Ukrainians in the United Kingdom
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Soiuz Hetmantsiv Derzhavnykiv hetmanite association (SHD) [Союз Гетьманців Державників] – a political organisation whose goal was the establishment of an independent monarchical Ukrainian state under the hereditary rule of a hetman.

The SHD was part of the émigré Ukrainian hetmanite movement which promoted the idea of a restored Ukrainian state headed by Pavlo Skoropadskyi and his successors (Skoropadskyi, hetman of the Ukrainian State of 1918, was a descendant of a brother of Ivan Skoropadskyi, hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine in 1708-1722). The hetmanite movement included the Ukrainskyi Soiuz Khliborobiv Derzhavnykiv (USKhD), founded in 1920 in Vienna, and associated organisations in Europe and America. The centre of the movement was in Germany where Pavlo Skoropadskyi lived after the fall of the Ukrainian State. In the inter-war period Skoropadskyi’s representative in the United Kingdom was Vladimir Korostovetz. In 1937 the USKhD was dissolved and replaced by the SHD (initially called the Ukrainskyi Soiuz Hetmantsiv Derzhavnykiv). In 1939 Danylo Skoropadskyj, son of Pavlo, moved to England. After the death of Pavlo in 1945 his widow became regent of the hetmanite movement, and in 1948 Danylo Skoropadskyj became its official leader. In the aftermath of the Second World War the SHD and other hetmanite organisations, which were relatively inactive during the war, were revived in Europe, North America and Australia.

Among the Ukrainians who came to the UK after the war there were several dozen members and supporters of the hetmanite movement. These were mainly former soldiers of the Galicia Division, or European Voluntary Workers or their relatives. Preparations for the formation of a UK branch of the SHD were made, mainly by Porfiri Sylenko, a close associate of Danylo Skoropadskyj, and on 20 November 1949 an inaugural convention of the organisation was held in Bolton. In the 1950s and 1960s conventions were held approximately every three years. A number of periodicals were published by the organisation or one or more individual members: Visnyk Ukrainskoi Derzhavnytskoi Dumky (1950), Ranok (1952-1954), Za Yednist Natsii (1954-1955) and Slovo Khliboroba (1956-1966). Members of the organisation generally also belonged to the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. In the final decades of the twentieth century the organisation became increasingly inactive, although it existed formally until the second half of the 1990s.

The leaders of the SHD in the United Kingdom included Roman Dolynskyj, Wasyl Lyczmanenko, Peter Veselovsky, Ivan Martschenko, and Ivan Horobec.

Roman Krawec

Bibliography

‘Pershyi osnovuiuchyi ziizd Soiuzu Hetmantsiv-Derzhavnykiv v Anhlii’, Ranok (Heidenau, Lower Saxony), 7 January 1950, pp. 3-6 (continued: 21 January, pp. 1-2)

Senkus, R., ‘Ukrainian Union of Agrarians-Statists’, in Encyclopedia of Ukraine, volume V (St-Z), ed. by D. Husar Struk (Toronto, 1993), pp. 451

Troshchynskyi, V. P., ‘Evolutsia ukrainskoho monarkhizmu’, in Mizhvoienna ukrainska emihratsiia v Yevropi yak istorychne i sotsialno-politychne yavyshche (Kyiv, 1994), pp. 144-187

Markus V., ‘Hetmanskyi rukh’, Entsyklopediia Ukrainoznavstva: slovnykova chastyna, edited by V. Kubiiovych, vol. 11: addendum (Paris – NewYork, 1995), pp. 17-20

Ostashko, T. S., ‘Soiuz hetmantsiv-derzhavnykiv’, in Entsyklopediia istorii Ukrainy, vol.9, Pryl-S (Kyiv, 2012), p. 735