Ukrainian Prague Between Two World Wars: Academy, Scholarship and the Free Word
Educational Kit & Classroom Study Guide · Atlas "Česko × Ukrajina"
1. Discussion questions for history and literature seminars
Read the questions carefully. Using the exhibition and atlas dossiers, give reasoned answers.
1. What political and humanitarian motives lay behind the Czechoslovak state Russian Relief Action (Ruská pomocná akce) of 1921, and why was it not merely a "Ukrainian" programme?
Research hint: Read section 3 of dossier R0100 and source E00-11: which émigrés did the programme cover and what did it fund?
2. Why is the UFU, opened in Vienna on 17 January 1921 and moved to Prague in autumn 1921, regarded as an important institution of Ukrainian scholarship in exile?
Research hint: Compare the chronology in dossier R0034 (U02, U03). Note that the dossier does not name the venue of the Prague opening on 23.10.1921.
3. What role did the Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute (1923–1933) play in sustaining Ukrainian education in exile?
Research hint: Use dossiers R0036 and R0005; note the discrepancies in the years of Sofiya Rusova’s teaching (corrections log, CORR-06).
4. What does the gap between the founding of the Slavonic Library (1924) and its move to the Klementinum (1929) tell us?
Research hint: Read sections 7–8 of dossier R0084 (KL01, KL03) and consider where the collections may have been kept before 1929 — the dossier does not say.
5. How does the 2017 exhumation and reburial of Oleksandr Oles illustrate the problems of preserving historic graves abroad?
Research hint: Consider the grave lease and inter-state cooperation; use OLS04 and OLS07 from dossier R0070.
2. Sources from the dossiers for critical student inquiry
Carry out source criticism of the sources below: identify the type of document, its author, purpose and historical context. Open the texts through the links.
https://www.jstor.org/content/pdf/oa_chapter_monograph/10.3138/j.ctv2sm3bn3.6.pdf
Task: Identify which group of émigrés and which form of aid the author describes, and how this policy differed from a "purely Ukrainian" programme.
https://tsdahou.archives.gov.ua/arhiv-vystavkovyh-proyektiv/vystavkovi-proyekty-czdago-ukrayiny/2192-2/
Task: Find the dates and places (Vienna, Prague) in the material and compare them with the chronology in dossier R0034.
https://mzv.gov.cz/kiev/cz/zpravy_a_udalosti/panychida_za_oleksandra_olese.html
Task: Compare the embassy notice with the Český rozhlas report (OLS07). Which dates agree, and what does the dossier mark as an error in the sources (the year of birth)?
3. Hands-on assignment / Fieldwork task
Urban research: "The Prague topography of Ukrainian emigration"
Choose one site (the Klementinum R0084, the Carolinum R0085, the Puluj plaque R0075 — its address is disputed in the sources, or Olšany R0070). Find it on a current map of Prague, read the matching "Then & Now" comparison, work out which statements the dossier confirms and which it marks as unverified, and write a short essay (up to 300 words).
4. Recommended scholarly bibliography
- Стамбол І. «Цвинтар Ольшани у Празі як місце пам’яті українців». Studia Polsko-Ukraińskie, т. 8, 2021, с. 261–273 (OLS03, R0070).
- Наріжний С. «Українська еміґрація» (розділ про УТПК; джерело B07, R0043).
- Мушинка М. «Музей визвольної боротьби України в Празі та доля його фондів». Державна архівна служба України, 2005 (R0050).