heritage, informational and analytical activity, Tryzub, Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw.
References
  1. Berehovyi, S. I. (2020). Borys Lazarevskyy – Halyna Kuznyetsova: kyyivska nostalhiya paryzkykh emihrantiv (za materialamy «Shchodennyka» 1928–1933 rr.) [Borys Lazarevskyi – Halyna Kuznetsova: Kyiv nostalgia of Parisian emigrants (based on the «Diary» 1928–1933)]. Treti kyyevoznavchi chytannya: istoriya ta etnokultura – Proceedings of the Third Kyiv Studies Readings: History and Ethnoculture, (pp. 168–175). Kyiv [In Ukrainian].
  2. Berehovyi, S., Hyrych, I., Sylka, O., & Synyavska, L. (2025). Shchodennyky B. Lazarevskoho 1929–1933 rr. i problema yoho natsional'noyi samoidentyfikatsiyi [The diaries of B. Lazarevskyi (1929–1933) and the problem of his national self‑identification]. Ukrayinskyy istorychnyy zhurnalUkrainian Historical Journal, 1, 182–202 [In Ukrainian].
  3. Sylka, O. Z., & Berehovyi, S. I. (2020). Borys Lazarevskyy pro povsyakdenne zhyttya emihratsiyi v Paryzhi (za materialamy shchodennyka «Ma Vie»: 1927–1929 rr.) [Borys Lazarevskyi on everyday life of emigration in Paris (based on the diary Ma Vie, 1927–1929)]. Visnyk Cherkas'koho universytetuBulletin of Cherkasy University, 1, 102–109 [In Ukrainian].
  4. Berehovyi, S. I., & Sylka, O. Z. (2022). Paryzkyy emihrant iz ukrayinskoyu dusheyu: refleksiyi Borysa Lazarevskoho na prezentatsiyu ukrayinstva u 1927–1929 rr. [A Parisian emigrant with a Ukrainian soul: Reflections of Borys Lazarevskyi on the representation of Ukrainianness (1927–1929)]. Visnyk Cherkaskoho universytetuBulletin of Cherkasy University, 1, 106–114 [In Ukrainian].
  5. Bilokin, S. (1998). Rarytety ukrayinskoyi bibliohrafiyi u zbirkakh Oleksandra Lazarevskoho ta Mykhayla Khmyrova [Rarities of Ukrainian bibliography in the collections of Oleksandr Lazarevskyi and Mykhailo Khmyrov]. Kyyivska starovynaKyivska Starovyna, 4, 131–164 [In Ukrainian].
  6. Vlasenko, V. M. (2009). Lystuvannya K. Matsiyevycha z S. Petlyuroyu 1920–1923 rr. yak dzherelo z istoriyi ukrayinskoyi emihratsiyi u Rumuniyi [Correspondence of K. Matsiyevych with S. Petliura (1920–1923) as a source on the history of Ukrainian emigration in Romania]. Sumska starovynaSumska Starovyna, (XXVI–XXVII), 199–206 [In Ukrainian].
  7. (1997). Hlib Lazarevskyy i yoho «Kyyivska starovyna». Spohady. Z nahody 120-richchya vid dnya narodzhennya. Naukovi zapysky [Hlib Lazarevskyi and his «Kyivska Starovyna»]. Zbirnyk prats molodykh vchenykh ta aspirantivScientific Notes. Collected Works of Young Scholars and Graduate Students, 2, 245–255. Kyiv [In Ukrainian].
  8. Zabiaka, I. M. (n.d.). Litopys rodu Lazarevskykh (Spohady Hliba Lazarevs'koho pro zhurnal «Kyevskaya staryna») [Chronicle of the Lazarevskyi family (Memoirs of Hlib Lazarevskyi on the journal «Kievskaya Starina»)]. Naukovi zapysky Instytutu zhurnalistykyScientific Notes of the Institute of Journalism, 13. Retrieved November 15, 2025, from http://journlib.univ.kiev.ua/index.php?act=article&article=1205 [In Ukrainian].
  9. Zabiaka, I., & Lazarevskyi, O. (1992). U maybutnye – bez mynuloho?: Peredmova do publikatsiyi: Lazarevskyy H. Kyyivska starovyna. Spohady [Into the future – without the past?: Introduction to the publication: Lazarevskyi, H. Kyivska Starovyna. Memoirs]. KyyivKyiv, 5, 138–139 [In Ukrainian].
  10. Lazarevskyi, B. Ma vie. Rukopys, 1927–1929 [Ma vie. Manuscript, 1927–1929]. Private archive of S. I. Berehovyi – Pryvatnyy arkhiv S. I. Berehovoho [In Ukrainian].
  11. Lazarevskyi, H. O. (2007). Kyyivska starovyna [Kyivska Starovyna] (I. M. Zabiaka & O. O. Lazarevskyi, Eds.). Kyiv [In Ukrainian].
  12. Lazarevskyi, B. (1932–1933). Shchodennyk (1932–1933) [Diary (1932–1933)]. Manuscript. Instytut rukopysu NBUVInstitute of Manuscripts, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Fund 1, Case 68615 [In Ukrainian].
  13. Osobyste lystuvannya burzhuazno-natsionalistychnoho pysmennyka Lazarevskoho [Personal correspondence of the bourgeois‑nationalist writer Lazarevskyi] (n.d.). Tsentralnyy derzhavnyy arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv Ukrayiny – Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine, Fund 3537, Inventory 1, Case 6 [In Ukrainian].
  14. Radyzhevskyi, R., & Kahamlyk, S. (2021). Epistolyarna spadshchyna M. Obidnoho chasiv emihratsiyi [Epistolary heritage of M. Obidnyi during emigration]. Ukrayinskyy istorychnyy zhurnalUkrainian Historical Journal, (1), 136–152 [In Ukrainian].
powered by web студия