“Promethean Nations Must Win the Struggle Against Russia”

Documents were found in the archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, which testify that one of the subjects to activity of the GPU/NKVD/MGB/KGB of the USSR for many years was the so-called Promethean movement and especially its Ukrainian component. Moscow opened operational cases against Ukrainian leaders who actively supported Poles – the founders of the movement, and tried in every possible way to hinder their activities. This information, in particular about the Warsaw Prometheus Club, branches in France, Finland, Turkey and Harbin, may be of some value to researchers of history and supporters of the Promethean movement, whose followers still periodically hold international forums.

Prometheism (Polish- Prometeizm) as a political, cultural and intellectual movement that developed in Europe in the 1920s - 1930s was one of the important pages of the struggle for independence of the peoples enslaved by Russia/the USSR. A number of studies in Ukraine and Poland are devoted to this topic. At the same time, some materials stored in the Branch State Archive of the SZR of Ukraine add to the general picture. In particular, the documents from the cases of prominent leaders of the Ukrainian emigration Roman Smal-Stotskyi, Oleksandr Shulhin, Oleksandr Udovychenko, Volodymyr Murskyi and others.

Prometheism was born under the auspices of Poland and with its financial support. Józef Pilsudski, the head of the Polish state in 1918–1922 and 1926–1935, was well aware that the main danger to his country was the Kremlin power, regardless of the transformations taking place on the territory of the former Russian Empire. Therefore, the solution to the security of the state, in his opinion, depended on resolving geopolitical problems on the territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea, in the Caucasus, and in other remote regions.

The Promethean movement was based on such main principles as defending the right of nations to self-determination, not recognizing the seizure of their territories, and organizing a resistance movement. The name was taken from the image of Prometheus, who became a symbol of incongruity in different cultures. The ideology and practice of Prometheism was supported by political emigrants from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, as well as Crimean and Kazan Tatars, Don and Kuban Cossacks, peoples of western Finland (Karelians and Ingrians) and others.

Ukrainian emigrant organizations became the most active participants in the movement. Moreover, they often took over the initiative and management of branches and all activities. Such activity greatly disturbed the Stalinist regime, which instructed its special services to collect information about the Promethean movement and its activists, and also tried to infiltrate its agents into the movement’s leadership.

According to the Intelligence’s archival documents, for the Kremlin, the most dangerous of all émigré political camps in the Promethean movement were the supporters of the Ukrainian People's Republic. They continued their political and military struggle, positioning themselves in the international arena as the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile.

Outstanding participants of the Prometheus movement were former high-ranking officials of the Ukrainian People's Republic – Head of the Directory Symon Petliura, Head of the Government Andriy Livytskyi, Ministers: Oleksandr Shulhin, Vyacheslav Prokopovych, Ilarion Kosenko, Oleksandr Lototskyi, Ivan Tokarzhevskyi-Karashevych, Andriy Yakovliv, diplomats Roman and Stepan Smal-Stotskyis, Mykola Shulhin, Maksym Slavinskyi, Kost Matsiyevych, officers Vsevolod Zmiyenko, Oleksandr Udovychenko, Pavlo Shandruk, Volodymyr Salskyi, Marko Bezruchko and others. These surnames are most often mentioned in NKVD documents precisely in the context of the operational investigation into the Promethean movement.

For example, one of the archival documents states as follows:

In 1925, on the instructions of the Second Department of the Polish General Staff, Smal-Stotskyi, together with Oleksandr Shulhyn, Pavlo Shandruk, and other prominent UPR’s members, organized an anti-Soviet international organization in Warsaw called the Prometheus League of the Atlantic Charter, one of the tasks of which was “defending” the national right to self-determination of the peoples of Eastern Europe (Georgia, Azerbaijan, the North Caucasus, Ukraine, Turkestan).

The Prometheus League, uniting the emigrant groups of the peoples of the USSR, was one of the most anti-Soviet organizations. Branches of the Warsaw Prometheus Center existed before the war in France, Czechoslovakia, Finland, the Netherlands, and other countries, where their anti-Soviet work was directed by relevant intelligence services.

Roman Smal-Stotskyi had been the leader of the Prometheus League since its creation. Until 1939, the official organ of Prometheus was the newspaper Revue de Prometheus, published by Shulhyn in Paris (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. – Case 9813. - P. 33).

It was Roman Smal- Stotskyi’s participation in the Promethean movement that worried the Soviet intelligence services so much. From the end of 1924 until the beginning of the Second World War, he was a Professor of the Ukrainian Linguistics at the University of Warsaw, the Secretary of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw and the editor of its publishing house. At the same time, he held different positions in the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile, including that of Ambassador of the Ukrainian People's Republic to the Polish government, Minister of Culture, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Vice Prime Minister. In 1926–1939 (and also in 1946–1947) he was the head of the Promethean League, which included representatives of different peoples of the Soviet Union who were fighting for independence.

R. Smal-Stotskyi was the permanent head of the Prometheus Club in Warsaw, which was assigned the role of the main coordinating link in the international Prometheus movement. He traveled to European cities, visited Brussels, Geneva, Danzig, Perugia, Berlin, London, met with leading politicians of many countries, popularizing the idea of ​​liberating peoples.

Finland was among the countries where the Promethean movement spread. This is stated in the special report of the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR dated May 17, 1937 “On the Prometheus Organization in Helsingfors”. It states that a branch of the Warsaw Prometheus Centre operates in the capital of Finland, Helsingfors (now Helsinki), and has 76 members. It unites Finns, Karelians, Ingermanlanders, Yakuts, Volga Tatars, Zyryans, Circassians, people of Turkestan and Ukrainians.

“From time to time, the board of the organization arranges general meetings, – the paper reads, – with reading of anti-Soviet reports: about the national policy of the USSR, the situation in Ukraine, etc.”. The organization publishes the Finnish-language magazine “Prometheus'”. It is noted that the branch of “Prometheus” in Finland includes OUN members who “took under their care the local Ukrainian emigration, while other branches include Petliurites” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. – Case 9813.- V. 1. – P. 10).

The document also informs that Kindrat Poluvedko was elected to the board of the organization. The Poluvedko, about whom it is now known that in the early 1930s the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR engaged him in secret cooperation and developed a legend according to which he allegedly belonged to one of the nationalist groups liquidated by the Chekists, was convicted, but managed to escape from Solovki to Finland. Therefore, all information about the activities of Ukrainian émigré organizations in that country, in particular about the “Prometheus” branch, was sent to the NKVD. The Kremlin tried to recruit other active members of the Promethean movement to fully control the entire network, but to a zero result. Then they resorted to the infiltration of agents into those organizations, who periodically obtained information about the planned activities, in particular, the personnel of the branches.

For example, a document of the Foreign Department of the NKVD of the USSR dated December 24, 1934, and addressed from Moscow to Kyiv, reads that the central apparatus of the Soviet intelligence obtained a list of members of the Ukrainian section of “Prometheus” in Warsaw with their home addresses. There are about 350 people on the 6-page list. Among them are leaders of the Ukrainian emigration Marko Bezruchko, Viktor Kush, Volodymyr Salskyi, Petro Sikora, Yakiv Fartushnyi and others.

The bodies of the NKVD directed considerable efforts to cultivation of the quite active Ukrainian community in Istanbul, in particular, the representative of the UPR government in exile in Turkey, Volodymyr Murskyi. The latter achieved remarkable success precisely in the work of the Promethean movement. One of the archival documents states that he is connected with all representative offices of emigrants from the Caucasus in Turkey. So it is not surprising that they took a special interest in him.

“Murskyi's main task”, says the GPU of the USSR’s paper under the title “Brief Information and Characteristics of the Most Prominent Figures of Ukrainians in Turkey”, “was to make the closest contact with all representatives of the Caucasians, Tatars of Crimea, Volga and Turkestan and through them create the necessary base for further work – purely Ukrainian one, aimed at Ukraine’s rapprochement with Turkey... Thanks to his work, relatively mildly and unexpectedly for the Ukrainians themselves, a difficult issue was resolved in Warsaw – the agreement between Crimea and Ukraine” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F.1. - Case 7408. – V. 1. – P. 184).

There are several references to this agreement in other documents. It is about the fact that V. Murskyi established close relations with the leaders of the Crimean Tatar diaspora in Turkey, in particular with Cafer Seydamet Qirimer. The result of this cooperation was the development and coordinatiton with the leadership of the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1932 of the draft Agreement on the Creation of the Union State of Ukraine and Crimea. This project provided for the mutual recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Republic of Crimea and establishment of a common union state after the overthrow of the Bolshevik regime. Despite the fact that it is just a working document, which remained at the level of declarative intentions, this episode testifies to V. Murskyi's considerable skill as a diplomat who knew how to build bilateral relations, listen to and persuade the opponents.

Besides, archival documents repeatedly mention the contacts of the representative of the Ukrainian People's Republic with German, French and Japanese diplomats and intelligence officers. By making these contacts, he tried to inform other influential states about Ukraine, its struggle for independence from Moscow, and to gain support in the struggle.

The documents prepared by V. Murskyi and intercepted by Soviet special services, show that he depicted the situation related to the Ukrainian issue in a well-argued and clever way and outlined the ways to resolve it. At this, as a journalist and writer, he gave his presentation an emotional and philosophical tone. As, for example, in the paper addressed to Japanese Military Attache in Turkey Iimuro.

“The question of the independence of Ukraine and other nations oppressed by Russia”, he wrote, “puts on the agenda the question of the existence of Russia as a state, a source of constant intrigues and, in the last period of the communist regime, as the main factor of the economic crisis, destruction of world cultural values ​​and corruption of humanity... There is one and only way out. The world must understand that the political and economic balance of the entire world cannot be restored until the source of the original intrigues in Europe and Asia, which was Tsarist Russia at all times and is now Bolshevik Russia, is destroyed. New political units must be created on the ruins of the Russian Empire or Bolshevik Russia...”(BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F.1. - Case 12628. - V.8. - P. 32).

The existence of a separate branch of the Prometheus League in Istanbul is mentioned in the document entitled “Plan of Agent-Operational Measures in the Case “Prometei” (“Prometheus”- Transl.) It has a separate section – “On the Istanbul Branch of Prometheus”, in which it is noted that “in Istanbul (Turkey) in 1931-1932 there was a Prometheus society, which included a number of Eastern organizations and groups of nationalist emigration (Georgians, Armenians, etc.). Prometheus also included representatives of anti-Soviet Ukrainian organization –Ukrainian nationalist emigrants, united in the so-called “UPR in Turkey”. The representatives of the UPR were: Murskyi – the head of the Ukrainian community of the UPR in Turkey, and Zabello – the secretary of the community”' (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F.1. – Case 9113. - V.1. - P 21).

This document is another evidence that the Prometheus movement was in the field of view of the NKVD authorities and complex cultivation was carried out in relation to its leaders. The Chekists’ activity reached as far as the Far East. Archival documents contain some information about the activities of this organization on the territory of China. This is stated in the document from the Foreign Department of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR dated August 26, 1935, entitled “Harbin’s Society “Prometheus”. It states that the society is at the head of the movement of small nations of the former Russia in Manchuria and has sections in Harbin, Shanghai and Tianjin.

One of the most active was the branch of the Prometheus League in France. The Prometheus magazine was published in Paris – an organ for the defense of the interests of the Caucasus, Ukraine and Turkestan, as stated by its cover page. The magazine united the elites of the peoples enslaved by the Bolshevik regime. Until 1928, the Ukrainian part of this printed organ was edited by Lev Chykalenko, after him – by Mykola Shulhyn, and from 1932 – by Mykola Kovalskyi.

Among the archival materials, there is a document entitled “Prometheus” – about the official opening of the Prometheus Club in France on March 5, 1939. This is the report of a foreign agent of the NKVD, who, along with stating the facts, gave his own assessment of what happened during the opening of the club. According to his observations, about a hundred people were present at the event: Georgians, Ukrainians, Cossacks, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Highlanders (Kabardinians, Circassians, Ossetians, Dagestanis).

General O. Udovychenko was represented by his man (surname not mentioned). His speech “was especially emotional”. “He emphasized”, the paper reads, “that the Promethean peoples actually make up 50% of the population of the Soviet Union and own two-thirds of the wealth of the entire territory, and therefore the struggle of those peoples will ultimately be marked by a victory over the rule of Moscow, over the Great Russian element that is in power”.

After the break, Mr. Kovalskyi took the floor. A foreign agent retells his words as follows: “He emphasized the need to resolve the Ukrainian issue, that is, Ukraine's independence. At this, he pointed out: “The situation in Europe will not be stable until Ukraine becomes free... The fight against Russia, as such, should be fought not for life, but for death, and Ukraine and the Promethean peoples should win this fight. This struggle should not be limited to the overthrow of the Soviet government, the struggle must be waged in general against all Russian dominance...”. Kovalskyi noted that the leaders of the Russian Empire, Stolypin, Milyukov, Kerensky, and others, and the leaders of the Soviet government, are in fact servants of the idea of ​​a single, indivisible great Russia. Therefore, (the Promethean peoples) should not limit themselves to the struggle against the political system. It is necessary to struggle against the Russian principles...”(BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. – Case 6687. - V. 1. - P. 180-182).

1939 was the last year of active work of the Promethean movement. This is stated in one of the archival documents: “In connection with the arrest by the Germans in 1939 of the main leaders of the Prometheus League - Smal-Stotskyi, Shulhin and others (the mentioned persons were soon released), this organization has actually fell apart and until the end of the Patriotic War was not restored. In April 1946, the Congress of the Promethean League was held again in The Hague, which decided to resume the activities of this organization, expressed sharp attacks on the Soviet Union in its manifesto, declared its support for Anglo-American policy towards the USSR, and invited under its leadership all anti-Soviet groups from countries of the new democracy (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania) (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. - F. 1. – Case 9813. - Vol. 1. – P. 34).

At that congress, a new name was adopted – the “Promethean League of the Atlantic Charter”, as well as a resolution calling on all peoples enslaved by Moscow to join this organization “for further struggle against Soviet Russia”. However, in the post-war period, for a number of reasons, it was not possible to reach the previous scale and activity.

Instead, a peculiar continuation of the concept of Prometheism was the creation under the auspices of the OUN (b) of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Peoples, which, according to its program documents, also professed such principles as freedom of peoples and freedom of man, recognition of peoples’ right to self-determination and creation of independent states, the need for the unity of enslaved peoples in the fight against Russia as an evil empire, perpetual invader, enslaver, destroyer of cultural and social values, an enemy of human and national freedoms”.