Razyhrayev Oleh

Stepan Boyko (1901–1930): national communist and political prisoner of interwar Poland

Section: The person in historical context

Abstract: Purpose – to study the illegal left-radical political activity of one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine (CPWU) in Kholmshchyna, Eastern Galicia and Volyn S. Boyko and its consequences in the individual and general party dimension on the basis of little-known documents from the funds of central and regional archives of Ukraine and Poland.The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific and specific historical research methods, including problem-chronological, synchronous, diachronic, comparative-historical, biographical, microhistory and other.Conclusions. The figure of S. Boyko is ambiguous and contradictory, and is an important element of the illegal socio-political life of Kholmshchyna, Eastern Galicia and Volyn in the interwar period. Despite his short life and even shorter period of political activity, S. Boyko remains to be one of the key figures of the CPWU. From the beginning of the region's entry into the Second Polish Republic he started work against the Polish presence, spreaded the communist ideology of nationalist orientation, and became an active member of the CPWU after the establishment of this political institution. S. Boyko's wide popularity was facilitated not only by his notable party activities, including the rule of the Stanislav, Lviv (suburban), Kholm and Volyn district committees of the CPWU, but also by a number of other events. In particular, participation as a defendant in the important in the history of the left-radical movement of Kholmshchyna litigation in 1926 in Zamość against 54 inhabitants of this region, his tragic death in 1930 and the use of his figure in communist propaganda during the 1930s. Special attention in this context should be paid to the resonant Lutsk litigation in 1934 against the members and sympathizers of the CPWU. S. Boyko remained in communist propaganda after World War II. One of its manifestations was the construction of the monument to S. Boyko in 1969 in Lutsk, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the «reunification» of Western Ukraine with the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The monument was dismantled in the context of a nationwide decommunization campaign several years ago.

Keywords: Volyn, Eastern Galicia, Kholmshchyna, S. Boyko, CPWU, political prisoner, repressions.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2020.01.153     Citation

• Razyhrayev Oleh (Lesya Ukrainka Eastern European National University, Lutsk, razygraev@ukr.net) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0480-6936

Cite:
Razyhrayev Oleh (2020). Stepan Boyko (1901–1930): national communist and political prisoner of interwar Poland. From archives of VUChK–GPU–NKVD–KGB, ( 1 (53)) 153-176. (In Ukrainian). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2020.01.153

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