Воєнна доктрина Михайла Колодзінського

Oleksandr ZAITSEV Military Doctrine of Mykhailo Kolodzins’kyi Military Doctrine of Ukrainian Nationalists is the main and final work by the theorist and activist of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Mykhailo Kolodzins’kyi, written shortly before his death. This document deserves careful analysis as an important source not only for the study of the OUN’s military doctrine but also for learning about the intellectual history of organized Ukrainian nationalism in the 1930s. Filled with the cult of force, war, heroism, and expansion, the work reflects the mentality of young Galician Ukrainians, whose worldview was formed by Dmytro Dontsov’s ‘active nationalism’ and by ‘the Age of Extremes’ that began in 1914. The introductory article to the publication of the chapter “Nationalist Uprising” from the Military Doctrine gives a brief biographical sketch of Kolodzins’kyi, considers the circumstances of writing Military Doctrine and analyses the content of the work, especially the published chapter. There is no reason to consider that Kolodzins’kyi’s work acquired the status of the OUN’s official doctrine. One can reasonably assume only that there was a group among the OUN’s activists that followed the radical views on the future uprising, solutions of the ‘Polish’ and ‘Jewish questions’, and prospects for the future ‘Ukrainian empire’. Further studies have to clarify a number of questions: how well-known was Kolodzins’kyi’s work among the Ukrainian nationalists; how numerous and influential was a group of like-minded members of the OUN; and finally, whether there was a connection between the theoretical ideas of the OUN’s activists in 1938-1939 and the practical actions of the OUN (Banderites) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during World War II