Leaflets as a Form of Resistance at All Times

Despite the rapid development of information technologies, such a form of propaganda resistance in temporarily occupied territories as leaflets is still used and is often successful. In this regard, it is useful and instructive to turn to the experience of the Ukrainian national liberation movement of the 1920s and 1930s, in particular, the insurgent organizations and the intelligence of the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile. The leaflets of that period, which have been preserved in the Branch State Archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, are quite interesting and expressive, and their content resonates in many ways with current events.

 “Strengthen the work of your Army and help it”

Among the archival documents there is Otaman (Commander-in-Chief) of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic Petliura’s “Order to the Population of Ukraine” dated September 21, 1920. One of the forms of conveying information to the general population was a leaflet. That order was issued after the defeat of the bolshevik army near Warsaw and during the next offensive of the joint Polish-Ukrainian army, which pressed the bolshevik units in the Podilla. It was spread both, in liberated and in still occupied Ukrainian territories.

“The Ukrainian Army is moving forward and liberating us again from the moscow enemy”, the leaflet says. “It enables you to clean your houses of bolshevik filth and violence and work and live peacefully”. Next comes an appeal to local authorities: to maintain order, protect state and public property, build bridges and roads, hunt down provocateurs, spies, criminals and communists- Bolsheviks. “The Government will come, and everyone will get what they deserve”, the Chief Otaman urges. At the same time, the leaflet contains the most important message: “Strengthen the work of your Army and help it”. (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. – Case 11012. - V. 21. – P. 1347_0).

Among the leaflets of that period there are also those addressed to Red Army soldiers. This is written in the headline – “Comrades Red Army soldiers!” Cossacks of the Ukrainian People's Army, as the leaflet reads, call on the Red Army servicemen not to obey their commanders and commissars, who tricked them to the Ukrainian land, but to organize themselves and make peace.

“We have to continue the war with you”, the leaflet says, “to defend our homes, our fathers and mothers from the arbitrariness of your commissars, who mercilessly rob and rape them, and force you to die in Ukraine! We are not going to russia! We want to live peacefully with everyone! ...You will not take anything from us by force! ...All of Ukraine stands against you! Communication routes with russia are broken! ...If your commissars do not want peace, then they are deceiving you. Make peace yourselves” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. - Case 11012. - V. 21. – P. 1362_0).

“Know that your people’s worst enemies are sitting in the kremlin!”

Another group of leaflets is dated 1930 and has the signature “Ukrainian Revolutionary Committee”. The content of these leaflets makes us think again and again about the nature of russian-Ukrainian relations at different historical stages.

In the appeal “To the Ukrainian Workers” the question is asked: “Have you already seen for yourself that the moscow regime of oppression and plunder in Ukraine acts as a predatory owner-exploiter, turning our land into a slave colony, and you, Ukrainian workers, into mute defenseless slaves. Is it clear to you that under the guise of “building socialism” the occupying government in Ukraine introduced and is introducing moscow state capitalism, which is foreign and hostile to the people”.

The authors of the leaflet then write that “the predatory moscow government unleashed war against the Ukrainian People's Republic with the sole aim of taking possession of our fertile land and huge factories and plants. These moscow masters “ran short of bread” back in 1918. moscow’s rabbles need Ukrainian coal and iron. The wild northern horde knew that with its true slogans – “give bread”, “give coal”, “give iron”, “give sugar” – it would not find supporters in Ukraine, so it was necessary to trick and fool the “khokhols”(russians’ humiliating nickname for Ukrainians-transl.), therefore, for the Ukrainian peasant they used the slogan “peace to the huts – war to the palaces”, and for the workers –“all power – to the workers”. And what have muscovites actually implemented?

... muscovites have turned Ukraine into their colony and are robbing it like no other colony in the world is being robbed now.

... The savage terror, provocation, “strikebreaking” or the so-called “record breaking” and “promotion”, the policy of disregarding local Ukrainian workers in favor of visiting seasonal muscovites – these are the consequences of the moscow occupation” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. – Case 1812. – V. 2. – P. 146_1).

In the leaflet “To Ukrainians- soldiers of the red army”, the main emphasis is on the slogan placed under the picture – “Know that your people’s worst enemies are sitting in the kremlin!!!” And in the final part of the emotionally written text, it is noted: “Remember that the task of every son of the Ukrainian people, and even more so of a soldier, is to defend his People, so always stand up with a weapon in your hands in defense of the People when they are hurt by the commissars, the GPU and other thugs.

... When in the lands enslaved by moscow, people rebel against the rapists and will beat and drive them out in order to put order in their own lands, remember that your land is also enslaved. Do not fight the rebels and do not defend your enemy – the soviet power in moscow. Remember that Georgians, Tatars, Circassians, and Turkmens are all your friends and allies, because they, like you, want to free themselves from the moscow yoke. Join the rebels and help them.

In the meantime, make an agreement with your friends, dear ones, and relatives that when the moscow government starts to collapse in Ukraine, you should be ready to help it to die. This time is not far away!” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F. 1. – Case 1812. – V. 2. – P. 146_3).

The leaflet “Where does the people's hard-earned money go?” describes the looting of Ukrainian lands, the export of grain and other products. It reads: “Everyone knows how bolshevik russia is looting our native land – Ukraine. This is seen by the worker who, with his hard work, mines coal and iron, which muscovites-communists take away from Ukraine by whole trains, and this is seen by the peasant, from whom the moscow executioners take away grain, despite the fact that this grain was grown by the Ukrainian peasant with year-round hard work” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine - F. 1. - Case 9199. - V. 2. – P.4).

“How moscow rescues Ukraine”

 

In a series of leaflets, the kremlin's false propaganda is debunked. In response to provocations and all kinds of disinformation, the special services of the Ukrainian People's Republic issued leaflets entitled “Another provocation”. In one of the appeals, they warned: “World provocateurs – the moscow bolsheviks, through their foreign agents, have spread yet another lie about the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic...

Our neighbours are daydreaming about the “collapse of the UNR”! ...The enemy knows better from which side he is in danger. The enemy knows well the importance of unity and steadfastness in the struggle.

So let the enemy remember that there is no force capable of shaking the strength and firmness of our nation-state Provid (leadership- transl.)! Let him remember that our struggle will end only on the borders of the liberated Motherland! May our enemy keep dreading our yellow-blue flag, because soon that blood-stained flag will wave on the streets of free, golden-domed Kyiv! Let the enemy finally realize that we do not need any kind of dictatorship, because our dictator is the heart of every patriot, every fighter for freedom! Only this dictatorship will give victory to Ukraine and immortal glory to its knights-fighters (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. - Case 1812. - V. 2. - P. 146_4).

Another “Next provocation”, launched by moscow in 1930, was that the UPR government in exile was allegedly negotiating with the Polish government over assistance in exchange for Ukrainian territories. “The world provocateurs – the moscow bolsheviks, through their foreign agents, have spread another lie about the Government of the Ukrainian People's Republic”, reads the leaflet. – The light-hearted press, under the influence of those agents, reported that the Government of Poland had started negotiations with the President of the UPR Andriy Livytskyi, promising assistance in the fight against moscow and at the same time demanding some of the Ukrainian lands to be given to Poland”. Further, this provocation is debunked with arguments and it is emphasized that no one should believe the statements from moscow, because they are aimed solely at splitting the unity of both the ranks of the Ukrainian liberation movement and its allies.

This event resonates with the recent statement of secretary of the security council of the russian federation, patrushev, who said at one of the meetings on national security that Poland “is already taking action to seize western Ukrainian territories”.

He noted that the partners of the “Kyiv regime” do not mind taking advantage of the current situation for their own interests and have special plans for Ukrainian lands. So, the chekist rhetoric, forms and methods of the kremlin regarding Ukraine have not changed over the years.

“Methods of transporting literature”

Along with leaflets, the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine store materials about the intelligence activities of the State Center of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, about the work of the propaganda section of the Ukrainian People’s Republic’s special service, which was called “Studios”.

Those “studios” meant a comprehensive study of the state of affairs in Ukraine in all spheres of political, economic and social life. The necessary information was obtained both by intelligence through agents passing through specially organized intelligence points on the border with soviet Ukraine, and by studying the soviet press, various statistical, propaganda and other printed publications that reached the countries of settlement of the UPR emigrees in various ways. On the basis of this, they prepared materials about the situation in Ukraine, which were represented at international forums, in the foreign press, used when publishing their own Ukrainian magazines abroad, and also in writing leaflets.

Couriers and agents of the UPR intelligence risked their lives to deliver those leaflets to Ukraine, distribute them through local insurgent centres, scatter and put them up at railway stations, markets, and in transport, where people eagerly caught every word of the truth. Because the truth was needed both, on the territory of soviet Ukraine and outside its borders.

The chief of the UPR Intelligence, Vsevolod Zmiyenko, attached great importance to this work and personally took care of it. This is evidenced by one of the documents of the GPU of the USSR from 1928, which states: “General Zmiyenko instructed his agents to distribute UPR literature in the following way: “1) Put the leaflets into envelopes and send them by mail to the addresses of cooperative societies, reading huts, village councils and individuals who head these institutions. Just make sure that these envelopes with leaflets and literature are not sent from the same place (city), but rather from different regions of Ukraine. 2) At night, while the train is moving, throw a certain number of leaflets out the window, the wind will blow them away and at least some of them will reach their destination and be read. 3) Leave literature on the train together with old soviet newspapers. General Zmiyenko recommends to look for addresses for sending literature in the book “Statistical Census in Ukraine in 1926”. According to him, the book contains all the villages of Ukraine, and it is necessary to send letters with leaflets to the addresses of cooperatives and reading houses of those villages. Zmiyenko asks to inform him of the addresses of the villages where the literature will be sent via postal service and, if possible, to send him the above-mentioned book”. (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. - Case 12617. - V.17. – P. 376).

Besides, archival documents note that with the change in the operational situation, the UPR special service adjusted its work tactics, in particular, the methods of distributing propaganda materials.

For example, the “Special Review of the Activities of the UPR in Poland”, by the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR, dated October 2, 1932, in the section “Methods of Transporting Literature” reads: In the past, significant batches of UPR literature were transported to the Ukrainian SSR by trains... Later it became known that the trains are carefully inspected and the literature is seized, so this method was abandoned. The literature is sent with verified agents, who distribute it on the soviet side in person or through their ties. A reliable method of transporting literature is considered to be the use of balloons, which are launched at night with a fair wind. This method is convenient because the literature reaches the deep rear”. (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. - Case 1268. - V. 2. – P. 214).

In order to make it easier to hide leaflets and to be able to smuggle as many as possible across the border, they were often printed on thin cigarette paper. This is stated in one of the reports of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR for 1928 entitled “On the Distribution of the UPR Leaflets”: “Gen. Zmiyenko, through his agents, is now sending a large number of counter-revolutionary proclamations to Ukraine. These proclamations are printed on colored sheets of cigarette paper. There are 10 types of them, different in content. All of them are illustrated. According to Zmiyenko, only the persons involved in making and distributing the leaflets, as well as forwarding agents, are familiar with the contents of the leaflets. Such a conspiracy is observed in order to hide the fact of the leaflets being issued in Warsaw" (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. - Case 12617. - V.17. – P. 215).

These leaflets did not and do not let the hope for liberation die. Therefore, invaders dreaded them at all times. Today, like a hundred years ago, in the temporarily occupied territories, local residents continue to leave “greeting cards” to the russian invaders, in which they promise to destroy them on the entire Ukrainian land.